Turtlestitch (stylized as TurtleStitch) is a

free and open source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

platform (or web application) for generating and sharing patterns for

embroidery Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen ...

machines. Turtlestich is derived from educational programming languages such as

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordm ...

, Scratch and

Snap! Snap! is a German Eurodance group formed in 1989 by producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti. The act has been through a number of line-up changes over the years, including American singers, songwriters and rappers Thea Austin, Turbo B, N ...

using the same jigsaw style programming paradigm which offers simplicity suitable for novices but has powerful features, described as ‘low threshold, high ceiling’ by

Seymour Papert Seymour Aubrey Papert (; 29 February 1928 – 31 July 2016) was a South African-born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT. He was one of the pioneers of artifici ...

. Its microworld is a turtle representing the needle of a programmable embroidery machine. So Turtlestitch can be used for creating novel patterns for embroidery, combining the abstract logic of computing and the physical materiality of textiles. Its primary use is educational, as it offers a way of introducing programming to audiences with diverse interests. A growing gallery of open source embroidery designs enables community-based collaboration and shared learning. In 2017, Turtlestitch received the award for the best

Open Educational Resource Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" describes publicly accessible materials and ...

in the German-speaking countries.

Educational approach

Embroidery is graphically similar to line drawing and Turtlestitch builds on the concept of Turtle Geometry and the constructionist approach developed by Seymor Papert and Cynthia Solomon at MIT which first informed the

and later the Scratch programming languages. Turtlestitch is an active member of the global Scratch community. It updates this approach by bringing it to the Maker Culture (Maker Movement), which combines computing and physical creation. Turtlestitch's approach does not focus on solving pre-existing problems, but on developing free creativity in programming and designing. Users can approach this field either from the side of code or from the side of textile design, thus speaking to diverse audiences. The shared open-source designs allows for community peer-learning. A global community is actively using Turtlestitch in formal and informal educational contexts. Cynthia Solomon, involved since the 1960s in developing the constructionist approach described above, has been working with Suzan Klimczak to develop a Turtlestitch collaborative community, named Tea & TurtleStitchers, based on a 24-week Sunday morning online workshop with participants from all over the world.

Technical infrastructure

Turtlestitch, with Michael Aschauer as lead developer, builds upon

developed by Jens Mönig und

Brian Harvey Brian Lee Harvey (born 8 August 1974) is a British singer from London. He was the lead singer of pop group East 17. The later incarnation of the band, E-17, had two top 20 singles on the UK Singles Chart between 1998 and 1999, with the album ' ...

. Snap! is a free open-source blocks-based graphical language implemented in JavaScript and actively maintained by

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

. Turtlestitch's community website is based on Beetle Cloud by Bernat Romagosa, a member of the Snap! development team at SAP, who partners with UCB in the development of Snap!. The generated patterns can be exported as an embroidery file (Melco/EXP and Tajima/DST are supported) or SVG vector graphic. Turtlestitch, code, draw stitch

Project history

The project was initiated by Andrea Mayr-Stalder as a collaboration with the fashion designer Dominique Raffa (aka Raphaela Grundnigg) in 2008 in Vienna and used in numerous artistic projects subsequently. In 2014, Turtlestitch was relaunched by Andrea Mayr-Stalder with a focus on an educational approach.

Funding and institutional support

2014 & 2016: funded by netidee.at 2018: Kickstarter campaign 2021: European Union's Horizon2020 research and innovation programme Turtlestitch is hosted by OSEDA.org (Association for Development of Open Source Software in Education, Design and Art, Vienna) in collaboration with the Vienna University Children's Office.

Main software releases

01/2015: initial version Turtlestitch 1.0 07/2017: Version 2.0 BDX (Bordeaux) 04/2019: Version 2.5 (The Whizzy Needle) 06/2020: Version 2.6 (Berkley Beaver) 08/2022: Version 2.7.7 (Heidelberg Hedgehog) Upcoming: Version 3.0

Derivatives

In 2018, the project Catrobat Embroidery Designer translated the Turtlestitch framework to mobile phones. in 2021, the project "Turtlestitchkomplott" started to use Turtlestitch with plotters, instead of embroidery machines.

References

{{Hackerspace DIY culture Educational programming languages Embroidery Free educational software Hackerspaces Pedagogic integrated development environments Smalltalk programming language family Software developer communities Visual programming languages