Queen adds final stitch to new panel on Great Tapestry of Scotland

Arabnews24.ca:Thursday 6 July 2023 10:03 AM: Queen Camilla made her mark on the Great Tapestry of Scotland as she added the final stitches to a new panel during a visit with the King.

The royal couple toured the visitor centre for the tapestry, which tells the story of Scotland, on Thursday to mark 10 years since the art project was completed and first went on display to the public.

During their visit to the centre in Galashiels, Scottish Borders, they viewed a new panel commemorating their visit and the coronation, and the Queen was then invited to help finish it.

The panel features an image of the Queen's two Jack Russell rescue dogs and she added the final three stitches to one of their collars.

Queen Camilla worked on a commemorative tapestry during her visit to The Great Tapestry of Scotland visitor centre in Galashiels, in the Scottish Borders, Scotland, Britain, to mark 10 years since the tapestry was completed and went on display to the public, as part of the first Holyrood Week since King Charles III's, coronation. Picture date: Thursday July 6, 2023. Andrew Milligan/Pool via REUTERS

The tapestry charts 420 million years of Scotland's history, heritage, innovations and culture through 160 panels.

Dorie Wilkie, stitch coordinator for the project, showed the Queen, who is patron of the Royal School of Needlework, which part of the panel to sew.

She said: "The Queen said she is the worst at sewing in the world but she did very well. Afterwards she was joking with the King saying 'I've done some sewing on the panel'."

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King Charles III, with managing director Dawn Robson-Bell, during a visit to Lochcarron of Scotland at the Waverley textile mill in Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders, as part of the first Holyrood Week since the King's coronation. Picture date: Thursday July 6, 2023.

Queen Camilla during a visit to Lochcarron of Scotland at the Waverley textile mill in Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders, as part of the first Holyrood Week since the King's coronation. Picture date: Thursday July 6, 2023.

The panel also features references to the King's interest in fishing, and an image of the Old Man of Lochnagar, from the children's book that he wrote.

Crowds lined the street outside the visitor centre and cheered and waved Union Jack flags as the couple arrived. As they did so, they stopped to chat to well-wishers as they walked into the building.

Members of the public gather ahead of the arrival of King Charles III and Queen Camilla for their visit to The Great Tapestry of Scotland visitor centre in Galashiels, in the Scottish Borders, to mark 10 years since the tapestry was completed and went on display to the public, as part of the first Holyrood Week since King Charles III's, coronation. Picture date: Thursday July 6, 2023.

Queen Camilla meets members of the public following her visit to The Great Tapestry of Scotland visitor centre in Galashiels, in the Scottish Borders, to mark 10 years since the tapestry was completed and went on display to the public, as part of the first Holyrood Week since King Charles III's, coronation. Picture date: Thursday July 6, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL King. Photo credit should read: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

King Charles III and Queen Camilla meet members of the public following their visit to The Great Tapestry of Scotland visitor centre in Galashiels, in the Scottish Borders, to mark 10 years since the tapestry was completed and went on display to the public, as part of the first Holyrood Week since King Charles III's, coronation. Picture date: Thursday July 6, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL King. Photo credit should read: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Once inside, the King and Queen met artist Andrew Crummy, who designed the tapestry, and Alistair Moffat, a historian who decided which episodes in Scottish history would feature in it.

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(front row left to right) The Princess of Wales and the Prince of Wales known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay while in Scotland, King Charles III and Queen Camilla during the National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication for King Charles III and Queen Camilla, and the presentation of the Honours of Scotland, at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. Picture date: Wednesday July 5, 2023.

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King Charles receiving Scotland's crown jewels at St Giles' Cathedral on Wednesday

Mr Crummy was meeting the King for the second day in a row as he attended the investiture ceremony at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on Wednesday, having been made an MBE in the New Year Honours list for services to art and cultural heritage.

The couple, who are in Scotland as part of Royal Week, also met author Alexander McCall Smith, who conceived the idea of the tapestry.

Mr McCall Smith said: "He comes across as a very kind man and a very sensitive man. So I think we are pretty lucky to have a head of state who is interested in this kind of thing.

"The tapestry is a living thing, there are some works of art that are static but this is the opposite of that, it really has an ongoing life."

King Charles III during a visit to The Great Tapestry of Scotland visitor centre in Galashiels, in the Scottish Borders, to mark 10 years since the tapestry was completed and went on display to the public, as part of the first Holyrood Week since King Charles III's, coronation. Picture date: Thursday July 6, 2023.

Hand-stitched by 1,000 stitchers from communities across Scotland, the project took more than two years to complete and the finished tapestry toured the country in 2013 and 2014.

It is now housed at the visitor centre, which opened in August 2021.

Events featured in the panels include the Battle of Bannockburn, the foundation of the University of St Andrews, the Highland and Lowland clearances and the Clydebank Blitz.

The King, who was wearing a kilt in Charles Edward Stuart tartan, and Queen also met centre director Sandy Maxwell-Forbes and some of the stitchers involved in the project.