Creating the Foula collection
This rug shows the striking outline of Foula against a peachy sunset. While driving to Burra on Shetland one evening I turned a corner, looked out west and the view of the sun setting behind Foula made me gasp. I pulled over and just stared at the stunning beauty of it. My Great Great Grandparents left Foula in the early 1900’s to be with their son in Sydney, Australia. I wonder how they felt leaving the only home they knew, Catherine was in her 60’s and Magnus 80 years old.
I called this rug ‘Night Sky and Moons’ as I think about the weeks my relatives spent sailing from Foula in the Northern Hemisphere to Australia In the Southern Hemisphere. Magnus had been a fisherman and sailed the mail boat from Foula to Walls on the mainland of Shetland, the Shetland night sky would’ve been so familiar to him. I loved making this rug, I thought of the hardship they must have endured on their journey and felt glad to be remembering them in this way.
Here’s Bertie...he loved inspecting my rugs before I got round to hemming them. Sadly, and quite unexpectedly Bertie became seriously ill on the 30th October 2020, and on the 31st October the decision was made to put him to sleep. His brother Basil died of a heart condition in December 2019 and Bertie wasn’t really the same after that. They were great boys..and we were lucky to have them in our lives for 12 years.
I’ll miss my quality control cat.