The biennial exhibition celebrates the 40th anniversary of the guild’s first exhibition in 1975 and several of the displays have a “40” theme.

Among them is the wedding dress long-time guild member Phyllis Brown made for her wedding in 1947.

Guild president Robyn Archer said the exhibition was a celebration of women’s creativity that was often used to mark important events in people’s lives.

“We do it in fellowship and we often put modern twists on traditional approaches,” she said.

The exhibition also features a showcase of the work of veteran guild member Gloria Cathcart, 83, who began doing needlecraft as a child. 

She jokes in her exhibitor’s biography that one of her first needlecraft works, a balaclava for a World War II RAAF pilot, would have been better suited to one of Hannibal’s elephants.

Mrs Cathcart said her passion for embroidery flourished after she retired as a science teacher. It kept “the fingers nimble and the grey cells busy,” she said.

The three-day exhibition opens today in the Warrnambool Masonic hall in Kepler Street. Entry is $5.