Textiles & Quilting

Bird Portraits in Free Motion Embroidery and Appliqué

From: £75.00

Learn how to use your sewing machine as a drawing machine and create a beautiful bird portrait.

Date: Saturday 16th May 2026

Time: 10am – 4pm
Experience Level: Beginner, intermediate, experienced.
Material cost included. 

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Description

About the day

Enjoy a creative day learning free motion embroidery with your sewing machine. We’ll start with the basics and work our way up so that you feel confident with the technique. Using artist Helen Walsh’s templates we’ll experiment with transferring a design onto fabric, adding colour with appliqué and adding detail, texture and character with free motion embroidery. This workshop is suitable for beginners but intermediate and experienced embroiderer’s will also be able to pick up lots of hints and tips. You will need a sewing machine for this session, you can bring your own or borrow one of Shambellie’s.

 

Equipment/Set Up

Iron and ironing board provided by Shambellie House.

Do participants need to bring anything? Sewing machine. If you do not have a sexing machine, this can be provided by Shambellie House.

 

Your Tutor

Your Tutor

Helen Walsh

For further information visit:

Helen Walsh is an Artist and Creative Practitioner specialising in drawing and textiles, in particular embroidery. She is continually fascinated by the natural world and our connection to it. She is particularly interested in birds and their feathers and uses them as symbols in her work to explore the human desire to transcend. Choosing to work predominantly with natural fibres such as silk and linen Helen finds herself consistently drawn to traditional textile skills such as embroidery, knitting and dyeing and enjoys the connections with the often forgotten makers of the past that working this way gives her. Helen is a skilled and experienced workshop leader and works on a variety of community and education based arts projects working with a diverse range of people in a variety of settings. Helen’s aim is to enable people to unlock and explore their creativity.

Do you have any access needs?

If you have answered yes and would like to discuss your requirements then please get in touch.

Have you any dietary requirements?
I understand I require a Sewing Machine for this workshop.

If you do not have a Sewing Machine, Shambellie can provide you with one for the workshop.