2002 NAN Lifetime Achievement Awardee

Charlotte Miller had a BA in Art History from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, with independent study in historical embroidery. She did graduate study at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and studied at Massachusetts College of Art, and at the Lesage School, Paris, France. She began her teaching career decades ago as a volunteer art teacher for Fairfax County, Virginia, public schools, and taught sewing, embroidery, quilting, and craft classes for Air Force Officers’ Wives Clubs across the U.S.

She joined the Embroiderers’ Guild of America in 1975 and began teaching classes for chapters at that time. In the early 80s, she completed EGA Teacher Certification in Embroidery as Contemporary Expression. She  taught for countless regional seminars, at many EGA national seminars since 1987, for NAN, and for several years at the State of West Virginia’s Quilt Retreat. She also taught and lectured for various art, quilting and fiber arts organizations nationwide.

Education was always been Charlotte’s primary focus. To that end, her volunteer efforts included serving as EGA Educational Advancement Administrator, Chairman of EGA’s Teacher Certification Program and Certified Teacher Graduate Program, and Evaluator for both programs for many years. She twice served as Chairman of EGA’s Challenge Program. She was a Director and National Secretary of the Council of American Embroiderers, and wrote articles for Flying Needle, Needlearts and Apprize magazines.

Charlotte’s classes always focused on the theory of creativity and developing students’ abilities to produce original works. Her specialties were art-to-wear, design theory, fabric painting, hand and machine embroidery, collage, and combining varied techniques and materials into mixed media works. One of her quilted garments was juried into the first American Quilter’s Society Fashion Show in Paducah, Kentucky, and she won first place in AQS’s Card Contest in 1998. Her framed pieces and garments were in invitational shows in several states, and her works are in corporate and private collections, as well as EGA’s permanent collection.