Ecclesiastical Embroidery

(It does sometimes get difficult to keep using alliteration for post titles!)

At church last Sunday, I was collared by the lay preacher, Beryl.  She handed me a table linen that had been used in church for as long as I can remember.

It had been beautifully hand embroidered with this design

but either the mice, the moths or old age has taken its toll, and it is looking the worse for wear (and has done for a long time)

These things often get overlooked - but Beryl has now noticed the state it's in, so could something be done?

Not sadly with the fabric, and I felt that even if I could rescue the embroidery and applique it onto a new cloth it was still likely to perish sooner rather than later.

So I spent a lovely evening copying the design and stitching it onto a new piece of fabric  so Beryl can make a new table cloth.

I bet when it was originally stitch by hand the stitcher could not have foreseen her design being photographed by a mobile phone, transferred to a computer, being copied and then duplicated with the help of a computer and a rather complicated machine that is still essentially a sewing machine!