Civic Pride Panel

The Civic Pride panel was begun in 1993 and unveiled 26th February 1999. It represents the Lord Mayor's parade, centred around the Civic Hall and Mandela Gardens.

The fourth panel to be made, it was designed at the time when more and more people were aware of the project, and volunteered not only to sponsor pieces but also to embroider them. The crowd scene allowed for this and included are many people and flags sewn in a variety of techniques.

The volunteers also came with differing sewing experience, so it was the beginning of a series of skill-sharing and workshop sessions. One of the first and simplest was the balloon workshop. Interspersed in the crowd these give colour to the scene and were useful in filling in awkward gaps when the individual pieces were stitched to the background.

Originally the project was based in Kate's kitchen but as it progressed and acquired a larger workspace she booked a wide variety of professional embroiderers to teach at workshops, including goldwork, machine embroidery, rag rugging, needleweaving, computerized machine embroidery and raised work. This also allowed the volunteers to meet regularly and many lasting friendships were made. Some of them still meet once a month at the Tiled Hall. If you would like more details of this and were one of the stitchers please email via 'about me'