Stitch an Owl for Leeds 400 🦉

Stitch an Owl for Leeds 400 🦉✨

I’ve recently discovered a lovely community textile project taking place as part of the Leeds 400 celebrations, and I thought it was too special not to share.

In 2026, Leeds celebrates 400 years since receiving its first Royal Charter from King Charles I, marking the beginning of the city’s journey towards self-governance. To commemorate this milestone, people across the city are being invited to create a fabric owl using the official Leeds Owl template.

The finished owls will then be brought together by Women Peacing Together to create a large commemorative textile wall hanging, which will be displayed later in the year.

The project is wonderfully open and creative. Your owl can be:

• stitched

• embroidered

• appliquéd

• or decorated using any textile-based technique

You can also add embellishments such as beads and buttons to make your owl uniquely yours.

Materials

You will need:

• fabrics and textiles in any colours or patterns

• the official owl template

• a backing fabric no smaller than A5
  

Completed owls need to be handed into the Leeds Art Library before the end of June. As all the owls will be stitched together into the final artwork, they cannot be returned, so it’s a good idea to take a photograph of your finished owl before submitting it.

If you’d like to get involved, information sheets and templates can currently be collected from the Leeds Art Library. (I have photographed the information and attached to the blog post too)

I absolutely love projects like this — creativity bringing people together to celebrate local history and community through making. It feels especially fitting that the Leeds Owl, such a familiar symbol of the city, will become part of a collaborative artwork created by so many different hands.

I've already started creating some owls myself, and I'm incorporating them into upcoming Rainbow Jane and WI craft sessions too. I’ll be making owls with the Meanwood WI, and I’ve also shared the information with the Oakwood WI Craft Group. I'm happy to share the information or support any other groups interested in making owls.

Although the upcoming Rainbow Jane Wool & Waffle session on May 31st has a yarn theme, there will also be fabrics, threads, beads, sequins and all the instructions needed for creating Leeds owls available during the session too. There are still a few spaces at the 1pm session.

I can't wait to see the finished piece of art with all the owls together!