Braden Fastier/Stuff
“I don’t know what I would do without embroidery”: Paula Hucklesby and Melanie Kinloch say the Nelson Embroiderers’ Guild is a group of “amazing women” who support each other in their creative endeavours.
Embroidery is more than “pretty pictures”: it’s an escape, a creative outlet and a community, say two Nelson stitchers.
From October 16, the creativity and talent of the Nelson Embroiderer’s Guild will take centre stage at Nelson Provincial Museum. It Started With a Stitch will feature around 100 works, and give visitors an opportunity to try their hand at needlework.
The guild began in 1978 and today has around 72 members who meet each month to draw on the support, knowledge and encouragement of an “amazing group of women”, said member Paula Hucklesby.
Hucklesby joined the group in the 1980s after she turned to tapestry to keep her fingers busy when she gave up smoking.
“It’s the best stress management, and the best way to meet people,” she said.
Melanie Kinloch has “learnt so much” since joining the guild in 2018.
“I don’t know what I would do without embroidery,” she said. “It helps me relax, keeps my hands busy.”
The community was inclusive: new stitchers are welcomed and “every piece is accepted, never condemned,” Hucklesby said.
“Even if you start out doing something you’ve seen someone else doing, your creativity will grow and grow.”
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It Started With a Stitch, Nelson Embroiderers’ Guild display at Nelson Museum
To foster a new generation of talent, the group holds weekly sessions for children at Victory Community Centre, tapping into what the women say is a needlework “renaissance”.
“Needlework is enjoying a huge revival, young people are getting into it,” Hucklesby said. “It’s not just grandma – although I am a grandma – doing pretty pictures for a duchess set.”
Kinloch upcycles clothes she finds in op shops, stitching designs to make them unique.
“Or if you have got a hole, you can cover it with a flower,” she said. “It’s a good way to add life and art and your own personality to your clothing.”
The museum display represents the guild’s breadth of talent and creativity, from cross-stitch pieces to three-dimensional camels, Hucklesby said.
Her own pieces include The Colour of Pain: a stitched representation of her recovery from a hip operation, complete with the metal pieces used to keep her bones in place.
“When they were taken out, I said [to the doctor], can I have my bits?” Hucklesby said.
It Started With a Stitch runs from October 16 to 23 at Nelson Provincial Museum. Guild members will be available to answer questions and help those wanting to have a go at stitching.
For more information visit nelsonembroiderersguild.co.nz.
