The Prison Embroideries of Mary, Queen of Scots - a talk by Muriel Banucha

When Lockdown happened to us all and we were all restricted and confined to our homes, Muriel began to develop an interest and empathy to the situation of Mary,Queen of Scots, during her long incarceration. As a stitcher she also used her time on embroideries, as did Mary, and as did many of us.

We are familiar with Mary's story, how she was sent to France at the age of five to marry the Dauphin, and how she came back to Scotland when he died. It was while she was in France that she learned to embroider, probably from her mother-in-law Catherine de Medici. Printed books were becoming more available then, and many illustrations provided inspiration for the designs. Also steel needles were being made in greater quantities, the best ones from Spain and probably introduced by Catherine of Aragon.

The types of embroidery common then were such as blackwork and canvas work, which could be worked in small pieces that could be held in the hand, and joined together to make larger hangings and other household items.

We know the story of Mary's disastrous marriages, and how she eventually ended up being imprisoned for twenty years in various castles and houses, all halfway between England and Scotland and away from the sea, so she could not be rescued. Many of these were owned by the very wealthy Earl of Shrewsbury, as he was chosen to guard her because he could afford to support her and her large household, numbering up to 60 staff, including her own chef and embroiderer. Mary had her own income as Dowager Queen of France, but she refused to spend her own money unless she was freed.

She had a comfortable life, with her own apartments, and she was able to afford the best silks, satins and threads. Initially she was allowed visitors and some freedoms like riding, and even allowed to go to Buxton when unwell, to take the waters. Later her imprisonment became more onerous, and her embroideries were a great solace to pass the time.

 The fabrics were linen and canvas, and the threads she used were wool, silk, gold, silver and silver gilt. Natural dyes enabled the threads to last longer than our modern chemical dyed threads (that was an eye-opener!). Most of her threads came from France.

Her embroiderer took designs from books and transferred them to canvas for her to work in cross stitch and tent stitch.

She often stitched hidden meaning into her work, for example the ginger cat below represented Elizabeth I with the paw on the tail of the mouse, Mary.

She signed her work with a motif, which showed her as Queen of Scotland and of France, and left a large body of work until her sad end. 

'In my end is my beginning'.

'Sparkling organza Gingko Leaves' - day school with Susie Stehli

 We had a lovely sunny day for our class, and the gorgeous array of sparkling yellows and greens of the vast array of organzas Susie brought made us feel that Spring is nearly here. Susie brought a large picture of gingko leaves she had made (first photo), and we made a more modest picture using either hand or machine embroidery. Susie had brought our chosen colour of background along, all ready cut to size and prepared with backing, ready to go in the frame she also supplied.

We selected paper templates of the leaves, which we drew around on the background fabric, and then arranged little snippets of various fabrics in the outline, to make some texture and shadows. We added pieces of larger organza in layers to build up the form of the leaves, pinned it on and then stitched the edges and a few of the veins. Once this was done we could use different threads to build up texture and tones to create the leaves. The machine stitchers had the advantage of greater speed than the hand stitchers, and one or two people actually got as far as framing their picture. The photos below show some of the stages of building up the piece, and some near completion.

It was a lovely day, thank you Susie, and thanks to the ladies who brought fruit cake and homemade biscuits!

'From Jewellery to Textiles - a Journey' - talk by Sam Townsend

 Sam gave us a lovely and interesting talk about her career from making jewellery to making quilts. Having been told at school by one of those wonderful inspiration teachers (there's one in every school) that she couldn't draw, Sam went on to go to art college, first interested in ceramics, but then finding her metier in jewellery. She had brought along examples of pieces made in silver that she had designed herself, and her sketchbooks showed wonderful drawings of concepts and workings out of her creations. For a while she worked for a jeweller, but then went freelance, running a successful business in Edinburgh.

Unfortunately arthritis crept up and made this line of work painful and difficult, something we people of a certain age can empathise with! Sam had always stitched, but she then did various courses on different types of quilting, and she had brought along a large selection of her works. It was interesting seeing the progression from more traditional patchwork quilts as her art background came more to the fore and the design morphed into more free and experimental quilts. Many of the quilts had painting on, such as the owl and the tree, beautiful. It was such a colourful and inspirational collection. There was such a variety, from little miniature quilts, to one made with sashiko embroidery. The photos below are a small selection of what she brought, and when I have located her Facebook page I'll post it here so you can see more.

Update: Sam's Facebook page is DesignedbySam, you can see more of her work and her work process.

'Crewel Work', - day school with Isobel Law

 Isobel did a well attended day school on crewel work and stump work, which had been postponed because of the snow. I wasn't able to attend, but thank you, Jean, for the photos, I will try and get some more if anyone has them.

Christmas Party

 On a day where the countryside looked suitably Christmassy, all white and glistening with frost, we had a few hours full of colour and good food. Pat made beautiful table arrangements and it all looked so festive and welcoming. A lovely buffet lunch provided by our tried and trust caterers, with salmon,  coronation chicken, ham, salads, quiches and potatoes had us thinking we had no room for more until the four puddings came in, and some people managed to find space for a bit of all them - no names will be mentioned!

We then played a couple of quizzes, (thanks to a eg for organising them) pass the parcel, name that (Christmas) tune, and the highlight was a 'recycled' fashion show. We had brought in sparkly and gorgeous fabrics and trimmings which were laid on table, and we divided i to team of four. One member was picked as the model, and the other members had to raid the tables and dress the model in items snaffled from the array. Then they each did a catwalk sashay accompanied by an hilarious commentary of another team member. We had a Roman emperor (who won the prize), Worzel Gummidge, a green witch, Fatima from the kasbah, can't remember what the other two were, got lost in the laughter (sorry). Well done Nancy for thinking this one up, it was a lovely way to finish for Christmas.