April meeting

It was another productive session at Megastitchers with a morning workshop led by member, Joy, looking at creating silk paper using cocoon strippings. Joy is a very accomplished practitioner and brought along many samples for members' inspiration.  Here are just a few of them

After teasing out the cocoon strippings, adding decorative items such as leaves, threads, paper etc and applying watercolour members, were able to iron their pieces (using baking parchment). They were also able to add colour to silk rods and begin the fiddley process of separating them into fine layers.

Some great ideas for creating backgounds ready for stitching! Thank you, Joy.

In the afternoon, we had a presentation from Pam about the choices for our next 'Artist of the Year' that will, hopefully, inform teaching for our member-led 2-hour workshops. We had the opportunity to vote for Jan Messent (textile atist), William Morris, Ton Shulten and Hundertwasser.  More news when all the votes have been counted.

March Meeting

In the morning we have a relaxed stitching session with Jean, creating small cylindrical covers for empty thread bobbins.

After covering the bobbin with wadding, members were soon able to start work stitching the cover. It was also possible to create a small pincushion top by using a stuffed Suffolk puff and trapping the edges under the removeable end of the bobbin.

Here is some of the work-in-progress.

Those members not taking part in the workshop were making progress on their own stitching, some completing work started in previous workshops and others on continuing with kits or other projects.

Our afternoon speaker was Lynne Stein, with a talk on Rags to Riches: a Contemporary approach to Rag Rug'.

Lynne combines her hooking and prodding with a variety of other techniques such as needle-felting and stitch. Her larger works are made using a tufting gun as we saw on a brief film clip. This craft has amazing textural qualities especially when using re-cycled and non-traditional materials, and lends itself well to the range of workshops that Lynne has taught for community, school and inter-faith groups. A well-illustrated talk with handling samples, a display of work and brief demonstrations made for an interesting and inspiring afternoon.

Lynne has written a book 'hook, prod, punch, tuft' which is excellent - it's a well-balanced combination of history, techniques, projects and good photos of 'rugs', old and modern.

Thank you, Lynn, for a great talk.   

Threads of a City: Manchester Tapestry Project

Led by Dr Lisa Gold, Senior Lecturer in History at Manchester Metropolitan University, Threads of a City is a unique, city-wide initiative that brings together students, artists, and community members to celebrate Manchester’s rich history and vibrant present through the art of embroidery

The project is supported by MMU staff, Manchester Histories, and the vibrant community. The aim is to create a large-scale textile tapestry that reflects the stories, cultures, and history that have shaped Manchester from its incorporation in 1853 to today. Through fabric, thread, and shared creativity, the project will capture the spirit of unity, resilience, and identity that defines the city. The completed tapestry will be unveiled at Manchester Town Hall’s grand reopening in 2027.

Threads of a City is more than an artwork; it is a storytelling project, a celebration of Manchester’s history, heritage, and people. Each stitched panel will reflect stories uncovered and interpreted by researchers, artists, and volunteers across Manchester. In Year 1 of the two-year project, from early February 2026, the focus is on research, story curation, and panel design. Later in 2026 the project  will move into the stitching phase.

It's still possible to join in the research phase; 

you can register through Eventbrite. The research phase meeting are all held in the ManchesterHistories Hub on the Lower Ground Floor of Central Library, Manchester on Wednesday afternoons from1pm to 4pm.

You can also share this invitation with others who may be interested. For any questions about the process or ways to get involved, contact us at l.gold@mmu.ac.uk.

There's a blog so you can keep up to date with progress on the project: 

https://threadsofacitymanchester.blogspot.com/

Also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threadsofacitymanchester/?hl=en#

and Facebook: Threads of a City: Manchester Tapestry Project.

It's almost time for TexStyle!

This new fibre and textile show is at Manchester Central (formerly G-Mex) this coming Saturday and Sunday, 14th and 15 March. There will be knitting and crochet, quilting and sewing, weaving and more all from independent stitch craft creators.  

Follow the link for more info and the range of ticket options.
https://texstyle.uk/

February meeting

Another dark and dismal day in Fallowfield was brightened by our first face-to-face meeting of 2026 and a busy day of workshop, stitching, quest speaker, chatting and, of course, tea, coffee and biscuits.

The morning started with a workshop, 'Bayeux with Bling', led by Sue. Very appropriate for a year that will see the Bayeux Tapestry being displayed in London.

Here are some of Sue's samples:

After a stitching demo from Sue and some discussion about the threads to use (and keeping them neat) everyone was soon able to complete the preparation of their fabric and start work. Filling area with Bayeux stitch can be quite slow at first, but once a rhythm is established its an easy stitch and has lots of possibilities for adaptation - which can make choosing threads time-consuming, if there are lots of options! The instruction had been to make a design with relatively small areas to stitch, so everyone felt they had made reasonable progress by the end of the two hours.

Our afternoon speaker was Elizabeth Almond, an accomplished embroiderer and designer, perhaps best known for her Blackwork teaching. Liz had visited us before for a workshop on Kogin embroidery, but a talk on 'Whitework for Today' gave us the opportunity to listen to an authoritative and knowledgeable speaker and have a close look at work from this prolific stitcher.

Liz talked about using various whitework techniques and stitches suitable for modern fabric and threads (and eyesight!), with a very useful emphasis on checking 'colour'-matching for both. 'Shades of White' applies to embroidery as well as paint!  As you would expect with such an enormous catalogue of work, Liz had brought with her lots of samples we could pass round, a large display of mounted work and lots of patterns to choose from. Here are a few photos of her amazing work.

Thank you, Liz, for an informative and interesting talk. 

More of Liz's work can be seen on her website and she is also on Facebook and Etsy.

https://blackworkjourney.co.uk/contents.html

January meeting update

Our first face-to-face meeting of 2026 took place at the beginning of February when some of us brought in work-in-progress from the January zoom meeting. Here are a few photos.

January meeting

The New Year started, as usual, with a happy Zoom meeting. Definitely too cold to travel this year, especially for those suffering from horrible coughs and colds.

Our challenge for this month was to cut six-inch squares from three different fabrics then cut each of these into 2 three-inch squares, 3 two-inch squares and 6 one-inch squares.

We had all chosen different combinations of fabrics, some all plain, others all patterned and some a mixture. It was then our task, should we choose to accept it, to layer the fabrics in a way that looked pleasing us then cut, stitch or patch them. And only four hours or so to play/faff and have lunch before we met up again in the afternoon to review progress.

An interesting exercise to get us started and a difficult one for those of us who struggle to be spontaneous! Thank you, Pam.

Hopefully, more photos next month after we meet in person. 

December meeting

It was a dark, dismal, December day outside ..... but inside there was chatter and laughter as members, and a couple of visitors, met for our Christmas stitching session.

This year we were led by Jean in creating Christmas tree decorations of Wild Women (angels, if we wanted to add wings). Here are Jean's samples:

After brief instructions and stitching tips, we were soon using the templates she'd provided (in 3 sizes/shapes!) to cut out our background fabric and sorting scraps to 'stitch & flip' to patch our creations. We could choose whether to do some hand-stitching over the joins and to add a face (a variety of expressions were also provided!). Whilst we were stitching, we also had to remember to vote in our two annual competitions.

After the raffle draw (with some excellent prizes this year) we enjoyed our Jacob's feast lunch that everyone had brought a contribution for.  

Most of us had intended to carry on stitching after lunch but a longer lunch break, clearing and cleaning up and the announcement of our competitions' winners meant that we finished slightly earlier than usual. Some did manage to (nearly) complete their projects, but others still had some way to go.

And the winners of our competitions were:

Nicole    The Kathleen Mason Award for Stitching (an amazing sampler)

Chris      The Anne Mullins Award for Design (a brilliant Gaudi-inspired lizard)

Thank you to everyone (you all contributed in some way!) and especially Jean, our tutor, and Pam, our Chair, who kept us on track throughout the day.

November meeting

In November, we welcomed Priscilla Edwards for a full-day workshop on the theme of 'Mixed Media Sculptural Birds & Flowers'. Priscilla had previously visited us in March 2024 for a talk about her work, so we were very enthused about learning her waxing technique. Here are some of the samples that she brought with her.

After telling us a little about her work, Priscilla gave several demos of manipulating wires to create bird and flower shapes with sufficient strength and stability to support the waxed fabric and any additional decoration we wanted to add. The lunch break saw us all with frameworks to start on the next stage in the afternoon.

During lunch, the wax pellets had been melting in the pots, so after more demos and discussions about types of wax pot (and H & S warnings!) we were able to start applying waxed fabric to our wire creations. Priscilla had been very generous in bringing scraps of fabric for us to use and, with scraps of our own, we had plenty to experiment with. 

By the end of the session we still had some work to do to fully complete our pieces by adding paint and stitching, but most had at least two started and we were all pleased with what we'd achieved. Thank you, Priscilla.

Priscilla's book, 'Sculptural Textile Art', published by Search Press in their The Textile Artist series is well worth reading as it contains detailed instructions for all her techniques.

More info about Priscilla, her work and courses can be found at:

https://www.priscillaedwards.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/artistpriscillaedwards

https://www.instagram.com/priscillafcedwards/

https://uk.pinterest.com/priscillafcedwards/priscilla-edwards/  (with lots of photos of work from the book).

October meeting

It was a dark and stormy day, the rain came down in torrents ....... 

There was no old man to tell us a tale but our morning was brighten by a visiting tutor, Angela Oswald, an amazing stitcher and teacher.  We enjoyed Angela's last visit to us for a Boro talk and workshop, but this time her theme was 'circles'. These were some of her samples and works in progress.

For additional inspiration, Angela also showed us photos of circle-based work from artists using a variety of different media.

After brief discussions about backgrounds and stitches, we all started on our individual pieces, whether they were small patches, woven backgrounds or larger pieces. As usual, Angela was generous with her time and supportive comments and ideas. We all made a good start but were nowhere near completing anything before our two hours were over.

Thank you, Angela, for a lovely workshop that will keep us stitching well into the winter!

Our afternoon speaker was Kirsteen McGregor, whose work as a pattern cutter in the children's clothing sector led her to a commitment to UK manufacturing and natural fibres. She spoke about 'Homegrown Homespun', a regenerative fashion project which aimed to re-introduce flax-growing and linen production, from its start in 2021 to this year. Kirsty told about the whole process from clearing the waste land in the centre of Blackburn (300 bags of rubbish!) to the processing of the final harvest in 2024, which had to be done in Poland as there are no commercial processors in the UK.

We watched a very informative video of the project and Kirsty gave us brief demos of how flax could be processed by hand (lots of time and good arm muscles), although the resulting fibres are too coarse for garments.  

Thank you, Kirsty, was a really interesting talk. There's lots of info and photos online. In particular:

https://northwestenglandfibreshed.org/homegrown-homespun/

https://superslowway.org.uk/projects/homegrown-homespun/

September meeting

After our summer break it was good to catch up at our September meeting.

The morning workshop for this meeting was a Screen Print Taster led by our member Lynda. Members thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to have a go at screen printing using a small homemade screen and fabric paint on different fabrics. Participants enthusiastically embraced the chance to play and experiment with different temporary stencils and masks, and to try layering prints and mixing colours.

Programme 2025/26

The new programme from September 2025 is now available. Just click on the link in the right-hand column.

July meeting

Last Saturday saw us diving into another traditional technique with a canvaswork session led by our member, Elizabeth.  She provided some basic patterns for us to use, and had brought her spare canvas and wools should we have needed them. It was a very relaxed session to finish the year and most members carried on stitching into the afternoon session. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Here are some of the samples in progress.

During the afternoon we also had a photo session for pieces completed over the last 12 months or so.

Thank you to everyone who taught, spoke at or participated in our workshops over the year. Have a super, stitching summer break.

June meeting

A busy day at Megastitchers with a member-led morning workshop then a great talk in the afternoon.

We started with a simple ribbonwork session led by member, Chris. This is a technique we'd not covered before and attendance was good. Here are a couple of Chris's samples:

With help from Chris, and Joy, members were soon choosing their design from three options and transferring it to fabric.  The challenge was then to secure the ribbons, either in a straight line or as petal and fish shapes. Not always easy, and there were some large needles being used! No finished pieces, as usual, but here is some work in progress:

In the afternoon, we had a talk 'Inspired by the Garden' from Maureen Sawyer, an artist who makes contemporary, three-dimensional artworks in mixed media and textiles. Maureen started by telling us about 'Southlands' in Stretford where she and her partner have gardened organically for 25 years. Lots of amazing, colourful photos from the different areas in the (very!) long, narrow garden.

Maureen then went on to talk about the development of her artworks, which include boxed pieces, those in clear cubes (which can be viewed from all angles and free-standing work. Her work is definitely not representational, but aims to capture the essential nature of the inspiration - soil, flowers, ferns, tree bank, water, seeds. The materials Maureen uses include wires, metal, threads and found objects, all manipulated into intriguing shapes. 

Just a few photos from a fantastic range of work. Thank you, Maureen.

If you want to visit Southlands, Maureen's garden, it's open for the National Garden Scheme on Sunday, 20th July 2025 from 12pm to 5.30pm. Entrance fee is £5, and address is 12 Sandy Lane, Stretford, M32 9DA.

More information, and lots of photos, about the garden and artworks can be found at https://www.southlands12.com/

 

Manchester Antique Textile Fair

It's not long to go now until the 32nd Manchester Antique Textile Fair. Megastitchers will be there, upstairs, with a display of old embroidery threads and samples from our workshops over the last few months. We'll also be selling old books, Needlewoman & Needlecraft magazines from the 1940s to 1970s and editions of Embroidery magazine from the 1960s and 1970s.

The Fair opens to the general public at 10 am, admission fee is £8 on the door or through Eventbrite.

May meeting

 Waxing lyrical ............

about a full day workshop led by textile artist Christine Stanford. Here are some of the wonderful finished articles that Christine brought to show us.

Christine, in addition to her exhibition pieces, makes a wide range of small items including panels, notebook covers, needle cases, cards, scissor cases. For our workshop, we had a choice of a panel or a cover for a notebook and, in preparation for the day, Christine had printed off personal images that each member had provided.

After a quick initial demo, we were soon applying printed papers and our images to a fabric or a card base.  As it often is in workshops, making these decisions about arrangement was one of the most difficult parts of the day!

Christine had brought a wide range of printed papers, and other resources, we were welcome to use.

After a quick lunch, we approached the more 'technical' element of the day, painting melted paraffin wax onto teabag paper, then ironing it off to create the correct level of transparancy. After the wax paper was laid over our base we could then start to machine sew to secure everything together and enhance the design.

Lots to finish off at home and lots of ideas to develop in our own way. Thank you Christine for an interesting and inspiring day.

Look out for Christine's work at exhibitions, whether as an individual or as part of the Decorum group and her courses.

https://christinestanford.uk/ , on facebook and instagram https://www.instagram.com/christinejstanford/?hl=en

April meeting

 Our 'upside down' April meeting started with an adventure story....

'Five escape Manchester'

about the Famous/Infamous Five (ie five of our members) and their September holiday and textile residential at Studio Preniac in France with Amanda Hislop. The course focussed on sketching the local landscape then using various techniques to create more abstract textile work. Combined with good food, good company and a couple of trips out, a great time was had by all.

Here are some of the resultant pieces/works in progress:

A couple of the course participants then led some of us on a session to interpret landscape photos we'd brought showing colours we found attractive.  These are a couple of the tutors' samples:

We used ready-painted transfer sheets to re-create a simplified versions of the landscapes which were then ironed off onto polycotton or Vilene.  Deciding how to then cut up these and arrange them on pieces of calico was so difficult!  But...., at least, one speedy worker started some stitching.

A relaxing and interesting day, with lots more work to finish.  Many thanks to The Five and, in particular, to Jean and Pam.