October meeting

A looking-back and looking-forward morning at Megastitchers for our October meeting.

Looking back - we had a short opportunity to tackle some of the UFOs from previous workshops and get any help we required from the member-tutors present.

Looking forward - Clare and Sue presented some information about the 'Threads of a City' project to create a Manchester Tapestry.  The Tapestry will show the history of Manchester - and the wider Greater Manchester area - from the time it became a city in 1853 until the present date, through panels showing social, health, political, sporting and artistic developments.  Each panel is one metre square - so plenty of space for images and lots of stitching. Once on display, each will have an accompanying panel explaining how the images tell the story.

And then - without a drumroll, sadly - we had the unveiling of the two panels that Megastitchers' members will be stitching.  These are 'Health, Housing & Reform (1853 - 1920)' and 'Birth of Welfare and the NHS' (post WWII - present).  

The panels generated lots of discussion about the how, when and where we could start the stitching. One metre square in a sturdy frame on a large stand is quite something to consider!  More news next time!

No photos as the panel images are under embargo until the grand unveiling after completion of the Manchester Town Hall renovation, but you can follow the progress of the panels from the initial research that started in February up to the present with the start of the public stitching sesssions this month.

https://www.instagram.com/threadsofacitymanchester/

https://manchesterhistories.co.uk/projects/threads-of-a-city-the-manchester-tapestry-project/ 

Our afternoon speaker this month was Sally Wilson gave us a talk about moving from painting into free machine embroidery, and overcoming adversity;the catalyst for the change was a traumatic brain injury that she suffered in 2005.

Sally's degree in sculpture gave her the impetus to explore the development of 3D textile work, often created around a welded armature or a stuffed fabric 'body'. She then creates the individual aspects of the subject using intensive machine embroidery on one - or several - of her Berninas.

Sally's work has won several awards in the Madiera and Hand & Lock competitions.

Here are a few photos of the amazing work she brought with her, including some flatter cityscapes. Thank you, Sally for such an inspiring talk.

Sally's website - https://www.sallywilson.co.uk/ - shows an extensive galley of her work, including some wonderful city scenes.

Manchester Tapestry Project

Stitching in earnest is about to start!

Megastitchers will be taking part as a group but everyone can participate, even if you are a new or less experienced stitcher, as support will be available.  You need to book via Eventbrite. Limited places available but new bookings especially welcome on the Thursday evening sessions at the Whitworth. Megastitchers' Sue will be there to help. See the message from the Tapetry Team below.

We’d love you to join us for our upcoming stitching sessions for Threads of a City: The Manchester Tapestry Project, starting in October. The next stage of the project is to bring the tapestry panels to life through collaborative stitching, with participants working alongside one another and embroidering simultaneously.

Workshop details

There are two locations where you can take part, on different days of the week.

Mondays, 1–4pm, Manchester Histories Hub, Manchester Central Library. Book here.

Thursdays 5-8pm, and fortnightly Sundays 1-4pm, Whitworth Art Gallery. Book here.

You don’t need to attend every week, although regular participation is strongly encouraged. As this is a collaborative project, another stitcher may pick up where you left off the following week.

Everything you need will be provided, including materials, tools and visual guides to help you embroider the design. There’ll also be plenty of opportunity to practise stitches on scrap fabric before working on the tapestry itself. Our workshop assistants will be there throughout each session to demonstrate techniques and answer any questions.

Whether you’re an experienced embroiderer, have stitched before but are a little rusty, or are a complete beginner, you’re very welcome. No previous experience is necessary.

As always, hot drinks and biscuits will be available at every workshop! 

Booking information

Booking via Eventbrite is essential. There are limited spaces available at each workshop due to the space needed around each tapestry panel, and everyone attending will need their own ticket.

If you book a place but are no longer able to attend, please remember to cancel your ticket so that someone else has the opportunity to join us.

Further sessions will continue from January 2027, with new dates added to Eventbrite.

We hope you’ll be able to join us and become part of the next stage in this collaborative stitching project. We look forward to stitching with you! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch at info@manchesterhistories.co.uk

Best wishes,
Threads of a City team

Programme 2026 to 2027

 The programme has been updated with more details and some changes because of tutor availabilty. Click on the link on the right to see what they are.

September meeting

 A new stitching year .... and what a great start we had!

The morning kicked off with a free workshop to introduce our new 'Artist of the Year' - Ton Schulten. Our leader was member, Julie, who told us snippets of Ton's life (he sadly died in 2025) inbetween getting us to complete various drawing tasks to explore how we could move towards interpreting artwork in stitch.  This is Julie's sample book:

Considering many of us cringed at the dreaded 'd'(rawing!) word, we were very willing to sit with pencils and crayons to follow Julie's instructions.  It was a good introduction to drawing more freely and looking at tone/shade and colour before thinking about stitch. Here are some works in progress.

Thank you, Julie, for an inspiring workshop. 

Our afternoon speaker was Kate Wells from Sheffield with a talk, 'Land, Sky & Gold' about her commissioned work and experimentation for it.  Kate uses a 1930s Irish machine, which has a variable-width swing needle controlled by a knee lever (and no foot!) on dissolvable fabric or fine fabrics such as silk organza and crepelline. Inspiration is taken from a multitude of sources - exhibitions, journeys, walks - with thoughts, notes, drawings and small experiments recorded in numerous sketchbooks.  Some of the finished works use miles and miles of gold thread.

Kate passed around some of her larger samples which we were able to handle - not as delicate as they looked - and, at the end of the talk we browsed through the amazing sketchbooks. What an encouragement to keep one ourselves! Thank you, Kate.

Kate has a great website - https://www.katewellsartist.co.uk - showing her painted and machine-embroidered work, as well as gold lace samples.

Programme for 2026/2027

The programme for the new Megastitchers' year from September 20026 can now be found under 'Programme' in the righthand column. Keep checking back for updates.

July meeting

We started our last meeting before the summer break with an extended, part-day lino printing workshop with Sean Willis. Much of Sean's work is inspired by local landscapes but he teaches classes throughout the country.

Sean was an excellent, patient tutor who came very well prepared with plenty of resources, including good quality tools, for everyone.

After a brief introduction about his work and the lino cutting equipment, the process and, of course, safety, we were soon at work making our first trial blocks to familiarise ourselves with the tools. We printed these on paper Sean had provided. 

Once the test print was completed, we were able to start tracing our designs (the only thing we had to provide), transferring them onto lino before we began cutting.

Sean was at hand to encourage and help with inking and burnishing. Those whose wrists were not up to using the cutting tools had the opportunity to do some mono-printing. We could choose whether to print on pieces of fabric or on calico bags.

Thank you, Sean, for a busy but surprisingly therapeutic workshop.

You can see Sean's work on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/seanwillisprints/

After a brief AGM and lunch, we then had a talk from our member, Ro, who has been a prolific quilter since she came to the craft in 2008. Ro makes mainly traditional 'quilts', often using stripes and checks and scraps, with one of her creations winning a couple of prizes at the Harrogate quilt show.

Ro had brought many samples of her work for us to handle and look at from the early circle of hearts to the prize-winner, both shown below.  We were all in awe of her work, meticulous stitching and eye for colour.

An excellent talk to complete a good year at Megastitchers, thank you, Ro.

June meeting

Jean led the group in a lively, most enjoyable, full-day workshop about Calico Gardens, showing us how to create our own versions of this pleasing art form. Here are some of her samples.

Calico Gardens is hand embroidery, stitched in neutral colours, creams, brown, or pale shades and includes lots of texture. The designs are mostly nature, garden and rural related.

She brought examples of Calico Garden work she had completed and spare materials.

Our workshop started with us taking pieces of calico or beige/cream/white cotton and cutting them to size for final size, allowing an edging all round.  One option was to use a CD as a frame for the final piece. We also cut backing material of light wadding to the same size as the fabric.  Those using the work as a CD covering, with hanging loop, used felt as a backing.

We next designed an image onto fabric, some used Jean’s ideas, others their own, using stencils. Hazel had a wide collection of stencils she kindly shared.

We used embroidery threads of different thickness and colours ranging from pale cream to brown.  and a variety of simple stitches e.g. straight stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch, French knots.

In addition to stitching directly onto the fabric, we were also shown how to add signposts, boulders, stones and leaves which could then be stitched in place.

Signposts were from tea-stained dried vilene.

Boulders were made with a cardboard base cut to desired size coverered with calico fabric running stitched around the margin, stuffed with soft filling and pulled tight.

Smaller pebbles were made with small pieces of old beige tights as covering, stuffed and small circles of running stitch pulled tight to give a cluster of pebbles.

The leaves gave the image a 3D effect. Some were made from small circles of punched hole material threaded onto white thread. Some made using wide open weave stiffer material. Thirdly pointed leaves were made using a woven picot stitch. 

The results were very pleasing, though by the end of the day some of us still had to complete the embroidery. 

Calico is a plain-woven cotton, unbleached, undyed and not fully processed. It is less thick than denim or canvas.

Originally Calico came from Calicut in Kerala southern India. Calico is a simple, cheap plain fabric, with equal weft and warp in white, cream or unbleached cotton.

Thank you, Jean, for a great workshop, and for making us owrk hard!