Our Littlest Stitcher Daisy

Louise took the panel home to stitch the side panel with the hill Morven and the Caithness Flagstones in the foreground. Louise has 2 young children who have been very interested when the panel came home to visit them from time to time. They liked hearing about schools in 1851 and how different it was to their school presently. This time she persuaded her youngest, Daisy to put in a few stitches.

Louise would put the needle where she wanted it to be and her small slave, ahem, her daughter would then pull it through and she was extremely good at it. A natural for when there is a tapestry when Daisy is older!

Daisy concentrating. Not bad for a 4 year old.

Daisy sitting with the threads all out the case. She was 'helping' get the colours Louise needed.

Louise has been randomly stopping around the county to take photos of the Flagstones that are used as fences to keep livestock in. They are now backed up by modern fencing but the farmers would use them as they were a plentiful local resource.  This was a profitable industry in the 1800's which continues to this day at Spittal in the middle of the county.

Castletown on the north coast of Caithness had a quarry and exported high quality flagstones. Caithness Flagstone floors some of the worlds most prestigious buildings from the Scottish Parliament to the streets of New York, Boston and London. 

It ages well and the clear air shows as the lichens find a home on them as you can see in this photo.

Valerie outlined the flagstones in a Quaker stitch and Louise and Lorna French knotted the wee sheep. It was going to be a lamb but then it was pointed out that Cheannie was harvesting the Neeps so it had to be a sheep from a distance so to mirror Dolly the sheep Louise added some grey French Knots. Louise then started filling in the stone using thread painting of long and short stitches in various colours to reflect the stones many colours.


Morven dominates the southern horizon of Caithness. It is classed as a Graham and is 706m high. It sits to the south edge of the county at the bottom of the Flow Country which is a tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site. The flow country is a 4000km squared area of low lying peatland and wetland area of Caithness and Sutherland. Which is the largest bogland in Europe. It is home to a plethora of  wildlife and fauna.

Family Affair. Louise on her knees just taming down the lochan's bright blue edge. It was stitched with a chain stitch and then some short and split stitch then whipping the split stitch.  The grass was herringbone stitch.  Louise used small and longer Fly stitch on Morven to give a directional impression.  Louise's mother Zelia looks after her children whilst Louise goes to the group and is a very gifted embroiderer and quilter so she asked her to put a few stitches in her panel as she's been part of its story.

On her way to hand over the panel to Ella, Louise went to collect Daisy from her first induction days in Crossroads School.  She then had a 'show and tell' for the primary children and the teachers which was very interesting to see how much has changed. The children were glad they had shoes now and didn't have to pay for school with peat. And they thought that the fish seller would be very smelly.

Morven, the Flow Country and Flagstone dyke. And Sandy the sheep.

Tick Tock Alexander Bains Clock

This is the group holding up the panel. We had visitors who kindly took the photo of us all.

 

Tick tock. Shirley has sewn the Electric Clock which was invented by Alexander Bain in 1850. He was born in Watten which is in the middle of Caithness. The old Post Office in Wick now is a Weatherspoons pub which is named after him. A fitting reminder to an item we now take for granted. Shirley used satin stitch for the face and straight stitch for the hands.

 

Dolly has been completed by Celia. Dolly is a handsome beast. A good shaggy coat suitable for a Caithness winter and then the wool would have been turned into clothing or fabrics. These were French knots and straight stitch.

Celia stitched this stone cross which is situated to the west of Wick. Altimarlach was the site of the last battle of the clans in Scotland. It was fought between the Sinclairs of Keiss and the Campbells of Glen Orchy. George Sinclair the 6th Earl of Caithness had run up debt to Sir John Campbell who took over his titles and lands. George Sinclairs heir disputed this and on 13 July 1680 they had a battle at Altimarlach where legend has it so many Sinclairs were killed the Campbells could cross the river without getting their feet wet.  George Sinclair turned to the law and became the Earl of Caithness the following year. (This was abridged from the Wikepedia site)

We had visitors of Lorna and Virginia. Lorna had advised the group at the start of the project and has been encouraging along the way. Louise persuaded her to put a few French knots in the wee sheep she was stitching.

Catherine had been stitching a sea cliff. This one is to show the many headlands around the county. The lighthouse at the top is on Dunnet Head. They are typically 30-60m high and of Old Red Sandstone.  On the east coast there is an inlet called Whaligoe steps where the cliffs had 365 steps carved into the cliff and the fisherwomen would collect the baskets of fish from the boats in the small harbour gut them and then carry the baskets up the cliff to be sent to market. The women would still be working into their seventies.Catherine used long stitch and then continued to pin it down using a variety of short and fly stitches.

  

This was the panel at the start of the day of stitching.

The Minister

Our group meet in the top room of Pultneytown Parish Church. It is a wonderful room for close work as the light is good. Its small enough to warm up quickly and the facilities are extremely well kept. Over the past 3 months our Minister Stuart Farmes has been popping up to see our progress and has been a source of encouragement. This week we got a needle in his hand and he put a stitch in our panel.

This panel has its own history and its own story to add to the scene we are depicting. We've had visitors from Australia, America and now our own Minister has added a stitch.

Dolly has more fleece on her. She has so many French Knots Celia lost count of them.

Joan has been watching the Hen Harrier's from her sitting room window and now we have our own on the panel. This is the female which has a distinctive plumage. They have 'red' status on the RSPB site as there are endangered.

We couldn't possibly have a panel from Caithness without a boat. Its such an important part of the heritage it would be impossible to discount it. In the latter 1800's Wick was one of the biggest herring ports in the world and the coastline of Caithness has numerous harbours.  This was a typical boat of the 1850s which Dorothy stitched.

The group all working on the panel at the same time.

Dolly the Sheep

Meet Dolly.

Celia has been filling in the bottom left square with a sheep. This reflects Caithness farming community and the sheep of the time would have been an important industry both for the meat and the fabric it produced.

The tables have all the names embroidered on and seeded. There are even more on the lips of the tables.  Note the bird on the top left.

Catherine has enhanced the blue of the sea around 'Chinad' the herring seller. You can see Shirley working on the Stacks of Duncansby square.

The Schools are named

Valerie took the panel and wrote the names of the schools recorded in Caithness in 1851. There are a couple of place names where the spelling has changed from then to now but we have double checked them.

Joan then stitched them in a Quaker and back stitch mix. The hard part was the curves but as you can see Joan managed fine.

At the Tuesday sewing morning Joan, Louise and Valerie sat around the table and seed stitched the tables whilst Catherine stitched the roof of the school.
Joan also stitched 'Cissy's' slate using a long and short stitch and then over embroidered it with stranded cotton.

Louise took it home and completed the seed stitching on the top of the tables. She found her old embroidery stand which her daughter uses as a play dragon.