The Kneeler Project
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The project is masterminded by Jocelle Thomas. By way of explanation she has penned the following:
It all started when it was obvious St George's needed a new altar kneeler. I cannot remember how I came to head up the project - probably because I knew slightly more than anyone else, but I was and still am an amateur. If I knew then what I know now...
I found a designer to make a design to go with the pattern of the floor tiles which was quite an adventure. After that Michael, Angela and I chose the colours to use.
I decided that I wanted as many people as possible to take part. After we had bought the canvas we cut it into pieces for as many volunteers who offered to sew. It took a while to settle all the issues - luckily I had a friend who was a much more experienced needlewoman than me and we started. Her help and advice were essential.
From the beginning we emphasised that all the work must be done on a frame to keep the fabric taut. This means that the joining up would be fairly easy. This worked well on the whole, although there was one piece that got away from me and was skewed dreadfully. My friend and I took courage and dropped it in water, pinned it so that when it dried it would be the right shape. We tried several times but did not succeed; luckily a very kind friend of the Church paid for the canvas to go to the Royal School of Needlework. It was still a difficult task to join with the other ones but we eventually managed the job.
Now we had to get the pads for the kneelers. Here too was a steep learning curve as none of us had ever done anything like it before. The altar kneelers were big but luckily we had the church gallery to work in and we started to lace the covers onto the pads. This involved long pieces of string and several people. Then we had to sew a base onto the whole thing which was quite tricky. The last thing I did was to get everyone who had contributed to the project to sign their name on a piece of fabric. This I embroidered and tucked it in the last altar kneeler with the date and, of course, Michael's name.
So one day, when I was up in the gallery admiring the altar kneelers, Michael came into the church and looked up at me and said "right, we need 200 individual kneelers" - and that is how we started to make the kneelers.
I thought that we should keep the sides and frame on top of the kneeler in the same colour and stitch this would give us some uniformity. At the same time the skills of each embroiderer would be employed in deciding the pattern on the top. Some people felt this a challenge but with charts and help everyone managed. I do hope you agree as you view the completed kneelers.
There is an album commemorating all the kneelers completed so far with the names of the embroiderers. Do please look at it when you are next in church. I hope you are impressed by the wealth of talent displayed. You can also see a selection of photographs on this website by clicking here.
Much beautiful and skilful work has been done by so many - even some men of the church. I am always thrilled to welcome new members to our Team. I so admire the designs that have been made, and do look forward to welcoming more people to try this most therapeutic and interesting embroidery. So please come and see me to start on your kneeler...
If you would like to help Jocelle in this work, please contact the parish office.