Description

The Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc Wollongong Group celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, and its members are still as passionate as ever about embroidery! They began in 1968 after some women local to the area visited embroidery exhibitions in Sydney and were inspired to start their own group. Jenny Hume, a lecturer in Textile Art at the then Wollongong Teachers College, organised a Display of Embroidery with the help of two Guild members, Joan Bath and Roma Field, and the following year The Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Wollongong Group was officially recorded.

Some of its founding members still belong to the group; both Jean Hinder and Janelle Badans attend meetings, while Audrey Bernays and Robin Jeffcoat have been made life members. Currently there are 83 women involved, ranging in age from their twenties to their eighties, and they all meet up on the first Tuesday of the month at the Tarrawanna Community Hall in Tarrawanna. There are also three small stitching groups that meet monthly, on different days, in the homes of members and two groups that gather weekly on Fridays; one in a member’s home and the other at the Ribbonwood Centre in Dapto.