I'm co-ordinating a Great Tapestry of Scotland group from the village of Smailholm, near Kelso. It's a tiny village of less than 30 houses and an electoral role of around 100, including the outlying farms. Nine of us live in the village or the immediate surrounding area, and the other t Read more...

I'm co-ordinating a Great Tapestry of Scotland group from the village of Smailholm, near Kelso. It's a tiny village of less than 30 houses and an electoral role of around 100, including the outlying farms. Nine of us live in the village or the immediate surrounding area, and the other three live nearby and have either lived here in the past or are actively involved in the village's many activities. The group consists of Avril Blown, Catherine Tees, Denise Hunter, Derrick Jowett, Fiona Brown, Isabel Atkinson, Margaret Shaw, Margaret Skea, Robyn Kinsman Blake, Sally Scott Aiton, Susan Mason and myself, Veronica Ross. Ages range from 24 to 82. None of us were involved in the Prestonpans Tapestry.

I heard about the tapestry at the Borders Book Festival in 2011 and thought it would be such a wonderful thing to be involved with. I asked around for others interested people, naively telling them that "basic sewing skills" would be adequate. I am so grateful that some of the people I approached had far more than this! Between us we have a wide range of sewing skills, a couple are expert at cross stitch, others have done dressmaking (6 of the group made their own wedding dresses), some have done sewing crafts, but most have done no more than dabble in embroidery, often in their school days. Only two have really advanced embroidery skills and training and another is picking up a past embroidery hobby. We have taken the view that this is a public arts project with room for all to participate, but having some people who really know what they're doing and are generous in sharing their time and skills has been invaluable, as are the artistic skills some of the group have been able to contribute.

We have had our panel on the Border Reivers since June 2012, and learning more about the history of this fascinating period has been one of the joys of being involved with the tapestry. This knowledge is invaluable for interpreting the panel and creating stitching in a form which reflects the nature of the Reivers and their landscape. We meet formally every 4 or 5 weeks, but there's a fair amount of communication in between. We try to sew bits which we think are appropriate to our skills, and we also try to see that the panel is never sitting idle.

At the time of writing this (January 2013) the Border Reivers panel is more than two thirds complete. We were therefore very pleased to be asked to help with the Modern Kilt panel. With such a large group, some of us haven't actually done a huge amount of sewing, and some people have no more to do on the Reivers' panel, so it's lovely to be able to gear up to doing a bit more. We really enjoy meeting other stitchers and seeing some of the fabulous work going on in other groups. We are making a big effort to get both panels complete by the end of May and are optimistic that this will be possible.