In June I spent a few days in Sydney, timing it to coincide with the Quilt and Craft Fair held at the ICC in Darling Harbour.  On a particularly wet Monday, a friend and I ventured out to Concord West to the headquarters of the Embroiderers’ Guild of New South Wales. The building was light and airy, with plenty of workspace, with a number of workrooms, and large library.  The ground floor is used as a gallery space, allowing them to hold many exhibitions.  The exhibition we saw was the Festival of Samplers.

 

Samplers on display ranged from the seventeenth century to the modern day.  On the ground floor some  of the oldest samplers on display were mourning samplers. There were darning samplers, a collection of small clothing, for babies or dolls, and map samplers. I apologise to the donors and the Guild of NSW for not recording who donated or created the exhibits.

 

                     
            

 

 

The second floor had several examples of whitework on display

 

The top floor had modern samplers on display

There was also some colourful stitch collection ‘books’

And finally a book of samplers with a hardanger bookmark

 

   

 

 

 

If you do head over to Sydney, I recommend going for a visit to the Embroiderers’ Guild of New South Wales, you will receive a warm welcome and they are very obliging.  There are also a number of courses they are holding this summer which are open to non-members, so check out their website and Facebook page for further details.