Every week I will add more to this journey. I’ve done it in this format to add to Social Media for my students.

In 1068 a group of artisans completed one of the most intriguing pieces of art in history. The Bayeux Tapestry.

Carola Hicks states “The Bayeux Tapestry provides a far-from impartial account of a political event, the last successful invasion of England. Its climax is the Battle of Hastings, 14th October 1066, when William, Duke of the Normans, defeated Harold, King of the English, and claimed the kingdom for himself.”

Although first described as a tapestry (Tapisserie) the work is not an actual tapestry, but an embroidery, in this case, a strip of linen hand-decorated by needle and woollen thread.

I’m a Quilter, Tutor, Photographer, Illustrator, and an Author and I am re-creating the Bayeux Tapestry as a quilt and documenting my journey.

I will share with you the comparisons of making the masterpiece in 1068 and my quilt in 2020. Fortunately, I don’t have to kill a flock of sheep to make the parchment to do the drawings. I don’t have to make my own dyes or even grow fields of flax to make the line base cloth.

In my search for knowledge and inspiration, I have travelled to Bayeux many times. I’ve walked across the fields that were traversed by the warring armies in Hastings.

I stood on the shore of Pevensey Bay visualising the image of 800 Norman ships laden with horses and troops landing on the stony beach.

I’ve sat in reverence in the Bayeux Cathedral (Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux) and visualised the Tapestry hanging in the Choir. I’ve visited each building represented on the Tapestry and made comparisons.

I will share the information over the next month or so.