Events across the sewing year from September 2024 to May 2025

January and February - Deborah and Dagmar’s Goldwork Workshop: Dating back over 1000 years, with its roots in religious and royal embroidery, goldwork has a luxurious and opulent quality. It uses a wide variety of metal threads including gilt, copper and silver and can be combined with other techniques to produce sumptuous effects. Together our very own Deborah and Dagmar ran a fully resourced and easy to follow workshop so that members could learn to make and complete a golden heart.  The results were amazing.

March - Claire Hunter – Mary Queen of Scots and her embroidery: Members were treated to  a wonderful talk by Claire following the publication of her book ‘Embroidering Her Truth’ - in an age when textiles expressed power, we learned that Mary exploited them to emphasise her female agency. From her lavishly embroidered gowns as the prospective wife of the French Dauphin, to the fashion dolls she used to encourage a Marian style at the Scottish court, and the subversive messages she embroidered in captivity for her supporters, Mary used textiles to advance her political agenda, affirm her royal lineage and tell her own story. A truly fascinating afternoon!

April - Moira and Sue - quilting and dyeing: This was our first speaker event at Heathhall Community Centre and both Moira and Sue did us proud. Members learned all about the basics of quilting whereby an array of stitches are passed through layers of fabric to create a three-dimensional padded surface. The examples shown varied from the purely functional to highly elaborate, and included bed coverings, home furnishings, garments, wall hangings and artistic objects.

The second half of the talk was about dyeing and the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibres, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving colour and colour fastness. We learned about fibre colouring by absorption, diffusion or bonding and that both temperature and time are key controlling factors. We were also introduced to dye origins. It was an absolutely fascinating event.

May - Jean Leader - Bobbin Lace: Jean Leader is from Glasgow, but through her lacemaking has friends all over the world.  Jean designs, makes, teaches and writes about lace, and during the afternoon members learned that lace originated in the sixteenth century, spreading rapidly across Europe, and, as a fashion item, underwent numerous and continuous changes in style. The advent of machinery for lace-making led to the decline of hand-made lace. Today hand-made lacemaking only really exists as a hobby in which individual lacemakers may indulge their own preference for different historical styles.

April to May (5 week period) - The Triennial: Members contributed to this Textile Triennial Exhibition called 'Threaded Together', along with two other groups; the Dumfries Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers and The Solway Quilters.  The Gracefield Arts Building was filled to bursting with wonderful tapestries, samplers and embroidered art works, as well as an array of quilts and woven pieces, made and displayed by member of all three groups. TED members worked hard over the previous twelve months to produce a stairway display of textured and embroidered portraits, along with a cascading installation of pennants.

Events across the sewing year from September 2025 to May 2026

Deborah and Dagmar’s Goldwork Workshop: Dating back over 1000 years, with its roots in religious and royal embroidery, goldwork has a luxurious and opulent quality. It uses a wide variety of metal threads including gilt, copper and silver and can be combined with other techniques to produce sumptuous effects. Together our very own Deborah and Dagmar ran a fully resourced and easy to follow workshop so that members could learn to make and complete a golden heart. The results were amazing. 

Claire Hunter – Mary Queen of Scots and her embroidery: Members were treated to a wonderful talk by Claire following the publication of her book ‘Embroidering Her Truth’ - in an age when textiles expressed power, we learned that Mary exploited them to emphasise her female agency. From her lavishly embroidered gowns as the prospective wife of the French Dauphin, to the fashion dolls she used to encourage a Marian style at the Scottish court, and the subversive messages she embroidered in captivity for her supporters, Mary used textiles to advance her political agenda, affirm her royal lineage and tell her own story. A truly fascinating afternoon! 

Moira and Sue - quilting and dyeing: This was our first speaker event at Heathhall Community Centre and both Moira and Sue did us proud. Members learned all about the basics of quilting whereby an array of stitches are passed through layers of fabric to create a three-dimensional padded surface. The examples shown varied from the purely functional to highly elaborate, and included bed coverings, home furnishings, garments, wall hangings and artistic objects. The second half of the talk was about dyeing and the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibres, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving colour and colour fastness. We learned about fibre colouring by absorption, diffusion or bonding and that both temperature and time are key controlling factors. We were also introduced to dye origins. It was an absolutely fascinating event. 

Jean Leader - Bobbin Lace: Jean Leader is from Glasgow, but through her lacemaking has friends all over the world. Jean designs, makes, teaches and writes about lace, and during the afternoon members learned that lace originated in the sixteenth century, spreading rapidly across Europe, and, as a fashion item, underwent numerous and continuous changes in style. The advent of machinery for lace-making led to the decline of hand-made lace. Today hand-made lacemaking only really exists as a hobby in which individual lacemakers may indulge their own preference for different historical styles. 

Mindful mandalas and slow squares presentation and workshop: Members enjoyed a relaxing time with Lindsay Roberts as she helped them create beautiful stitches on vintage dyed wool squares.

Anne Brooke’s Whole Hole Stitch presentation and Abstract Painted Hoops Workshop:  This was a hugely successful event at which members created some amazingly beautiful work.  Anne sends her love to all and says she also had a wonderful time  with her ‘Scottish Contingent’.