Last night I was a guest of the trustees of The Great Tapestry of Scotland at a reception and exhibition of some of the panel designs and examples of stitching in progress. The background to the project and future plans for it were outlined by Alexander McCall Smith, James Naughtie and Alistair Moffat, and when you learn that 500 stitchers are involved in the creation of the piece, all working from designs by artist Andrew Crummy, thus making it the biggest community arts project in the country, and that "The Bayeux Tapestry is a mere draught-excluder in comparison," as Alistair Moffat said, you grasp something of the massive scale of the thing.
Given the obvious restraints on photography at such an occasion, my pictures aren't great, but they give some idea of design style and of the intricacy of the needlework involved - the top picture shows the James Hutton panel next to a detail of geological strata from it - there was some marvellous work on display.
Should anyone feel inclined to add their financial support to the project, follow the link here, meanwhile I'll post on progress and news as often as I can.
