From WWI…at The Museum of Richmond

The photo is of postcards made by French women in WWI for British soldiers to send back to their wives/ families. They were embroidered on very thin silk and then mounted on postcards with a little frame. This little collection was donated to the Museum and they were probably sent by the chap in the photo, to his wife and family..…there are messages on the back. I was at the Museum both to see the little display they have about the fact that it is the 100th anniversary of the first Poppy Day and also to attend a workshop. The Learning Officer is an ex teacher and very enthusiastic about the textiles in the collection, hence she runs courses once a month. This is the first I have been to but I was very impressed by her explanations of the postcards and then with her teaching and the pack she gave us so that we could create an embroidery card. 
The light was poor and we were not allowed to handle the cards.

In the pack there was fabric, an embroidery circle, four colours of embroidery silk, a needle and a booklet, of instructions! You had to book a place online via Eventbrite and I was surprised that there was not a fixed price…you can do it free or pay £5,10,20 or more ..your choice. They don’t want to exclude anyone who isn’t well off. So very good value even at £20. I did a lot of embroidery many years ago, at school, but very little in recent years. So after doing a quick design I started the embroidery..only satin stitch and stem stitch…and it came back to me. So now I’m  going to try and finish it over the next day or two and maybe blip the result! Such a good idea to have these little courses. I may go to the next one in December which is about book- binding methods and we get to have a go.

Even though the train strike was called off there were no trains to Richmond so I had to take a bus which was very crowded both ways. Not liking the dismal weather today, such a contrast with yesterday.