jesus in the sand pit

Friday - my last day of this week's residency at The Old Sale Rooms. It has been such good fun and great to have the opportunity to meet people and talk about rug making memories. And Jane in the Tea Rooms has been feeding me delicious lunches!

I forgot to record here a memory offered to me a couple of days ago for sharing on the blog. A woman recalled going to the Salvation Army Sunday School in Scotts Lane ( I'm sorry I've forgotten your name - write and remind me if you are reading this!) In particular she remembered that if you were well behaved you were allowed to move a figure representing one of the bible characters across the sand pit. As the bible story was being told the children would act it out in the sand pit. She said that it really concentrated their attention! Yesterday, coincidentally, The Salvation Army Hall in Wellington closed down after 120 years. There's a good write up in this week's Wellington Weekly News.

Rick, Jane's husband, shared memories of well known characters from Mantle Street, including Ron Penny the road sweeper, who always had a kind word and a woodbine for the schoolboys! He also recalled Frank Webber walking up to town from Rockwell Green, in his hobnail boots and pushing a wheelbarrow full of vegetables from his allotment for trading.

Lee from Wellington Folk and Custom Society dropped by to advise of the bad weather that was playing havoc with the tables and chairs outside, and suggested I bring my rugs up to the 'Bishop Blaize and Bridgid coming of spring ceremony' to be held at the Green Dragon next Monday evening. It's a traditional custom in Wellington (home of weaving and spinning for so many hundreds of years)  to 'appoint' a new Bishop Blaize and a new Bridgid each year. Bishop Blaize was the protector of weavers, wool combers, while Bridgid protected and blessed spinners, smith craft, poets, lambs and all to do with hearth and home. To have my hearth rugs receive a blessing at the start of this new venture - how lovely!



                                   other end of rug with rolled up template

 

 

Jane has asked if I would like to continue using the space at The Old Sale Rooms to work in.

Of course I said "Yes please!" So for the next six months I am going to be based there every MONDAY between 10 and 5. If for any reason I can't make it one week I will let people know via my blog. While I am at The Old Sale Rooms, I will be working on another rug that will be inspired by customers' memories of Mantle Street. So I would love people to drop by and share their Mantle Street Memories with me. You will have the opportunity to write them down if you'd like them to be read and enjoyed by others. You might perhaps like to do a little rag rugging yourself and/or add a small piece of your own special fabric to the rug. For I'd like this rug to be made from - and represent on different levels - 'the fabric of our lives'.