A Bluestocking Knits

Being me, I could hardly help noticing the needlepoint kneelers and cushions in most of the churches we visited last month in England.  Most were extraordinarily handsome, and each church's selection had a character of its own, to add to the character of the building itself.

I couldn't find out much about the history of needlepoint kneelers as such, except that it seemed to really take off in the UK in the 1930s.  Of course there is a centuries-old tradition of embroidered vestments and altar linens, but kneelers seems to be a (relatively?) new form.  If anyone closer than I knows more, please pipe up!  Perhaps I'll send off a question to the National Needlework Archives …

(Goodness, here's a needlework tour of London!)

This one might be crewelwork, now that I look at it.  All four of the above are in Holy Trinity at Stratford-upon-Avon.

I thought these especially pretty.  Each pew has a different selection of botanical designs.  They are at St. Peter's in Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire.

St. Mary de Castro, Dover Castle.  This is the only church I noticed as having cross-stitched cushions, with perhaps three strands of wool.

This and the two below are all from St. Clement Danes in the Strand, London.  They show exceptional care and skill in the complexity of the designs as well as in the unusual shape, fitted to match the corners of the seats.  Most, perhaps unsurprisingly, have a military theme, presumably all RAF.

It was difficult not to stay there taking photos of each cushion, but this one is of course, charmingly, "oranges and lemons"! —