Virtual Lecture Series
Embroidery online: history, culturally diverse techniques and textile traditions
Learn about the rich cultural histories of embroidery online. EGA’s Education Department is pleased to announce a Virtual Lecture Series that will be given and available to EGA members over Zoom. Not a member yet? Join here!
Once a month, a guest lecturer will speak to us about culturally diverse embroidery techniques and textile traditions over Zoom. Attendance to the live lectures is limited to 500 EGA members. Not a member yet? Join here!
Among topics discussed will be the history, the symbolism, the purpose, and the practicality of how this embroidery has passed down through generations. Many of the embroidery techniques are passed down orally and by watching how it’s done, with no written instructions or patterns to follow. Besides the beauty of the traditional embroidery, there is sadness, joy, and triumph in many of these stories.
Come join us and learn about the embroiderers who preceded us and admire their gorgeous creations. It promises to be an interesting hour in your day! Questions? Contact virtuallectures@egausa.org.
Read more about our new Virtual Lecture registration process: Up to 500 participants and more
Do you have a recommendation for a virtual lecture? Is there a topic that you’d like to see covered in the Virtual Lecture series? Make your recommendation here.
Here’s how the Virtual Lecture Series process works
Step 1: During the registration period for a lecture, click the title of the lecture below to learn more and register.
Step 2: Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email letting you know that we are processing your registration.
Step 3: In 48-72 hours, you will receive an email from Zoom with the information for your lecture.
Step 4: Receive Zoom invitation reminders one week, one day, and one hour before the lecture starts.
Step 5: Enjoy the virtual lecture!
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I sign up for a lecture?
Each upcoming lecture description will contain the date and time registration begins. Registration will remain open for a period of 2-3 weeks or until the limit of 500 participants is reached.When the registration period begins, there will be a link to register on the page for that virtual lecture.
If you are an EGA member, please log in before registering. This will let the website know that you are a current member.
If you don’t log in, or are not a member, an EGA membership at-large (MAL) will be added to your cart. Need help logging in to the EGA website? Contact rduren@egausa.org.
How many members can participate in the virtual lecture?
Starting in January 2023, we are offering each of our lectures to up to 500 attendees. Even with this expanded capacity, there’s still a risk that our lectures will fill up quickly and that everyone who wants to see a lecture won’t be able to attend. If you would like to attend, make sure to register as early as possible.When will I get my Zoom invitation?
Your Zoom Webinar Invitation will be sent out within an week after your registration is processed by Headquarters. You will also receive an automatic reminder from Zoom about your lecture one week, one day, and one hour before the start of the lecture.Why are you charging for these lectures?
Starting in January of 2023, all Virtual Lectures, both live and recorded, will now have a $5 US fee. The EGA Board and the Virtual Lecture team did not arrive at this decision lightly, but we feel that this fee is both appropriate and reasonable to support the Virtual Lecture Series as we move forward.It’s important for our lecturers to be appropriately compensated for their time and expertise. In addition to an increased speaking fee, lecturers who choose to offer their lectures as recordings will also receive a portion of this lecture fee as compensation for their recorded lectures, just as teachers receive a teaching fee when they teach a class.
I can’t pay online, how can I register for a lecture?
While online registration is preferred, you may send a check or money order to EGA Headquarters to be registered for a lecture. If these options don’t work for you, please contact us at virtuallectures@egausa.org to see how we can help you get registered.
Will recordings of the virtual lectures be available?
While we hope you will be able to join us on the date of the live virtual lecture, recordings will be available for selected lectures. The registration period for a lecture’s recording is different from that of the live lecture, and it starts around a week after the live lecture has taken place.We realize that not all lecturers will want to have their lectures recorded, but for those who do grant permission, this will offer a convenient option for our members.
Visit the page for each lecture to see if that lecture will be available as a recording.
What’s the difference between the live lecture and the recording?
Live lectures will give you the chance to ask questions of our lecturers and to interact directly with them; but if, for some reason, you’re not able to attend on the date and time when a lecture is scheduled, you’ll have opportunities to register to watch selected lectures later, at your convenience.I registered for the live lecture, will I have access to the recording?
No. Registration for the live and recorded lectures are independent of each other.Can I share the recording of a lecture?
No, the cost of registration for live and recorded lectures covers viewing by the registered individual only.How do I cancel my reservation?
You can cancel your lecture registration by clicking the Cancel link in the email you will receive from Zoom. You may also email zoom@egausa.org to cancel your registration. Please be aware that virtual lecture registrations are not refundable.I canceled my reservation, can I still participate?
If you canceled your registration but for some reason still want to participate, you will need to register again.What if the registration is closed because the lecture is full?
If the maximum number of attendees is reached, you will be able to sign up to show you are interested in the lecture. If spaces become available, those interested will be notified by email.Why is the limit 500 attendees?
Our EGA Zoom license is limited to 500 meeting participants.Why are the lectures held on weekends?
There is no perfect day or time. Holding lectures on weekdays would preclude attendance for our working members and four time zones in the US increases the challenge of finding the right time. No matter which weekend day is chosen, there will be concerns about the impact on normal life (religious services, sporting events, chapter meetings, etc.) We regret that we can’t accommodate every circumstance. -
Teachers Available to Teach or Lecture Via Zoom
The Virtual Lecture Series Committee strongly recommends that regions and chapters offer this type of education to their members. A list of lecturers available to teach or present virtually, can be found on the link below.
Upcoming Virtual Lectures
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Virtual Lecture 47: Pushing Boundaries: Embroidery + Book Arts with Celeste Chalasani
Taught by Celeste Chalasani (view bio)Celeste Chalasani is an award-winning designer and teacher specializing in Stumpwork. She has taught extensively both in person and virtually for the Embroiderers’ Guild of America (EGA) at chapter workshops, regional and national seminars; the National Academy of Needlearts; other regional guilds; Quiltfest and Craftsy. She is a graduate of the National Academy of Needlearts Teachers’ Certification program specializing in Stumpwork.
“Teaching Stumpwork is a labor of love for me. I am passionate about sharing what I know. I approach teaching from the understanding that different people learn in different ways. I strive to provide clear written instructions with step-by-step color photos, orally explain the technique with color coded visual aids, demonstrate stitches and techniques, and work one on one with each student as they practice their techniques.”
Virtual Lectures
In this lecture, Celeste describes her journey as she explored combining embroidery with book art techniques for the National Academy of Needle Arts Teacher Cum Laude program. She’ll show you six different book binding methods she learned and how she has been able to use embroidery in her art practice. You’ll also see the tools and materials needed, as well as what worked and what didn’t. Live Lecture Date: Sunday, December 15, 2024 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: November 18 - December 13, 2024 1PM Eastern
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The Red Dress project, conceived by British artist Kirstie Macleod, provides an artistic platform for individuals (majority women) around the world, many of whom are vulnerable and live in poverty, to tell their story through embroidery. Live Lecture Date: Sunday, January 26, 2025 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: December 16, 2024 - January 24, 2025 1PM Eastern
Recordings Available Now
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Virtual Lecture 41: Mediterranean Folk Embroidery: A Brief Tour of a Vibrant World with Krista West
Taught by Krista West (view bio)Krista West was born in Portland, Oregon and began sewing at the age of 4. Her love of handcrafts as a child and her conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 1993 led into an interest in Orthodox ecclesiastical vesture. She apprenticed with Leslie Schaill of Traditional Cassocks and Vestments from 1994 to 1997 and began Krista West Vestments in 1997 with www.kwvestments.com launching in 1998 as the first ecclesiastical tailoring website on the Internet. Her focus quickly centered upon the Greek style and she has sewn for clergy and churches in 48 of the 50 United States as well as multiple other countries.
Recordings
Join designer and owner of Avlea Folk Embroidery, Krista West, as she takes us on a tour of folk embroidery in the Mediterranean world. Learn about the importance of textiles in the ancient world and how Classical and Byzantine motifs and colors made their way into folk embroidery. With her trademark energy and enthusiasm, Krista delights in sharing ancient beauty with the modern world! Recording: Only available through December 9, 2024.
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Virtual Lecture 42: The Art and Story of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz with Bernice Steinhardt
Taught by Bernice Steinhardt (view bio)Bernice Steinhardt is the President of Art and Remembrance, a non-profit arts and educational organization. In founding Art and Remembrance, Bernice and her sister, Helene McQuade, were inspired by the art and story of their mother, Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, a Holocaust survivor who depicted her experiences as a young girl in Poland in a series of beautiful and deeply moving fabric panels. Recognizing the power of their mother’s art to change hearts and minds, they created Art and Remembrance as a testament to their mother’s legacy and a means to share her work and those of others who depicted their experiences as victims of war, oppression and injustice. Since its founding in 2003, the organization has created a traveling exhibit of Esther Krinitz’s art, which has been displayed at more than 40 museums and other centers in the U.S., Canada and Poland. Bernice is the co-author (with her mother, posthumously) of Memories of Survival; she is also the executive producer of the award-winning film, Through the Eye of the Needle: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz.
Recordings
Esther Nisenthal Krinitz was 15 in 1942 when Nazis ordered the Jews of her Polish village to report to a nearby train station. She chose to flee with her 13-year-old sister, never to see the rest of her family again. Decades later, determined to show her daughters the family she had lost, Esther created a series of 36 exquisite works of fabric collage and embroidery—a legacy of love, grief and the sheer force of memory. Recording: Only available through January 14, 2024.
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Virtual Lecture 43: The Needle’s Art: Women’s Embroideries from the Great Plains with Susan Curtis
Taught by Susan Curtis (view bio)Susan Curtis is the curator of collections at the Emily Reynolds Historic Costume Collection at North Dakota State University in Fargo. This collection of over 5,000 objects documents the history of the region through the clothing and textiles made and used by the people who live there. Ms. Curtis earned a masters degree in Museum Studies with a minor in historic textiles from the University of Nebraska and has been working in museums for over twenty years. Her love of embroidery came from her grandmothers, who spent many patient hours teaching her to wield a needle and thread. Ms. Curtis earned a graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies from NDSU and is currently working towards a PhD in History focusing on women’s embroidery in the Northern Great Plains.
Recordings
The Great Plains region of the United States is home to women from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Each of these cultural groups embellished their lives with some form of embroidery, from the women of the Native American Plains tribes who created with quillwork and beads to the settlers who brought a variety of embroidery traditions with them to their new homes. Many of these embroideries are now found in history museums but have little information on the maker. Susan Curtis, curator of collections at the Emily Reynolds Historic Costume Collection at North Dakota State University, is working to uncover these anonymous women and bring their history and hand embroidery to light, illustrating the rich tradition of embroidery found in the Great Plains. Recording: Only available through February 11, 2024.
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Virtual Lecture 44: Measuring Millimeters on a Napoleonic-Era Dress Coat with Liz Tapper
Taught by Liz Tapper (view bio)Liz Tapper trained as an apprentice at The Royal School of Needlework, and now works as a professional embroiderer, designer and tutor. She has worked on commissions for Harrods and Lulu Guinness, London Fashion Week, for television and on numerous private commissions, with her work being featured on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). She lives in Somerset in the UK and is a Member of the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen and the Society for Embroidered Work.
Recordings
Liz Tapper was commissioned in 2021 to recreate the embroidery for a military dress coat. The coat was to be a replica of that worn by one of Napoleon I's aide de camps in the early 1800s in France - the original now held in a museum. It was to be worked in goldwork using a variety of metal threads and to very exacting dimensions. This is the story behind the process. Recording: Only available through March 14, 2025.
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Born into the Oneida Community, Jessie Catherine Kinsley was raised amidst ideas of free-love, gender equality, and Perfectionism, by a group of people who believed they were bringing about heaven on earth. She lived through the tumultuous years of the breakup of the Community, entered into traditional family life, and became a regionally famous artist. Though she dabbled in many media including drawing, painting, poetry, and children’s books, she is most known for her braidings. Kinsley invented an artform that used discarded dresses and fabric to create gigantic braided mosaics that depicted scenes from literature, scripture, nature, and history. Recording: Only available through April 18, 2025.
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Virtual Lecture 46: An introduction to Early Medieval Embroidery in England with Dr. Alexandra Makin
Taught by Alexandra Makin (view bio)Dr Alexandra Makin is a professional embroidery, trained on the Royal School of Needlework’s three-year apprenticeship, and a textile archaeologist (PhD), specialising in embroidery and textiles from early medieval Britain. At present she is working on the AHC funded Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard where she was the Post-Doctoral Research Associate for textiles. Alexandra also pursues her independent academic research, experimental archaeology work, and is consultant and textile analyst for archaeological units. Her book, The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World: the sacred and secular power of embroidery, was published in 2019 and her co-edited volume, Textiles of the Viking North Atlantic: Analysis, Interpretation, Re-creation, will be out soon. She has published book chapters and journal articles and spoken on radio and TV about many aspects of early medieval embroidery, including the Bayeux Tapestry. Alexandra also owns and runs Early Medieval Embroidery where she designs and sells embroidery kits using ‘authentic’ early medieval materials and teaches embroidery workshops. Through the Early Medieval (mostly) Textiles blog and her YouTube channel, Early Medieval Embroidery, she keeps people up to date with her research.
Website: https://alexandramakin.com
Recordings
In this 50-minute talk we will be introduced to the exciting world of early medieval embroidery in England. We will learn about the fibres used to make the thread and where they came from and the stitches used to create motifs, why they we used and their deeper, hidden meanings. Recording: Available through May 9, 2025
Previous Virtual Lectures
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Virtual Lecture 11: Embroidered Beasts, Relics in Situ with Erin Harvey Moody and Christy Gordon Baty
Taught by Erin Harvey Moody and Christy Gordon Baty (view bio)Erin Harvey Moody recently earned her certificate in Museum Education at University of Glasgow. Christy Gordon Baty is a graduate student of History at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. They co-authored “A Book By It’s Cover” for Harvard Magazine and they have presented “The Presence of the Needle” at the “Slices of Everyday Life,” at University of Cambridge, “A Woman’s Communion, Embroidered Devotionals in Early Modern England,” at the Ecclesiastical History Society Winter Conference, “Convenience vs. Couture: The Dilemma of Character Driven Costume Interpretation at Heritage Site” at the Pacific Coast Branch conference of the American Historical Association, and “Women’s Work Seen and Unseen: the Economic Influence of Needlework” at the Centuries of Cloth Conference at the University of Cambridge. And most recently, Erin and Christy won the Agnes Strickland prize for best paper presented at the South Central Renaissance Conference for “Gloriana’s Gifts.”
Previous Virtual Lectures
Animals were a favorite motif in Elizabethan and Jacobean needlework -- from leopards and lions, to bears, bunnies and monkeys, to unicorns, camels and elephants. We will celebrate this theme by examining a wide variety of 16th and 17th century needlework in close up detail, looking at materials used, colors, and techniques. Date: Sunday, November 14, 2021 1PM Eastern Registration: October 18-25, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 12: Dr. Jessica Grimm and her quest for the origins of or nué, a medieval goldwork technique
Taught by Dr. Jessica Grimm (view bio)Dr. Jessica Grimm gained a doctorate in archaeozoology before she re-trained as a professional embroideress with the Royal School of Needlework. After visiting a medieval embroidery exhibition in the Netherlands in 2015, she embarked on a self-funded research project focused on the embroidery techniques used in these pieces. The results of which are disseminated through her weekly blog and in the embroidery courses she teaches.
Previous Virtual Lectures
As or nué is often considered the pinnacle of medieval goldwork techniques, you might be forgiven for thinking that it has been studied extensively. This is not the case. Apart from the fact that the finest pieces were made at the end of the medieval period in an area that is now Northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands, we know precious little. In my lecture, I’ll introduce you to some of the finest historical examples of this technique. We will also explore a much simpler technique that is similar to or nué and was developed in present-day Germany. Date: Saturday, December 11, 2021 1PM Eastern Registration: November 15-22, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 13: Perforated Paper Needlework 1840 – 1900 with Claudia Dutcher Kistler
Taught by Claudia Dutcher Kistler (view bio)Claudia Dutcher Kistler is a California girl. Her grandmother was a teacher and her family owned the local hardware store in town. She completed her schooling there after receiving a degree is Physiological Psychology. Her family lived in the Bay Area for over 150 years. Claudia and her husband Bruce moved to Southern Arizona in 2016.
Claudia has always liked to work with her hands. She started crocheting early. In her teens she did embroidery. In her 20’s she learned to do counted cross stitch. In her 30’s she opened her own full line needlework store called Dutch Treat Needlecrafts in Livermore, CA. To fill a need, and to do something creative and different than other needlework designers, she created her own designs using Anne Cloth fabric. She was most well known as Dutch Treat Designs which specialized in Anne Cloth tabletopper designs in the 1990’s.
Claudia has always liked hearing or finding the story of a thing, a person, or a place. She also enjoys putting “like things” together. She believes that the more we see, the more we learn.
In the 1980’s Claudia began collecting perforated paper needlework. Her passion for collecting paper needlework started because she owns a paper piece stitched by her Great Grandmother. That passion resulted in her offering lectures about perforated paper needlework, charting Victorian motto designs for today’s stitchers, and spreading information about antique perforated paper needlework through the public website Perforatedpaper.net.
In the early 1990’s when she began to seriously collect antique samplers, she was always interested to see if there was more that could be learned about a piece. When she bought her first Bristol sampler in 1998 she had no idea what it was. The journey to learn what she owned and to find out the history behind the Bristol orphan samplers has resulted in the lectures she gives today on that topic and the information she shares publically on Bristolsamplers.com. She works with Mullers.org to help people find information about the orphan samplers and the girls who stitched them.
Her tech savvy husband Bruce Kistler maintains the websites for everyone to enjoy. Bruce, Claudia, and their kitties are currently enjoying the Catalina foothills of Southern Arizona. Claudia is still collecting, still teaching and designing for needlework events, and still learning new stories about needlework which she is happy to share.
www.dutchtreat.com
www.bristolsamplers.com
www.perforatedpaper.netPrevious Virtual Lectures
This lecture will share with you the creativity of counted thread pieces worked on specific "fabric" that was once very popular but is almost forgotten today. Between 1840 and 1900 a popular needlework pastime for both children and adults was stitching on perforated paper. In this lecture you will see an overview of the history and different types of perforated paper needlework. You will see some amazing technique and creativity in these antique pieces that you may not know was possible. Date: Saturday, January 15, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: December 13-20, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 14: Quaker Schoolgirl Needlework in Seventeenth-Century London with Isabella Rosner
Taught by Isabella Rosner (view bio)Isabella Rosner is a third-year Ph.D. student at King’s College London, where she researches and writes about Quaker women’s decorative arts before 1800. Her project focuses specifically on seventeenth-century English needlework and eighteenth-century Philadelphia wax and shellwork. She received her BA from Columbia University and her MPhil from Cambridge University and has been lucky enough to work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LACMA, Colonial Williamsburg, and Fitzwilliam Museum. Isabella specializes in the study of schoolgirl samplers and early modern women’s needlework in addition to hosting the “Sew What?” podcast about historic needlework and those who stitched it.
Previous Virtual Lectures
"To get my living with my hands: Quaker Schoolgirl Needlework in Seventeenth-Century London" explores the samplers, workboxes, and embroidered accessories of early modern Quaker girls educated in and around London. Extant examples are highly decorative, which is a surprise, considering that plainness was a tenet central to the Society of Friends from its founding in the 1650s. This paper uses objects in British and American collections to assess possible reasons for this aesthetic contradiction, drawing on themes of global trade, mercantilism, feminine virtue and accomplishment, and piety. Date: Saturday, February 12, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: January 17-24, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Previous Virtual Lectures
Join lecturer Candy Marang for a virtual lecture on Conservation and Re-Creation in Textile Conservation at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens. We will look at the Cromwell bed linens and other recreation projects worked on by the Stan Hywet Needlework Guild. Date: Sunday, March 13, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: February 14-21, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 16: Stitcherhood is Powerful: The Work of a Feminist Embroiderer and Historian with Harriet Alonso
Taught by Harriet Alonso (view bio)Harriet Alonso is a Brooklyn-born historian and embroiderer. In her childhood, her mother introduced her to cross stitch which always held an attraction for her, but as an adult she fell in love with needlepoint. From 1973 to 1980, she completed a series of “political posters” which expressed her growing commitment to feminism, human rights, and peace. This led her to the study of women’s history. From 1980-2015, she devoted her professional life to studying, researching, teaching, lecturing, and writing about peace movement and women’s history, resulting in her receiving the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Peace History Society, an affiliate of the American Historical Association. Today, as a retired Professor Emerita from the City College of New York, CUNY, she combines her love for women’s history with her love for embroidery. You can learn more about her embroidery and history work on her website at http://harrietalonso.com/.
Previous Virtual Lectures
In 1973, Harriet Alonso took her first needlepoint class. Within a year, she was designing and stitching her own “political posters.” This talk will include her work from the 1970s and early 1980s which reflect the history of its day as well as new pieces reflecting more recent times. Date: Sunday, April 10, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: March 14-21, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 17: The Garments of Salvation: exploring the world of Greek Orthodox liturgical vesture with Krista West
Taught by Krista West (view bio)Krista West was born in Portland, Oregon and began sewing at the age of 4. Her love of handcrafts as a child and her conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 1993 led into an interest in Orthodox ecclesiastical vesture. She apprenticed with Leslie Schaill of Traditional Cassocks and Vestments from 1994 to 1997 and began Krista West Vestments in 1997 with www.kwvestments.com launching in 1998 as the first ecclesiastical tailoring website on the Internet. Her focus quickly centered upon the Greek style and she has sewn for clergy and churches in 48 of the 50 United States as well as multiple other countries.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Master ecclesiastical tailor Krista West has made church vestments and paraments for Greek Orthodox churches throughout North America for over 25 years. She will introduce us to this world of color, ornament, and sublime beauty by sharing about her work and explaining how vestments and paraments are made and used. She has lectured extensively throughout the US and is an enthusiastic speaker on this fascinating topic. Date: Sunday May 15, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: April 11-18, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 18: Ernest Thesiger and the hidden history of needlework by men with Dr. Joseph McBrinn
Taught by Dr. Joseph McBrinn (view bio)Dr. Joseph McBrinn is an Irish art and design historian. He is Reader in Art and Design History at Belfast School of Art, Ulster University in Northern Ireland. He has published and lectured widely on Irish art and design history as well as on the intersecting histories of gender identity, sexuality and disability. He is currently writing a biography of the Irish painter and stained glass designer Evie Hone (1894-1955).
Previous Virtual Lectures
By bringing to light a fascinating range of surviving textiles by men in public collections and private hands and taking the English embroiderer Ernest Thesiger as a central case study, this talk will show that needlework by all sorts of men deserves to be rescued from obscurity and re-evaluated. Date: Saturday, June 11, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: May 16-23, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 19: Elizabethan Embroidery And The Trevelyon Miscellany Of 1608 with Kathy Andrews
Taught by Kathy Andrews (view bio)Kathy Andrews is a textile artist and embroidery teacher who works with students of all abilities, teaching them the techniques and the joy of hand embroidery. She received her Certificate of Technical Hand Embroidery with Merit from the Royal School of Needlework and her City and Guilds Certificate in Design and Stitched Textiles. Her work has been exhibited at several shows and galleries across Ireland and the United Kingdom. Kathy is a member of the Cedar Valley Chapter of the EGA and the EGA Fiber Forum. With her enthusiasm for stitch and encouraging classroom atmosphere, she is a sought-after teacher of embroidery. Kathy has taught for EGA chapters in the United States, a mini-class at EGA National and globally in her many online courses.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Thomas Trevelyon, a London craftsman of whom little is known, created his miscellany in 1608 when he was about 60 years old. Join Kathy Andrews for a brief overview of the concept of a miscellany. We will see a facsimile of the Miscellany and explore the embroidery designs within. Participants will see both period and current examples of embroidered pieces whose designs are inspired/taken from the Miscellany. Date: Sunday, July 10, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: June 13-20, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 2: The Art of the Japanese Internment Camps with Toni Gerdes
Taught by Toni Gerdes (view bio)Toni Gerdes holds Level II teachers’ certification from the National Academy of Needlearts(NAN) specializing in canvas embroidery. She is the Director of Education for NAN as well as past President of NETA. She has received numerous awards for her designs. Toni has taught for NAN, EGA, and ANG. She has been published in Needle Pointers, Needlepoint Now, and in Needle Arts as the Designer Across America.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Even with great adversity, you can’t keep the artistic, creative spirit down, but also, that creative spirit actually thrives during adversity to help people through hard times and to bring people together. This is what I show, during my 60-minute lecture based on the art that has been discovered from the time of World War II and the Japanese Internment Camps. Date:
February 13, 2021 at 1PM EasternFull | Registration opens: January 11, 2021 at 1PM Eastern -
Virtual Lecture 20: The History and Mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry with Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer
Taught by Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer (view bio)Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer started embroidering when she was six years old, and learned many techniques from her mother, who was an avid embroiderer. When she took early retirement in 2011, she joined the Embroiderers Guild of America, and has taken advantage of opportunities to learn even more techniques. Sometime in the distant past, she learned about the Bayeux Tapestry, and put it on her bucket list. She finally visited it in 2018. Before her visit, she read a book about it, which raised questions, which led to reading more and more books about it, which led to answers or potential answers to some questions, but also to more questions. The material on the Tapestry was so fascinating that she decided to put together a talk about it, to share all these tidbits of knowledge (and questions!).
Previous Virtual Lectures
This talk discusses its history, both the history depicted on the Tapestry and the history of the Tapestry over the almost 1000 years of its existence, including a few narrow escapes. Mysteries of the tapestry include questions about what some scenes depict (the Latin phrases on the cloth are sometimes very inadequate) and who commissioned, designed, and embroidered it. Date: Saturday, August 13, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: July 11-18, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 21: Rozashi: A 1400 Year Old Needle Art from Japan with Margaret Kinsey
Taught by Margaret Kinsey (view bio)Margaret Kinsey is an EGA certified teacher in silk and metal thread embroidery. She is certified to teach Japanese traditional embroidery. She is the designated US teacher for the Kunimitsu Rozashi Studio and studies with Fumiko Ozaki. Margaret is the 2010 recipient of the national EGA Gold Thread Award and teaches at all levels of EGA. She teaches at national seminars and chapters of ANG and EAC. She was the 2012 keynote speaker and taught at the New Zealand Embroidery Guild Conference in Christchurch, NZ, and toured, taught, and lectured additional venues in New Zealand. Margaret chaired the 5th, 6th and 7th EGA International Embroidery Conferences. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from NAN, 2021.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Rozashi is an ancient Japanese embroidery technique. Its origins are vague. It resembles Bargello/Florentine embroidery in our culture. The Japanese say it origins are in the Tempyo (700-799 AD) period. During the Tokugawa and Meiji eras, as late as the 1820s, the ladies of the court considered Rozashi as the most refined art and handiwork. It was even called the hobby of the Imperial household. Date: Sunday, September 18, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: August 15-22, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 22: Creating Needlework Maps with Catherine Jordan
Taught by Catherine Jordan (view bio)Catherine Jordan holds Master Craftsman certifications in the counted thread, crewel, color, and design programs of EGA. She is currently chair of the Master Craftsman design program and Master Craftsman Coordinator. Catherine is a certified Zentangle® teacher and former juried member of EGA’s artists’ group, Fiber Forum. Catherine teaches at local needlework chapters and regional, national, and international seminars.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Come and enjoy this “show and share” lecture on creating needlework maps! You will see Catherine’s collection of commemoratively based needlework maps as she talks about the process of where ideas come from, what makes a valuable map, and the intricacies of designing, stitching, and painting needlework maps. Date: Sunday, October 9, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: September 12-19, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 23: Sartorial Embroidered Gowns of Marjorie Merriweather Post 1900-1929 with Howard Kurtz
Taught by Howard Kurtz (view bio)Howard Vincent Kurtz has an extensive and diversified career in costumes, which has involved professional design, academic teaching, and work as a fashion historian. He is Professor Emeritus of Theater at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, While at Mason, he served as the Associate Curator of Costumes and Textiles at Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington, DC, the former residence of the Post cereal heiress, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Howard is a Fellow of the Costume Society of America and lectures on topics related to historical dress throughout the East Coast.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Evening dress turquoise silk moiré, orange silk crêpe orange tulle, turquoise gold silk floss, turquoise silk ribbon, cording beading and cotton/silk embroidery. Callot Soeurs, Paris, ca. 1907. From the Hillwood Museum & Gardens Costume and Textile Collection, Washington D.C. Date: Saturday, December 10, 2022 1PM Eastern Registration: November 14-22, 2022 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 24: Quaker Schoolgirl Needlework in Seventeenth-Century London with Isabella Rosner
Taught by Isabella Rosner (view bio)Isabella Rosner is a third-year Ph.D. student at King’s College London, where she researches and writes about Quaker women’s decorative arts before 1800. Her project focuses specifically on seventeenth-century English needlework and eighteenth-century Philadelphia wax and shellwork. She received her BA from Columbia University and her MPhil from Cambridge University and has been lucky enough to work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LACMA, Colonial Williamsburg, and Fitzwilliam Museum. Isabella specializes in the study of schoolgirl samplers and early modern women’s needlework in addition to hosting the “Sew What?” podcast about historic needlework and those who stitched it.
Previous Virtual Lectures
"To get my living with my hands: Quaker Schoolgirl Needlework in Seventeenth-Century London" explores the samplers, workboxes, and embroidered accessories of early modern Quaker girls educated in and around London. Extant examples are highly decorative, which is a surprise, considering that plainness was a tenet central to the Society of Friends from its founding in the 1650s. This paper uses objects in British and American collections to assess possible reasons for this aesthetic contradiction, drawing on themes of global trade, mercantilism, feminine virtue and accomplishment, and piety. Live Lecture Date: Saturday, January 28, 2023 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: January 5-26, 2023 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 25: A Journey into Tibet’s Sacred Textile Art with Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo
Taught by Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo (view bio)Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo is a textile artist, teacher, and author of Threads of Awakening: An American Woman’s Journey into Tibet’s Sacred Textile Art. One of few non-Tibetans to master the Buddhist art of silk appliqué thangka, she stitches bits of silk into elaborate figurative mosaics that bring the transformative images of Buddhist meditation to life. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally and featured in magazines such as Spirituality & Health, FiberArts, and Fiber Art Now and in the documentary, Creating Buddhas: The Making and Meaning of Fabric Thangkas. She teaches women around the globe through her Stitching Buddhas virtual apprentice program, an online, hands-on course bridging East and West, traditional and contemporary. After two decades abroad, Leslie returned to southern California where she now lives with three cats and enough fabric to last several lifetimes. Visit her at threadsofawakening.com.
Previous Virtual Lectures
A California woman traveled to the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India to manage an economic development fund. In a twist of fate, she ended up sewing pictures of buddhas instead. She ultimately learned that a path is made by walking it, and some of the best paths are made by walking off course.
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Virtual Lecture 26: Elizabethan Embroidery And The Trevelyon Miscellany Of 1608 with Kathy Andrews
Taught by Kathy Andrews (view bio)Kathy Andrews is a textile artist and embroidery teacher who works with students of all abilities, teaching them the techniques and the joy of hand embroidery. She received her Certificate of Technical Hand Embroidery with Merit from the Royal School of Needlework and her City and Guilds Certificate in Design and Stitched Textiles. Her work has been exhibited at several shows and galleries across Ireland and the United Kingdom. Kathy is a member of the Cedar Valley Chapter of the EGA and the EGA Fiber Forum. With her enthusiasm for stitch and encouraging classroom atmosphere, she is a sought-after teacher of embroidery. Kathy has taught for EGA chapters in the United States, a mini-class at EGA National and globally in her many online courses.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Thomas Trevelyon, a London craftsman of whom little is known, created his miscellany in 1608 when he was about 60 years old. Join Kathy Andrews for a brief overview of the concept of a miscellany. We will see a facsimile of the Miscellany and explore the embroidery designs within. Participants will see both period and current examples of embroidered pieces whose designs are inspired/taken from the Miscellany.
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Virtual Lecture 27: Making My Bed: Creating imaginative worlds with 3D embroidery with Salley Mavor
Taught by Salley Mavor (view bio)Award-winning artist Salley Mavor has spent 4 decades developing her signature style and working methods, carving out her own niche within the children’s book world and the fiber art community. Her three-dimensional embroidered scenes have been used as children’s book illustrations, social commentary and stop-motion animation. As an illustration student at the Rhode Island School of Design in the 1970’s, Salley left traditional mediums behind, preferring to communicate her ideas with sculptural needlework. Salley has illustrated 11 picture books using her distinctive blend of materials and hand-stitching techniques, including Pocketful of Posies, which won the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the 2011 Golden Kite Award. Her popular how-to book, Felt Wee Folk is in its 2nd edition, inspiring creativity in all ages. The picture book, My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World is her most recent publication. She works in her home studio in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Artist Salley Mavor will talk about her 40+ year career creating imaginative worlds with 3-dimensional embroidery. The presentation will cover a wide range of artistic adventures, from illustration to doll-making to stop-motion animation, all done in her signature hand-stitched style. This is an opportunity to take a behind the scenes peek at Ms. Mavor’s innovative process, which incorporates embroidery, fabric, and found objects. Recording now available!
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Virtual Lecture 28: Bojagi, Stitching and Wrapping Happiness with Youngmin Lee
Taught by Youngmin Lee (view bio)Youngmin Lee is a textile artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied Clothing and Textile in college and continued her studies and received an MFA in Fashion Design. She worked as a fashion designer in Seoul, South Korea. She chose Bojagi (Korean wrapping cloths) as her creative medium and presented workshops on Korean Textile Arts including Bojagi workshops. In addition to teaching in person, Youngmin created the DVD Bojagi: The Art of Wrapping Cloths in 2013 to reach people from afar. She teaches numerous workshops about Bojagi and Korean traditional textile art from. She founded the Korean Textile Tour in 2017 to introduce Korean traditional textile art and culture. Youngmin’s bojagi works have been exhibited and collected throughout the United States and abroad including the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Bojagi (Korean Wrapping Cloths) are pieced together from small scraps of cloth. It is the most unique form of Korean textile art. Bojagi occupied a prominent place in the daily lives of Koreans of all classes. They were used to wrap or carry everything from precious ritual objects to everyday clothes and common household goods and also to cover food. It is also strikingly contemporary: the designs and colors of bojagi remind one of the works of modern abstract artists. Bojagi can be described as a true form of abstract expressionism. Youngmin Lee will talk about bojagi during this lecture and show her bojagi works after the lecture. Live Lecture Date: Saturday May 20, 2023 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: April 28 - May 18, 2023 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 29: How to Research an Antique Sampler with Cindy Steinhoff
Taught by Cindy Steinhoff (view bio)Cynthia Shank Steinhoff is the director of the library at Anne Arundel Community College, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1983. A graduate of Edinboro State College (now Edinboro University of Pennsylvania), she also holds a Master of Library Science degree from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Business Administration degree from University of Baltimore.
Cynthia is a stitcher, sampler collector, and needlework researcher. She began stitching as a young girl and still owns the first set of stamped pillowcases that she made. Her collection of samplers includes works by girls in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, among other states, and from Scotland, England, and Ireland. The oldest sampler in her collection was made in England in the 1730s. Her current areas of focus are samplers made in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, and those stitched by Quaker girls. She researches many aspects of her needlework pieces, including stitches and materials used in the samplers, the stitchers’ lives, and connections between her pieces and others in museums and private collections.
Cynthia contributed to and copy-edited Wrought with Careful Hand: Ties of Kinship on Delaware Samplers, by Dr. Lynne Anderson and Dr. Gloria Seaman Allen, the catalog that accompanied an exhibition of 60 Delaware samplers at the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware, in 2014. She is the co-author with Gloria Seaman Allen of Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850, published in 2019, and is also its editor. Cynthia wrote Delaware Schoolgirl Samplers, an essay on the M. Finkel and Daughter web site. She has given presentations about samplers at numerous needlework guilds, Winterthur’s biennial needlework conference, Penn Dry Goods Market, and Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware.
A member of the Annapolis Historic Sampler Guild and Loudoun Sampler Guild, Cynthia also belongs to three chapters of the Embroiderers Guild of America – Constellation, Washington DC, and CyberStitchers, the EGA’s online chapter. She is first vice president of Anne Arundel Genealogical Society in Maryland.
When not researching samplers, Cynthia can be found stitching (usually a sampler), reading a mystery novel, and hanging out on the family dog.
Previous Virtual Lectures
An antique sampler reveals some of its physical characteristics and often some information about the girl who stitched it, but what else can it tell us? Cynthia Shank Steinhoff will discuss how she learns more about the samplers she collects and researches. The result is a full documentation of a sampler’s appearance and history. Many of the characteristics that she identifies for older samplers can be used to provide a full description of a needlework piece made today. Recording now available!
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Virtual Lecture 3: Sashiko, A Form of Japanese Embroidery with Jacqui Clarkson
Taught by Jacqui Clarkson (view bio)Jacqui Clarkson has taught for EGA, ANG, quilt guilds, a Fine Arts college and museums in Canada and the United States. Her workshop and lecture topics range from Sashiko, threads, to historical aspects of needlework. She has designed pieces for national thread and fabric companies, and for national magazines and needlework books. She has been published in the ANG magazine. Jacqui is a Journeyman Level II in the Master Teacher Program of ANG. She has served in leadership roles within local and region level of EGA and ANG.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Are you curious about Sashiko? Is there more than Sashiko?, Hitomezashi?, Kogin?, Boro? What are these? What am I stitching? Please join me as I share my journey of discovering Sashiko, it’s history and how we are embracing it in today’s needlework world. Date:
March 13, 2021 1PM EasternFull | Registration opens: February 15, 2021 1PM Eastern -
Virtual Lecture 30: The History and Mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry with Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer
Taught by Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer (view bio)Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer started embroidering when she was six years old, and learned many techniques from her mother, who was an avid embroiderer. When she took early retirement in 2011, she joined the Embroiderers Guild of America, and has taken advantage of opportunities to learn even more techniques. Sometime in the distant past, she learned about the Bayeux Tapestry, and put it on her bucket list. She finally visited it in 2018. Before her visit, she read a book about it, which raised questions, which led to reading more and more books about it, which led to answers or potential answers to some questions, but also to more questions. The material on the Tapestry was so fascinating that she decided to put together a talk about it, to share all these tidbits of knowledge (and questions!).
Previous Virtual Lectures
This talk discusses its history, both the history depicted on the Tapestry and the history of the Tapestry over the almost 1000 years of its existence, including a few narrow escapes. Mysteries of the tapestry include questions about what some scenes depict (the Latin phrases on the cloth are sometimes very inadequate) and who commissioned, designed, and embroidered it. Live Lecture Date: Saturday, July 8, 2023 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: June 16-July 6, 2023 1PM Eastern
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Previous Virtual Lectures
What do you really know about the linen cloth you stitch on or linen thread that you stitch with? In order to gain an appreciation of the linen thread that we use in our weaving, the Frances Irwin Handweavers Guild set out on a 2-year journey to learn about linen. From preparing the garden and growing, reaping, and preparing flax to be spun into linen thread and woven into cloth, guild members experienced these processes literally from the ground up! Come along with us on this journey as we share our experiences with you so that you, too, can learn more about the linen you hold in your hands.
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Virtual Lecture 32: The Plymouth Tapestry with Donna Curtin
Taught by Donna Curtin (view bio)Donna DeFabio Curtin is Executive Director of the Pilgrim Society and Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, MA, the oldest continuous Museum in the United States, where she stewards the world’s most significant collection of the possessions of the Mayflower Pilgrims and fosters inclusive understandings of America’s colonial beginnings. Holding a PhD in Early American History from Brown University, Dr. Curtin has been active in the fields of public history and museum education through a varied career, including years of spirited advocacy for inclusive histories. As Director of the women-founded Plymouth Antiquarian Society, she stewarded and exhibited an extensive needlework and textile collection, including Plymouth area samplers. In her current position, she has been involved with the Plymouth Tapestry project from its conceptual stage and oversees exhibition and conservation of the work-in-progress. Dr. Curtin resides with her family on the banks of historic Town Brook, which once provided sweet drinking water for the Wampanoag and Pilgrim families of early Plymouth.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Museum Director Donna Curtin describes how the Plymouth Tapestry project came to be, how the Tapestry is being made, and shares images and film clips of this remarkable masterwork-in-the-making, including the ten six-ft. long embroidered panels completed to date.
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Virtual Lecture 33: ‘Este dechado’: Mastering Needlework in Mid-19th Century Mexico with Dr. Lynne Anderson and Dr. Mayela Flores Enriquez
Taught by Dr. Lynne Anderson and Dr. Mayela Flores Enriquez (view bio)About Dr. Lynne Anderson:
Dr. Lynne Anderson is a retired professor of education from the University of Oregon where she specialized in technology-based solutions to reading, writing, and studying for marginalized students. She is currently Director of the Sampler Archive Project, a nationwide effort to locate, photograph, and document all American schoolgirl samplers in public and private collections – sharing them with scholars and the general public in a freely available online searchable database. Dr. Anderson is also the president of the Sampler Consortium, an international membership organization dedicated to the study of schoolgirl samplers and related girlhood embroideries. The Sampler Consortium has three major goals: advance scholarship on historic samplers and related needlework; increase access to information about schoolgirl samplers and early female education; and provide logistical and financial support to projects aligned with these goals. Toward that end, she is currently collaborating with local coordinators on the Vermont Sampler Initiative and the Dutchess County Sampler Initiative. Dr. Anderson regularly publishes on the topic of schoolgirl needlework and is a frequent speaker at state, national, and international venues.About Dr. Mayela Flores Enriques:
Dr. Mayela Flores is an art historian and professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana. She specializes in the intersections between art history, material culture, and gender studies, with a particular focus on the history and practice of embroidery in Mexico. With extensive experience as a curator, researcher, and speaker, Dr. Flores has collaborated with various museums in Mexico since 2008. In addition, she has authored critical papers and book chapters on the history of Mexican women’s arts and crafts. She has served as a researcher for the National Museum of Art (MUNAL) and as the Head Curator at the Franz Mayer Museum located in Mexico City.Previous Virtual Lectures
Drs. Lynne Anderson and Mayela Flores will introduce the world of Mexican sampler making, showcasing the unique features of Mexican “dechados” and discussing the important role of needlework in Mexican female education, including how this changed over time due to historical, cultural, and religious influences. Live Lecture Date: Saturday, October 14, 2023 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: September 18 - October 12, 2023 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 34: Stitches in Time: Textile Conservation for the Needleworker with Newbie Richardson
Taught by Newbie Richardson (view bio)A.Newbold “Newbie” Richardson has been in private practice as a textile conservator and exhibition specialist for over 40 years, focusing on outreach to the small museum community. She continues to teach workshops for museum volunteers, state museum associations, and through the Costume Society of America on preventative conservation and textile display. She developed her passion for fabrics, embellishments, and sewing naturally, coming from a long line of passionate needlewomen. Smocking is her needlework of choice.
She is a specialist appraiser in clothing and textiles with the American Society of Appraisers and joined forces with Colleen Callahan, forming the Costume and Costume Specialists in 2003. (www.costumeandtextile.net) Some clients include George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Jamestown Yorktown Foundation, and The D.A.R. Museum. She is a Fellow of the Costume Society of America and textile advisor to Dumbarton House, headquarters of the National Society of the Colonial Dames in America. She received her BS in Costume Design from Northwestern University and graduate work in Theatrical Costume Design from The George Washington University. While in grad school she worked for several antique clothing stores in DC and Virginia mending the clothing and embroideries. This experience led her to two years of intense self-study in textile conservation at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC (1983-’85).
Previous Virtual Lectures
Stitches in Time: Textile Conservation for the Needleworker will focus on the unique needs of needlework, quilts, and embroidery in terms of preventive conservation, stabilization, display, and repair. Live Lecture Date: Saturday, November 11, 2023 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: October 16 - November 9, 2023 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 35: Reviving the art of embroidery: Lady Victoria Welby and the founding of the Royal School of Needlework, 1872-1881 with Lynn Hulse
Taught by Lynn Hulse (view bio)Dr Lynn Hulse is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Historical Society. She is also co-founder of Ornamental Embroidery, which specialises in the teaching and designing of historic needlework, and runs workshops and lecture programmes in museums, art galleries and historic houses across the UK, including the Ashmolean Museum since 2011. She has published widely on the history of needlework from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries and is the editor of May Morris: Art and Life (2017) and The Needle’s Excellency: English raised embroidery (2108). Her most recent book, Reviving the Art of Embroidery: Lady Victoria Welby and the Founding of the Royal School of Needlework, 1872-1881, will be published later this year.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Lynn Hulse explores the early history of the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) through the lens of its founder, Lady Victoria Welby (1837-1912). Welby is better known today as a philosopher of language, but during her lifetime she was credited with reviving the art of embroidery, brought into disrepute by the ‘uselessness and ugliness’ of Berlin work, the most popular type of fancy work in the early Victorian period. Live Lecture Date: Sunday, December 17, 2023 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: November 13 - December 15, 2023 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 36: EGA history from 1960 to 1980 with Ann Strite-Kurz
Taught by Ann Strite-Kurz (view bio)Ann Strite-Kurz has been an active designer and teacher for thirty nine years. She is NAN certified and is an EGA Master Craftsman in canvas embroidery. Ann specializes in innovative stitch treatments and has published six books on different styles of patterns. She also received the 2010 ANG Literary Award and she has been a feature writer for Needlepoint Now for ten years.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Join Anne Strite-Kurz as she shares a look at the beginnings of EGA! Margaret Parshall founded a needlework school in Millbrook, NY and recruited Erica Wilson in 1954 to be the first teacher followed by two other Royal School of Needlework graduates along with Olga Hansen from Denmark. In 1958 Mrs.Parshall became the nucleus in establishing a branch of The Embroiderers’ Guild of London (founded in 1906) in New York. In 1970 EGA withdrew from the London Guild and The Embroiderers’ Guild of America came into being with headquarters on Lexington Ave. Live Lecture Date: Sunday, January 14, 2024 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: December 18, 2023 - January 12, 2024 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 37: Samplers of the Netherlands – or not! with Susan Greening Davis
Taught by Susan Greening Davis (view bio)Designer Susan Greening Davis is a Home and Garden Television Celebrity Guest, Awarded as a DMC International Teacher, The “Original Gadget Gal” and Independent Historical Needlework Researcher.
Susan Greening Davis is known as a needle artist/technician. She has had the pleasure of designing, and teaching, for shop owners, guilds, and events for the last 47, plus years. Susan studied her trade in Denmark, England, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Netherlands and Germany as well as with the Danish masters who have visited the United States to instruct.
Susan designs all of her creations – from start to the famous. “Self-finishing” is her forte. She stitches all of her creations as they come from her head, through her heart, and then the needle. After the correct fabric, fibers, stitches and finishing are completed the design is charted.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Habsburg Netherlands, Dutch Republic, Batavian Republic, Kingdom of Holland, The Netherlands……so many names AND SO much needlework! From The Isle of Marken, Amsterdam, Black Samplers, and Friesland/Leeuwarden, to name a few. Darning, Stoplappen, Merklappen, and Stickmustertucher - Souvenir Sewing Rolls - such a wealth of samplers! The Dutch had very specific meanings for their motifs and what type of work was done in what region. Susan looks forward to sharing this with you. Recording now available!
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Virtual Lecture 39: Curiously Wrought – A Closer Look at Needleworked Buttons with Gina Barrett
Taught by Gina Barrett (view bio)Gina Barrett is a textile artist, designer & writer with a passion for historical passementerie – especially buttons! She now provides bespoke items to costumers for film, theatre, museums and fashion, and continues to research and to write about both old techniques and developing new ones. She is particularly keen to discover the lost techniques used to create buttons, which of course means steadily building a collection to learn from. She & her husband Mark run Gina-B Silkworks, which brings original tools, kits and materials for traditional crafts and trimmings to a modern audience through their website, shops and the UK TV craft channel, Create & Craft.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Using thread to create and decorate buttons has a long history. This talk will look at the types of needlework found on buttons, with a focus on those found during the 19th century. We’ll take a look at examples in Gina Barrett’s collection, and discuss the people who made these little works of art.
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Virtual Lecture 4: The Culture of Folk Embroidery in 3 European Countries with Sarah Pedlow
Taught by Sarah Pedlow (view bio)Sarah Pedlow is an artist working with embroidery and cultural preservation. In 2009 while in Budapest for an artist’s residency, she visited the Ethnographic Museum and fell in love with the traditional clothing and embroidery. The visit inspired her to seek out women who stitch a particular style called Hungarian written embroidery in Transylvania, Romania, and start the education and preservation project ThreadWritten in 2012. She has been lecturing and teaching cultural embroidery workshops since 2014 and now leads stitching retreats in Europe. Residencies in Iceland; Oaxaca, Mexico; and Holland, as well as embroidery study in Ukraine and Portugal, inform her current practice. She holds an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and a BA in Studio Art and French Studies from Scripps College, Claremont, CA. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved to Amsterdam, NL in 2019 where she now lives and works. You can find her artwork at sarahpedlow.com.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Join us for an engaging talk on the history and culture of folk embroidery from three different countries in Europe and the people keeping traditions alive today. Date: April 10, 2021 1PM Eastern | Registration: March 15-22, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Previous Virtual Lectures
Searching for inspiration instead of stitching the same projects again? Don’t want to continue spending tons of money on framing and finishing? In “Finding New Life: Innovative Finishing Techniques for Needlework,” Patrick Barron shows you creative and unique ways to show off your stitching skills by repurposing things you have around the house. From stitching on colanders and finials to candy tins and cookie cutters, Patrick will walk you through how you can show off your needlework in a unique and environmentally friendly way. Patrick will go through some of his favorite projects and give you an overview of how he decides what new and exciting thing he will work on next. Come join us to feel inspired and think outside the box! Recording: Only available through November 19, 2024.
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Virtual Lecture 5: Historic Threads with Annette Gutierrez Turk
Taught by Annette Gutierrez Turk (view bio)Annette is a fiber artist, who has taught the historic colcha embroidery stitch nationally and regionally through the Embroiderers’ Guild of America. Her background is as a juried artist and teacher at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, El Rancho de Las Golondrinas, Casa San Ysidro and Gutierrez-Hubbell Historic houses, as well as the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council, Albuquerque BioPark/Aquarium, Sandia Mountains Chapter EGA and Las Aranas Spinning and Weaving Guild. Her work currently is in the permanent collection of the Guizhou Provincial Art Museum in Guiyang, China, and the Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts.
As an EGA member of the Sandia Mountains Chapter in Albuquerque NM, Annette manages the colcha embroidery education materials that were compiled and kept current for 13 years. The materials are available in digital format to any EGA chapter or member. Sandia Mountains also publishes and sells pattern books on colcha embroidery, which Annette also manages.
Currently, Annette is teaching colcha embroidery in Zoom sessions for the National Hispanic Cultural Center with the support of Sandia Mountains Chapter. She will resume stitching sessions when health restrictions permit at two sites in Albuquerque NM each month.
Annette is a regular volunteer at New Mexico’s only living history Museum, El Rancho de Las Golondrinas, demonstrating all manners of working with churro sheep wool fleece from carding, spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery.
Previous Virtual Lectures
A historical look at the colcha embroidery stitch and how it came into existence in the New World of Spain in the 16th century. Date: May 8, 2021 1PM Eastern | Registration: April 12-19, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 6: Maya Textile Artists: Passionate Celebration of Cultural Heritage with Diane Herrmann
Taught by Diane Herrmann (view bio)Diane Herrmann won EGA’s Gold Thread Award in 2015 and has taught within EGA, ANG and the Windy City Chapter of EGA both regionally and nationally. She has affiliations with EGA, ANG, NAN and NETA. Diane has several publications and presentations over the years to include “Diaper Pattern and Needlepoint” in Crafting by Concepts. Accomplishments and awards have been granted to include the Jean Thomas Howard Scholarship as a teacher in 2009 as well as NAN Exemplary in 2009, 2012 and 2015, among several other recognitions. Diane teaches one of EGA’s latest Individual Correspondence Courses: Techniques for Canvas Embroidery.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Exciting wearable art with vivid colors, the indigenous clothing of Mexico and Guatemala displays consummate expertise, and artistic beauty. Ancient techniques of preparation, construction and embellishment continue today with modern materials. Still, the textiles contain the designs and patterns that have held meaning in the culture for centuries. Maya weavers today labor to keep traditions alive and still survive in the 21st century. Date: June 12, 2021 1PM Eastern | Registration: May 10-17, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 7: The Story of Seedbeads with Naomi Smith
Taught by Naomi Smith (view bio)Naomi Smith is an Indigenous Artist and Educator. She is actively involved in sharing traditional teachings with others. She focuses on the ways of the Indigenous people of the Woodlands and Northeastern region from a historical and contemporary perspective often through the story of beads.
Her artwork embraces ancestral designs in the form of bags, adornment, and accessories using quillwork, beadwork and other indigenous methods and materials. Naomi’s work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally. She has shown at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington DC, New York City, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and participates in numerous events throughout the year.
“Honouring our traditions is my voice within and beyond my Culture and Community. Traditionally there is no word for “art” in Native languages yet artistry and visual expression are critical in defining who we are as Indigenous people. It is this path I wish to exemplify through my teachings and my work.”
Previous Virtual Lectures
An exploration of Indigenous beadwork from a historical and contemporary perspective. This presentation focuses on the story of seeds beads and how they became a much esteemed part of Indigenous life in the 19th century. Date: July 10, 2021 1PM Eastern | Registration opens: June 14-21, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 8: The thobe, a traditional embroidered Palestinian dress with Wafa Ghnaim
Taught by Wafa Ghnaim (view bio)Wafa Ghnaim is an American-born Palestinian businesswoman, writer, and artist. Wafa began learning Palestinian embroidery from her mother when she was two years old.
Throughout her life, she traveled alongside her mother for exhibits, lectures, and demonstrations around the U.S. from folklore festivals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to elementary schools in Portland, Oregon. Today, she travels the world teaching Palestinian embroidery skills across the diaspora to students who have long yearned to connect with their artistic and cultural heritage.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Author and teaching artist, Wafa Ghnaim, will discuss the evolution of the thobe from the nineteenth century through the contemporary period. Date: August 14, 2021 1PM Eastern | Registration: July 12-19, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture 9: Haptic Memory with Dr. Sharbreon Plummer
Taught by Dr. Sharbreon Plummer (view bio)Dr. Sharbreon Plummer is an artist, strategist, storyteller and educator with over a decade of experience in arts and community engagement roles. Her upbringing in southern Louisiana informs her interest and investment in how culture and ancestral memory act as influencers of personal expression and contemporary work, specifically within the African Diaspora and Global South. Her areas of focus and research include:
Black women’s labor and artistic production
Fiber art + craft based practices
Oral history and cultural preservation through storytelling
African American material and visual culture
DEI-based initiatives
Systemic racism and erasure in arts based settingsDr. Plummer received her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 2020. Her award winning dissertation was: Haptic Memory: Resituating Black Women’s Lived Experiences in Fiber Art Narratives
Previous Virtual Lectures
Join Dr. Sharbreon Plummer (Past EGA Research Grant recipient) for an exciting conversation about her doctoral research project, Haptic Memory: Centering Black Women’s Experiences in Fiber Art Narratives. Haptic Memory examines the inequities faced by Black women in artistic interpretation, and how their creative production through fiber intersects with labor, maternal relationships and ancestral memory. Date: September 11, 2021 1PM Eastern | Registration: August 16-23, 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture Encore: The Culture of Folk Embroidery in 3 European Countries with Sarah Pedlow
Taught by Sarah Pedlow (view bio)Sarah Pedlow is an artist working with embroidery and cultural preservation. In 2009 while in Budapest for an artist’s residency, she visited the Ethnographic Museum and fell in love with the traditional clothing and embroidery. The visit inspired her to seek out women who stitch a particular style called Hungarian written embroidery in Transylvania, Romania, and start the education and preservation project ThreadWritten in 2012. She has been lecturing and teaching cultural embroidery workshops since 2014 and now leads stitching retreats in Europe. Residencies in Iceland; Oaxaca, Mexico; and Holland, as well as embroidery study in Ukraine and Portugal, inform her current practice. She holds an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and a BA in Studio Art and French Studies from Scripps College, Claremont, CA. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved to Amsterdam, NL in 2019 where she now lives and works. You can find her artwork at sarahpedlow.com.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Join us for an engaging talk on the history and culture of folk embroidery from three different countries in Europe and the people keeping traditions alive today. Date: August 15, 2021 1PM Eastern | Registration: July 19-26 , 2021 1PM Eastern
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Virtual Lecture: Embroidery, Clothing, and Feminine Identity in Jewish Yemen with India Hayford
Taught by India Hayford (view bio)India specializes in contemporary and ethnic surface embroidery techniques including Yemenite Jewish and Yemenite Israeli embroidery, clothing embellishment, and fabric collage. She also teaches courses on embroidery design, Middle Eastern costume construction and embellishment, and nontraditional needlepoint and blackwork. Her articles on these subjects have appeared in Threads and Needle Arts magazines. An EGA Certified Teacher, India is the recipient of two EGA Legacy Scholarships and one Research Fellowship Grant. In 2017, she presented a lecture on “Embroidery, Clothing, and Feminine Identity in Jewish Yemen” at the Casper College Humanities Festival and Demorest Lecture.
Previous Virtual Lectures
Nothing identifies or disguises us as quickly as the clothing we wear. How we dress reflects our place in the world and how we want other people to perceive us. Nowhere has clothing and its embellishment been more important to identity than among the Jewish women of Yemen.