Ukraine has an International Embroidery Day (Всесвітний день вишиванки) held on the 4th Thursday of every May since the year 2006.  It would be an amazing day to be in any Ukrainian city or town.  My experience from visiting music festivals was of people happily wearing their embroidered shirts and blouses with jeans, sneakers, braces, dreadlocks…  Imagine the impressions on the day when the festival is dedicated to Ukrainian embroidery!

Although for Australia I am a day late, it is still the 30th of July somewhere in the world and World Embroidery Day is still taking place there.  World Embroidery Day is an initiative of the Swedish Embroiderers Guild.  I love their manifesto!

I LOVE THIS!  Stitches CAN be healing and embroidery CAN be an act of freedom and of creation of identity.

Most recently, a life-long friend brought to my place some embroidery that had been started but not completed by her grandma now departed.  With it came her own desire to expand her knowledge and skills of Ukrainian embroidery and I was only too happy to be asked to help.  I do believe that quite aside from the sheer enjoyment experienced from creating an embroidered piece, we have the capacity to also create our identities as women and men, daughters and granddaughters or sons and grandsons, friends, creative individuals and descendants of embroidering nations.

The Swedish Embroiderers Guild manifesto speaks of connection, creativity, beauty, giving and sharing.  How absolutely inspiring is that?

~oOo~