We are creating an embroidery to illustrate Australian Quaker history and concerns. This committee coordinates the design, stitching, conservation and exhibition of the panels
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Australian Quaker Narrative Embroidery Project
Purpose
The purpose of the Friends in Stitches Committee is to coordinate, encourage and grow the Australian Narrative Embroidery project. As of today we have twenty four completed panels and another ten in progress. We envisage at least forty, but we have enough fabric for seventy.
A panel begins with the ideas. Then follows research and the creation of a design using images and text. The completed cartoon is drawn onto calico and tacked onto the woollen fabric ready for the stitching of the embroidery. The finished embroideries are mounted and then displayed in Quaker Meetings and other venues around Australia.
Our project is a community arts project. It is based on the UK Kendal Quaker Tapestry which in turn is based on the Bayeux tapestry. It is a series of embroidered panels which tell a story and this is why we call it a 'tapestry' when it is actually an embroidery.
We encourage participation at all levels. If you have an idea for a panel, let's hear it! Can you design a panel or would you like to stitch one? No previous experience needed. We learn on the job.
Meeting for Stitching is held irregularly on Zoom on Thursday afternoon at this link if you would like to meet or contact the convenors.
You can subscribe to the monthly newsletter at the contact button at the top of the page.
The co-convenors of the committee are Margaret Bywater, Sally O'Wheel and Tessa Spratt.
The Friends in Stitches archives can be searched for in the University of Tasmania Special Quaker Collection https://sparc.utas.edu.au/index.php/australian-quaker-narrative-embroide...
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