How do you render the Birmingham Bull and iconic Birmingham buildings in embroidery?
This was the challenge set in April to a group of embroiderers from Birmingham and Solihull by Threads Together.
Threads Together is a charitable organisation created to celebrate the 2022 Commonwealth Games coming to Birmingham. Their aim is to produce embroidered panels to represent every competing country as well as a panel representing the host city.
One of the organisers is a member of Birmingham Embroidery and Textile Art and she approached members to take part in stitching the elements from the first panel representing Birmingham. Members from Solihull (Solihull Creative Textiles) also got involved.
Due to Covid restrictions the key elements were cut out and distributed to several embroiderers and we set to work during April to complete the motifs. We were given complete freedom to do them how we wanted to, so even the repeated elements in the borders are each stitched differently.
One person had fabric perfect for the bull but was stitching something else so she passed the fabric onto the stitcher of the bull. Another used different coloured metallic threads for each letter of the border to represent the different the metals used in the jewellery trade, lace from another’s stash worked perfectly for the decoration on the Town Hall columns, and sequins became the discs on Selfridges store exterior.
The finished panel is 1 metre square and the intention is to display all the panels across Birmingham and the Commonwealth venues during the games in 2022.
I think I speak for everyone in saying we enjoyed stitching the elements and seeing them come together in the finished panel is very pleasing. We look forward to working on others if we get the chance. The words on the final piece are all phrases local to Birmingham and it’s hoped other panels will have similar approaches to represent the different countries in the Commonwealth.
Birmingham has one of the UK’s most diverse cultural mixes and the Threads Together team hope that other panels can be stitched in community events with those with a connection to the competing countries getting involved.
Birmingham Embroidery and Textile Art 