The Gathering 2026

Thank you to Claire, our Treasurer for her thoughts after attending The Gathering held on April 25th this year and organised by Scottish Stitch and Textiles.

The Gathering took place in our own town of Perth at the North Inch Community campus. A good crowd of us Stitch-Colour-Clothians attended to enjoy the talks, browse the stalls and partake in a spot of socialising with other crafters.

First up was the admin part of the day with a short EGM introducing committee members and a sneak peek of details for 2027. The Gathering will return to Stirling next year and the competition theme will be “Make It and Wear It”, which should be a fun theme to work on.

The two speakers were very interesting and both predominantly from the world of quilting. Jo Avery presented a detailed talk on the history and manufacture of Aurifil thread, as an “Aurifilosopher” and the subject was quite mind-boggling. She also showed off a selection of her recent work and it was interesting to see Aurifil’s recent forays into embroidery wool and thread in action.

Leah Higgins was the second speaker and she took us through her creative journey as someone who moved into fulltime creative work later in life. Her work is modern, graphic and uses complex screen-printing methods. It was fascinating to hear about her artistic output as both a commentary on political affairs, as well as a personal salve during turbulent times.

The subject of this year’s competition was “Images of the Commonwealth”. First place went to a stunning recreation of the Taj Mahal from an Aberdonian stitcher. Both second and third place went to Stitch-Colour-Cloth members! A hearty congratulations to Margaret Beith and Susan Law, who both produced beautiful pieces.

Much fun was also had at the various stalls (both speakers had one as well), the book sale and browsing the exhibition pieces from all the attending stitch groups. Roll on next year!