18th June 2026

'Paint, paper and thread' a presentation by Christine Plummer

 

Mini Workshop 13.00 to 15.30 

Handmade books with Christine Plummer  

 21st May 2026

'Adventures in metal thread embroidery'

 by Hanny Newton 

 

 16th April 2026

Hayley Mills- Styles presentation 'My Life in Stitch' was  interesting and supported by her colourful and varied range of work.

Hayley has been embroidering for 42 years , she took a BA in textile crafts which covered crafts like machine knitting, embroidery, silk screen printing etc,. She followed this with an MA in textiles featuring digital embroidery involving scanning pictures and then converting into embroidery. Hayley then became a freelance artist creating her own pieces eg the pink cone, working on a variety of commissions as well as teaching workshops for example 'drawing with thread' in Leeds Central Library.

Community work like 'The unravelling Fantasia of Miss H' - Mary (Miss H) was incarcerated in the workhousewhere she stitched. Hayley was approached by 'Stitched up Theatre' to run workshops, she asked the women to stitch something to depict what being a woman meant to them. The pieces produced by the women were then made into 3 banners by being patchworked together by Hayley. 

 A lot of work that she does makes use of vintage fabrics and found items. Hayley also creates work for exhibitions eg Prism, for the on in 2022 the theme was 'Untold' for this her piece was 'where is my mind' featuring old tins with strands of text of intrusive thoughts spilling from them. The words were machine embroidered onto soluble fabric in order to form the strands.

The 2023 exhibition theme was 'Warped' research led Hayley to warped pertaining to ships being pulled ashore by ropes so 'flotsom and jetsom' uses found ropes, rust dying, machine wrapped cords, bringing found pieces from various places together.

 The 2024 exhibition theme was 'Edgelands'for this Hayley embroidered pieces of graffitti taken from images in Leeds.

Threads of freedom  - was the 80 year commeration of VE Day 'Our freedom then and now' workshops.

Hayley's current theme is 'Fancy Goods' ie those seen in the  tourist based seafront stalls/shops in Scarborough her buried treasure features beaded plastic buckets and spades (she sews the beads on), 'Pennyfalls game' Unicorn, bear etc and the 'dropped ice cream ' plates created with paint, beads etc. 

 19th March 2026

Pwytho Llais or Stitching a Voice  by Bethan Hughes

Bethan began stitching at the age of 6 encouraged by her mother and her primary school teacher. Then some 27 years ago she 'got the quilting bug' and set up a group of like minded people, then  two and a half years ago Bethan changed her career leaving the local government library service to become a practioner in art and craft work making pieces to 'say something'.

The technique Bethan uses is free machine quilting to produce texture and her palette tends to be shades of black, white and red which she finds allows her to be more creative.She first used this colour palette creating a piece about the Princess of Wales who in 1282 was taken to a nunnery to extinguish the Royal bloodline. 

Bethan uses cheap cotton fabric as this has a rough surface and holds the paint she uses to 'colour' the background ready to quilt, stitch her words etc. She links her use of words in pieces to her former work within the library service.

During Covid she worked on a piece 'Together Apart' for this she dyed pieces of fabric red, black, grey, printed words onto them and cut each of them into 1" squares, Bethan then put these back together, mixing them up and stitching them together leaving gaps between the pieces.

In 2023 she applied to the Welsh Arts Council for a grant to enable her to display her work at the National Eisteddfod, while there she talked to visitors about their views /feelings etc  and collected X marks from them to stitch. 

 Photo: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd

 

The piece Bethan produced entitled 'Fragility' is about democracy, voting makes use of an X, issues are black or white, how fragile democracy is ie the hanging is easy to destroy. There are 6701 squares which represent the majority, the squares are black, white or red, have words printed on them and the X stitched, they are joined by stitching with the whole piece suspended from an Ash wood X .  

This log cabin quilt was made representing the American election with the X vote in the red square at the heart of the piece.

Bethan is an associate artist at the Ruthin Craft Centre where she has a studio space for workshops, talking with people, displaying work and getting them to think about the issues.She is also involved in Community engagement projects like the Welsh Women's Peace Petition of 1923/4 resulting in 'The Thread of Peace' where women stitched their own signatures and a 16m long roll was created.

Also work with children on a 'Welcome' project featuring teacups quilted/stitched on to brightly coloured fabric.

 

 19th February 2026

 Deborah Collum's presentation Embroidering the Truth: a light hearted amble through her textile art journey, considering why textile arts are beloved by many women and so few men, was interesting and a contrast to our speaker in January Mr X Stitch.

As a child Deborah always drew and painted however her career path took her in a different direction, although she  became a teacher later in life and was head of Art. She retired due to ill health, but her work has influenced her creative process and retirement has given her time to explore.

This started with Deborah painting on paper which she then tore up and sewed together, as part of the process she found the textiles community who shared ideas and support.
 

Her focus is very family and home based, her 1st pieces of work made use of children's cotton vests onto which she applied/attached various bits of toys, buttons, badges, key rings etc which she had kept in a drawer rather than throwing away.

 

 

 

 

 

Next Deborah used a simple house shape, rather like a childs drawing, which she made using various bits of old fabric, patchwork etc - this relates to looking after the family.

 

 

 

This led to the creation of books of textile experiments which are tactile and useful for ideas and reference.

World events like the 'boats' bringing migrants, the War in Ukraine which displaced people /children have led to creation of work which depicts this for example dresses embellished with scenes, a destroyed home fragile and patchworked together.

Deborah's work also features landscapes, the view from her window of her long thin garden, farmland with the earth/soil and sky.

During 'lockdown' Deborah created a self portrait the basis of which was an old tray cloth (the home connection). 

 

 

 

 

 15th January 2026

The view from the cutting (and stitching) edge presentation by Mr X Stitch, Jamie , was interesting and thought provoking.

Jamie started stitching at the age of 10 and returned to stitch in 2003 when he bought a kit to occupy time through a long journey.

Following this he began to create his own X stitch patterns that he was interested in. In 2008 Jamie became Mr X Stitch developing a blog where he shared work of others, he entered competitions and taught X stitch at the RSN.

Jamie has been involved in collabarative Art projects including Blackburn Cathedral where he had stitched work mounted in hoops, with information about the pieces on the back, which were then suspended to view .

 

He has created books to raise awareness Push Stitchery, Mr X Stitch -Guide to X stitch, then magazines in which X Stitch Revolution was the first theme.

 

This has been followed by podcasts in which Jamie interviews embroidery and textile artists as well as people who love crafts.

 

Jamie has set up the Mr X Stitch Contemporary  Needlework Prize which features 4 categories - 3D textiles, hand embroidery, machine embroidery and mixed media.

In 2023 Jamie started the Crewe Creates Project and is now based in the former Burtons Store in Crewe which he is renovating and developing into a gallery and creative space for local people/children/students. 

   

 

 18th December 2025

Christmas Celebration with a 'Surprise Speaker'

Our speaker for the Christmas celebration was Judy G, a flower arranger, who talked about her work and demonstrated a variety of simple but very effective flower arrangement techniques. These were suitable not only for Christmas but were adaptable for use throughout the year.

 

The ideas presented were able to be created by adults as well as some being suitable for younger family members to try.

As seen in this (front right) where a beaker with a taped grid over the top provided a guide as well as stability for the flowers and character decoration. 

 

 

The bonus was that the flowers used by Judy were bought from the supermarket and supplemented by any available greenery from the garden, meaning that any one could achieve the flower arrangements produced.

The arrangements and left over flowers were raffled so many members had the opportunity to create their own Christmas flower decorations.

 

There were many contributions to the 'Christmas swap' gift tag which were enjoyed by their recipients.

 

 

 

 

The buffet lunch was enjoyed as was the opportunity to chat with fellow members at the tables.