A local arts and crafts group is holding an open day this weekend, with the key theme being that ’everybody has to start somewhere’.

The Isle of Man Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild is having its annual open day on Saturday, February 22 at St Andrew’s Church on Glencrutchery Road from 10am.

Members of the Guild will be there throughout the day demonstrating their collective skills in such textile disciplines and different stitch techniques such as mindful stitching, redwork, English paper piecing, sashiko and freestyle embroidery, as well as showing off some of their favourite pieces.

However, alongside the demonstrations of the members’ talents, Guild secretary Theresa Saxon said they were also showing off some of their first ever pieces of craft, to show how they started off in the craft.

’We are trying something different this year, which we are calling "Everybody has to Start Somewhere",’ said Theresa.

’We have asked our experienced members to bring along pieces that they did when they were children or when they were just starting out.

’Sometimes, as a group, we only show off our best work and we also thought it is a good idea to show something that is a starting point.

’One of the points of these open days is to encourage new people to take to the craft and to get started, or to just have a go.

’Maybe some people have done some embroidery before and they would like to get started again, or done cross stitch and never tried anything else

’We want to show people as much of the range as we can on embroidery and textile art.’

Also on display during the open day is a range of pieces created by embroidery guild members from around the British Isles.

There will be a collection of crafted hearts on display, produced to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War, and also the winning and runners-up pieces produced for the national members challenge, which is an annual competition which involves each branch of the guild.

More information on the Isle of Man Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild or the open day is available online from iomeg.blogspot.com