WOW!!! I agree with what all has been said. I would love to see this in person. Just think of the original weaver or weavers. I wonder how long it them to do it? Thanks for showing us Lynn.

Rosemary, I was interested in the work you did on this the first time I heard about it. It is so wonderful it is great to be reminded about it.

Not now, but I do enjoy my meetings with the local branch of the Embroiderer's Guild and regularly teach sample techniques. Embroidery is slower to show progress than quilt making and is nigh on impossible to be able to make a living at. You need a day job (or a husband with a day job) to pay the everyday bills and anything the embroidery makes is a little bit of gravy at well below the minimum wage.

The alter frontal is now in St Peter & St Paul 's Church Buckingham, Buckinghamshire. My mother co-ordinated and did most of the sewing that was required to transfer all the goldwork embroidery onto new silk damask and the photo is from when I went down to help her with putting on the interfacing & the lining. Stitching the hanging loop by machine was difficult since it didn't really want to fold by this time and was very heavy (gold embroidery, through original damask & linen, cut out & stitched onto muslin, then cutout and applied to new damask backed with muslin, interlined with duck canvas, lined with linen), so it took 3 of us to manuver it through the sewing machine. We had a slight surprise when during a break Compo the dog put his paw on the sewing machine foot and stitched about an inch of it for us, so it really was 'everyman & his dog' helped

PosyP wrote:
So, Rosemary, you made me look...at your profile pictures. Is embroidery your day job? That frontal is absolutely awesome. Where did that end up?

suehenyon wrote: Margo has beaten me to it with the link, but it stands for Royal School of Needlework, I trained there just before the move to Hampton Court when it was at Princes Gate - facing Hyde Park in the early 80's (eeek! that long ago :shock: )

I agree with all the other comments. Thanks so much for sharing

Well, I agree, there are not enough or enough adequate adjectives to describe this tapestry and the process described in the video. Thanks for posting this.

I'm speechless and am in awe of the love and magnificent attention to every detail that was taken. Although, I was most impressed with her comment that she had only seen the whole tapestry four times. Can you imagine spending decades working on such small areas when compared to the size of the whole tapestry. There are not enough adjectives to do justice to the work they did.

suehenyon wrote:
http://www.royal-needlework.org.uk/

What a wonder !! Lifes' work for those folks ! Then and now .... just think of those weavers....and did they say a series
of 10 ?

Rosemary, what is the RSN?

Wow. I'm reminded of Lois Lowry's last book in the Giver series called Gathering Blue. An awesome read (or listen), but that's a digression. This gave me a respect for tapestry in general that I never had, as well as a sense that I should quit whining and stick with a project to the end. Thanks for this. This might have to be a road trip to see this. Wouldn't it be neat to see it at Christmas?

And to think that I moaned about darning for 3-4 months when I was at the RSN - mind you it was darning plain linen and a lot more boring than a tapestry. I also got to work on a Blenheim tapestry in my time there, but it was quite young - only 200 yrs old and not in anything like as bad shape at that one. I know what the lady meant when she remarked about not seeing the whole thing at once, you usually only see about 12"- 18" at a time, so to see the whole piece is a great treat.

The restoration is amazing, born of dedication, skill and painstaking attention to every detail. It is an stupendous tapestry. Thank you, Lynn, for posting it!