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A Calender of Kingsings

A poem by George Mackay Brown

June 2006

They endured a season
Of ice and silver swans.


Ice and Silver Swans

"They endured a season of ice and silver swans", proved to be an inspiring and meaningful journey. A rotating, snowflake design of icicles and swans, enhanced by silver metallic threads on an exciting purple and turquoise background gave a magical feel to my piece. I incorporated a guiding star-shaped compass and some Fibonacci lines to contrast with the whirling snowflakes and bring a sense of order to the work. The runes, ancient pagan symbols still found in Orkney, spell out SILVER SWANS.

Anne Harper

Delicately the horses
Grazed amongst the snowdrops.

Snowdrops

When allocated "my verse of the poem" I was instantly drawn to the snowdrops for inspiration. These flowers represent new life - another season coming - just what the kings are seeking at that time. I couldn't resist making a feature of them with a backdrop of Orkney just for good measure.

Irene Turnbull

Sail Away Sam

March - spring is the time of hope and rebirth, with pastel colours and tints being most evocative of the season. I combined two sizes of the Christian fish symbol to create the sun-compass from which light floods the quilt, and DNA helix patterns to form the embroidered lace 'crests' of water. The Norwegian replica sailing ship Gaia, which visited the islands last year, does not disturb the calm waters implied by the poet.

Bonnie McKerracher

Promise

Through the stone I have cut a path to the past to see the kings on their journey. "The first wash of Spring has gone over the earth" and day gains supremacy over darkness. April is a truly uplifting, joyous month, full of the promise of rewards to come. The daffodils illuminating the track confirm that the travellers have chosen the right track.

Amelia Doughty

The Dream

Energised and enriched from a restful sleep and a dream that united them in their quest to move onwards towards their common goal, the lark alerted them to the new day and the next phase of their journey.
The stitching lines in the left represent the delta brain waves of the deep dream state and on the right the beta brain patterns of the alert, awake state.

Pat Archibald

Solstice

In this piece, I wanted the sun to be dominant. It is June and the sun is at its zenith with its glory spilling down upon Earth. I used a variety of gold and metallic threads to convey this opulence. I felt I could not exclude the kings from the piece because they are so central to the poem. I have included them in the foreground on their journey to Bethlehem.

Mary Lambie

Burnished Hills

My verse has few visual clues to inspire a design, so I based it on the feelings engendered. At this stage in their journey I felt the Kings would need inward vision to over ride their despondency at losing their star and to reach their goal. The design shows a ray of hope coming through, culminating at a point in the sky where the star will soon return to guide them. The quilt is made with silk fabrics to emphasise the burnishing light on the gently undulating hills.

Bron Ellis

Shadow Dancers

This verse suggests to me satisfaction with the achievement of work well done. It is time for a celebration; for music and dancing. As the evening draws in the fiddle music encourages the harvesters to dance more freely. The background of the quilt represents the darkening walls of the building whilst the firelight reflects the flickering shadows on the walls behind the dancers as they become more and more animated and the fiddle music faster and faster.

Shirley Robertson

Reassurance

I started on this Creative Journey as an extremely nervous beginner in design, colour and quilting. For my textile panel I used a landscape picture of standing stones by the sea at sunset on Orkney and a black and white picture of light on a wet road at dusk and a Christmas card with stars. I merged these pictorial ideas and incorporated my lace making skills in the foreground.

Catherine Edmondson

October

I have used the colours of the sea, the shoreline and the moor lands at the end of autumn. The glory of autumn has passed and there is now a quiet confidence that the journey is almost complete. The kings are confident that they are on the right road and their destination is in sight. The three “snapshots” depict the important elements within the verse and remind us that there were three kings.

Isobel Johnston

Choices

Perhaps, nearing the end of the journey, their tired and weary bodies would be slowing down. In contrast, their thoughts would probably be in overdrive. As they settled by their campfires at night they may have had feelings of anticipation, hope, excitement, apprehension or uncertainty.
Would they continue on the straight and narrow path leading to peace and fulfilment or would they be tempted along the way ending their journey on a downward, dangerous path?

Theresa Hebden

Contentment

My design had to symbolize the last verse in the poem and my initial inspiration came from a picture postcard depicting a “midsummer moon-rise” over Orkney. Its colours were natural and dramatic and I chose to use them. They were contained in simple geometric shapes, with three moons as gold, frankincense and myrrh, three standing stones as the Magi and a star in the distance as the midwinter inn.

Karyl Teenan

Karyl Teenan

Winter - An Island Boy

A poem by George Mackay Brown

February 2007

A snowflake
Came like a white butterfly on his nose.

The Poet compares a snowflake to a butterfly, both are complex yet delicate.The verse evokes personal experiences of days when the sky is heavy with snow.
The atmosphere is quiet and mystical with muted light. I see snowflakes coming towards the spectator. The colours used echo the mood and for me also capture the essence of Orkney. Traditional pin-wheel blocks have been used in a contemporary manner. Machine, hand quilting and embellishments give the snowflakes an added sparkle, delicacy and complexity.

Dorothy Donaldson

His mother’s bucket
Was blue splashings at the well

It seemed entirely appropriate that I drew the most practical verse from the poem. After much research into buckets, wells, and splashes, it finally occurred to turn the buckets into the wells! This gave a strong focus for the design, and the blue stratified background, with its quilting lines represents the striking rock formations to be seen all around the Orkney coast. The splashes probably speak for themselves……

Sheila Dalgleish

And grandpa
Was notching hooks like stars on his lines
Down at the noust.

The scene is of a series of small stone-walled harbours fading into the distance. I wanted to use pastel wintry colours and felt there should be a suggestion of a low winter sun reflecting on the sea. I added a shadowy
Grandpa because he is prominent in the verse. Some of the quilting patterns are taken from runes.

Catherine Morrison

The school locked for Yule
-Time was a bird with white wings.

A Winter Solstice celebrates the Festival of Yule with the shortest day and the longest night of the year. As the sun begins its journey towards longer days, this is a time of ancient fears and superstitions, but also of anticipation and rejoicing, celebrating new growth and renewal of the world once again.

Passing Time is represented by a clock circle and trail of Flying Geese.

The Snow Goose is the ‘bird with white wings’.

Ann Clayton

A swan on the loch
Bent its head like a flower.

This verse evoked images of a swan uncurling its neck just like a bud uncurls to open.

The voile I used to cover the cotton gave an illusion of the grey, loch waters of Orkney.
The completed piece resembles a bud opening to reveal the swan.

Quilting stitches were inspired by feathers and the curves of nature.

Mairi Wheeler

He was lost on the hill till sundown
In a dream of snow

Snow Falls Softly

Snow falls softly as day slips to dusk against an Orkney landscape

A monochromatic background of Margaret J Miller's 'easy pieces' blocks with a free-hanging sheer overlay giving the idea of the falling snow.

Moira Dow

Hunger and lamplight
Led the wanderer home.

“The main focus was the warmth, comfort and nurture of home. This is represented in a symbolic form as George MacKay Brown’s work has been described as symbolic”.

Anne Rooney

A black peat stirred
Unsheathed claws like a cat
On the purring hearth.

My design was inspired by the shape of a cat's claw (which also looks like a flame), combined with the tradition of the Log Cabin block centred round the hearth square. The colours were inspired by the fire and peat. I placed the blocks to create positive and negative secondary patterns in the centre. The quilting design was based on the sparks spitting from the fire and the mixture of shapes in the peat.

Catherine Palmer

One white star
Walked slow across the pane.

The word “pane” inspired the design idea of a window frame from my childhood home, a traditional Scottish cottage.

Bright fabric represents warmth and security on returning home through the deep darkness of winter. The contrasting black border and diagonals of the window frame show sky unpolluted by artificial light.

Within the segments of the window quilting patterns represent some of the landscape features and ancient history of Orkney. An abundance of stars are quilted and appliquéd stars travel across the night sky.

As this is the last verse I wanted a link with the title “Island Boy” and an old photograph of my son as a small boy provided an appropriate silhouette.

Marjorie McKinven

'Rustling in the Wind' by Ann Clayton

'Where is the Quilt?' by Carol Jamieson

'The Seasons of My Life' by Mairi Wheeler