Stitch Week: The NSW Embroiderer's Guild

On the weekend I headed off to the Embroiderer's Guild in Concord West for their annual market day.  It was just wonderful.  I'll be putting out reminders for all Sydney residents next year, as if you are into delightful handmade bits and bobs, it is not to be missed.

Handmade bag, $30!!

If anyone is at all interested in stitchery of any sort, I can't recommend the Guild enough.  They do amazing work, and are an awesome talented group of ladies.  The Guild runs an incredible array of embroidery courses, and they have a wonderful library and collection of heritage embroidery pieces which members can access.

Their intent is to preserve the many embroidery arts, by giving the basic techniques to anyone who is interested, and then setting them on their creative way to move the craft forward.

Many members have commented to me that my generation (ie Gen X) does not sew and has no interest in it.  But, from my own interactions, I don't think this is the case.  I think we Gen X'ers (and Ys) are under immense pressure and simply don't have a huge amount of time for fine embroidery - many many people sew and have a project or a cross-stitch on the go, but involved as we all are in families with children, none of us are in a position to really embrace it.

New needlecase, $5

And inside.

Its an organisation I hope to become more involved with over time, I was nearly voted onto the committee this year, but had to withdraw at the last minute when it became clear that the next couple of years would be absorbed with getting Miss 5 the help she needs.

Argh... there is a chicken pecking on the window, I have to go and round the damn thing up before it gets its beady eyes on my carrots...

Chickens!