200 years of the finest Scottish embroidered art goes on show in Edinburgh next week. Many of the pieces have never been seen in public before. This extraordinary collection comes out of the castles, grand houses, cottages, and tenements cared for by the National Trust for Scotland. The Trust's work is usually associated with landscapes, buildings, furniture, and art, but in a sign of the growing interest in textile heritage, the Trust has identified the best pieces it holds and had them properly conserved to prepare them for this exhibition.
The curator who has had the job of travelling around Scotland and opening trunks and cupboards to see what treasures she could find is Emma Inglis. We took our microphones to Dovecot Studios, to talk to Emma and to hear some of the wonderful stories the embroideries have to tell, from the joyful fire screen of exotic birds worked by the illegitimate daughter of the King to the nightmare embroidered wedding present from your mother in law, as well as a piece that took over 140 years to finish and a bed cover that resembles a plaster ceiling.
