Ruth the Ministers Daughter

The school girl on the left hand side has been stitched and she has been called Ruth. The group decided she was dressed a bit nicer than the other girls and would be either a doctor or a ministers daughter. We decided on the local Church of Scotland Minister.
Joan stitched her sleeves to represent a finer calico or muslin material.  Her dress will be stitched by Valerie and her hair by Dorothy.

Ella had requested to stitch the croft house along the top of the panel. It will have a thatch roof in time.

Joan also stitched the childrens sleeves and neck lines and outlined Miss MackIntosh's bands in blue.

There was discussion about the squares on the side of the panel. The group had decided to have a Caithness skyline with some flagstone dykes and some hay/corn stooks in the foreground.
Louise took this photo of the Caithness hills from the Causeymire with the flagstone in the foreground to give a reference point.

The panel is starting to take shape. We still have a way to go but our enthusiasm is still high.

Miss MackIntosh

Let me introduce Miss MackIntosh. I hope you are sitting up straight and doing your homework, this is 1851.

Joan finished stitching her jumper and her face and hands so we now give her a name. She is named after a teacher from long ago who was stern but kindly.
Dorothy stitched in a few French knots to her headband. She also had given her a rollmop herring as her hair net bun to signify how important the herring industry was to Caithness.
Louise stitched the books on the table in long and short stitch using two colours to give a shading and imitate writing. She looked up books from that time on Google images and there were books with these colours.  Louise also stitched the slates in satin stitch and stem stitch.

 

She took some photos of some Caithness slates to get an idea of the colours. It took her 5 hours to stitch the books and the slates and then outline the table.

 

Joan stitched the girls dresses and sleeves. She used couched trellis, closed finer couched trellis and bokhara stitch which was to signify the fishing nets from the fishing industry. It took Joan about 7 hours of stitching time to achieve this. She said it was again relaxing and quite therapeutic and it was having the effect on her akin to stroking a cat or a dog.

Cheannie Neep

Dorothy has spent 39 1/2 hours of her last week embroidering the farming lady 'Jeannie Neep' or as in Caithness it is pronounced 'Cheannie'.
It had been agreed that the panel on the left hand side would reflect the farming and land side of Caithness of its time and the panels on the right hand side would be for the sea. Both the sea and the land are both extremely important to the history of Caithness.

Cheannie is harvesting the swedes or 'neeps'. There was discussion about the difference of a swede a turnip and then what can be referred to as a Neep across Scotland. It was and is a very important root crop feeding both humans and the livestock. The group were quite excited to talk and research the colours of a swede which Dorothy has reflected in the field with each swede being stitched and coloured slightly differently. It was felt that Jeannie would be a hardy woman, with big rough hands able to manage the jobs on the crofts but also be happy knitting for her family.

Dorothy used a Double Fly stitch on her blouse in two shades of blue to highlight the stitch.  The stones at the bottom are in satin and split stitch. The skirt was in running stitch and appropriately Sheaf stitch.  Dorothy also requested she didn't want to see another swede until Halloween.
Celia had used a Darning Stitch for Cheannie's hair.

Dorothy had also stitched the Hair on our schoolteacher. She used 3 colours in a laid stitch which gave it depth and texture. Her hair bun is a roll mop herring which was tying in the importance of the herring industry in Caithness.

Catherine had finished outlining Chinad who carries the fish to market and was finishing the background in herringbone and satin stitch.

Work carries on and the group are constantly counting up the time spent and the time left. It was felt that we are just under half way finished but once the figures are completed the scenic parts can be filled quite quickly.

Herring Seller 'Chinad'

Catherine had the tapestry last week and she worked on 'Chinad' (Caithness for Janet) who is the Herring seller on the bottom right of our panel. She would have had to walk up the coast for up to 15 miles into Wick to the market. She would have walked bare foot until she got to the cemetery at the south edge of Wick where she would have put her boots on that she carried around her neck.

Doesn't she look like she's got the world on her back? She wore an apron down her back to stop the fish leaking onto her. Catherine was looking at the stems and bushes in her own garden to gauge the colour of the wooden basket that would have been used.
Chinad's hair was stitched in Bullion Knots. The group all knew someone who has hair like this.

The jumper was designed to look like a Fishermans Rib Gansey pattern and was stitched in chain and stem stitch. The apron has an running stitch to give it texture. The sea was in a herringbone stitch. Catherine thought it took approximately 19 stitching hours.