Siân Martin is an experienced teacher of stitched textiles. She has successfully guided numerous students through the Certificate and Diploma Embroidery City and Guilds syllabus since 1980.

Siân developed the concept of Distant Stitch in 1991 so that students could follow courses that fitted in better with their life style. She is the director of Distant Stitch and the tutor for the Embroidery Courses.

Siân enjoys working with all her students and is particularly pleased to meet and tutor Distant Stitch students in person at the annual Summer School.

Siân invites you to visit her blog ‘Stitch Loop’

Siân has been involved in creating her own stitch textile work since graduating with a degree in Embroidery. She exhibits her own work with three contemporary professional British textile art groups:

Viv White is an experienced teacher of art and design and textiles. As an advisory teacher for art, she worked with both adults and children.

Viv enjoys watching students’ confidence and creativity grow under her guidance. She is excited about joining the Distant Stitch team of tutors, stimulated by this new way of learning and looks forward to seeing work from students online.

She gains inspiration for her own textile work from the varied landscape and wildlife around her home.

Viv exhibits with groups and through Somerset Arts Week and teaches workshops in partnership with her daughter Lizzy who is also a textile artist.

Janet Crowther is an experienced teacher and textile artist.

She works in a range of textile media: stitching, weaving, dyeing, felting, knitting, braiding, paper and quilting.

Janet teaches City & Guilds machine embroidery and design-based courses at Urchfont Manor College, taking over from Val Campbell-Harding. She also lectures and tutors many other workshops and summer schools.

Janet exhibits her work regularly with the Textile Studio. Her work has been shown in galleries across Great Britain.

Janet gained a distinction in Art & Embroidery in her teacher training, before her long career in schools.

Janet has chaired and is an active, dedicated member of a number of textile organisations.

Lynn is an experienced tutor in stitch and textile subjects. She has taught Embroidery, Machine Embroidery, Patchwork, Beadwork and Passementerie to City and Guilds students for 25 years.

After studying a textile course which included trimmings and braids, Lynn explored these techniques in more depth. This led to advisory work for City and Guilds on a new Creative Studies course in Passementerie.

Lynn wrote a Level 2 Course and a trialled it at Missenden Abbey. The Course was so successful that City and Guilds asked her to create a level 3.

Both Courses have run for several years throughout the south west of England, resulting in well attended exhibitions of students' work, with one student achieving the City and Guilds Gold Medal for Excellence.

Lynn exhibits with Masterclass groups at Urchfont Manor College and Kingcombe Centre, Dorset. She has also written articles for a number of magazines and journals.

This new opportunity to teach online is a natural progression in delivering the Passementerie Course. She is very much looking forward to this new venture.

Sylvia Grant is an experienced teacher of Art, Design and Textiles for a wide spectrum of students which has included learners with Special Needs, Primary, Comprehensive, Further Education and Degree candidates.

Through the medium of 'fabric and stitch' she delivers a wealth of textile related courses and workshops on both a recreational and syllabus basis. Sylvia's most recent personal work is 'mixed-media' incorporating contemporary patchwork & quilting with ceramics which is exhibited locally as well as throughout the West Country.
As a member of the Embroidery Masterclass at Urchfont Manor, Sylvia works with her fellow students who have formed an exhibiting group called Stitch Textile Artists.

Sylvia is currently the Internal Verifier for several City & Guilds Embroidery and design based courses at Urchfont Manor.

With more than 30 years experience lecturing at Wiltshire College, Sylvia is now looking forward to joining the Distant Stitch team of tutors to deliver the Patchwork and Quilting Course.