It’s an unprepossessing building on Brunswick Street. A yellow-and-red facade set north of the busy mall, with buses and cars rushing past at all hours of the day and night.
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There’s nothing to tell the passer-by that a group of determined women once scraped together the funds to buy the building, or that it is a haven of community and needlework.
Brazilian and Elizabethan, goldwork and shadow work, Hardanger and Mountmellick, pulled thread and threadpainting, Casalguidi and Reticello - deerfield, crewel, stumpwork.
The words sound like artistic terms, and in a way they are - the art, however, is embroidery, and they are taught and stitched within the small yellow building.
"The Embroiderers Guild Queensland Inc", the old-fashioned sign says outside, below the original logo matter-of-factly stating "Valley Masonic Temple". A small red door recessed into the front wall welcomes visitors inside.
Purchasing the building from the Masons in 1983, the members had paid off the mortgage completely by 1989 through fundraising. It's “a fact of which we are very proud”, the guild's official history states.
The Embroiderers Guild are not a high-flying society of any political or financial power, but they are a close-knit, welcoming group of women who know how to get things done -- whether that be completing the latest cross-stitch pattern or buying a property.
Throughout its 50 years, the group has welcomed women of all ages from all professions and backgrounds.
Together it applied for grants, promoted and preserved embroidery, advised and publicised, shared knowledge and time, and have never stopped their efforts to keep the art of embroidery alive in Queensland.
So close-knit is the guild, in fact, that its members refused to speak individually for this article, preferring to speak as a collective rather than have any one voice highlighted.
They would only allow a few names to be mentioned, such as embroidery artist and musician Mabel McAlister OAM, who died in 1993, and her fellow guild founder Joan Selnes.
Together Miss McAlister and Mrs Selnes founded the guild in the late 1960s.
A short glance at the biography of Miss McAlister shows a woman whose life was built around music and art, and ensuring others were involved in both.
The legacy of both women continues as the guild celebrates its 50th birthday this year with a special exhibition at the now-heritage-listed building on Brunswick Street.
To celebrate, the 500-strong members from across the state contributed a four-inch square of cloth, each embroidered with intricacies of needle and thread.
The final compilation of embroidered squares came together as a truly Queensland piece, with sugar cane fields and Capricorn coral, brolgas and mountains, coolaman trees and landscapes, all surrounded by the number 50.
Embroidery is a slow, creative work, often almost hypnotic in its steady development of fine linen and cloth combined with brightly-coloured threads.
It can take months, years or even decades to complete a piece. Beginners and intermediate stitchers might rely on patterns and pre-made designs, entire packets of thread and cloth available for purchase together.
More experienced stitchers might design their own, or adapt a design to suit their needs. An embroidered piece can be a quilt, handed down through generations of family as it grows softer and more faded, or it can be an artwork on the wall.
Or it can be a cushion, or even a piece of clothing -- there are few limits to the creativity behind embroidery, once each stitcher learns how to bend thread and needle and cloth to their will.
It is fundamentally a social craft, requiring little more than good light, a comfortable chair and a good cup of tea at your hand, with plenty of laughter to get through the moments when threads knot capriciously and black-and-white patterns jump dizzyingly on the page.
The guild takes the responsibility of preserving Queensland’s embroidery heritage seriously, with a large collection of embroidered pieces carefully preserved by members.
Some of its collection dates from the 1600s onwards, and continues to grow as the organisation acquires work from current members to put on display.
As members journeyed far across the state, branches stretched out to welcome each new member, with offices now in Toowoomba, Rockhampton, the Capricorn Coast and beyond.
New members can run the full gamut of the years of experience held by guild members, taking beginning classes that teach basic stitches all the way through to embroidery design courses.
And the guild has always welcomed children, running classes for young creatives during school holidays.
As current president of the guild Nicole Detering puts it in her welcoming letter on the guild’s website, “you do not have to be an experienced embroiderer … just have a love of stitching”.
“Discover your inner creativity, learn how to express it with needle and threat, and delight in the fellowship of like-minded people,” she writes.
“You will be made very welcome.”
