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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Tapestry Cushions Project at St Stephen’s Church

First stop on our Probus bus trip yesterday was at St Stephen’s Church, Marton.   And what a treasure the church is.  Made of beautiful native timbers, with the sunlight flooding through the stained glass windows, and featuring a gorgeous array of hand stitched tapestry cushions.

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Tree of Life window at St Stephen’s Church

Back in 2007 a suggestion was made to the Women’s Fellowship that tapestry cushions would enhance the lovely old church.  A committee was set up, and the members were soon enthusiastically stitching away.  The design brief for the project was: Traditional designs featuring a cross or other religious symbol, or historic buildings of the area, or farming activities, or flora and fauna of the area.  It was decided not to restrict the background colour, and for the stitchers to decide which colours best suited their designs.

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Cushion kits were made up, photos and some graphs were supplied if required,  although some stitchers chose to develop their own design.  The project was well publicised, and this led to a number of new stitchers in to join in.  An amazing  total of 80 cushions were stitched by 60 people.  At a service in June 2009, Archdeacon Elizabeth Body dedicated the cushions and gave thanks to those who had stitched them.

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Although I don’t do tapestry and failed miserably at cross stitch, I can certainly appreciate all the work and love which went in to making these lovely tapestry cushions.  Well done, ladies of Marton.

You can read about the rest of our big day out on our Probus bus trip here.

4 comments:

Jocelyn is Canadian Needle Nana said...

Gosh, Jenny what a beautiful outing and what a treat to see such beautiful things. For many years, the only needlework I did was needlepoint so I have a special love for it. Someday I may work in wool again. I just loved seeing these today. Thanks.

Janice said...

What a lovely place to visit. Our local church is the oldest west of the blue mountains, dating from 1825. In the 80s the ladies of the congregation made kneelers very similar to the ones that you saw. They make a nice addition to the church. Thanks for sharing.

Jenny said...

Hi Jocelyn and Janice

There are some very clever needle workers around, and doing stitching like this for one's church must make the items very special indeed.

Tapestry is not a skill I have ever learnt, but these cushions were so beautiful. Of course, I could only show a few of them, there were all sorts of designs and colours at the church.

SuperMomNoCape said...

What beautiful cushions! And what a treasure for the church to have all the different cushions from so many of the ladies in the congregation. Thanks for sharing a few of them.

I'm a bit late visiting blogs... but thanks too for linking up to last week's Stitchery Link Party. Aloha hugs!