My life is like a tapestry

So goes the Carole King song. The album Tapestry came out in the year I was born and I heard it growing up. It's still a feature on my iPod now.

The past year has been a tapestry in both the metaphorical and literal senses and Tapestries are a huge part of my life right now.

Recently I've spent quite a bit of time stitching on a panel for the Scottish Diaspora tapestry.

Mostly I stitched on this panel about the First shawl woven in Paisley as part of a stitching group at the Paisley thread mill museum



Other stitchers in the same group stitched this panel.



In September, the whole tapestry is coming to Paisley to visit for an exhibition which I'm helping to organise.


However the Tapestry that is taking up a lot of time is already finished and currently on display in Aberdeen. After Aberdeen, the Tapestry is coming to Paisley and I'm helping to organise the exhibition as part of the Paisley thread mill museum organisation and in association with a group called Weaving Musical threads and West College Scotland. There is a lot of work ahead but it's going to be a hopefully amazing exhibition with lots of other events, including stitching workshops. The exhibition will be at the Atrium at the old Anchor thread mill.



It's an awesome exhibition space and I know it will look amazing there. If you live locally, we need volunteers to help with visitors. If you are interested, leave a comment here and I'll give you further details.

And now back to organising this hopefully fantastic event.

Of secret projects and life in general

The past few months have really whooshed by for me. My job has kept me very busy and I've also started my MSc. Since my last post, I've actually started and finished the first module and I'm anxiously waiting for my results.

Various other things have kept me busy and there has been more secret craft projects going on. I'm very lucky to part of a lovely local knitting group in Glasgow and one of my closest friends in the group is getting married in 5 weeks. We decided a few months ago that we couldn't let this occasion past with out creating something special for the happy couple. After some quick discussions, it was agreed we would knit a blanket and recruiting the knitters started. there was a lot of secret conversions and much passing of parcels of yarn and finished squares everytime Elaine left the table at knitting group. There were even secret yarn drop offs at a local joke shop that one of members works in. 2 weeks ago, a lot of the participants got together at my flat to sew up and finish it off.

There was crocheting to be done






And sewing of squares





And then it was done









The pattern is from the Leisure Arts booklet Sampler afghans, 60 squares to knit and yarn is undyed Blue faced Leicester from Old Maiden Aunt yarns, probably the loviest Aran weight yarn I've ever knitted with. The dyed yarn goes on sale tomorrow and would really recommend it


Another secret project which I finished earlier in the year is this pin keep. The design is Amite by Jardin Prive and is stitched using silk thread from the Yarn yard. It was given to a friend for their birthday

WIPocalypse so far

This month, I'm trying to concentrate on 2 stitching projects - Winter in my Garden and Autumn in my garden. Both are Mirabilia deisgns.

At the start of the month, Winter in my garden looked like this



And Autumn in my garden looked like this



Winter in my garden now looks like this



Autumn in my garden looks exactly the same as it does at the start of the month however as I haven't stitched on it yet.

My other big achievement is that I've finished a secret project that I can't share pictures of right now but will be able to in a week or so once the recipients have received them.