Tapestry time

Just over a week ago, the Great Scottish Tapestry exhibition opened at the Scottish Parliament. Unfortunately I couldn't make the formal stitchers' preview event due to a trip to London but I've been over to visit it a couple of times now.

I've taken a lot of pictures which you can see at my flickr album Each time I look at it, I see something else to marvel at.


Last Saturday, I took a tour of the Parliament whilst I was visiting. For those who aren't familiar with how the UK is set up, Scotland remains part of the UK but certain issues are devolved to government in Scotland to deal with. The building itself has a controversial history - it took longer than expected to build, cost more and has had issues with beams falling. The designer of the building and the first minister of Scotland both died during the project build.

It is a lovely building and full of light, which is hard thing to achieve when it's rainy day in September in Edinburgh



It was amazing and somewhat emotional to see the panel I stitched on hanging there



There are so many panels that it's hard to pick out favourites. I love this one -panel 107 the Paisley lady



Panel 93 - Scots in India is another favourite



Panel 140 Cumbernauld is a great one, especially as it depicts a scene from classic 80s Scottish movie Gregory's girl which was set there



In November, a book of all the panels is going to be released and the Tapestry is going to be displayed elsewhere in the UK and in the USA/Canada hopefully in 2015. The panel I stitched on grew out of oral history project to record the stories of the people who lived in Paisley between the 2 world wars. A film has been made which is now online and hopefully the link will work below.

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.

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.

A day out to New Lanark

Today I've spent the day out and about. My aunt is visiting from Canada and my uncle and aunt are visiting from England so I joined them and my parents on a day out to New Lanark. Its a World heritage site village which had working cotton mills and was run by a social reformer called Robert Owen, who believed in better working and living conditions for his workers. The mill buildings now house visitor centres plus they also spin and dye yarn for sale.

I took a ton of pictures whilst I was there. New Lanark is in the Clyde valley and the falls of Clyde are nearby, making the surrounding area really pretty.

The view towards the mill.



Across the River Clyde.



Wool bobbins being wound



A huge carder for cotton fibres.



I bought some yarn whilst I was there - some DK weight wool. There's only one ball here but I did buy more than one - enough to knit a cardigan in fact.



Here's a slide show of all pictures, including some pictures of my various relatives acting a little silly.



All in all it was a great day and really interesting to hear about this side of Scottish history. It was also good to have a relaxing day as so far this week has been pretty busy. I was working nights at the weekend then I'm back on night shift again Thursday/Friday. Then its a couple of hours sleep and off to a cousin's wedding on Saturday afternoon so its going to be a little hectic for the rest of the week too.
Oh and back on to nights on Monday night. I think I might be a little worn out next week.

300 years ago today

What follows isn't knitting or stitching but just some random recent thoughts on the history of where I'm from
300 years ago today, the original Scottish Parliament passed the Act of Union which joined Scotland to England and Wales as Great Britain under one Monarch but with separate legal and education systems and a independent Church of Scotland.
At school, I learned about the Act and the turbulent and rebellion filled time which followed and I was encouraged to be proud of my country's history inspite of the many failures. I do sometimes wonder how things might have been if the Act of Union had never happened and if an independent Scotland would have thrived. Or perhaps the hard times are what made Scotland the nation it is today. I guess the world would have been different for many countries as so many Scots left to seek better times elsewhere as times got tough at home.
Today I choose to remember that we make our own decisions about how history affects our future. In the past, Scotland has let itself dwell on past injustices and how a now 300 year old act, which many were opposed to, caused the country to feel resentful about its bigger neighbour. The best thing that any country can to do is to look forward to a better future and ensure that its talented people are helped to achieve their potential and great traditions are preserved so that future generations can appreciate the country they live in, not forced to leave for whatever reason.
Today I am proud to be Scottish but also British. It makes for a interesting bag of different experiences.