Over the past year I've been chipping away at a passion project, and the research is finally done! I wouldn't have imagined something so lovely and old would take me to England, and have me engaging in conversations with people all over the US, UK, Canada, and Newfoundland. That's the nature of this amazing piece.
Newfoundland was its own Dominion until 1949, when it officially became a Canadian province. Many Newfoundlanders volunteered to serve in the First and Second World Wars, but I have never seen a textile that brought all of that history together in such a deliberate and beautiful way.
This panel, which I am called Legacy in Lace, tells multiple stories within its hand crocheted threads. It includes four regions involved in the Second World War, and depicts a tragic plane crash off the coast of Botwood and Gander in Newfoundland. Some of the large emblems, including the soldier and the caribou in the image above, came from the First World War, while the text is of the Second World War.
It's sad but oh so familiar that the provenance of the panel is unknown. Despite searching, we have not been able to track down the person who created this remarkable design, or where it's been since it was completed (around 1947 or so, most likely). We don't pick up the story until a lace maker happened upon it in an Ottawa second hand store in August 2025. It's so lucky for us that she knew what she was looking at when she took it home!
You'll see more about the panel on my You Tube channel, there are full articles and a research paper finished and waiting to be published, and many great images, like the ones taken by Mike Franz, pictured above and some by me during the initial stages.