Creating a new banner for an English Folk Festival
I was honoured with the task of re-designing the front banner for the Littleborough Rushcart. SJ has grown up with this festival and her dad Steve is on the committee for it. Her bestfriend Jeanette also runs it, as well as her parents, and because SJ knows I am the crafty one, she suggested I help out with it.
Why? Well, the morris side, Rochdale Morris, that used to run the event have folded - and they kind of wanted the festival to die. But Littleborough didn't. The Thieving Magpies are a regular attendees of this particular rushbearing event, so they were not strangers to it. So on the banner was the Rochdale Morris name and logo (a coat of arms) and as they were not around anymore (dwindling numbers and old age) the Rochdale name needed to be taken off. Ang, SJ and I attended a Littleborough Events meeting back in June to discuss it, and suggested we change one of the morris dancers on the front into a border morris dancer, in short - a Magpie. The committee was fine with that. I even thought of changing the Red Lancashire rose into a Tudor one, (white and red) but opted against it. We also decided to add the Thieving Magpie logo to it too.
Here is the banner before changing...
The Northwest Man was going to become a Border Morris Magpie, the lady Northwest was going to stay the same, in memory of Rochdale, but also because I wanted a mix of Northwest and Border. If I could I'd add Cotswold and Longsword to it aswell, to get the different kinds of morris styles.
The cockade above the morris man will be changed to the magpie logo.
The centre piece will be replaced by the Littleborough Coat of Arms - which I don't think entirely exists. Steve acquired it from the Mayor, but we are not even sure it is the actual Littleborough arms.
I went into Huddersfield and bought some felt and other fabric, the felt I knew would not fray when I try to make the leaves on the Coat of Arms.
So here is a picture by picture progression of the creation - all hand sewn...
So it took about 3 full days of sewing when I add all the hours up - It took a day to do the morris man, and a bit of fiddling with the coat of arms before I began to sew it. Luckily, SJ suggested that we cut up a Thieving Magpie T-shirt to use for the logo, which was fine with me, coz that would have been almost more fiddly because of the knotwork in it - I would have chosen to paint it, not embroider the knotwork. It made it all easier to get done. I also added a green '2' to the back banner because of it being 2012 and not 2011 anymore.
Here below is the finished product on the actual cart. We added my magpie to the top of it.
Why? Well, the morris side, Rochdale Morris, that used to run the event have folded - and they kind of wanted the festival to die. But Littleborough didn't. The Thieving Magpies are a regular attendees of this particular rushbearing event, so they were not strangers to it. So on the banner was the Rochdale Morris name and logo (a coat of arms) and as they were not around anymore (dwindling numbers and old age) the Rochdale name needed to be taken off. Ang, SJ and I attended a Littleborough Events meeting back in June to discuss it, and suggested we change one of the morris dancers on the front into a border morris dancer, in short - a Magpie. The committee was fine with that. I even thought of changing the Red Lancashire rose into a Tudor one, (white and red) but opted against it. We also decided to add the Thieving Magpie logo to it too.
Here is the banner before changing...
The Northwest Man was going to become a Border Morris Magpie, the lady Northwest was going to stay the same, in memory of Rochdale, but also because I wanted a mix of Northwest and Border. If I could I'd add Cotswold and Longsword to it aswell, to get the different kinds of morris styles.
The cockade above the morris man will be changed to the magpie logo.
The centre piece will be replaced by the Littleborough Coat of Arms - which I don't think entirely exists. Steve acquired it from the Mayor, but we are not even sure it is the actual Littleborough arms.
I went into Huddersfield and bought some felt and other fabric, the felt I knew would not fray when I try to make the leaves on the Coat of Arms.
So here is a picture by picture progression of the creation - all hand sewn...
So it took about 3 full days of sewing when I add all the hours up - It took a day to do the morris man, and a bit of fiddling with the coat of arms before I began to sew it. Luckily, SJ suggested that we cut up a Thieving Magpie T-shirt to use for the logo, which was fine with me, coz that would have been almost more fiddly because of the knotwork in it - I would have chosen to paint it, not embroider the knotwork. It made it all easier to get done. I also added a green '2' to the back banner because of it being 2012 and not 2011 anymore.
Here below is the finished product on the actual cart. We added my magpie to the top of it.