Classes 2026

The design includes various padding techniques, surface stitching techniques of chain stitch, back stitch, satin stitch, tapestry shading, surface couching of coloured thread and metal threads, plunging threads and tying back metal threads, metal cutwork, needlelace and the application of spangles.

Students will cover a small example of all stitches and techniques so they can complete the design at their own pace. As with most embroidery projects there is an element of repetition involved but each stitch and technique will be covered in the class if time allows with full instructions given in the booklet provided. The design stitching will not be completed in the two-day class but you will have covered the tricky design elements during our time together.

With all multi-technique designs there are elements of preparation, such as padding, to complete before you can move on – in this case I will concentrate in one area. For some design areas it may be necessary to demonstrate techniques to the class on pre-prepared samples.

Deborah Wilding graduated from the Royal School of Needlework (UK) Future Tutors Programme with distinction in 2015. She teaches for the RSN on all levels of their programmes as well as for other teaching and holiday companies such as the Crewelwork Company, Creative Experiences and Needlework Tours and Cruises, both internationally and in the UK.

In 2021 Deborah was awarded a QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) grant to study for an MPhil with the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts. The MPhil uses artistic practice as research looking at the influence of geometry in embroidery design. In 2023, Deborah was honoured to be part of the Embroidery Studio team at the Royal School of Needlework who worked on a number of items for the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla, including The Queen’s Robe of Estate, the Anointing Screen, Chairs of State and the Stole Royal.

For more on Deborah check out her website https://deborahwildingembroidery.com/

Over the weekend you will be learning the techniques for kogin embroidery and the few rules while making a sample that could made into a pincushion or coaster.

Boro which is a Japanese word that translates as rag and can be used to describe textiles including patched clothing, bags, bedding and many household items. Boro is a utilitarian technique used to keep articles useful and warm by adding patches and stitches. Jane will show and talk about the kogin and boro samples that she will bring along which you are more than welcome to ask questions about.

Jane will also take you through how to transfer sashiko patterns, which fabrics and tools to use for traditional sashiko techniques. and how to achieve the “grain of rice” stitches following simple principles while making Gabi’s swirls pattern coaster.

Jane MacDonald comes from Lismore, NSW, Australia. She has been interested in Japanese textiles and crafts for over twenty years, developing a specialty in the craft of sashiko stitching and design. Initially drawn to the quality and detail in the workmanship of Japanese textiles, Jane now teaches sashiko extensively throughout Australia and internationally.

Jane is renowned as a patient teacher who is diligent in providing an enjoyable learning environment for all levels and abilities. Jane likes to inspire students with original ideas and techniques in the gentle craft of sashiko, branching into other forms including one stitch sashiko, boro-inspired designs and kogin stitching.

So, you have learned the basics of goldwork. Further expand on your skills and create a lotus flower.  Techniques used include felt, string and soft cotton padding, ‘s’ing, couching, basketweave, chipping, cut work and a couched slip.

Students can stitch a totally gold flower or explore using some colour, with many other colour options available in class.

Maree Burnnand: I am an embroiderer and through my work would like to challenge people’s perception of embroidery. I have always had a love for textiles and fibre and my further education was in fashion and textile design but as I have aged embroidery has come to the fore.

My work tends to be very traditional and simple in its technique but the subject matter is often not what you expect to find in embroidery. Reflecting whatever I am into at the time, the works can be a little random but hints of the music, art and the macabre that I love always seem to come through. I love sharing my knowledge and enjoy seeing students learn new techniques or increase the skills they have.

This is a piece inspired by patterns and stitches from 17^th century samplers. During the class, we will cover all the stitches used in the design. We will use a range of different weight silk threads in plain and variegated colours on overdyed 28 count linen. These, combined with the use of different stitches, create texture and light within the motif and stitch structure. There will be different colour choices of linen and silks available to personalise your project.

This piece will not be completed in class, but all stitches will be taught, and comprehensive notes are provided. The piece can either be mounted on the box (can be purchased through the tutor) or framed.

Jane Carroll: An embroidery class at high school started a love of stitching that has spanned to decades and Jane has been a member of the Otago Embroiderers’ guild for over 30 years.

She has tutored a number of counted embroidery classes including Hardanger, Colbert, Drawn and Cut Thread, and Needle Weaving, as well as Stumpwork. Jane especially enjoys learning about traditional techniques and finding new ways to apply them in modern and interesting projects.

Four panels inspired by Casalguidi: a bee, a dragonfly, a daisy, and a thistle. It can be finished as a tissue box or four small individual panels or arranged as one panel and framed.

During the class time students can work at their own pace with a stitch lesson/demonstration periodically during the 2 days. Some needleworkers may finish the embroidery within the class time, while others will have had a go at the stitches required to finish their project.

Fabric is 25 count linen and the thread is Pearl 12 & 8.

Fiona Crowther-Aker : Fiona loves sharing her creations and how she stitches them with other like-minded people. She tries to make her instructions as comprehensive as possible and teaches with her HDMI camera so students can see the work on a big screen from their desk in class.

She aims for her classes to be fun, relaxed and enjoyable for everyone and for students to leave satisfied that they’ve learnt something.

‘A stitch is a stitch one stitch at a time’ – Fiona.

This class is a great introduction to creating a simple abstract design and planning how each area will be stitched using two different embroidery techniques, long and short and metal thread.

Each student will create a number of designs in the first part of the class. They will then select one to stitch. Each student will create unique designs resulting in a one-of-a-kind piece of designer bling.

If the pendant is not completed in the 2 days, you will go home knowing how to finish your piece.

Jo Dixey is a Royal School of Needlework trained embroiderer. She teaches small groups a variety of embroidery techniques, works on commissions which have included large altar cloths, university banners and work for the fashion and movie industries, and repairs old embroideries. She holds exhibitions of her embroidered pieces every few years.

In 2017 Jo published her first book ‘Stitch People’, which was later re-released as ‘Creative Thread’. This is a 20 project journey through embroidery techniques. Jo’s work is held in private and public collections in New Zealand and overseas.

instagram @dixeysoul

Do you remember picking flowers from the garden, lawn, the side of the road, or paddock and taking them home to display in a jam jar, jug or even a vase? We are going to recreate your childhood posy, using basic stumpwork and beading techniques.

You will learn all techniques required and will complete most of the posy during the Great Escape weekend.

Margaret Douglas: Margaret says she has been stitching for a wee while now and her second love, her garden, will often show up in her first love, stitching.  She has learnt a lot from wonderful people within the Guild structure and really enjoys passing on what she has been taught or learnt by trial and error. Her best moments are when a student has a wow moment and masters something they have been struggling with.

***CANCELLED***

Marianne will teach you how to print simple designs onto your plain fabric. These will then be combined to create material suitable to construct into the vase. After learning the 3D vase construction, you will be guided to embellish your vase with a variety of embroidery stitches, in colours of your choice, to make your finished piece unique to you. The limit is your imagination!

You will finish the vase in the workshop and have plenty of ideas to go further. You can also print on extra fabric to make a cloth to match. This is a fun class that shows how easy it is to create wonderful effects. It will inspire you to do more yourself!

Marianne Hargraves has been teaching embroidery and exhibiting for over 25 years since she gained her City and Guilds Creative Studies Qualification in Embroidery. After working on the Globe Theatre Hangings, she was one of ten embroiderers chosen to exhibit at the Barbican in London. She has been involved in several group projects, including coordinating the Women’s Suffrage Wall Hanging in the Christchurch Town Hall. She has won awards for her stitching and travelled to the UK and USA to teach and visit textile artists. She likes to use simple methods, especially incorporating basic printing techniques, to gain maximum impact in texture and embroidery.

Trish has created a multi-coloured sampler hussif, with the option of a single-coloured version. Participants bring their own fabrics and threads. The multi coloured sampler is stitched on 32 Count Permin – colour White Chocolate. DMC Stranded numbers are provided to match this linen colour. The option of stitching the hussif in one colour uses 4 hanks of DMC Stranded and one ball each of Perle #12 and #8 to match.

Stitches used are cross stitch, four-sided stitch, coral, blanket, satin stitch, back stitches and eyelets. The hussif comes with 5 accessories, 3 attached and a tape measure and cord making weight which are loose. Work will proceed on the hussif & accessories with all forms of construction being discussed.

Trish Hill: Sewing, in one form or another has always been a part of Trish’s life beginning as a small child.  In later years she began embroidery more seriously, her preferred medium being counted work.  She appreciates traditional work and designs along these lines with a modern outlook

During Victorian times small, embroidered bags were very common.

The Kempton Purse is based on a small purse I bought before dawn on very cold January morning at Sudbury Park Antique Market at Kempton Park Racecourse, London, a few years ago. It was one of a pair of Victorian purses with the same edging and by the light of a phone torch it looked like lace; in the light of day, it turned out to be cross stitch. The stitch is uniquely Victorian, always appears with more traditional cross stitch (including with very chunky Berlin wool work), is almost undocumented in literature and is poorly identified in Museum collections. I am lucky enough to have 5 examples in my private collection. 

The main body of the purse on the original design is done with chenille threads, couched on the surface, with metal beads.  I’ve interpreted the faded colours and recreated the design with straight stitches in stranded cotton. The purse is finished with a handmade cord handle.

Rosie’s bag is 13cm square when completed. She will start students on each stitch during the class, to be completed at home.

Rosie McKellar is an embroidery designer and tutor. She has stitched since she was young but when Rosie’s career took her to the UK to live in the mid 2000s she decided to sign up for a course at the Royal School of Needlework. One thing led to another, and she first completed a Certificate and then a Diploma in Technical Hand Embroidery.

After graduating she started designing kits and taught at a range of stitching events across the UK. She is also privileged to have had pieces of her embroidery selected for the Broderers Exhibition: Art of Embroidery in London on two occasions. Rosie’s style is influenced by her love of history and exploring historical techniques but being from NZ has also shown through in much of her work. Rosie recently moved back to NZ. 

A selection of unusual things to do with your used tea bags along with other papers and fabrics! Use tea bags and other fine papers to create a fabulous textile art piece. You will try out various quick and fun methods including trapping, waxing, printing and gilding. And use lamination techniques to create a surface ready to stitch and embellish.

Then combine these with stitching, beading, cutting with a soldering iron and more, then add a few found objects to create a unique panel. The results will have the feel of a refined bygone era with the translucency of fine ‘pojaki’ patchwork and a modern twist.

Alysn Midgelow-Marsden is an Auckland based artist with a northern European heritage. Her wall based and sculptural forms are based on metals, fibres, textiles and stitch. Alysn is driven by curiosity about the human psyche, about science and the natural environment. It is a practice inviting pleasurably intimate connections to personal experiences through the subconscious. The works are marked visually by a complex lyrical fluidity and are rarely representational but aim for an emotive, visceral response from the viewer.

Alysn says ‘I have an experimental and curious nature leading to continuously evolving and changing works and media, investigating new dimensions as they develop. It is a pleasure to adapt my ideas into formats which can be used by other fibre artists, and embroiderers for their own practice’.

Recent awards for selected exhibitions include: Mandurah Wearable Art (Australia) for ‘What Lies Beneath’; ‘Wall Brooches II’, (Australia) for ‘Taniwha’; ‘Changing Threads’ Nelson Arts ‘Bernina Award’ for ‘The Space Between VII’.

Traditional needlelace techniques are used to stitch a Tui and Fantail on a Pohutukawa tree. Flat and 3-dimensional elements are stitched in five different thread weights, and the various needlelace fillings are used for pattern and texture, all linked by a net ground.

The 15cm diameter circular lace can be finished with or without wire reinforcement  for hanging. While the project will not be completed in the class, all the techniques required will be covered.

Students need to be experienced in stitching simple needlelace, and be familiar with detached buttonhole, with and without return. As the work is fine in places, magnification may be helpful.

Shirley Pygott has tutored embroidery classes for more than 19 years in Guilds and events throughout New Zealand, on three international cruises and was the ANZEG travelling tutor in 2019. 

Needlelace is one of her speciality techniques, and she enjoys applying traditional methods to modern and experimental applications. She has completed the ANZEG Diploma of Embroidery Teaching and has won many regional and national exhibition awards. She is known for her low stress approach in her classes.

***CANCELLED***

Punto Antico is a whitework technique, a type of Italian drawn-thread work.  The mat incorporates satin stitch, lots of bullions and needle weaving of the cutout centre.  It is finished with a mitred hem. 

Students will be able to complete part of the cutout centre and the basics of the satin stitching over the weekend, as well as coming to grips with bullion stitches.

Kerry Seeley has a passion for white work in all its counted forms including needle lace, along with a host of other techniques.  Sharing her knowledge with others is the ultimate enjoyment. She has taught at conference and at regional weekends over the past 25 years and her formal qualifications are 6^th Form Certificate Embroidery and the Embroiderer’s Guild Drawn Thread I Certificate.

Working with paper is a slower and more defined way to stitch. Keeping it simple is the appeal and being postcard size the work is not overwhelming. Once several pages are complete a book cover is made and an easy one corner binding using a ‘Chicago screw’ to keep your story together.

Students should be able to complete the book in the given time. This workshop has been designed to encourage stitchers to dip their toes into mixed media with stitch in a fun way with amazing results.

Josie Slack Mixed media artist, creative embroiderer and creative bookbinder, Josie is well known for her work in the Auckland region, having been a long-time member of Auckland guild and now Hibiscus Coast. She has exhibited her work in New Zealand and overseas and has won several prizes for her mixed media works that include stitch.

This bowl, which can also be converted into a Potli or gift bag, incorporates the vibrant colours of India and the beauty of an opening lotus flower. Each petal is a sampler illustrating a variety of stiches that can be used to attach shisha mirrors, a border in a complementary colour and surface stitches.

This class is for stitchers with experience in stitching a variety of surface stitches. Over the weekend you will learn a variety of techniques for attaching shisha mirrors, how to select colours to complement the design and some border stitches.  By the end of the weekend you will be well on your way to completing one of the five petals. Comprehensive notes will be supplied to enable you to complete the project, including construction into either a bowl or potli bag in your own time.

Susan Swann has always enjoyed working with her hands and has dabbled in a variety of different crafts over the years finally finding her niche in embroidery. For the last 30 years she has been exploring different techniques and styles, initially by taking classes in different techniques until she reached the point where she wanted to design her own pieces. At this point she began her journey through City and Guilds Design and Craft. She enjoys the challenge of designing a piece and then translating the design into a piece of art. In recent years, she has also enjoyed working with fellow embroiderers and watching them work her designs.

By popular request, we are offering this class – an opportunity for you to work on any of your UFOs (Unfinished pieces of embroidery) with a group of fellow stitchers while enjoying the friendship and social activities of the Great Escape weekend.  

This class will not be tutor led.

This pattern is an example of blackwork, a style of needlework popular in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was worked with a single colour of silk, usually black, but also blue, red or, as in this case, green on a white background fabric.

If you would like further information about the original embroidery that inspired this design, from the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, London, UK, follow the link.

The design includes surface stitching techniques of stem stitch, back stitch, seeding, whipped stem, surface couching of silk thread and metal threads, plunging threads and tying back metal threads and the application of spangles. Students will cover an example of all stitches and techniques so they can complete the design at their own pace. As with most embroidery projects there is an element of repetition involved but each stitch and technique will be covered in the class. The design stitching will not be completed in the two-day class but you will have covered all design elements during our time together. All stitches will be covered in the class with demonstrations and students will be given in an instruction booklet. The kit provided includes threads and spangles.

Deborah Wilding graduated from the Royal School of Needlework (UK) Future Tutors Programme with distinction in 2015. She teaches for the RSN on all levels of their programmes as well as for other teaching and holiday companies such as the Crewelwork Company, Creative Experiences and Needlework Tours and Cruises both internationally and in the UK.

In 2021 Deborah was awarded a QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) grant to study for an MPhil with the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts. The MPhil uses artistic practice as research looking at the influence of geometry in embroidery design.

In 2023, Deborah was honoured to be part of the Embroidery Studio team at the Royal School of Needlework who worked on a number of items for the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla, including The Queen’s Robe of Estate, the Anointing Screen, Chairs of State and the Stole Royal.

For more on Deborah check out her website https://deborahwildingembroidery.com/

The sashiko stitch was originally used to mend and reinforce cloth but has evolved into a decorative stitching technique. Sashiko has become popular because of its elegant, bold and meditative quality, plus it is easy to do. Sashiko techniques covered will include how to transfer designs onto fabric and how to achieve the ‘grain of rice’ stitches following simple principles.

Boro will be introduced. Boro translates from the Japanese as ‘rag’. A utilitarian technique, boro is used to describe textiles such as patched clothing, bags, bedding and household items which have added patches and stitches to keep articles useful and warm.

Jane MacDonald comes from Lismore, NSW, Australia. She has been interested in Japanese textiles and crafts for over twenty years, developing a specialty in the craft of sashiko stitching and design. Initially drawn to the quality and detail in the workmanship of Japanese textliles, Jane now teaches sashiko extensively through out Australia and internationally.

Jane is renowned as a patient teacher who is diligent in providing an enjoyable learning environment for all levels and abilities. Jane likes to inspire students with original ideas and techniques in the gentle craft of sashiko, branching into other forms including one stitch sashiko, boro-inspired designs and kogin stitching.