That gold cross!

 I do always like a challenging question!

Well we all know that the Guernsey Flag is a mix of

 the Cross of St George and the Cross of William the Conqueror - Duke of Normandy.  

 But last week a gentleman who was a keen history buff

 said he had never seen Williams cross before,  stopping to think about it neither had I. 

 Later in town I bumped into the Head of Museums here, and so I asked him.

Turns out in 1066 William persuaded Pope Alexander 2 to send him a papal banner, 

to show him backing of Williams invasion plans.

 

 As you can see it is definitely the gold cross from the center of our flag.

 It also features a fair few time in the Bayeux Tapestry, though you do seem to have to know what you are looking for, its not obvious.

So we now know, and I bet you anything I am never asked that question again!!!!!

Guernsey Light Infantry

I was having a cup of coffee in the garden on Sunday morning before going for a walk, the radio was on quietly in the kitchen, when one of the neighbours started up with some load music. 

Except on second thoughts, I don't think any of my neighbours are marching band fans.......(well I am, I love them, I blame my Dad!)....then I remembered that the island was commemorating the departure of the Guernsey Light Infantry to fight in the Great War exactly one hundred years ago. 

So we hurried out to catch up with them as they were heading down Fountain St. 

The parade was following their original route from Fort George, down through Trinity Square to Town Church and through town to the White Rock where there was a service of remembrance.

It seems that the parade was split into two parts, so you could properly hear the bands.

The first part featuring soldiers, veterans and a military band.

The second part (which we had caught up with) was the band of the Boys Brigade, re-enactors in authentic WW1 uniform and local school children,

many whose great, great, great grandfathers had been among the original soldiers. 

It was incredibly moving, especially as they rounded into Church Square,

the watching crowds started clapping.

Eyes were definitely moist, glad I had my sunglasses....

Think it was made even more moving for me as on Saturday I had been asked a question in the Gallery that really made me think about the human cost of WW1.

As this gentleman had walked up to St James he had passed the war memorial at the top of Smith Street. This was originally put up for WW1 and other wars have since been added. 

His question was this

There are an awful lot of names on your memorial, when I have visited ones in the UK ,they often list all who went to fight and then put a star next to those who didn't come home.  Is that the case for yours, or are those names all who died?  Because that seems an awful lot for a small island.   

Well I was pretty sure I knew the answer, but I did double check with

The Fountain of All Knowledge, The Priaulx Library, and they confirmed what I thought.

Those four panels on the back wall are all those who died.

Its very humbling when you stop to have a proper look at it. 

They fought at Passchendaele, Cambrai and Lys.

Three hundred and twenty seven young men were killed.

Their moto was Diex Aix - God Help Us.

This derives from the battle cry used by the Duke of Normandy 1,000 years earlier.

Such brave men.

sometimes we need a little help to realise how lucky we are.....

Yesterday I met to a lovely lady in the Gallery, who was an embroidery teacher from Australia.

I was chatting about sewing/embroidery courses I had done,

when she said something that made me stop and think.

'you are very lucky to have access to so many wonderful courses and Museums this side of the world'

Now I have been to Oz and it is a beautiful country, but I think I know what she means.

The wealth of history we have on our door step is truly amazing.

I have shared the links to the Gobelin Tapestry Workshop, West Dean and Lesage embroidery school, all of which I have been lucky enough to visit or attend courses in.  The last image is the Aubusson Tapestry Museum, definitely on my wish list!

Gobelin Factory

 Lesage

 West Dean

Aubusson Tapestry Museum

These beautiful places are just the tip of the ice-burg, the amount of museum, chateaux, castles and other historic building that allow us to view some truly amazing historical textiles is incredible.  

But I do think when in we live in Europe ( I mean the continent not the EU!) we can get a bit blaze about the treasures we are surrounded by and sometimes we need a stranger to remind us.

loving our flag

I was having a tidy up at the gallery the other day and I realised just how much embroidery silks and bits of aida I have.  The aida are the off cuts from making up the cross stitch kits that we sell, but often when stitchers are down sizing, they very kindly give us the remains from their horde, and this is how most of the silks have come my way. 

I need to start using them!

Now I love our flag with the crosses of St George and William the Conqueror combined, but the colours (red, white and yellow) aren't soft.  And the silk colours that I have are, almost Autumnal. 

So I am stitching cross stitch hearts with the image of our flag

but each one in a different colour combination. 

The first one (above) flew out of the shop with in a day.  I took that as a good sign! 

So the second one (below) is nearly finished.

and I already have the colours sorted for the third.

They do take along time, but its the sort of thing I do while chatting to our visitors.

So no idea at all how regularly they will be appearing, so if you see one grab it!

a cornucopia of colour and wool

I just wanted to show you all a wonderful donation t

hat we received a couple of weeks ago, 

two large quilt bags full of embroidery wool

and two full of Appletons wool!

this lady was down sizing and thought of us! Aren't we lucky, I expect our stitchers will be very busy this winter making lots of gorgeous things for the shop.  Will keep you posted.

Gilliatt's adventure

Good Friday is the start of the Channel Island Heritage Festival.

This year the theme is our relationship with the sea, this also ties in nicely with the celebration in April of the 150th Anniversary of the publishing of Toilers of the Sea 

which was written by Victor Hugo while he was living in Guernsey,

and is a love story based round a ship wreck off Guernsey.

 

Its a brilliant story

but in my opinion Hugo can go into pages of over the top description. 

Fast track through those and I think you will enjoy it!

For our part of the festival we have decided to let our visitors help in

producing a small (20cmm/30cm) panel celebrating Hugo and Toilers. 

 And the wool has now arrived, love those colours!

So last week I got the image all gridded up.  In Toilers, Gilliatt the hero (pronounce the G like a J as you would in patois, which is the same for Guernesiais) sails his small boat,

a Dutch Sloop  (see image below) down to try and free the engine from the shipwreck. 

 

 

I felt that the boat featured in the 12th century panel definitely bared a strong similarity to this style/type of boat. So that boat and Hugo's signature in the 19th panel became the base for our design.

Once you are all gridded it up it actually is rather satisfying transferring the image from paper to canvas.

Ta da all done!

Now just an excuse to practise a couple of stitches! We are using a 14hpi canvas (a little larger than the actual panels which are 16hpi) and Appletons Wool crewel weight.

I am keeping the palette of stiches very simple as hopefully we will have lots to different abilities of people involved.  These stitches will included satin, upright cross, Romanian couching, tent and back stitch.

So if you want to have ago, we will be stitching every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning between 10 and 12am from 25th March till 10th May except for Liberation Day (9th May). 

Entrance is £4.95 for Adults, £4.50 for Seniors and Students and children are free.

 

So every one who comes to see the Tapestry on those day can have a go if they would like.

Cant wait to get started!!!!!

Catherine Cauche

Last night Chris and I joined a crowd of locals and visitors to watch a group of actors bring to life a very sad and turbulent period of our history. The reformation.

Warned its not a nice story.





 

 

 

It was in 1556 that Catherine Cauche and her daughters Guillemine Guilbert and Perotine Massey were charged with handling stolen goods, they were let off this charge but during the investigation it came to the authorities attention that they had not been attending catholic Mass on Sundays.

At this point I must say Perotine was pregnant.

This was not good, Queen Mary was on the throne and had re introduced the Catholic faith after her father Henry VIII has made the country Protestant.

The authorities here were very keen to show their loyalty to the new Queen, and so came down very hard on this family for not being good Catholics

 

They were sentenced to be hung and then burnt at the stake.

So they should have been dead by the time they fell into the flames,

 but tragically this did not happen.

 

 

The shock of the flames induced labour and the baby boy was born, the surgeon at the castle rescued the child, but for some reason we will never understand the child was thrown back into the flames.

 

It was a fascinating piece of street theatre, but with that story I cant say enjoyable.

We finished up at the top of Cornet Street roughly were this all happened,

 and there is now a plaque at the top of Tower Steps in memory of these Martyrs.

 

 The play will happen again on the 27th July, this is because on the original parchment no one can decide if it is a 1 or a 2, so this happens every year (for the last 10 years) on the 17th and 27th July.

 

In 1563 with Elizabeth now on the throne and the country being Protestant again,  

Foxes Book of Martyrs was published.

 I am think I am right in saying that it was the first book published in England that was not a bible?  This book listed and described some of the worst atrocities that happened during Queen Mary's time on the throne and unsurprisingly the case in Guernsey appears. 

The authorities responsible were arrested and charged with murder once Queen Elizabeth was in power, but for some reason after 18 months they were pardoned.......

This tragedy also appears in the Tapestries

But as we have a lot of children visit, the full horror of the story is not delved into on the audio guide.

Hurrah for La Hougette

 

Back in May we had a group of Year 5s (9-10 year olds) in from La Hougette Primary School, which is out on the west coast of the island.

They are regular visitors to us, mixing coming to the Tapestry with their end of year local history project, and it is always lovely to see them.

But this year was a little different as one of their teachers was Emma, an old school friend of mine, and she has very kindly sent me photos of the embroidery/art project they did after their visit

and has let me share it on here.

I think they are amazing

they follow the poem

'Dog in the playground'

by Allan Ahlberg

Hope you enjoy them as much as I have and

 thank you once again Emma and threading all those needles and tying all those knots!!!!