Scottish artist and story teller Lizzie McDougall and I have been working on a Highland Story wall-hanging for Dunbeath Heritage Center.

Working with Lizzie is always a wonderful experience which I always look forward to and this project was no exception. I asked her what drives her to preserve as many stories of Scottish folklore as possible, here’s what she said.

“I believe that stories play an important (if not essential ) role in  Community however Community is in danger of erosion . This project is my response to that. I want  to create a work of art , that is warm and comforting like the feeling of a sense of community, hence the medium of a Patchwork Quilt and I want to make it with people , with Community (not about community).

Communities are made up of fragments , as is a patchwork quilt , of different kinds of people , so for the appliquéing the pictures Iv used a range of materials of different textures , also scraps and bits that might have been otherwise discarded , all  have a new life when brought together .

My aim and my hope is that  by gathering and picturing stories that have been shared for generations by the Community and  by involving the Community in the making of the quilt, The Quilt will be a visual expression of all the connections between people , place , past and present that make up  Communities of the North and Inner Moray Firth . and that this will reflect the Community and inspire enjoyment and appreciation of the stories and that this will strengthen the sense of Community everywhere. Each panel has a few stories in it , which will be great for Storytelling with the finished Quilt .It is so important that people are involved in this and quite wonderful that in each area people who have worked so hard to preserve  the Heritage of the Area have taken part and that the curators or past curators have taken part in  Dunbeath  Portmahomac )Tarbert , Groam House and the Highland Museum of Childhood. Aprox 80 people have contributed in some way or other.

I am enormously grateful to everyone who has taken part and of course my very clever and skilful and wonderful quilter/ sister in law Brenda”

http://www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling/directory-of-storytellers/storytellers/lizzie-mcdougall

• The six story blocks before trimming.
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Design wall decisions.

Changes made.

Finished quilt.

The weather was so bad I could not take it out to get some better finished quilt photos before I had to send it off.