Day 14 Kendal 3

There must be a ready supply of small fish or plankton just across the river, near the bridge. It is where the swans were feeding last night and this morning a flock of gulls wheeled and dove around the same spot.

My first stop this morning was St George's Church, close by the hotel.


I had intended a longer visit but there was a meeting going on and I decided not to disturb it. Built in 1841, in local stone, it has interesting stone crosses over the side entrances.

St George does his usual thing inside the entrance and one of the bosses (in the architectural sense!) has met with an unfortunate accident.








From here I made my way back to the Quaker Tapestry. Genevieve and her husband were there and after an hour or so we met up for lunch.


This time I was paying attention to the lettering and the Barrett Counterpane but I couldn't resist photographing the young George Fox and his sheep. The chain stitch works brilliantly on these sheep.

I also wanted to photograph the britches that the embroiderer insisted her husband pose for so she could get the folds right! The footwear is pretty good too.












Mostly I wanted some photographs of the lettering. It really is excellent, executed as it is in Quaker Stitch - invented for the purpose. I hope to learn to do this soon.





In the process I noticed the lovely tree in the gardener panel.

This is one of the components for which the shop has small kits. I bought a couple of kits, including this one.

The other exhibition I wanted to record was the Barrett Friendship Quilt. This is a Victorian counterpane, initiated by Marianne Foster when she married the artist Jerry Barrett, who had painted an uncooperative Florence Nightingale. The counterpane was worked on by numerous people, many of them Quakers, in squares and assembled later. The daughters of the engraver Thomas Oldham Barlow worked squares, as did Marian Ellis, whose family friendship with William Morris is reflected in her use of his poetry on her contribution.



The counterpane alternates knitted squares with embroidered squares and each side panel is a lengthy quote.

It is a record of the concerns and interests of an artistic community.

There is frequently a stitcher working in an area towards the end of the exhibition. I did not realise until after lunch that the stitcher this morning was working on a panel for the Australian Quaker Tapestry. The Kendal Quaker stitchers have undertaken to stitch one of the panels. When I returned from lunch the stitcher was not there, and I did not want to uncover her work.




I walked around to the front of the Meeting Hall - the last station on the walk I attempted yesterday. The windows have large visuals of the tapestries  - clever.

From the front gates there is a good view of Kendal Castle ruins.



The lovely chimney line is of the building directly across the river from the Riverview Hotel.

Back at the hotel I did a bit more work on my Estense bag - the subject of a later embroidery blog -, read a bit more of Bruce Beckham and did some preliminary packing. My taxi is booked for 9.30 am tomorrow.


The Cumbrian lamb I had for dinner was nearly as good as the duck last night.










The sunset was less spectacular, probably due to the cloud cover - in itself pretty interesting.




Tomorrow will be mainly spent in travelling to Cheltenham to visit my lovely cousins.

Day 12: Kendal 1

Windermere was shrouded in mist this morning and there was what the Scots used to (and may still) call 'a wee soft' - light misty rain.

I was hoping to see the pheasant. I caught a glimpse earlier in the week but he moved too quickly for my camera.  No pheasant this morning, but there was a grey partridge below my window.

and then a group of magpies arrived to feed.
Everyone was packing, having breakfast and leaving. My taxi arrived early and I found myself in Kendal well before 11 am. Kay, my driver gave me many hints on what to see and do in Kendal.

My room at the Riverside Hotel was serviced and vacant so I moved straight in. This is the view from my window.



My main motivation in coming to Kendal was to see the Quaker Tapestries. The Museum is also worth seeing. Unfortunately it is closed today, tomorrow and Monday- the three days I am here.

As the Quaker Tapestries are not open to the public on Sunday, I thought I'd go straight there - and probably return again on Monday. The Quaker Meeting House is a five minute walk from my hotel, over the bridge and a block down the road. It takes a bit longer, of course, when you are stopping to take photos!

The tapestries (they are, of course, embroideries, not tapestries, but I can't- won't- fight common usage!). I spent about 4 hours there - talking to the knowledgable, friendly women in charge, examining the panels, listening to the audio commentary, watching videos - and having a bowl of delicious celeriac and apple soup in the cafe.

I knew very little of Quaker history.  This is a wonderful way to learn. The idea for the panels came from a Sunday School child who asked if the children could embroider stories of Quaker history rather than colouring in - and a teacher who knew a good idea when she heard it. I loved the way many of the panels include components of children's work illustrating the particular story.

Perhaps not surprisingly, my favourite panel was the one illustrating the quilt work of Elizabeth Fry, who equipped convict women for their journey, with bags of fabric pieces, needles, thread and spectacles to enable them to make a quilt to sell on arrival.











I love the movement and texture in the clothing, the facial expressions achieved with minimal stitching













the depiction of the one resulting quilt still extant (in the NLA)















the stool, and most of all, the children's work along the bottom depicting "each woman was given a bag of useful things".


There are wonderful details, like the curly hair of Judge Fell.




















I was really interested in the history of trade and Quakers - the Cadbury, Clark's Shoe, Mining, railways, wool, and worker conditions panels.

My granddaughter, Niamh, who has learnt the table of elements, might be interested in this detail.

I looked hard at the detail of the buildings - lovely depiction of lighted windows, lintels and architecture.
















Stance, faces, the fold of cloth and the tilt of a head conveys such a sense of relationship, conviction and connection.







Finally, the New Zealand panels had a wonderful sense of native flora and the connection between Maori and white settlers.

This is all linked together by the prism symbol - light shining through, splitting and unifying.


I could take no more in. I shall return for another visit on Monday and write a little of the Barrett Counterpane, the background fabric (I bought a piece) and the lettering. I managed to buy a book of the stitches -  including Quaker stitch.

Outside the sun was just beginning to leak through the clouds. I returned to the hotel and finished reading my book - Bruce Beckham's Murder at the School, set around Windermere- had dinner and am ready for sleep.

Daylight saving begins tonight. Luckily I do not have an early morning commitment so can afford a little confusion!