Life - an update

So life has been somewhat busy since my last post.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland exhibition went well and here are some images. The exhibition was even used as a backdrop for a documentary on Scotland and independence by the BBC's Robert Peston. I also successfully staged 3 stitching classes which all went well.


















The panel I stitched on for the Scottish Diaspora tapestry is also completed and is already travelling around.  Here I am at the launch event with my panel.




The past couple of months have been busy for other reasons though - meet Mr M who I met in August and is the most lovely and fantastic man.  Life is certainly a whole lot better with him around.

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.

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.

More stitching

So the stitching bug is really starting to come back. Last week I found a Sashiko kit that has been around for a while. The little straight stitches helped to soothe what was a very stressful week.



And in a very handy coincidence, it fits with the Monochrome May theme of Theme-a-licious 2013.


Most of this past weekend was spent stitching on the Paisley 1930s panel of the Great Scottish tapestry project. As the deadline for completion draws close, I brought the panel home with me to stitch on. I made a lot of progress and completed the central female figure.



The whole panel looks like this.



I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished panel hanging with all the others in the Scottish Parliament in August.

Last week was stressful for 2 very different reason. Firstly I was waiting to see if I had passed my most recent MSc module. Thankfully I have. The second reason was that the police made an arrest in the hunt for the man who killed my Uncle and finally at the end of the week, a man was charged with murder. The next few months are going to difficult but I'm much more hopeful we will get justice for my uncle.

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.

On stitching and heritage

The past two Saturdays have been spent in the company of some really interesting stitching.  The area I live in is famous for it's textile history of Paisley shawls and lots of mills.  Unfortunately the mills are now closed but at the end of my street, there are still several old mill buildings.  The biggest one is the old Anchor thread mill



Most of the building is now flats but a small part is a business centre with a small exhibition space.  For the past week or so, its been home to a exhibition of the Prestonpans tapestry - a representation of the Battle of Prestonpans in needlework.  It was an amazing sight.







Whilst I was there, I got talking to the local organisers of a panel for the Great Scottish Tapestry which is planned to be the biggest tapestry ever and arranged to go back last weekend to spend some time stitching on it.  The theme of the panel is Paisley in the 1930s



And this is a plan of part of the panel



This weekend, I'm going back to stitch on it a bit more.  The finishing deadline is fast approaching and they need to finish soon.

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.

2012 progress report

Well 2012 is finally over so it's time to look back at the year, both from a craft and life perspective. It was a very challenging year for me.


Stitching wasn't something that happened a lot this year. My stitching slump has continued somewhat although I am seeing signs of it ending.. I made quite a bit of progress on Autumn Queen and I'm hoping to finish it in the next month or so.

Here's what she looks like now



Another big finish was Elizabeth's stocking by Shepherds bush which I also turned into a stocking, along with 2 previous Shepherds Bush stockings. One for me and the others for my sister and her husband - they loved them.








Knitting continued to take up a lot of my time and I finished quite a few things, most of which you can see here.




I haven't been so good at updating photographs and sharing progress however. My computer began to slowly die earlier this year and finally gave up the ghost in September but it has now been replaced with a shiny new iMac so I'm gradually trying to catch up.

Life has remained very busy. I've now finished the second module of my MSc and am anxiously waiting my results. Work has remained very challenging as I've started working towards promotion but it continues to go well.

September brought my 40th birthday and a lovely trip to Ireland. Being 40 has turned out to be much less scary that I would have ever thought and in a lot of ways, I feel like it has freed me from a lot of things. I had said I want to try a lot of new things before my birthday, time meant a lot of that didn't happen but I have tried a few new things. Having been very single for a long time, I've been trying Internet dating, it's been scary, sometimes frustrating and upsetting but ultimately fun so far. More about that later though.

Sadly the situation regarding my uncle's death has turned out to be more devastating that we hoped. He was murdered and the police are currently looking for a suspect. This site explains the situation and who they are looking for - www.michaelpoldingmurder.co.uk . It has made 2012 a very difficult year indeed.