Colchester Embroidery and Textile Art Group

Colchester Embroidery and Textile Art Group We enjoy embroidery & textile arts, trad or modern. We are open to all from beginners to experts. We were formerly a branch of the Embroiderers Guild in the UK.

24/06/2026

🌸🌸 Old Hall, East Bergholt! 🌸🌸

Following on from the fabulously talented Sue Sharps members focus in April, yesterday we decided to hold our informal SitNStitch session at Old Hall and Sue Sharps stunning home.

Sue lives within a community at Old Hall, which has been split into units and has around 60 residents at present. All the residents contribute to the running of the community in one way or another.

The community has its own fruit and veg patches, Poly tunnels, chickens, sheep & other animals! They share a communal kitchen and some bathrooms and they all eat together in a cosy dining room! There’s also a library, chapel and other communal areas where they host Christmas activities, yoga and other exciting things throughout the year!

The outside areas are stunning with an abundance of plants, flowers, fauna and beautiful trees! It’s extremely family oriented with trampolines, outside chess and volleyball for the kids! The whole place had a lovely warm atmosphere and gave us a real insight as to what it is like to live within a shared community.

The hall itself is draped in history from monks, to a convent and also its use after the war!

Sue’s unit is stunning, with beautiful art, lots of books and snuggly sofas, we were spoilt with polenta cake and flapjacks and not a stitch of sewing was done, but there was plenty of chat and we all left feeling warm and loved!

Thank you so much Sue for sharing your gorgeous home with us, it really was lovely to see the amazing place that you live. 💖💖

💖💖💖 kinusaiga 💖💖💖For our June session Sarah Costello and myself taught the group kinusaiga after seeing several accounts...
24/06/2026

💖💖💖 kinusaiga 💖💖💖

For our June session Sarah Costello and myself taught the group kinusaiga after seeing several accounts on Instagram and falling in love with this Japanese fabric art concept!

We provided the foam board and some inspirational templates and I did a little demo to show how to create a kinusaiga work of art!

It was defo out of our usual comfort zone of needle and thread but everyone got stuck in and gave it a try, most getting a good amount started in session.

They then took them home and continued to work on them, some of which have now been finished and I think you’ll agree they are fabulous!

Thank you to everyone for giving it a go despite it not being our usual thing, you all did fabulously and I look forward to seeing the rest of them when they are completed 💖💖

22/06/2026

Our monthly Sit and Stitch get together tomorrow is being held at Sue Sharpe’s house and not at Firstsite.

Our next meeting is on 14th July, we will be celebrating National Stitch Day. We are planning an activity called ‘Pass the Hoop’.
The meeting will be held at Castle Methodist Church, Colchester at 10:30 am.

Update on our May meeting, see previous postOur May meeting was entitled “Play with colour on Canvas’Some of us did not ...
17/06/2026

Update on our May meeting, see previous post

Our May meeting was entitled “Play with colour on Canvas’

Some of us did not quite get the memo however beautiful panels have been stitched.

💖💖 Play with colour on canvas 💖💖For our May session, Sue started the session off by giving us all paint colour charts, t...
08/06/2026

💖💖 Play with colour on canvas 💖💖

For our May session, Sue started the session off by giving us all paint colour charts, these were to start us off thinking about colour and the colour wheel!
From this we had to pick out our least favourite colour and then our favourite colour, or we could chose two colours we don’t use much, or two opposite on the colour wheel or just two colours we liked the idea of. We then received our instructions and were encouraged to pick threads from the sales table, to complete our patterns.
The Pattern was from a copy of stitch with the embroiderers guild 2002! We were also given a piece of prepared canvas which was sprayed gold!
You basically start with one of the colours and
end up with the other, going through all the colours in between, to make lovely little wall hanging.
We’ve been asked to please try and finish them as we would like to use them at our future exhibition.

Then we had a treat Kirsta and Ife from the Textile Collective in Priory Walk near Sainsburys in Colchester city centre.

They mainly recycle fabrics, threads and haberdashery but will find a home for almost anything.
Kirsta explained how she started the business when her children were growing up and she needed to be more than a stay at home mum. They have all sorts of classes and also run courses in weaving
and spinning.
They bought with them a lovely selection of threads
that they have in the shop and jewellry that Ife has made, she makes these with recycled plastic bottles.
Ife has agreed to do class for us at some time in the future so watch this space.

Jan has finished her wall hanging she chose the colours red to green!

Excited for our June session on Tuesday which is Kinusaiga, a traditional Japanese art form from the 1980’s which involves creating intricate fabric paintings or mosaics without sewing! Traditionally created using scraps of silk from old kimonos 👘 pressed into pre cut grooves in a board. Excited to see what everyone creates.

25/05/2026

In view of the hot weather, half term and many people are unable to come, we are cancelling tomorrow’s sit and stitch session.

Two members will be attending Dot Reed’s memorial service tomorrow.
Dot was a member of the group for many years and used to organise our trips to the Knit and Stitch Show. We send our condolences to her family.

25/05/2026

Social stitching tomorrow. From 10:00 at the Berryfield Cafe in Firstsite. (The cafe at the far end of Firstsite)

Tuesday 14th session we had a glorious members focus, with the lovely and extremely talented Sue Sharp!Sue was paralysed...
26/04/2026

Tuesday 14th session we had a glorious members focus, with the lovely and extremely talented Sue Sharp!
Sue was paralysed from the age of 26, but this hasn’t stopped her from creating the most stunning textile work, her embroidery is fabulous!

It was so lovely to hear her story and how her textile styles have developed over time, completing a city & guilds in machine embroidery and creating numerous pieces for projects and displays!

We were so spoiled with absolutely gorgeous pieces! Truly inspiring!
Thank you so much Sue 💖💖

Some of the gorgeous bowls that have been completed from .costello.10 session, where we made textile bowls Also some of ...
26/04/2026

Some of the gorgeous bowls that have been completed from .costello.10 session, where we made textile bowls

Also some of the completed tiles from sewing day that a few of us did a few weeks ago, yet to finish mine, hopefully this week!

We really are a talented lot!

Thinking of joining us? We meet the second Tuesday of the month at Castle Methodist Church, Colchester, 10:30am £5 for visitors, or we have spaces for membership 💖💖

Address

Castle Methodist Church, 1 Maidenburgh Street
Colchester
CO11TT

Opening Hours

10am - 12:30pm

Telephone

+447881370626

Website

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