Turtlestitch 10

Turtlestitch 10

We celebrate 10 years of Turtlestitching around the globe.

Tilburg

Event will be hosted at LocHal Tilburg and include visit to famous Textilemuseum

Program

For two days there will be parallel tracks of talks and workshops.

Turtlestitch 10 Fest

July 18-20, 2025

Happy birthday Turtlestitch! Ten years after Andrea Mayr-Stalder and Michael Aschauer first presented Turtlestitch with a masterclass in Amsterdam, there are many reasons to celebrate. Over the last ten years, Turtlestitch has won the hearts of children, artists and educators around the world. Part of the community has gathered at conferences for Turtlestich's roots, Scratch and Snap! Celebrating a decade of Turtlestitch will give many more people the opportunity to join and share. The venue will be LocHal, Tilburg, The Netherlands, an innovative public library, situated next to the well connected Tilburg Centraal station. The former locomotive sheds have been redeveloped into a great cultural hotspot, offering rooms for both talks and workshops. Turtlestitch creates a highly motivational opportunity for learners of all ages to explore computer programming while designing digital embroideries - a great opportunity for local coding clubs to embrace new ways to engage with digital tools that are creative, artistic and educational.

Education

TurtleStitch as a grand grand child of Logo has strong connection with learning and education. In schools as well in informal educational settings TurtleStitch is used to engage learners of all ages. Embroidery is a very welcoming environment to introduce ideas on coding, math and making.

Young children enjoying TurtleStitch at Fosdem25

Art

TurtleStitch is a playful workspace to explore many patterns. Keep experimenting till your aesthetic idea is drawn, after which exporting to digital embroidery machine will make your work tactile.

Culture

Embroidery is used around the world to express ideas and tell stories. So are mathematical patterns. Combining the two in environment where you can play with code deepen insights in the cultures surrounding us.

Hand embroidered wall hanging, made by women of the Rabari people, an Indian community in the state of Gujarat

Join us!

Turtlestitch 10 is not just a celebration — it's a global community gathering, with representation from the US, China, Europe and elsewhere.

We're inviting artists, educators, developers, and makers to CONTRIBUTE to the event by leading a workshop, giving a talk, or sharing a hands-on demo.

Whether you're exploring Turtlestitch from a creative, educational, or technical perspective, we'd love to you to PARTICIPATE, for a small fee.

TurtleStitch 10 is an open event which can also be enjoyed for free as a VISITOR to a single part of the program.

Select which of the following roles describes you best and follow the link.

Call for Proposals

The first round of proposals is as diverse as exciting ... But we have room for more. The deadline for sending your contribution to the program is extended till Friday, June 13th! Especially for people thinking about offering a workshop: we have machines, fabric and volunteers to make it happen.

Contribution form

Contributor

If you want present your work, lead a workshop, or contribute in other ways: send us your proposal via the button below.

Contribution form

Participant

If you want to see the demonstrations, attend the talks and side events, participate (or even help) in workshops, please register. We will invite you to pay the registration fee of € 50.

Registration form

Visitor

If you or your children just want to attend part of the program, participate in a workshop we will ask you to register for free via the website of LocHal. You can drop us a line that you want to hear from us once the program gets shape.

Email us

Workshops, talks, and ideas welcome

Workshop proposals

Heart of the fest will be free workshops for all. Which means we have a continuous Getting Started workshop, and invite you to organize on top of that.

Talks and demos on the beauty and joy of TurtleStitching

The Beauty and Joy of Stitching TurtleStitch brings together the tactile world of textiles with the logical beauty of code, opening up endless possibilities for creative expression. Stitching becomes a way to think—with points becoming lines, patterns emerging through randomness or data, and designs evolving from algorithms, images, or even sensor input. This hybrid practice invites us to explore how material, technology, and ideas intersect—whether through artistic exploration or computational thinking. At the TurtleStitch 10 gathering in Tilburg, we celebrate this richness: from playful experimentation to deep discussions about AI-supported design, data architectures, and the educational potential of stitching as a meaningful and joyful practice.

Talks and demos on future of TurtleStitch

An open source software project offered for free to the world can't be run without many volunteers and sponsors. To make sure TurtleStitch will stay available for future learners we have to make plans on managing the project. If you have ideas on how to organize community website, support pages, please present them to start a more sustainable TurtleStitch environment.

Participating artists and teachers

Workshops and talks

Turtlestitch has a global community of vibrant and supportive educators, so we're happy to announce that the following people have confirmed particpation. We're especially proud that Cynthia Solomon, co-inventor of Logo, author of seminal article Twenty things tot do with a computer (1971) and co-author of recent follow up TurtleStitching will join us.

Elisabeth Lloyd

Beth is a retired school based occupational therapist whose career spanned from early intervention with infants to working in a high school fab lab. Like some others on this page she is an active member of the Tea and Turtlestitch group.

Martine van 't Hul

Martine is a Dutch embroidery artis who's passionate about passing on the love for the craft. As an artist she was trained in hand embroidery, nowadays she's exploring limits of hand embroidery, machine embroidery and combinations: here we see a combination of different kinds of machine embroideries. Each one an original design by Het Borduurburo. A variety of materials has been used, both in fabrics and threads. And the stitches range from running stitches to a wide variety of filling stitches. If you would like to know more about all these options, come see me in Tilburg this Summer.

Could be you!

Join the learning by exploring hard fun. You too are invited. You may have some ideas on coding, learning and stitching you want to share, or you just want to attend the workshops and listen to the talks.

TurtleStitch project embroidered at school

Andrea Mayr-Stalder

Andrea is the founder of Turtlestitch. Previously she has worked on numerous artistic and educational internet projects since the late 1990s. She is an artist and media developer with many years of experience in developing open source software for children and adults. She currently works for the Vienna University Children's office, where she develops media use programmes for children and young people and implements innovative media education concepts.

Cynthia Solomon

Cynthia is an American computer scientist known for her pioneering work in popularizing computer science for students as an innovator in the fields of computer science and educational computing. She realized the need for a programming language that was more accessible and understandable for children and collaborated with Seympur Papert and Wally Feurzig to develop the programming language Logo in 1967. An important feature of Logo was the use of 'turtle graphics' - making a robot turtle create drawings through simple movements, and this has informed the way in which Turtlestitch drives the embroidery machine.

Margaret Minsky

Margaret creates multimedia artifacts exploring learning, improvisation, and thought. She is a professor in the Interactive Media and Business program at NYU Shanghai and a Visiting Researcher (Professor) in Computation and Media at Kyoto University. Margaret's recent investigations are in Craft Computing (creating experiential environments supporting e-Textiles, embroidery, and pleating with computing) which is why she is interested in Turtlestitch.

Simon Mong

Simon is a Chineses computer scientist who teaches programming through 'ASTEM' projects - Arts, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. He is a proud supporter and innovator in Turtlestitch and its parent language Snap!

Richard Millwood

Richard is an educational designer based in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin who has recently returned to teaching programming, recognising the huge value in making artefacts as a powerful force for learning. At the same time, he has enjoyed making very personal art using Turtlestitch, combining the abstractions in mathematics and the craft of sewing.

Jadga Huegle

Originally a biologist, Jadga discovered her interest in computer science while building a small connected greenhouse. Since then, she has become an enthusiast and is eager to share her excitement with everyone. She works for SAP's Snap! team and has created new and exciting projects in Turtlestitch.

Mags Amond

Former Science teacher, Mags is an enthusiast for open education and a practitioner with materials from knitting to embroidery. An ambassador for the Computers in Education Society of Ireland, she is an enthusiast for the way Turtlestitch excites all ages and genders.

Margaret Low

Margaret is a professor and Director of Outreach and Widening Participation in the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at Warwick University England. She has used Turtlestitch extensively to bring learners into the discourse around art, design and making.

Robert Low

Robert is a mathematician at Warwick University, who has recognised the value in putting theoretical mathematical ideas into practice by making embroideries with Turtlestitch.

Susan Ettenheim

Susan is an innovative educator, technologist and artist empowering learners at the High School of Fashion Industries in New York, USA. SHe has brought Turtlestitch into her practice of mixing analog and digital worlds and teaching computer science through the arts, data science, visual art and digital media.

Joek van Montfort

Joek is teaching Computer Science at Montessori Lyceum Amsterdam.

Pauline Maas

Pauline Maas is an educator and ICT expert who founded 4PIP to bring technology and coding into schools, aiming to inspire and train more female teachers in tech. She’s the author of several books on coding for children and serves as the EU Coding Ambassador, organizing CodeWeek in the Netherlands. Passionate about inclusive education, she teaches visually impaired students and co-runs microbit101.nl.

Could be you!

John Hegarty

John is a Computer Science teacher at a boys secondary school in Ireland. He is interested in the widest range of approaches to motivate interest and develop learning of computer programming, including exploiting the maker culture to provide creative and fulfilling challenges to his students. As one of the earliest pioneers in Ireland, he has been using a digital embroidery machine in his work for more than five years. Image is a variation of P15 Abelson and diSessa

Could be you!

Program

Turtlestitch 10 start Friday night 18:00 informally

Friday July 18

We encourage you to come in time and use the afternoon for a visit to the excellent Textile Museum with impressive Textile Lab

At 18:00 hours we will have an opening reception at the LocHal: a few short talks in an informal setting.

Saturday July 19

On Saturday the day is packed with talks and workshops at LocHal. After dinner we'll have a TeachMeet.

Sunday July 20

On Sunday Library hours are 12:00 till 17:00, which allows for plenty of talks and workshops. After cleaning up we're in for a goodbye dinner.

Practical information

Getting there

Tilburg has very good rail connections, plan your journey on NS.nl. If you have difficulty finding a good place to stay in Tilburg, surrounding cities like Breda and Den Bosch are nice and convenient alternatives.

Getting around

Almost all activities are in the LocHal building which is just a few minutes from the northern exit of Tilburg Central Railway station. It may be good to know that during our conference there's a mega event a few blocks west: Tilburg Kermis. This event attracts more than a million visitors ...

Our event takes place in the LocHal building, just a short walk from city will be celebrating the start of the Tilburg Kermis, a major fair happening a few blocks away. While the city center may feel busier than usual, we look forward to enjoying the vibrant atmosphere — without it getting in the way of our gathering at LocHal.

Partners

TurtleStitch 10 is organised by Stichting Scratchweb with the help of partners.

Public Library Tilburg

The library will demonstrate its commitment to testing, creating, exhibiting and presenting the latest innovations through this event which will introduce an exciting synthesis between programming, digital media and craft to participants.

Coderdojo Tilburg

CoderDojo is an open source, volunteer-set movement that stands for sustaining free, non-profit development clubs and regular sessions for young people to learn to program, build websites, develop apps, create programs, make games and more. Turtlestitch's motivational connection with craft through embroidery provides an excellent context to fulfil its aims.

Scratchweb Foundation

This Dutch organisation aims to promote computer science and robotics education in the Netherlands - Turtlestitch with its programming of a robotic embroidery machine is a perfect match to its ideals.

In 2013, 2015 and 2017 Scratchweb organised Scratch conferences in Barcelona, Amsterdam and Bordeaux, where the latter two were important in starting up a global TurtleStitch community.

Oseda

The nonprofit organization Oseda.org supports the TurtleStitch web platform and promotes creative, educational uses of open-source tools that connect coding with textile arts.

LocHal

The LocHal was formerly a locomotive workshop. Nowadays, it is a driving force for innovation, co-creation and knowledge sharing. Innovation is its main goal and thresholds remains as low as possible: anyone can participate. The LocHal stimulates the drive for creation and innovation through activities in six thematic labs. Step into these inspiring, thematic workshops. Share your knowledge and skills, full steam ahead.

KinderUni Wien

The Vienna University Children's Office hosts the ongoing development of the TurtleStitch platform and coordinates local activities in Austria, including educational programs, events, and outreach.