Exhibition - New Zealand Hospital Community Tapestry - Mount Felix

I walked down to the Riverside Barn Arts Centre to work on the tapestry (embroidery) in the gallery, where it is on display. There was lots going on - a few people coming in to see the exhibition and quite a few stitchers working on panels. Linda showed me how to do a nice, flat stem stitch and I got on with our third panel (the Plunket family) and Linda got on with our second (the last one showing the barn and some leaves with the names of the stitchers). Here are some pictures from the exhibition.

This is the exhibition with lots of information and photographs.
 

The designer came down from Scotland to look at our progress.

Linda and Helen working in the gallery

Rydens School is working on this panel showing a "lemon Squeezer"- shaped hat with a Kiwi dreaming of Cooktown.
 

Our finished panel: Gallipoli

Detail from our finished panel (I did this bit)

A really lovely design showing Christmas at the hospital
 

Nurses with the Old Manor House - some were billeted there

One Kiwi soldier married a local girl - Miss Rosewell of Rosewell's boatyard - they met over an ivy-clad wall.

The King and Queen came to visit Mount Felix hospital (an expert sewer did this - it's amazing).

I was working on this one today - it shows the Plunket family and their servants - Michele did this. I don't know what the flowers are.

Linda is working on this one - trying hard to make the clinkers and tiles look interesting

A community tapestry is a great idea - I feel part of a community - a Walton community rather than a Weybridge one, but never mind.

Here is a link to a site with the history of the hospital

Community tapestry - Mount Felix Military hospital

When I was a girl and I lived in Walton, by the river, there was a derelict site at the end of the road called Mount Felix, where there had been a Big House - which had been used as a military hospital during "the War". In fact, the hospital had housed so many injured New Zealanders that it had had to be extended into "huts" along a row which became called New Zealand Avenue and which is now a main road in Walton-on-Thames. (The adults meant the war which they couldn't remember - although Grannie and Grandad could - the Great War.) The building was Italianate in style with a square tower which was quite a landmark, but eventually it was razed to the ground and we used the stony ground, with its patches of concrete (probably originally the driveway) to play football, and we also used to slide down amongst the trees on the muddy bank to the pond. There was plenty of room for a few groups of children to play there.

This is the "land" side of Mount Felix, with its tower.

This is the river side with its pond (now a marina).

One of the other groups of children came from Ridgeway (a road on the bridge side of Mount Felix), and I met one of them at a meeting of the stitchers who are making the community tapestry to mark the centenary of World War 1. We are now women firmly into middle age and yet she shared my childhood!

 I have to say that it's not really a tapestry - it's an embroidery. I came together with three other women who have done some embroidery but not much - to form a group, and now we call ourselves "Stitched Up" because we never knew each other before this project. But now we meet every two weeks.

The history is probably not that interesting unless you are a local or otherwise interested in World War 1, but if you are please find a link to the website

We have just finished our first panel! Here it is!






Our panel is number 11 (or 14) and it shows trench warfare in Gallipoli.
I did a lot of flies and stray bullets. We had a lot of dull sand and
sandbags to do, but we tried to make it as bright as we could.