• About Christine Cochrane
  • Blogs
  • Home Page
  • Links
  • Publications
  • Reviews

Harping On

~ A Writing Journey

Harping On

Tag Archives: National Trust for Scotland

O can ye sew cushions?

19 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Christine Cochrane in Blogging on

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Hill of Tarvit, National Trust for Scotland, Tarvit Tapestry

The opening line of this song came to me recently, because I have indeed been sewing cushions. It occurred to me I didn’t know any more beyond the first line, so I googled it to check it out.  I had always imagined refined ladies sitting in salons sewing silk. However, I discovered that this song somehow combines a lullaby with a poor, overworked mother’s lamentations; her husband has gone to sea, leaving her with squawking children and an overdose of housework.

I am so pleased to be part of the generation which doesn’t see housework as a Main Priority.   I recently told my mother-in-law that, when I woke early, I just got up and did some work. By this I meant some writing, or work for my Open University course. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t think of dusting at that time. And it would be a bit noisy with the hoover.’

Sewing my own cushions was actually a pleasure, even if one of them, The Tarvit Tapestry, was a very long-term project involving a lot of intricate work.

‘You’ll never finish that,’ my mother-in-law chirped in the National Trust for Scotland shop at Hill of Tarvit Mansion House near Cupar, back in 1995. In my hand was a pack containing a cross stitch chart designed by the Needlework and Conservation Group at Hill of Tarvit house. Part of the group’s recent work had been recovering two beautiful Regency footstools in the house. I had admired the rich colours of these and thought recreating them would be just ideal for winter evenings.

Heading

A week later I was on the top floor of an Edinburgh bus with my own mother, heading for The Embroidery Shop at 51 William Street to buy the wool. My mother loved tapestry work and had done some cushions of her own. She took great pleasure in helping me set up my canvas and I wish she were here to see my cushion completed.  I still have two of my mother’s cushions; the design is based on a painting of a rhododendron in my childhood garden.

rhodo_cr

Unlike the tapestry kits I had done as a child, the pattern wasn’t printed on the canvas. Everything had to be counted out. There were 23 different colours. It was hard at first but I battled on and completed three rows, which meant I had used all the colours once.

DSC05701_cr

Then life got too busy and the tapestry was forgotten until I retired in 2010. My eyesight was not as good, and the canvas holes seemed even smaller, but I got it out of the cupboard and had time at last. It was a fine moment last week when my mother-in-law, now in her 100th year, held the cushion in her hand. I had indeed finished it. In the meantime, The National Trust don’t seem to sell the kit any more. I wonder how many other completed (or uncompleted!) tapestries are out there.

DSC05706

DSC05707

For my second cushion, done over 6 months last winter, I selected a Klimt kit on a large-holed canvas with the colours already printed on. Bliss!  This makes me think of the school trips I took to Vienna, where we saw the original Klimts in Schloß Belvedere.

DSC05708_cr

Every cushion tells a story.

 

You can see the original footstools covered in the Tarvit Tapestry at Hill of Tarvit Mansion House, Cupar, http://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/hill-of-tarvit-mansion-house-garden-p250581

 

Pages

  • About Christine Cochrane
  • Blogs
  • Home Page
  • Links
  • Publications
  • Reviews

Categories

  • Blogging on
  • Cancer challenge
  • Musical notes
  • NaPoWriMo 30 Poems for April 2015
  • NaPoWriMo 30 Poems in 30 Days April 2016
  • Writing News

Recent Posts

  • From Glasgow to Germany – Ships that Pass
  • 18 July 2019
  • This Place I Know – knitting a poem
  • The Poetry Cure
  • Ways of meeting

Archives

  • July 2019
  • November 2018
  • August 2017
  • February 2017
  • September 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Harping On
    • Join 117 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Harping On
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...