February 2026 Meeting
A big thank you to Lesley Wood for providing our February Workshop “Watery Fish”. We explored mark making and block printing to develop layered surfaces for embroidery. Have included some of our work in progress but look forward to seeing the finished embroidered results. A very enjoyable afternoon, thank you Lesley. You can see more of Lesley’s work on her website and Instagram.
January 2026 Meeting
At our January meeting we were joined by speaker Victoria Macleod who spoke about her “Celtic Inspiration”. It was fascinating to see how her work has continually developed and progressed as new materials and techniques have appeared on the creative textiles art scene. Victoria integrates more traditional embroidery with contemporary textiles to great effect and as such we were encouraged to explore and experiment as we produce our own work. Thank you Victoria. You can see Victoria’s work on her website and her Instagram.
December 2025 Meeting
At our December meeting we all celebrated together with a shared feast and mulled wine, whilst working on our own stitched work.
November 2025 Meeting
At our November meeting we had a double treat, first a thank you to our chair Suzanne, who held a demonstration on how to create new fabrics using heat to fuse layers together with bondaweb, interfacing or glue.
For our second treat, we enjoyed hearing from Marion, YouTube sensation of Marion’s World fame. Her work depicts aspects of the natural world through creating textiles using found and recycled fabrics. It was interesting to hear about how her work developed through doing the 100 day project, through creating phenology chart entries every day for a whole year and from going somewhere new every day. Some beautiful work, thank you for sharing it with us. You can find out more about Marion on her Instagram, her website (including free patterns) and on her Youtube channel.
October 2025 Meeting
At our October Meeting we had our AGM and rug making with Helen.
Our “On Track Exhibition” has now finished at Crown Street Library but is now on display at Hopetown in Darlington, if you missed it at Crown Street Library.
September 2025 Meeting
At our September meeting we had a workshop with Suzie Hart from Artizan International exploring Figure of 8 and other Latin American Stitches. You can read more about the work that Artizan International do here.
July 2025 Meeting
We thank our July speaker Louise Goult, who lead a fabulous Boro Textile workshop with our members. We explored a variety of mend and repair techniques, some of our experiments are below:
See links to her website and instagram for more details on her work.
We also were able to view our members responses to the Donna Cheshire workshop in our April meeting, exploring the textures of the coastline with recycled and dyed fabrics.
We also celebrate the opening of our “On Track” Exhibition at Darlington Crown Street Library. The exhibition is on display until October 2025 and features a selection of work from our members, as well as a collaborative group triptych to celebrate 200 Years of Darlington Railway. You can read about it here.
June 2025 Meeting
A wonderful day out was had by all at Kiplin Hall in North Yorkshire for our June Meeting. It was wonderful to see all of the embroideries in the property and to gain inspiration for our forthcoming group competition “Kiplin at 400”, to celebrate 400 years of Kiplin Hall. The Hall itself has had various families owning it, The Calverts, The Crowes, The Carpenters and Delevals, and the Talbots, meaning it is steeped in History and full of artistry and skill in it’s construction and decoration, well worth a visit! The gardens were equally impressive and inspirational. For those who missed the visit there is a full image bank of photos that you could use for inspiration – to access click the link here.
May 2025 Meeting
At our May meeting we had the priviledge of meeting Olga Prinku and her fabulous bioembroideries. Olga’s talk explored how she uses a variety of natural elements to create her pieces and explained how she had created work for Anthropologie, displayed work at Collect at Somerset House, for the National Trust at Hidcote and Ormsby Hall, for the Knitting and Stitch Show and for the Biscuit Factory. She has also worked recently at the Hand and Lock as a judge in their annual Prize event. A fabulous afternoon!
Will look forward to seeing her work on display at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Leeds from 8th July – 10th August 2025.
See Olga’s website: https://www.prinku.com/ or her instagram: @olgaprinku
April 2025 Meeting
This month we all enjoyed chatter and stitching as we participated in the mini seascape workshop, inspired by Donna Cheshire’s pieces. We were then let loose to ‘have a go’. What a treasure trove of had dyed textiles and haberdashery Donna provided for us all. Who could fail to enjoy the creativity and stitching that followed once we had all delved into the treasure chest. Our tables were awash with Donna’s hand dyed fabrics, painted bondaweb, printed teabag papers and lots of embroidery threads to create our own responses to the sea. See Donna’s website: www.donnacheshiretextiles.com or her instagram: @stitchdonna
Have you finished yours – if not get stitching as we will be encouraging you to bring along your pieces to share with fellow members at the July meeting.
March 2025 Meeting
It was wonderful to hear about Hellen Edwards creative Journey from studying at Cleveland College of Art and Design followed by Chelsea School of Art to developing her carer as a Textile Artist. Hellen brought with her some fabulous pieces including beautiful scenes of the North East shorelines and landscapes, the northern lights, pet embroideries and other local wildlife. Members enjoyed hearing about her techniques exploring painting, plaster, feltwork and machine embroidery to develop atmospheric pieces that capture a sense of place and time. Her work has been featured in prestigious embroidery magazines and she regularly shows at local creative events such as at Art in the Pen and the North East Wool Show. For those who missed Hellen’s fascinating talk, check out her website: www.hellenedwardsartist.co.uk and social media for more information: @hellenedwardsartist
February 2025 Meeting
What a busy afternoon of stitching we enjoyed whilst being guided by textile artist Sarah Jackson, as we designed and started our Folk Art Applique pieces. To get us going Sarah gave us a brief history of Folk Art covering various aspects of the tradition to include the decoration of something functional and the meanings linked to the various shapes used within this art form. Inspired by viewing samples from Sarah’s collection and some of her own work and equipped with fabric, templates and a sheet of symbols we rummaged through a mound of patterned fabric provided by Sarah and got to work. All I can say is that our individuality shone through and I cannot wait to see the finished pieces at one of our meetings in the future – so get stitching!
Take a look at Sarah’s work on Instagram @sarahkjackson_textiles
January 2025 Meeting
It was encouraging, if a little chaotic, to see the first activity being taken up by 24 members opting to embark on participating in the first stage of making A Textile Journal. As all members opened their bundles of fabrics there was much excitement over some of the luscious fabrics within and in no time at all everyone was busy ‘auditioning & faffing’ the layout designs for the front and back covers. Meanwhile other members enjoyed the hour either continuing with their ‘Wagons Roll’ item or an individual piece of their own. This session is so beneficial for all members as ideas are discussed and a sharing of expertise takes place.
ARTIZAN INTERNATIONAL – SUSIE HART
The second half of our January meeting took us on a cultural journey with a difference with a talk and presentation on the making and production of Ethical & Fair Trade Gifts made by people with disabilities in Ecuador, Peru and the UK. We were treated to viewing the most fabulous colourful textiles of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian cultures at first hand as Susie showed and described numerous items explaining their uses in everyday life and the techniques of hand embellishment and embroidery. A collection of items for sale was available and if you were unfortunate enough to be unable to join us at this meeting may I direct you to their website where items are for sale or even better should you be in the vicinity of Harrogate at any time to their shop.
https://artizaninternational.com
In September this year we look forward to a return visit from Susie when she will be leading a workshop on some of the techniques and stitches.
December 2024 Meeting
This year our Christmas gathering was extra special as we joined Sarah Steel in celebrating her fantastic achievement as winner of the Wilcom Associate Award for Fashion in the annual prestigious competition offered by London based company Hand and Lock. Sarah’s entry ‘ M’ess Dress’, a personal and unique response to the challenging situation Sarah faces daily through living with Multiple Sclerosis. What a treat we had when viewing and handling and seeing close up the detail and the design elements of her garment. Sarah’s inspired concept of producing two garments in one depicts a conventional dress using vivid and vibrant colours which when transforms to reveal the dark and different world of negative feelings and emotions to the point where the dress can be drawn up into a cocoon protecting the vulnerable person. You can read more about Sarah’s piece at : https://handembroidery.com/pages/prize-winners/sarah-steel or on her Instagram account @sarahmichellesteel
November 2024 Meeting
A big thank you to Chris Lloyd for a fascinating talk yesterday on “Paton and Baldwins: Wonder Factory”. It was really interesting to learn about the history of the mill and the background to it becoming the largest wool factory in the world. Whilst we were all interested from a textile point of view, it also struck a chord with many members who had family connections to the factory. A fabulous insight and informative talk, thank you Chris.
We also had an opportunity to learn how to lace fabric for mounting embroidery designs prior to Chris’s talk or work on our ‘Wagons Roll’ project.
October 2024 Meeting and AGM
We had some wonderful responses to our Stitched Sampler Competition that used 20 stitches and were done to original designs. Well done especially to our 2 winners Janet and Suzanne, but also to everyone who entered and showed us what a fabulous bunch of stitchers you are. Our AGM brought a change in committee members and we thank Helen for being a wonderful chair and for all of her hard work and commitment over the last 3 years. She is succeeded by Suzanne and we wish her all of the best for her new role as chair. We also got to hear about our new competition “Wagons Roll” for April, ready for our 2025 exhibition to mark the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. This work will be shown alongside our group piece, which is well underway and also work from our “Through the Carriage Window” and “A Day Out in the North East” projects at Crown Street Gallery in Darlington next year. You may also be interested to know that one of our members has had her work selected to go on show at this year’s Hand and Lock Prize Exhibition in London in November. The Hand and Lock are known for their high end embroidery for the Royal Family, design houses across Europe, the armed forces and Saville Row. If you wish to see the exhibition tickets are available through: https://www.handembroideryshop.com/products/the-hand-lock-prize-for-embroidery-exhibition-2024?srsltid=AfmBOooJ1vcqKsKFGjmMYzN0fvz2t8fg7FCEWniK7iIAtbNDzQNeIH5r , the work can be seen at an organised photoshoot here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAbiqsxtmXU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== .
September 2024 Meeting
A big thank you to Rachel Whitworth, curator at the Bowes Museum for our September Talk. It was fascinating learning further about the vast array of textiles the Bowes has in its archive, following our visit to the Stories in Stitch Exhibition in June. If you’ve not been to see the exhibition it’s well worth a visit, open until 29th September. Also on display at our meeting were some of the stitched responses to the exhibition from our members.