Our October speaker was Sass Tetzlaft, who spoke on ‘The Snarky Stitch – Machine Embroidery Meets Modern Muse’. She outlined her journey from childhood, developing technical skills and approaches through home sewing, commercially making wedding dresses and stage costumes, City and Guilds, exhibitions and a part-time degree. She explained how her socio-political beliefs underpinned her work, including subverting 1950s adverts and depicting pioneer women. She used a sewing machine, bondaweb, men’s shirting, off-cuts, beads and findings. She showed us how her technical style had changed over time. She made us laugh with her series ‘It’s not easy being PC’, presenting fairy tales with a modern twist, including Red Riding Hood reprimanding the wolf. She showed a wide range of applique panels, a panel from the Game of Thrones tapestry, commissions based on portrait photographs and a 3-D portrait.