As a quilt maker I am always drawn to works of art crafted with textiles and threads. Many community groups create beautiful pieces which tell the stories of their towns and cities, both past and present.
Buckler’s Hard, in the New Forest in Hampshire, England, was a major centre for ship building in the 18th century. At St Mary’s Chapel the altar cloth, designed and stitched by Belinda, Lady Montagu, features the Tree of Life, representing the timber used in ship building. Around the border are the names of the ships constructed on the Beaulieu River, including three which took part in the Battle of Trafalgar – Agamemnon, Swiftshure and Euryalus.
This delicate yet detailed piece hangs at Fishbourne Roman Palace, in West Sussex, England. It is a map of the village of Fishbourne and was created to celebrate the millennium.
Bruges is famous for its lace makers and one of the most intricate pieces of lace is this map of the city, created in 2008. It shows the museums, churches and streets of the old town and stands on the bank of one of Bruges’ canals.
I’m inspired to get out my needle and thread each time I see works of art like these.
I’ve written about some more beautiful textile creations in these posts.
Weekly Photo Challenge – The Hue of You
A Stitch In Time – Weekly Photo Challenge – Delicate
wonderful work!! All lovely but that lace one omg!!
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And it was just there by the canal. We didn’t know about it until we came across it.
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I am always head over heels about beautiful needlework and have zero ability in the art myself. I tried counted embroidery once and made a complete dogs breakfast of it 🙂 They are all lovely – but the Bruges piece is stunning isn’t it!
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It is amazing, and I can’t begin to imagine how many hours of work went into it.
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Beautiful works of art.
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Stunning aren’t they.
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These are wonderfully intricate pieces of work – the patience needed to do something like that must be enormous. I can see why you would be inspired by them.
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There is so much skill in each of these. I love coming across lovely work like this in unexpected places.
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I really like the attention to detail you have with your work. Keep the inspiration alive. I would greatly appreciate it if you could check out my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kbeezyisviral
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These are just beautiful, Carol. I love that lace one.
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It was exquisite.
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These are lovely photos and I love the pieces of needlework you show. We are going to Bruges this summer for a family vacation, so it is especially nice to read this history here.! Thank you so much.
Dena@gathering-flavors
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How exciting for you. I hope you love Bruges as much as we did. How long will you be there? We were there for a week. If you look back in my archives, from October up to March, I wrote several posts about what we did in and around Bruges. You might find something you would like to do too. Happy reading!
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Beautiful! I’m headed to Amish country tomorrow in Pennsylvania where I hope to see plenty of Amish quilts. Great pictures and commentary!
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Lucky you. That is one of the places on my must-visit list. Will you be showing photos?
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I’m taking my camera and will be taking photos of what is permissible. The Amish don’t like to be photographed, so not a lot of people, just places. I’ve booked a two hour horse drawn buggy ride driven by an Amish man that will take us to a working Amish farm, an Amish house, etc. should be fun. I’ll be writing a post to put up next week.
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I’m looking forward to reading it. I hope you get some lovely quilt photos.
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Such intricate work. These are really beautiful. The lace map must have taken so long to complete.
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Hundreds of hours I’d say. It was pretty amazing close up. The detail was wonderful.
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And that lace map outdoors stays untouched by everyone? I’ve been to Brugges and enjoyed ourselves. Not the mosquitoes. 🙂
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