Since 2011, World Embroidery Day has been celebrated worldwide on July 30.
It originated with a group of embroiderers in Sweden who wanted to draw attention to embroidery as a free creative act, which can ‘lead to free, creative thoughts and ideas … with July 30 a creative day for peace, freedom, and equality’.
At the behest of the late Winifred Simshauser, the Narrabri Group of The Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc. began celebrating it in 2016.
Celebrating World Embroidery Day within our Narrabri Group has now become a tradition.
Usually, we have a friendship day where we invite our friends, who are not members, to a day of stitching and fellowship where a small, stitched article is created and finished on the day.
On July 30, eight members and three guests gathered at the 2MAX FM rooms in Barwan Street.
After a sumptuous morning tea, the fun began, making stitched cards.
Think back to kindergarten stitching, but on a much finer scale.
Julie Roy demonstrated the technique and was the trouble shooter for the day and made many samples to inspire us.
Julie demonstrated using a rubber stamp to stamp the design onto card and then pricking the holes but we had to be careful not to get the holes too close together.
Back stitch was then used to stitch the outlines.
One guest, Joan Griffiths, was adventurous and whipped the backstitch on her card.
Once the stitching was complete, Julie assembled the final cards for everyone.
Julie had an extremely busy day, and we all thank her for both the effort of preparation and the effort of running the day and didn’t stop – thanks Julie, you are a treasure.
The Narrabri Group of The Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc is 40 years old this year and we will be having a major exhibition at The Crossing Theatre in September.
