Collection 2021/1 - Australian Quaker Narrative Embroidery Project - Friends in Stitches

Inspired by the British Quaker Tapestry at Kendal, the Australian Quaker Narrative Embroidery Project seeks to provide a history of Australian Quakers. The first Steering Committee comprised 5 people: Verley Keliher, Frances Love, Cathy Davies, Garry Duncan and Barbara Huntington. Workshops were held in 2007, and the first panel began the following year. Designed and embroidered by Cathy Davies, it showed the arrival of the first Quaker to Australia, Sydney Parkinson, on the Endeavour with Banks and Cook. Although the project uses a similar format and font to the Quaker Tapestry in England, it has a distinctly Australian feel with the woollen fabric backing woven especially for the project from fine Australian woollen thread. Training in the methods and stitching is provided via regular workshops and summer schools, and Friends gather in Stitching Groups around the country to create the panels for the Friends in Stitches. At the time of the donation there were 24 completed panels. This project is ongoing.