Wednesday 18 June 2008

Links to the Past

My interest in and love of textiles was stimulated from a very early age by being surrounded by the fabrics and embroidery projects of my mother , Jennie. In the 1970's she did C&G embroidery parts 1 and 2 and toymaking at Warrington Art College and I remember her staying up all night to finish assignments ( I can see where my attitude to deadlines originates!) She sadly died over 20 years ago but I've kept a lot of her course work, samples and finished pieces. I recently sorted through some of these and came across this wonderfully stitched pulled thread work banner which I'd forgotten about but instantly recognised as having hung in our dining room at home.
What made me take a sharp intake of breath and a sense of connection was that the subject matter of the design was the stone relief Susian Guards (or 'Immortals') from Persepolis in Ancient Persia which we visited over Christmas !

I showed the banner to Ian without saying where it had come from - he instantly recognised the figures and was bowled over that my mother has stitched it over 30 years ago.
After a careful press, it now has pride of place in our hallway.

7 comments:

Julie said...

A beautiful piece of work by your mother Mags. It looks a very skilled piece of work. And how lovely to have that connection with the inspiration for the embroidery and with your Mum.

Mai-Britt Axelsen said...

Oh, Margaret - what a lovely story and what a lovely treasure........... thanks for sharing.

Helen said...

I really like connections like that don't you. Glad your Mother's piece is out for viewing too. I like the mono-tone use of the red and all that texture in simple stitches too. I wonder what your mum would have made of all our resources today?!

verobirdie said...

your mother did a great job!
You may have fulfilled one of her dream by visiting this place "for her".

The Idaho Beauty said...

What a wonderful thing to discover. Any idea where your mother came up the idea? I love making these sorts of connections. Makes life seem less random somehow.

Anne Wigfull said...

What a lovely story, and how wonderful that you have something like this to display in your home. czpuw

neki desu said...

Just lovely,both the work and the story.

neki desu