Simple Stitches – Infinite Possibilities 2

Embroidery offers infinite possibilities.  This workshop invites exploration of a limited range of stitches and their adaptability.  In a small group, a facilitator will guide you through a simple, single stitch to create a small sample as a reference point.  Then, changing length or direction of stitch, thread weight and/or colour, proximity or repetition, you are on the way to creating any number of free-form variations. There are no boundaries.

Each of the 4 groups will repeat this process with a different stitch, either from the Flat or Straight Stitch family, Looped, Knotted and Couched Stitch families.  All the while creating different lines, marks, outlines, filling-in or playing with movement. 

The effects of stitches vary with the background fabric, so in this workshop, version 2, you are encouraged to try four new stitches and their infinite possibilities on your own felted textiles with the guidance and support provided to further develop your own resource reference file.

This workshop will be collated by Jen Walton.  A teacher, Jen has been a member of the Embroiderers’ Guild since 2000 and Group Leader of the Guild’s Innovative Stitches Group for several years. 

The group, formed in 1999 to cater for a growing number of Embroiderers Guild members who wanted to extend their skills beyond traditional embroidery to design and contemporary textile techniques.

Monthly workshops give members skills in techniques needed including embroidery, felting, fabric collage, and fabric manipulation. The group also works together to encourage and help members develop their own artistic style and interests.

Recent exhibitions include ‘Signals, Cyphers and Stories: A stitched history of telecommunications’ at Wireless Hill Museum in 2021 and ‘Enshrined’ at the Zig Zag Gallery in Kalamunda in 2023. 

The facilitators will be 4 experienced members from this Group, who have each exhibited work as individuals and contributed pieces to form group installations.