Gallery 2026

June sees our final talk before the summer break and this year we ended with a cracker! Tanya Bentham is not only an exceptional embroiderer, opus anglicanum and bayeux specialist, stitch history buff, raconteur par excellence and very funny lady. She had us all fascinated by her subject and also in stitches with laughter. Her talk was peppered with historical facts, art and stitch history, practical explanations and whimsical stories. My personal favourites of her were about the duck of peace and the unknown history of dragon wanging (think wellies with teeth). She explained how she really can be called a medieval embroiderer as she not only uses medieval imagery as her design basis but uses medieval techniques and medieval materials, going as far as dying her own wools with natural dyes. The replica of the Icelandic alter piece only uses 7 colours but she explained how light and stitch direction can change colour tones. She likes to take historical imagery, sometimes from very bawdy manuscripts and give them a modern twist, often using humour and satire. A prime example being her Luttrell Psalter inspired panels. She also brought a selection of her books and kits to purchase which include detailed instructions and images. She produces replica pieces for museums around the world and a number of her designs appear in magazines and she has recently done a bird series for Stitch magazine.

January’s meeting was not a mini workshop day but a presentation by Sue Crawley of Sunshine Designs Dollar about her love of textiles and fascination with Boro and Sashiko techniques. Sue’s talk was full of information, tips, tricks and life hacks. I think most of us started to assemble a sewing go-bag once we got home.

We had an excellent talk by Fiona Wemyss from the Wemyss School of Needlework which was founded in 1871 by Dora Wemyss, at aged 21, who had been inspired by her cousin’s patronage of the Royal School of Needlework. The Wemyss school was set up to educate the wives and daughters of local miners and give them skills that would allow them to earn their own income to support their families after the law banned women and children from working in the pits. Fiona gave us a fascinating insight into her family’s role in shaping both English and Scottish history: politically, industrially and in the arts. She explained how the needlework school came about, how girls were trained and the very progressive way they were employed. She explained how the work of the school was done and how it has changed from the time that she took over as custodian from her 104 year old mother-in-law. She shared the family's plans for the future and how they how to preserve the school's vast array of documents and textiles. It was interesting to learn how the patterns were drafted for individual clients (Fiona does them digitally now), how the count of a canvas and the threads it is stitched with can dramatically change a design and how modern procion dyes wear more than the organically dyed threads. We were also very privileged to be able to see some of the items from the Wemyss collection and had a large array of kits to purchase all from designs taken from the collection.

This year, for a change, instead of a presentation we held out mini-workshop day in May rather than in January. As usual there were activities all day lead by members both in the morning and afternoon. At Rhona’s table we were making heart shaped pillows for a local hospital charity to give to patients who have had breast surgery. This is a cause that is well supported as many members have had surgery or have family members that have needed surgery. By the end of the day the team completed over 30 pillows.
At Theresa’s table the participants where exploring mark making so turn into stitch. These started off with drawing exercises making pencil marks and by the afternoon had progressed to paint and fabric collage. We are all looking forward to seeing the final results.
Kay, our stitch guru, taught reverse whitework. Which most members managed to finish in the session. There was also time and space for members to sit together and work on their own projects. How much was achieved, I don’t know. As usual there was a lot of joking and chatting through out the day.

Sue Crawley led our first workshop of the year and showed the group how to construct and decorate a Japanese rice bag using hand sewing techniques.

On Mothering Sunday this year we treated ourselves to a workshop in canvas work. Fiona Wemyss from the Wemyss School of Needlework taught us Norweave, which is a form of gobelin stitch. Her kits not only provided us with all the materials we needed, but also frames and the use of stands so we could learn the most economic way to stitch. Some of the class worked quicker than others but under Fiona’s expert guidance we mastered the technique. We learnt how to blend colours, tips and tricks for starting and finishing threads, how the project might be joined with other panels, as well as given a fascinating insight into the Wemyss family history and it’s role in developing needle craft.
I will post photo’s of finished panels as I am sent pictures of them.

The general consensus during last Sunday’s workshop with Laura Brittain was that felting is so much fun. We learnt how the application of a simple resist in the form of a vinyl tile could produce a bag. Łaura’s aim was that we would all have a finished a, if somewhat damp, bag by the end of the day. Which all of the 10 members taking part achieved. Laura supplied all the materials and fittings that we needed so by the 2027 group exhibition we should be able to display our bags with clasps and straps attached.

We were definitely rose tinted in the hall yesterday but I did not detract form the wonderful talk “From zero to here” given by Catherine Gowthorpe. A very well respected textile artist known for her intricate, small scale heavily embroidered hand stitched work. She gave us a run down of her love of art and textiles which has been a passion from her earliest years. Influenced by her parents who both embroidered, through her teens, university and into retirement. Cath did not go down the standard art school route but promised herself at University that she would learn to draw whilst persuing a career as a chartered accountant. She used books at first and then took evening classes and later did both City & Guilds certificate and diploma courses in Stitched Textiles with Tracy Franklin and Julia Triston in Durham. Her talk was a very informative about her art, design and mark making process, her current work and the exhibitions she has done with Prism and EDGE textile artists. Personally I think the talk should be renamed “From zero to hero”.
Catherine will be doing workshops this spring and summer with Berwick Educational Association and has plans do more textile teaching in the future.

Our April meeting featured the lovely, highly entertaining, felt guru Laura Brittain who, although known to many, last talked to the group about 20 years ago. Instead of a slide show she gave us a very amusing talk and demonstration, starting with brief history of felting, how was done in the past and still done globally. We loved her explanation of how some of the nomadic tribes, like those in Iran, now drag bundles of wool behind their lorries and quad bikes, instead of horses, to felt the fibres. She explained that it was the Exhibition by Mary Burkett in 1978 that really opened peoples eyes that felt could be used not only for clothing and in industry but as an art form in it’s own right. She then proceeded to demonstrate how quickly and easily wool fibre can be formed and proceeded to make a flower. She showed us now felt can be made as fine as a cobweb or as thick as a mat and provided examples of felt mixed with fine fabrics (nuno felting), how felt can be embellished and what those lucky enough to get a place on the workshop would be making.