I’ve just had a lovely day out with Skipton Embroiderers Guild. We visited Fountains Abbey where there is an exhibition of embroidery inspired by the landscapes of Capability Brown. It’s been organised in conjunction with the Embroiderers Guild and our guild were exhibiting there.

Capability Brown was a landscape architect in the 18th century, he designed many of the estates surrounding grand houses in England such as Harewood House and Chatsworth House. He would change the shape of hills, make lakes, he has a classic style of undulating hills, dotted with trees with grand gardens surrounding the house. It’s his 300th birthday this year, hence the exhibition, there are embroidery exhibitions all around the country, mainly at properties he designed. Ironically he had nothing to do with the landscape of Fountains Abbey.

The exhibition is in Fountains Hall which is a beautiful house built around 1600, mainly from the stone of the then ruined abbey.

There is some stunning embroidery there, made by members of the local guilds. I haven’t managed to get the names of all the artists, so apologies to those I missed. These are just a selection;

This one was my favourite, it’s of one of the temples at Fountains, I love the way she’s captured the movement in the water and the reflections of the temple.

Jill Maloney who is our chairman embroidered ‘Impression’. It was inspired by autumn colour, just look at all those french knots, it was beautiful.

I loved this mixed media collage, I’d love to have a go at this sort of thing but I think I need to go on a workshop as I wouldn’t know where to start. The map is of the area, there’s buttons and washers stitched on as well as all the embroidery. It’s called Beaded Teasel by Stacey Tait.

This embroidery of a tower at Fountains is beautiful, it’s by someone at Harrogate Embroiderers Guild.

I ‘m not sure which local guild stitched this set of miniature embroideries, I could have sat for hours looking at these, they were exquisite.

Our exhibit was amazing. A photo was taken of one of the temples at Fountains Abbey, it was divided into 24 squares. Each member was given the picture of one square to stitch in what ever way they wanted. The individual embroideries were then stitched together to make a fantastic group embroidery. It amazed me how it all fits together so well.

After the exhibition we had a stroll found Fountains Abbey. It’s a beautiful, peaceful place. I think it was one of the biggest Cistercian Abbeys in England, it was certainly the richest. It was built in the 12th century and operated for over 400 years until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. The ruins amaze me, especially how the stone of the windows can still be intact after all this time. I love all the arches and beautiful doorways.

If you’re visiting Fountains over the summer, do remember to call into Fountains Hall.