Da Gadderie, Shetland Museum and Archives, Lerwick, until 2 October 2007

Clippit Cloots and Steekit Stitches

THE HUMBLE needle can, in careful hands, be used to conjure up a boundless array of creations. ‘Clippit Cloots and Steekit Stitches’ is an exhibition by the Shetland Needleworkers that demonstrates this point to fine effect.

The collection of intricate designs and bold wall hangings ooze vibrant colours, pattern and texture. The work also serves as testimony to the technical mastery of the members’ skill in fabric arts.

The Shetland Needleworkers, previously known as the Shetland Branch of the Embroiderer’s Guild, has been running for eleven years. With around thirty members in total, the group meets monthly and runs workshops, classes, talks and demonstrations on fabric arts.

It is a curious world of strange technical terms such as sashiko, stumpwork, and slipwork. Along with more familiar terms, such as appliqué and patchwork, these words form the needleworkers’ glossary.

Needlework is the term applied to decorative sewing in the textile arts. Any work that involves the use of a needle for construction can be called needlework. One of the most common forms is embroidery, the embellishment of a fabric using hand and machine needle work.

The word embroidery derives from the Anglo-Saxon word for “edge”, stemming from its use in decorative stitched borders. Now it applies to any such decoration on textile fabric and other materials.

Embroidery stitches may be functional or purely decorative. The names of the stitches, like the techniques, are intriguing to the uninitiated: chain stitch, blanket stitch, featherstitch, French knot, satin stitch, cross-stitch and tent stitch.

In this exhibition we also find patchwork and appliqué. Fabrics have been carefully layered and stitched onto one another to create exhibits such as wall hangings, blankets and padded baskets.

Historically the art of needlework has been entwined with the notion of the domestic and in this exhibition many pieces have been made as homage to the family or for functional use in the home.

For example, the gloriously bright ‘Duncan’s Memory Quilt’ by Jude Ross Smith is a large hand-pieced, hand-quilted patchwork made from scraps of fabric with sentimental value. The artists’ children helped to arrange the squares.

Likewise, ‘Hearts all a Flutter’ by Marjory Scott is a machine embroidered cot quilt, made for Marjory’s first grand-daughter. Whilst ‘Family Tree’ by Gilda Sim is an embroidery using cross stitch and was made for Gilda’s parents’ Golden Wedding.

The stitching samplers on show evoke a sense of continuum in needleworking. Of generations of needleworkers practising, refining and handing down their skills.

Sheila Peterson’s sampler ‘Land O’ the Simmer Dim’ is a stitched representation of Shetland with a map, place-names and illustrations of some of the creatures found on the islands. The piece demonstrates a range of technical skills and imaginative detail.

‘Victorian Alphabet Sampler’ by Diane Evans features cross-stitched letters surrounded by peacocks and topiary. In ‘Miniature Garden’ by Rita Fraser, hand embroidery, stumpwork, needle weaving and slipwork are combined to create a tiny world of exotic flora and fauna.

There is a sense of otherworldliness in this exhibition. Stories and wishes could almost have been stitched into these pieces along with the threads and fabrics.

‘Dragon Quilt’ by Glenda Smedley is an appliqué work using machine embroidery that has been hand-quilted. But these are not devilish dragons, rather they are friendly creatures who could have been created to keep watch over sleeping children.

The miniature and the detailed hang alongside large, abstract pieces that make for a striking first glimpse of the exhibition as visitors enter Da Gadderie. There are huge maple leaves in autumnal colours, repetitive floral patterns and complex kaleidoscopic designs.

This, then, is a world of delight, fantasy and magic. There are no dark depictions in this exhibition. No malevolent undertones. Here we find magical creatures, bonnet-adorned figures, flowers, gardens, idyllic landscapes and animals.

These needleworkers have also turned their stitches to the landscapes before them. Shetland features in ‘Winter Landscape’ by Marina Anderson. But there are no gales lasing the land is this winter scene. Rather shades of blue and silver patchwork sparkle around a croft house. It is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’s ice-covered Narnia.

On peering closely at many of the works it is clear that the individual fabric shapes that make up the cohesive whole are in fact highly patterned and complex themselves. Drawing together these contrasting pieces to create a harmonious image is no mean feat. Again technical skill underlies seemingly simple designs.

The techniques include processes with names such as fusing, slashing and burning. Brutal sounding terms that are somehow at odds with this exhibition so full of celebration and colour. The contrast between the names of the processes and delicate subject matter is quite intriguing.

Display cases hold fine items, including greetings cards, boxes and sketch books. ‘Sketch Book’ by Sheila Peterson serves as an interesting insight into technique and experimentation.

The pages contain handwritten details that read like poetic recipes, for example, “Brown paper crushed, painted, bonded to black Vilene then stitched into freely by machine (no hoops)”

These are accompanied by notes, “Lighter than I had in mind but very pleasing overall”. We learn that the fundamental techniques that have been used for generations are still subject to experimentation and playfulness.

Many textile artists are represented in this exhibition. As well as the intricate samplers and large colourful abstract wall hangings there are Christmas themed pieces, cushions in autumnal colours, Japanese inspired bags and neat, padded boxes. But all contributors share a delight in developing their dexterity with the needle and a lightsome, jovial sense of life and colour.

© Karen Emslie, 2007

Links

• Shetland Museum & Archives