Believe it or not, I found stitching in the Scottish National War Museum at Edinburgh Castle!
First of all, there are a LOT of kilts on display! Along with the kilts are jackets, several of which are decorated with some really impressive gold work. Everyone else was looking at the exhibits; I had my face pressed against the glass studying the gold work on the uniforms.
There were also other embroidered artifacts on display, and I had to see all of them, of course.
On the grounds of Edinburgh Castle is St. Margaret’s Chapel. This is the oldest building in Edinburgh, very tiny, but so beautiful. And of course the thing that caught my attention the most was the beautiful embroidered altar cloth! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get close enough to it to examine it thoroughly, and if I were the rule-breaking type I’d have slipped under the velvet rope guard to look more closely!
I learned more about St. Margaret’s Chapel when I visited with some Edinburgh friends, and I’ll share that in a later post.
We walked from our hotel to the castle, and of course the working textile mill just below the castle caught my attention! So we visited the mill after the castle, went down four flights of stairs to the basement, and saw the looms where they weave the plaids. It was Sunday so the looms weren’t working, but we did get to talk to the attendants and see several examples of woven plaids. Did you know the mill will let you create your own plaid? I was very tempted! It seems that people create all kinds of plaids to celebrate weddings and other events – who knew!
I think we walked about 6 miles that day, from the hotel to the castle, up and down all over the castle grounds and the War Museum, then the flights of stairs at the textile mill. I was exhausted! But so glad to have seen so many wonderful textile/embroidery/goldwork things! Well worth the exhaustion and jet lag!