Community Spirit - NSPCC

I should really have mentioned this event before, rather than after the event. A really successful day and still worth including today to make people aware that it may be repeated. I met so many people I know, and haven't seen for years, the common thread? Textiles.




One visitor to the event yesterday embroidered the children for the NSPCC logo. I could remember what she'd made before her name - the danger of being obsessed with databases. So, Julia Cooper, if you're reading this, did you use a computerised machine to make the children? and who stitched the NSPCC?

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded in 1884 by Reverend Benjamin Waugh.

Sports for All - Gymnasts

Intake School students also designed this piece representing gymnasts.

The embroidery was done on a computerised sewing machine, purchased for the Tapestry with the aid of a lottery grant. There were several debates when the panels were being made, about whether machine- and computerised-machine embroidery are a form of cheating. A personal view is that it's like comparing using oils, acrylics and water colours in painting. Each has something different to offer.

One of the gymnasts was scanned into a dedicated software programme on the computer. Areas for sewing were selected, then the computer linked to the sewing machine. The computerised sewing machines are supplied with a hoop for stretching the fabric across, and it's the hoop that moves under instruction from the programme. The programme was run four times to produce the four gymnasts. The sewing machine sews away without interference or need for the pedal but there is a tendency for the thread to snap the minute the 'embroiderer' leaves the room.

Machine embroidered by Barbara Walker (5 hours)

Sports for All - Rugby Players

I can't identify the rugby players, they are an embroidered version of a cartoon drawn by one of the pupils at Intake School. Apparently the school closed in 2009 and re-opened as Leeds West Academy.

They were hand stitched by Pat Potton.

A very quick posting this morning.

Sports for All - Rugby Stadium

Not only did the pupils at Intake School contribute to the Sports Panel with their designs, teachers also became involved. One of them, Kathryn Vincent, spent many hours stitching the Rhino's ground which had been chartered by Peter Cowgill.

The team were known as Leeds Rugby League Club until 1997 when they became Leeds Rhinos. The ground is adjacent to the Yorkshire County Cricket Club in Headingley. For more information it's probably better to look at their club website rather than have me burble on.

Sports for All - Darren Gough

Several famous cricketers from the past were included in the Tapestry and Darren Gough was there to represent cricketers of the present. He retired at the end of the 2008 season.

Despite leaving Yorkshire for a while to play for Essex, he returned to his home county in 2007 to captain the team.

Darren Gough may have been included on the Tapestry for his cricketing skills but since then he has also become quite a celebrity for winning Strictly Come Dancing. In December 2005, he took part in the BBC television show partnered with British National champion Lilia Kopylova. He went on to win both the main series and the 2005 Christmas Special. Two years later he returned to win the 2007 Christmas Special. Following this he took part in the Strictly Come Dancing live tour during January and February 2008.

The piece was hand stitched by Margaret Clark and designed by one of the pupils at Intake High School.

Sports for All - Headingley Cricket Ground

There are gates at the cricket ground named for Len Hutton.

On 7 March 1861, a Match Fund Committee to run Yorkshire county matches was established in Sheffield, which had by then been the home of Yorkshire cricket for nearly 100 years. It was from this fund that Yorkshire CCC was founded two years later. Yorkshire played their first game at Headingley in 1891 and two years later a major reorganization of the Club saw its centre of operations shift from Sheffield to Leeds.

On 31 December 2005 Yorkshire County Cricket Club purchased the cricket ground for £12 million from the Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company, parent company of the rugby league club, with the help of a £9 million loan from Leeds City Council. This purchase ensures that Test Cricket continues at the venue with a 15-year staging agreement. On 11 January 2006 the stadium was officially renamed the Headingley Carnegie Stadium as a result of sponsorship from Leeds Metropolitan University.

The piece was hand and machine stitched by Janet Taylor (12 hours)

Sports for All - Len Hutton (1916-1990)

Sometimes it can be difficult to think of a subject for the daily blog. There are so many diverse subjects on the Tapestry that a link with the news stories of the day can help. Cricket seems to be featuring heavily at the moment, so not exactly linked to the news story, today's offering is Sir Len Hutton.

Born at Fulneck, Pudsey on 23rd June 1916, he first played cricket, with his father, with Fulneck Sunday School and at the age of 13 was chosen to use the ‘nets’ at Headingley. In 1934 he scored the first of 129 centuries for county and country. In 1938, against the Australians at the Oval, he scored 364 runs, a record that stood for many years until Gary Sobers beat it by one run (against Pakistan in 1958). He was awarded his knighthood in the 1956 New Year’s Honour's List.

The embroidery was hand stitched by Merel Jackson (14 hours). I suspect the print was based on a cigarette card owned by Robin Dove.