Australian artist Pam Holland has spent the last 13 years quilting a re-creation of a famed tapestry involving a war that later led to the writing of the Magna Carta. As the American Quilter’s Society Fall QuiltWeek wrapped up in Paducah, Holland discussed how she finds inspiration for her ‘intricate’ undertakings.
"I’ve been working on a project now for 13 years, that is the main thing I need to finish right now, it is my Mt. Everest,” Holland said.
Pam Holland is recreating the Bayeux Tapestry - an embroidery panel made in 1066. The panel depicts 50 scenes recounting the Battle of Hastings, which led to the Norman conquest of England.
According to the Texas Quilt Museum, “The textile was the only readily available record depicting the[...] battle that led to the writing of the Magna Carta.,”--the first document to establish the rights of people to be governed by law rather than kings or lords.
“It’s the eighth most important textile artwork in the world,” said Holland. “I decided to recreate it in quilt form, so it looks almost identical and its 236 foot long and I have to finish it.”
It is also around 3 foot tall, and Holland said she is three-quarters of the way finished with the replica. Already, notable museums have contacted her to share the piece once it is finished.
Holland was introduced to the Bayeux Tapestry somewhat serendipitously through another piece of work that also involves a battle.
“It was a quilt that was made in the war by German soldiers in 1776 actually, made the quilt from the uniforms of their deceased comrades. It is incredibly intricate.” Holland explained. “I saw it in a book and decided, I would recreate that,” she said.
Holland’s award-winning quilt is called 1776: Heartache, Heritage, and Happiness, a piece dedicated to an invasion of Bohemia by Prussian soldiers, not the American Revolution.
Both of Holland’s quilting projects were discovered while she was turning the pages of a book. Holland believes her discovery of both pieces may have been driven by something deeper.
“With the original quilt, the 1776 quilt. I found out that my family had come from the very village that that quilt was made in.” Holland paused, and explained, “ I didn't know of the connection until I'd finished it.”
“In the Bayeux Tapestry, I find after beginning it, that my great great aunt Elizabeth Wardo made one in Britain in 1864. And I didn't know. Honestly, I didn't know until I did the research.” She said.
The stories told through the fibers Holland sews today are inexplicably interwoven with her past. Now, with goosebumps lining her arms, she says she has to get back to work on the Bayeux Tapestry.
