Council: Jim Walker : Margaret Skea - The Great Tapestry of Scotland

President Scott Elliot welcomed members and their ladies to last week's meeting of the Rotary Club.  They were honoured to hear an excellent illustrated presentation by Margaret Skee on the making of 'the great tapestry of Scotland' in which she was partly involved.  From an original idea by the noted Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, assisted by author Alistair Moffat,  and artist Andrew Crummy the tapestry was 3 years in the making.  The information she imparted was phenomenal and it involved 1,000 stitchers, many of whom were amateurs and in the age range of 3 to 94 and even included some men.  The tapestry is made up of 160 panels and in total is 140+ metres long and depicts 12,000 years of Scottish history.  300 miles of yarn was used and it is estimated 55,000+ hours were spent on the work.  Once the panels were sewn at various locations throughout the country they were soaked, stretched, backed and hemmed before they were mounted in their panels.  It was on display for the first time in the Scottish Parliament last year and attracted record crowds but it is on tour until the end of 2014.  It is hoped to have it housed in a permanent building at Tweedbank pending negotiations on financing and providing a suitable building.  Many questions evolved after which Jim Walker gave the vote of thanks.