Here's an update on our Skipton Castle Conduit Court piece. Sebastian Fattorini of SKipton Castle has had our large embroidery framed and it's now on display in the castle shop. It looks great! We'd like to thank Sebastian for his enthusiasm about the project and we're really pleased that the embroidery has a permanent home. If you're ever visiting the castle (highly recommended) then do go and have a look.
Formerly Skipton Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. For anyone interested in textile art and embroidery.
Monday 22 April 2024
Monday 15 January 2024
Carolyn came in her underwear and it was brilliant 😮
Now, it's not quite what it seems... Carolyn is one of our very talented members and belongs to The 1635 Household - a Jacobean re-enactment group. They mainly deal with domestic life rather than battles and the like. Carolyn kindly agreed to come and talk to us about Jacobean costume and what a fascinating morning we had. She brought lots of her 'higher-end folk' outfits - all of which she has made herself and also embroidered - her work is absolutely stunning, it was a real privilege to see them and hear about the process of designing and making.
Carolyn does lots of research to try and be as authentic as possible and takes inspiration from period portraits and original pieces found in museum collections. Her clothes are made from authentic materials - wool, linen, silk, taffeta and silk velvet. She also makes lace where possible. Thought has to be given to budget and practicalities such as washing.
Carolyn brought shoes, hose and ties, smock, fitted kirtle aka a pair of bodies, ruffs, collars , jackets, skirts and coifs.
She started in her underwear - the shoes to kirtle...
...and then gradually added the other layers explaining each as she went. As all items of clothing are made to fit the wearer everything was far more comfortable than you might imagine.
This jacket was inspired by the Maidstone jacket and has a lovely peapod motif and looks stunning in white and red.
Then we get to the coifs. We all loved the ingenuity of these items and the fact they were constructed in such a way that they fit almost anyone because they were gathered with a tie. Carolyn brought various examples all based on originals.
Sunday 17 September 2023
The Finished Piece
Well, here it is! The Skipton Castle project is finished and ready for display. We will have it with us at Yarndale and then it will be at the Castle. Come along and have a look next weekend 23rd/24th September. All the squares came together without too much of an argument. All contributors are named on the back and the construction team was Gail, Claire, Carolyn, Sally, Sue and Jill. Well done everyone!
Claire will be giving a talk on Sunday at Yarndale about our big projects - come along around 12.30 I believe.
Monday 17 July 2023
The Great Tapestry of Scotland
Today we were joined by Susie Finlayson who gave us an absolutely fascinating talk about the Great Tapestry of Scotland. What a wonderful project it is and a couple of members who have actually been to visit it in Galashiels can testify to how brilliant it is. I say tapestry, but as we know it's an embroidery but has been called a tapestry in the tradition of the Bayeux, Stamford and Quaker pieces.
The idea for the tapestry came from Alexander McCall Smith after he visited the Prestonpans tapestry (there seems to be a lot of embroidery-tapestries about!); he asked Andrew Crummy to design it and Alistair Moffat had the task of deciding which events in Scotland's history to include. The resulting tapestry is a very impressive 140m long x 1m wide and consists of 165 panels - that's four times the size of the Bayeux. The tapestry reflects not just the lives of the rich and famous, the kings and queens, but the ordinary people of Scotland too.
Stitchers from all over Scotland took part in embroidering the panels, all coordinated by Dorie Wilkie who led the stitching on the Prestonpans tapestry. Susie became involved at the beginning of the project and was initially not a stitcher but has become a very accomplished one! The original designs for panels were traced onto linen union fabric and then with minimal instructions or rules sent off to various groups round Scotland to be completed. Stitches and colours were pretty much left to the groups and they all added in their own personal stories and tags resulting in a rich and varied collection of panels. Officially the panels cover from the ice age to 1999 with the reformation of the Scottish Parliament, although extra bits have been incorporated in the Welcome Panel. The Welcome Panel is the first to greet you as you enter the purpose built centre where the tapestry is displayed. Galashiels was chosen as the permanent home for its accessibility while not being Edinburgh or Glasgow. A further panel - the Interchange Panel was commissioned by the Borders Railway Community Partnership and is being worked on at the moment; in fact this is the piece that Susie brought to our meeting and that we had the privilege of stitching parts of. Even Queen Camilla has added stitches to it, so we are in good company! Those of us who added to the panel signed Susie's record book - again including HRH!
We had a really great day with Susie and her anecdotes about the project were wonderful. We just need a trip north of the border to see the whole thing now.
The Interchange Panel
Our contribution in progress!