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.
Click here to register in one minute. We ask a fee, but you're allowed to ask for exemption …
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.
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.
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.
Contribution details are listed below
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.
On Saturday the day is packed with talks and workshops at LocHal. After dinner we'll have a TeachMeet.
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.
Teach the teacher. How to start teaching/using TurtleStitch
This could be very helpful for us as CoderDojo or other interested.
Reflecting on 10 years of TurtleStitch — and imagining what’s next
As TurtleStitch marks its 10th anniversary, this talk looks back at the project's journey, celebrates the community that shaped it, and shares a vision for the future of creative, open, and educational technologies. A personal summary from the project lead
All contributors will get exactly 60 seconds to introduce themselves and give sneak peak into their contribution
Doubles as a celebration of the diversity TurtleStitch embraces.
Introducing StichLAB, an OpenSource DIY Embroidery Maschine featuring TurtleStich
StitchLAB is a low-cost, open-source embroidery machine created by upgrading old sewing machines with widely available DIY 3D-printer components and software. The modular hardware (3D-printed parts, Raspberry Pi) and software (Klipper) enable new and exciting ways to work with embroidery machines—whether stitching with a game controller or running TurtleStitch directly on the machine. This workshop provides insights into the development process and a hands-on experience with the machine. StitchLAB was developed by Paul-Reza Klein (Studio Praxistest), Walter Lunzer, and Ute Neuber (Department of Textiles) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
How seaweed made me a better coder.
Living on the Atlantic coast in Newport, Rhode Island, I found myself getting curious about seaweed. I kept thinking, ""I should be able to embroider these beautiful specimens."" After two years, I finally figured out how to code them in TurtleStitch. Join me on this journey of discovery without even getting your feet wet!
CoderDojo session for CoderDojo children
CoderDojo Tilburg
How well can you code with your feet?
Put down your computer, tie up your shoes, and make the world your TurtleStitch stage. All you need is a free running app to start coding with your feet. You can plan out your path or simply see where your feet take you. When you are finished, you’ll have an image of how you moved through space. This will be used to code a satisfying TurtleStitch design. Don’t be surprised to find that you are challenged to walk/run more, making TurtleStitch a part of a creative and healthy lifestyle.
Shared Library brainstrorm
A presentation of a work-in-progress library of patterns up for discussion
Learn a couple of tricks in the TurtleStitch IDE that you might not yet be aware of :)
Snap! has a lot of power user features that are also available in TurtleStitch. But as it is often with these features, they aren't really discoverable if you don't already know that they are there. In this talk, I want to share 10 tips in 10 minutes of things that you might not yet be aware of that help me program in TurtleStitch or write curriculum. Learn how to translate custom blocks or create your own block libraries to share with a class, create script and IDE pictures without backgrounds, create blocks with images in the block titles and many more helpful features.
TurtleStitch comes with some repeating styles for stitching - can we vary as we sew?
Great aesthetic value is gained by using a computer to generate interesting graphic forms using TurtleStitch, but usually stitches which are built in to TurtleStitch are used. This talk is to explain how we can use TurtleStitch to vary the stitches themselves, so that they may change their form according to an algorithm, random chance or some linear function of their position in a line of sewing. Such a focus on the micro level is certainly found in hand sewing and may prove a fertile area for artistic and mathematical exploration.
Design your own badge shape, digitize it and embroider it with the machine.
Design your own badge shape, digitize it and embroider it with the machine. Then bring it to life with hand embroidery stitches.
During this workshop you will learn the basics of digitizing, machine embroidery and hand embroidery techniques.
Afterwards you will go home with your own handmade badge – perfect for repairing or decorating a garment.
Beyond remixing, preparing students to swim in open water.
tba
Showing what is possible with our visual impaired students and turtle stitch
A talk about how we teach TurtleStitch with our visual impaired students (12-14 year) in 6 lessons. What are the challenges and what are the results. How can we implement math in the lessons? We will show the results, our material with braille. What will work for them and what will not work for them. My collegue Anniemiek van Leendert will also support me with her ideas. Her expertise is mathematics for braille students.
A hands-on sensemaking exercise to introduce ourselves to the role semi-conductors in electronic circuits
All computers depend on semi-conducting materials - this brief excercise might help us to understand and appreciate them.
We will form a human circuit incorporating a small chirpy chicken toy called Pieu Pieu, who will act as both input (battery) and output (chirper) in our circuit.
We will do a group investigation into conducting and non-conducting materials in simple circuits.
We will introduce ourselves to semi-conducting materials using a diode which is central to all electronic circuits. We will learn a little about these materials - their source and sustainability. Each of us can then use these materials to make and take way a personalised LED 'Glowie'.
A table for putting stuff on is the only furniture needed.
Space for standing in a circle. A supply of 3V lithium 'coin' batteries (cheapest from IKEA or some such discount store).
LEDS.Sticky tape.
Will people have name badges or some such - they can stick their 'glowies' on the badges.
Cynthia and Beth will get you started
Originally this workshop was given with late Susan Klimczak and Elaine Wolfe who's attending online.
Stich your face with a single continuous line!
Given a picture of your face or any sketch, we can turn it into an embroidery/stitch using just a single continuous line! This project has been inspired by ""Mona Lisa TSP Challenge"" by the University of Waterloo. In the talk, I'm going to cover all the necessary domain knowledge required to theoretically compute it as well as walk you through the entire pipeline of the project to go from the input image to finally exporting the .dst file, which can be imported into your sewing machine to stitch your image.
This TurtleStitch program is a recursive program
A link to the slides, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IBXjHPVGl6vBtBFvvbJIAZbq6kvitxws86n_5CLEObs/edit?usp=sharing
Create stitched patterns using your body as the creative input, no keyboard or mouse needed!
Participants will explore how machine learning pose detection can transform physical movement into creative data streams. Using familiar Scratch blocks, we'll build projects that capture body positions and gestures, then investigate how this embodied data might translate into stitchable patterns and designs.
If you prefer doing over talking, making over listening …
Workshop space is open to all. There may be someone who wants to demo something but all can come to just learn while making together
How to Make TurtleStitch Projects Instagram Worthy! ... and what does that really mean?
We can teach computer science through the arts.
We can make the abstract of coding and programming real and touchable with TurtleStitch.
The bigger question that remains, is how do we fill that gap between the point of making a coded TurtleStitch project and the point when a student (or any human) is so excited that they want to Instagram it? And what does that even mean?
When a project becomes personally expressive and satisfying, it is human nature to share it and isn’t that exactly what defines great learning? How do we articulate the pedagogy that creates these magic moments and why is TurtleStich a perfect companion for this mission?
This workshop proposes some concrete steps and projects to use to inspire and bridge that gap.
Design your own badge shape, digitize it and embroider it with the machine.
Design your own badge shape, digitize it and embroider it with the machine. Then bring it to life with hand embroidery stitches.
During this workshop you will learn the basics of digitizing, machine embroidery and hand embroidery techniques.
Afterwards you will go home with your own handmade badge – perfect for repairing or decorating a garment.
Learning from Other ways to Design Machine Embroidery
A roundup of other experiments with other pipelines for machine embroidery. Let's learn together and discuss how these relate to TurtleStitch.
From weaving a spider web to coding a TurtleStitch project
In this talk, we explore the story of human creativity, starting with the myth of Arachne. We look at how weaving tools have changed over time, from hand-weaving to the invention of the Jacquard loom. We’ll see how punched cards, used in the loom, helped to inspire the first ideas of modern computing. Even though weaving and programming seem very different, they share surprising connections. By mixing old and new technologies, we show how TurtleStitch Platform supports creative collaboration, using code as a new thread of expression.
Geometry is everywhere around us - let's use it to create local, custom merchandise
For quite a while I've noticed that geometric patterns are all around us. And if you've seen them once, you can't unsee them.
In this talk, I want to share a couple of ideas from different cities and cultural backgrounds on how to use these unique geometries for generative art in TurtleStitch. How to identify patterns, recode and remix them and make custom merchandise for your city, region, school,...
Showcasing experimental embrodey works by danish artist Jacob Tekiela
I will showcase some expermental mixed-media embroidery projects, using laserengraving, cyanotype, stencils and varied materials … using nature motifs as inspiation
Sharing random short stories in a social setting
The TeachMeet is an Open Space at which all are welcome.
Attendees are invited to put their name down to do share a short presentation (between 2 and 7 minutes approx.) in a relaxed atmosphere. There is no strict agenda. The order will be randomly chosen on the night. It is a social ocassion, at which we can learn from each other as well as relax together. Timekeeping will be strict but fun!
Jigsaw programming is very visual but this doesn't help us to say it out loud - how should we?
It is a known problem that people are diverse in the way they read out loud a computer program, and that this may indicate a problem regarding their understanding the program. This workshop will demonstrate an early prototype of a Snap! microworld with limited commands and using turtle graphics to help the development of a 'speaking' literacy with regard to Snap! programs. Participants who enjoy designing or are interested in pedagogy for early programmers will practically take the prototype further in small groups or as individuals to explore the ideas and improve the practice.
Navigate the maze, make movies with maths, make music and more
In this self-paced workshop, we will work with a partner through the Blockly levels ....
How I taught interdisciplinary, galaxy-inspired CS classes
TurtleStitch enabled me to combine my interdisiplinary passions and teach Computed Embroidery at Khan Lab School in California. Teaching classes around nature, the galaxy and computing allowed my students to code in a novel way and get their fingers tingling!
how embodied interaction transforms the joy of learning to code
What shifts when students can control their Scratch projects by jumping, dancing, or striking poses instead of clicking keys or moving the mouse? This talk examines how ML-powered body tracking as input creates new forms of engagement and joy in programming education, making code feel alive and responsive to our full physical presence.
CoderDojo session for CoderDojo children
CoderDojo Tilburg
Unleash your creativity without limits—TurtleStitch turns code into embroidery art faster than a pen!
(1) Natural Curve Drawing, enabling mouse-followed sketching that converts freehand gestures into smooth stitch-ready paths; (2) Smart Area Filling, allowing parametric control over angle, density, and custom stitch patterns; and (3) Custom Stitch & Fill Methods, supporting user-defined stitch styles (e.g., square, diamond) for reuse.
Participants will engage in a hands-on demo project, designing an embroidery pattern as intuitively as drawing on paper using keyboard and mouse input. By the end, attendees will master the new blocks for organic design and structured filling, create a personalized embroidery file for physical stitching, and gain inspiration for merging analog artistry with digital precision.
This workshop is ideal for coders, artists, and educators seeking to explore expressive and repeatable textile art. Join us in celebrating a decade of TurtleStitch by pushing its creative boundaries together.
How well can you code with your feet?
Put down your computer, tie up your shoes, and make the world your TurtleStitch stage. All you need is a free running app to start coding with your feet. You can plan out your path or simply see where your feet take you. When you are finished, you’ll have an image of how you moved through space. This will be used to code a satisfying TurtleStitch design. Don’t be surprised to find that you are challenged to walk/run more, making TurtleStitch a part of a creative and healthy lifestyle.
Setting up support is work. Inspired by efforts of our family (Scratch, Snap!, Microblocks) this workshop will build a similar system for the TurtleStitch community.
We want to group the questions and ideas of the community in a organised, open and inviting place. Too much solutions live in inboxes a small group of people. Where they are forgotten, never updated. We realise this is the start of continuous work, so extra attention should be paid on how to manage this over months and years.
Creative and playful patterns exploring the built in embroidery commands.
This hands-on workshop explores the creative potential of TurtleStitch’s built-in embroidery commands (the dark green section). Whether you’re new to TurtleStitch or looking expand your knowledge of TurtleStitch, this session will guide you through a variety of techniques to generate stunning geometric patterns using a range of built in embroidery commands.
From precise lines and structured squares to the elegance of bows and intricate rectangles, we'll show how simple commands can produce complex and visually striking designs. Through interactive activities, you will experiment with key embroidery functions, understanding how adjustments in placement, repetition, and orientation can transform basic shapes into dynamic compositions.
By the end of the session, you will have gained confidence in using the full range of embroidery commands, equipping you with the skills to design your own unique designs.
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.
If you want present your work, lead a workshop, or contribute in other ways: send us your proposal via the button below.
The Call for Contributions is now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted their ideas!
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.
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.
Workshops, talks, and ideas welcome
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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 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 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 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.
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.
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 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 is a mathematician at Warwick University, who has recognised the value in putting theoretical mathematical ideas into practice by making embroideries with Turtlestitch.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
TurtleStitch 10 is organised by Stichting Scratchweb with the help of partners.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.