St Cuthbert's Isle

After finishing the cross, I also had another piece in mind just for the exhibition, which was simply on the theme of Lindisfarne, and so could have touched on the Gospels, the history, the religion, the castle... Anything, really!

With such a wide variety  to choose from, I thought about techniques before picture on this one. I had really enjoyed doing the Dunstanburgh piece last year, so I looked back at that. It's a lovely technique to use, but it's not very precise. With that in mind, it's best used on landscape, to colour the general background before embroidering the focal point.

So, next step was to decide on a photo to use. I went back over the photos taken on Holy Island last year, and chose one taken from St Cuthbert Isle, looking across to the mainland.

The reverse picture would be this one, looking back to Holy Island, and the ruins of the Priory. An amazingly peaceful place, which has seen some horrific moments in its history, it is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

So, I spent ages on the background to this one, because with a technique like this where you are only embroidering a small focal point, you need to be sure that the background is right. So I layered the foundation, and added the colour, so that it was all perfect.  Sprayed a bit of water over it all to wet the natural glue in the raw silk, carefully placed the baking parchment over the top, and ironed.

At this point you need to iron the fabric that you have just created until it's dry, then peel off the baking parchment. I'm sure you can imagine how upset I was when all of my carefully arranged colour peeled right off, stuck fast to the baking parchment! Upset, stressed, and not a little darned annoyed!

By the time I had managed to carefully remove the colour from the parchment and rearrange it on the background, and vainly try to make the darned thing stick where it should, it was no longer quite as perfect as I was sure it had been, but in all honesty it probably didn't look anywhere near as bad as I'd thought when I looked at it again the next day!

So, fabric finally completed, I set about deciding what needed to be stitched.  I find with this technique that less is always best, and so I decided that all it needed was the cross itself, plus some small detail of rocks, flowers and grass around the base.  I had deliberately not put any colour in the center of the design, because I wanted the whole of the cross to be stitched. That was the biggest job, of course, and was done entirely in long and short stitch in varying shades of dark gray, green, and white.

The details around the bottom of the cross are meant to show the lush grass and wildflowers growing around the area, among the rocks and delves of the island. These were done in raised cup stitch for the rocks, colonial knots for the flowers, and long stitch for the grasses.

Please remember folks, that if you choose to visit Holy Island you check out the tides! The Island can only be reached by a causeway, and only at low tide. If you try to drive across at the wrong time, you will get stuck, and you will be charged for your rescue! The crossing times are clearly shown at both sides of the causeway, plus all around the Island, on the Internet, and in every pub and shop along that whole stretch of coast. If you do get stuck, you have no one to blame but yourself :-)

Having said all of that, it's perfect for a day out if you are in the area. If you go across as soon as it is safe, there is more than enough time for a walk around the village, a visit to the castle, exploring the ruins of the Priory, and taking the time to enjoy the peace. And don't forget to watch out for the hermit crabs as you plodge through the rock pools on your way to St Cuthbert Isle.