The Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth Collection - On-Line Soon!

Having mentioned The Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth Collection, I had a number of emails today on this topic. Some of you know that this collection is probably the largest and most comprehensive collection of needlework (including samplers) and lace in the UK. What many do not know, is that its primary intention is to be a teaching collection - and as such, pieces are available on loan for hands on study - do make use of it if you can. Mike Millward - a hero of mine - has devoted years to imaging most of the 27,000 items in the collection (no, I didn't stick too many noughts on the end of that number!) and soon the collection will be on-line study also. Mike is a wonderful speaker, should you need one. He had us totally enthralled at Ackworth2008 and we loved his tales of life in the collection at Gawthorpe Hall. In an office that also doubled as archive space, space being tight, Mike had the best corner in ladies' underwear, he told us. Do keep your eyes on the collection website for news. Do visit the collection. And do make use of the collection if you are a guild or a study group. Click here to keep updated.

Many pieces in Gail Marsh's book can be found in the Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth Collection.

What Might Have Been - The Whalley Abbey Vestments at Towneley Hall, Burnley

Founded in 1296 and dissolved by Henry VIII in 1537, Whalley Abbey was the Locus Benedictus of around 60 Cistercian Monks, founded on the banks of the River Calder. Today, the gatehouse and ruins remain...and some fabulous, well-preserved embroideries.

Brought to Towneley Hall for safe-keeping by Sir John Towneley (1473-1541), a chasuble, maniple and dalmatic can be seen there today. A second, matching dalmatic is in the Burrell Collection in Glasgow.

These magnificent embroideries are, astonishingly, the only surviving complete set of medieval English High Mass vestments. The gaze of past glory is now a blink, but such a dazzling blink - one can only begin to imagine what might have been had the power holders of history chosen a different course. Click here for more details of Towneley Hall. It is a set in a wonderful green space close to the densely-packed, old cotton mill towns of Lancashire and only a stone's throw from Gawthorpe Hall at Paddiham, home of the Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth Textile Collection.

Free Give Away * Vintage Modes & Travaux Points de Marque Volume 2

It really has been too long since we have had a give away - my apologies, I can only plead pressure of work. But, here we are at last. This give away is open to everybody.

This is a very special item, a complete 16 panel cross-stitch pattern leporello from Cartier Bresson's Modes et Travaux, full of lovely alphabets and borders.

Funnily enough, I didn't find it on one of my many trips to France, but up near the Scottish borders.....and just to add to the miles this little booklet has travelled, the lady who bought it in May 1955 lived in London! We are truly an international community of stitchers, aren't we?

Well, it is simply lovely and I'd love to give it away to you - all you have to do is to click on the flying angel and tell me which has been your favourite Needleprint blog post this year. We shall draw a winner from your replies and the winner will be announced next week on 11 April.

Do You Remember that...? Mothers' Day at The Museum of London (Collection Now On-Line)

One of my favourite days out with my mother was visiting the local museum. Always busy and preoccupied, my mother would find time to chat about lighter things over her needlework, but then there was always someone coming to the door, cooking food that needed a watchful eye, the next pressing task awaiting which would suddenly snip through the thread of memories in mid-unwinding.

Much better were Sundays at the local museum. Here there were no demon demands lurking in corners. Just a lovely hour or so of wandering round the exhibits, saying things like, Do you remember that doll? We had one like that when I was little! I remember those!

Now I love to love to browse museums with my own children. I always remember the day when my youngest daughter who was three at the time, said, "When I am a big girl, and you are a little girl, can I choose your clothes?"

Maybe as a special Mothers' Day treat you can visit the Museum of London with a mother or daughter and have a wonderful day out in this fabulous museum of memories, some shared, some lost, some found, all special to someone. And if you live too far away to visit in person, you can now visit on-line. Make a nice pot of tea and some cup-cakes and invite your family to look with you. I am sure you will find things out you never knew before. Just click here to visit the Museum of London on-line.