When I posted a few weeks ago about The Great Tapestry of Scotland I didn't know that I'd be having a wee hand in the making of it myself, but so it turns out as I've been invited to join a local group stitching here in north Edinburgh.
Above is the design for our panel, representing the 1914-1918 War, and in the finished sequence it will follow Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art (and neatly those are Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh 'spirits' flanking the soldier and lady) and in turn be followed by the building of HMS Hood and the Battle of Ypres, that is according to the master list.
We are just at the very early stages of outlining the figures, and I'll be doing my bit on that soon, but for more excitement, take a look at the Tapestry's Facebook page and see some of the wonderful work which has already been done on other panels.
Oh how I envy you the opportunity to participate in this tapestry. A visit to adore the finished product is definitely on the 'to do" list I am compiling for my longed for trip to the mother country. Happy stitching.
Posted by: margaret stedman | 15 January 2013 at 07:45 PM
Thankyou, Margaret, and I hope you'll get a chance to see the finished piece before long.
Posted by: Cornflower | 15 January 2013 at 08:31 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Dark Puss | 15 January 2013 at 09:51 PM
Thankyou, it should be fun.
Posted by: Cornflower | 15 January 2013 at 10:13 PM
Yes! Congratulations are definitely in order. Keep us updated on this panel.
This is very reminiscent of something similar in one of the Mapp and Lucia books. I forget which one, but maybe it occurred after Lucia was elected Mayor(?). :-) Decided to see if google could produce something about it:
"Lucia dreams up an inspired and ambitious project to be known as the Tilling Tapestry which initially has all of Tilling (except Miss Mapp) at her beck and call. Mapp naturally retaliates and succeeds in producing a new obsession to replace sewing and bridge... the Monopoly board." - - (This is interesting, given the current interest on Monopoly game pieces.)
Posted by: Nancy | 16 January 2013 at 12:32 AM
An interesting project. I could not help but notice it is thought up by a man, designed by a man, has a male committee of four or five eminent men plus one woman.. the sewing will, I expect, be done mainly by women and the site tells you the number of 'Man hours' which will go into the making of it....
Just saying..
Posted by: Freda | 16 January 2013 at 07:51 AM
Indeed! Despite that they missed off probably the most eminent Scotsman who ever lived, James Clerk Maxwell. It would be interesting to see the ratio of man-hours to woman-hours at the end of the day. Perhaps Freda you could come up with a project with no gender bias; it would be so nice occasionally to see something that reflects the 50/50 mixture of male and female. I noted with interest the post by Cornflower on her other page yesterday addressing this very matter.
Posted by: Dark Puss | 16 January 2013 at 11:58 AM
Wonderful! Many thanks, Nancy.
Posted by: Cornflower | 16 January 2013 at 07:01 PM
Indeed ...!
Posted by: Cornflower | 16 January 2013 at 07:02 PM
Did you propose JCM when they were looking for suggestions of subjects a while ago? I wonder how they went about the selection.
Posted by: Cornflower | 16 January 2013 at 07:03 PM
Congratulations, please share the progress on the panel.
Posted by: Karoline | 16 January 2013 at 08:26 PM
I hope to, Karoline. It will be lovely to see it develop.
Posted by: Cornflower | 16 January 2013 at 08:41 PM
Yes. His equations would have made for a very nice panel I think.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/faq/images/maxwells_equations_general_set.jpg
Posted by: Dark Puss | 16 January 2013 at 09:50 PM
As you will know, we now have a Sandy Stoddart statue of him (and dog Toby) in George Street, and the recently built science centre at his old school has been named after him, so his brilliance and contribution to science have been marked in those ways.
Posted by: Cornflower | 17 January 2013 at 08:47 AM
How exciting to be part of the project.
Ann
Posted by: Ann | 17 January 2013 at 12:53 PM
It is indeed.
Posted by: Cornflower | 17 January 2013 at 08:07 PM
I'm in North Edinburgh too working on panel 35b of the Tapestry about the Court of Session. It would be good to meet up and spend some time stitching together. Mhairi
Posted by: Mhairi MacDonald-Greig | 18 January 2013 at 09:03 AM
That would be lovely, Mhairi! Shall I give you a shout when the panel comes to me?
Posted by: Cornflower | 18 January 2013 at 09:14 AM
Even more exciting--I didn't realize it was part of a larger collaborative work. I do hope you'll share more as you go!
Posted by: Danielle | 30 January 2013 at 09:33 PM
Yes, it will be an enormous piece of work, and I'll be posting progress shots!
Posted by: Cornflower | 30 January 2013 at 09:53 PM