Last Great Scottish tapestry progress report

Again I spent yesterday with the Paisley great Scottish tapestry panel group stitching. This was the last Saturday of stitching on the project as its almost finished. There had been a lot of progress made in the past few weeks and yesterday. This is how the project looked at the end of yesterday's stitching session.



As I've done for quite a few times, I brought the project home to stitch on last night and today. This is how it looks now.



And some close ups







The bit I'm most proud of is the Mill girl which was finished this afternoon



The rest of the group are working on it further on Wednesday afternoon and should finish it then. The next time we see it will be probably at the Scottish Parliament in September. From what I understand the original plan was that all the stitchers would be invited to the opening of the exhibition but the number of stitchers has doubled since then so we are waiting to hear what the final arrangements will be.

Whilst the panel stitching is over, the plan is for the stitching group to continue. We are going to be taking part in a project called the Scottish Diaspora tapestry and will be stitching panels for this. There is also some early discussions about developing a project about Paisley and Renfrewshire, documenting our history in stitches as there are many tales to tell.

Great Scottish tapestry progress

Most Saturdays at moment I can be found at the Paisley Thread mill museum stitching on a local panel for the Great Scottish tapestry. Its been very interesting and has really got me interested in stitching again.

The panel designs were added by the project artist Andrew Crummy, with input from the group on the side panel images. The central area has set colours but the other colours are decided by the stitchers within the overall palette of the tapestry. The individual stitchers work out what stitches to use in the figures but the borders and lettering are in particular stitches - heavy chain and quaker stitch respectively

The last time I shared a progress picture, the panel looked like this



The past few sessions and some time at home let me finish this square about Willie Gallacher a local political figure from the 1910-1940 era. I'm really pleased about how this turned out



And the whole panel looked like this at that point a few weeks ago



Here's an action shot of several of us stitching on the panel at the same time


The past few weeks has seen quite a bit of progress. I had the project at home for the past few days and this is how it looked when I handed it over prior to the mid week stitching meet up



Most of my weekend stitching focused on stitching the Mill girl figure in woven stitch covered with lazy daisy flowers



Other stitches have been working on the skater figure



And a cinema goer




The project is being filmed on Friday by the BBC for an edition of Songs of Praise but unfortunately I won't be there due to work. A local film maker is making a film for the national lottery heritage fund also which I have been filmed for so I have already been caught on film. We are hoping to finish the project this week and I think we might just make it.

Escape to the country

Project progress has been a little slow of late due to the stitching on the Great Scottish tapestry. More about that soon. However earlier in the month, I escaped work for a holiday and headed off for an annual break with some stitching friends. We hire some farm cottages and spend the weekend talking, stitching, knitting and getting to see all the animals.

There are chickens and chicks



Dogs



Goats that go for walks and help with the weeding



But best of all are the alpacas







I managed to finish a pair of socks when I was away - the yarn is Knitpicks Felici in Time traveller. A very appropriate colour way for this lifelong Doctor Who fan.

Saturday stitching

Again I spent this past Saturday working on a local panel for the Great Scottish Tapestry. Last week I stitch some shoes and a bit of a dress.


This week it was more shoes and some grass.





Another stitcher finished this lovely thread label section



The stitchers might recognise the Anchor motif - Paisley is the original home of the Coats and Clark families who founded the original companies that are now the Coats brand. The town has many statues dedicated to the family members, they also paid for the local town hall and built a local Church in memory of Thomas Coats. When I graduated from the local university, the memorial church is where we graduated. The town's textile history is also reflected in street names - Thread, Cotton, Lawn and Gauze streets amongst others.

Knitting finish - Blue milkweed

Like most Scottish people, I have relatives overseas in Canada.  My aunt went to live there over 40 years ago.  Unfortunately she's unwell at present and my mum and one of her sisters have travelled over to Ontario to visit her.  My aunt in Canada appreciated some knitting that I did for her grandchildren last year so I thought I'd knit her a little shawl to help whilst she has treatment.

The pattern is Milkweed by Laura Chau.  I've knitted this pattern before and its an enjoyable knit.  The yarn is Drops delight in blue.







Hopefully she likes it.

Stitching progress

Before knitting came along,  stitching was my main crafty thing. Of late it has fallen by the wayside for a variety of reasons - mainly hand problems and the addictive properties of sock and shawl knitting.  After seeing the Prestonpans tapestry, I had an urge to stitch this past weekend and even finished a few things.

A little hardanger embroidery book mark.  This went much better than my previous attempts at this type of embroidery

A little hedgehog in satin stitch with french knots

And I finished a Shepherds bush scissor fob that I started ages ago.

Here's the front

and the back

I then moved on to some finishing, sewing together the Trick or treat sacoche that I finished a few years ago.

Hopefully this wanting to stitch feeling will stick around for a little longer as I have a lot of projects I would like to stitch.

A finish for April

This month has been busy so far with work, studying and family stuff.  I'm coming to the end of my current module so am working on a final assignment for that.

I have found the time for some knitting - my latest finished object is a hat.







The pattern is Gretel by Ysolda Teague and the yarn is Soft Donegal by Donegal yarn.  It's gorgeous green colour and is a souvenir of my visit to Dublin in September.  I visited the lovely This is knit in Dublin whilst I was there and bought a few skeins of this in green and in purple also.  The yarn is absolutely fantastic to knit with and has great cable definition.  I foresee a cabled hoodie in my future with this yarn someday.

The pictures in this post are the first ones I've taken with a new camera.  Sadly earlier in the week, my much loved Fuji camera hit the floor for what must be the millionth time but this time it  didn't recover from the fall.  So I treated myself to a very compact Lumix FS40 which is tiny compared to my old fuji.  The first few pictures are much better than with my old camera so its looking to be a good purchase.

March Madness happy dance

Life continues on at a fast pace just now. Work and studying are keeping me pretty busy.  Thankfully I am still managing to get some time to other things.

The big news is that I've been stitching and I managed to finish Autumn Queen finally. Its stitched on Autumn sunset cashel linen by the Blended needle.





I started stitching her in 2001.  The fabric had to be resent initially as the first fabric order got lost in the transatlantic postal chaos immediately after 9/11 as it was first dispatched on 10th of September.  It got set aside for newer projects again and again and in favour of my knitting projects. At the start of this year, I decided it was time to finish her finally.

This month's theme-a-licious theme is March madness. I've decided to use this to see how many things I can finish this month and I'm including any sort of crafty project.  The Autumn Queen finish gets this off to a good start.

January crafty progress

January has been as it always is, a busy month.  Britain has been slammed with snow which has, in an unusual turn of events, almost completely missed my part of Scotland.  I am very pleased about that as whilst snow is fairly common here, the public transport doesn't cope well with it.

Knitting progress has continued this month with two finishes so far.

Baker Street mittens in Old maiden aunt BFL aran in Royal



Karise in Wollmeise sock yarn Fritzi frizzante



Both of these designs are by the very talented Karina aka Kariebookish and you can see more of her designs on her blog -  http://www.fourth-edition.co.uk/knitting-crochet-patterns/ and also on Ravelry.

I've also been stitching a little and made some progress on a couple of projects.  Today I even finished this little needlepoint kit.



I've also been making a little jewellery - these are for the bridesmaids of a colleague who is getting married in a few weeks.



The other positive thing is that I passed the 2nd module of the MSc I am working on which means I can move on to module 3 next week.

2013 plans and themes

This year, I'm hoping to stitch a lot more. I am going to join with Heather's theme-a-licious themes again. Again the graphic for this year really swung it for me - how could I resist the lovely David Tennant as the Doctor.



Stitching wise, I hope to finish Autumn Queen and Japanese Octagon box, which are both long term WIPs and I think this is pretty realistic. Anything else is a bonus.

Knitting wise, I think it might be a year of cardigans and socks. Some of my previously knit socks are a little worn and I have a lot of sock yarn so that seems like a perfect match. I've worn the Stevie cardigan I knitted last year a lot and my wardrobe really needs more cardigans for the somewhat variable temperatures at work. I also want to get more comfortable with colour work this year.

Life goals for the coming year are fairly simple - continue with the MSc and the job and have more fun. I'm hoping that my Internet dating journey results in finding someone special and I'm currently working on that.