09/08/2026
UPDATE FIVE: I have been entrusted with the conservation for the continued use of a 100-year-old, 12 foot embroidered altar frontal from Cathédrale Christ Church Cathedral, Montréal The silk and metal thread embroidery itself is in remarkable condition but the original silk ground fabric has deteriorated badly over the past century and is now heavily stained, structurally compromised, and even missing in many parts. Because this textile is still intended to serve its original liturgical purpose, simply placing it in storage or behind glass is not an option. The treatment therefore involves carefully lifting the original embroidery from its failed ground and re-appliquéing it onto a new, carefully selected silk ground of the same St. Nicolas pattern from England, before returning it to its original frame for use. Every effort is being made to preserve the historic embroidery, while giving it the stable support it needs to continue its life in the Cathedral for special services.
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All the materials are arriving very carefully packaged. The silk damask was brought over from England on a roll to prevent creases and the Carrara Linen that arrived from Ecclesiastical Sewing, USA, was carefully packaged with a few gift surprises as well in the box 🙂. This is a lovely sturdy linen to support the gorgeous St. Nicolas silk damask and the heavy gold and silk appliqué.
My team and I continue to work on carefully preparing everything before the framing up process happens. We have precisely lined up the pattern repeats on the silk fabric, we have found the straight edges of the linen by pulling threads, and are making running stitches on the horizontal and vertical directions of both fabrics so that we perfectly align them once they go on the custom made slate frame set to arrive in a few weeks from Ecclesiastical Sewing.
Meanwhile, I have been testing out which silk threads we will use for the appliqué work and have settled on the colour called ‘Old Gold’ from Devere Yarns UK in two different weights. Devere will spin the threads for us next week as we need a bulk order to provide the quantity needed to be couched around all of the motifs.
It will be many sessions still before the antique embroidered motifs are ready for their next phase. We are still taming the back by tying off the thousands of tails that were left knotted and loose a century ago, as well as preparing the linen edges around each motif to prevent fraying. We need to tidy this up before we can re-apply the motifs to the new silk damask fabric. We are lucky to be able to do this work in the Chapter House which is in a round room surrounded by tall slim windows which gives off a special light at various times of the day as the sun moves.
In a few of the images below, you can see how the original embroidery of the 23 main motifs (not the nearly 200 tendrils) was trimmed and pasted all over the back with a translucent brown paper before being applied to the damask fabric and then outlined with a dark brown cord. This project continues to be a fascinating discussion of how fibres were used and treated over the decades.
Thank-you in advance for your positive encouragement on this very special undertaking.
Fun Fact: Did you know that the Embroiderers' Association of Canada/Association canadienne de broderie had a field trip to the Cathédrale Christ Church Cathedral, Montréal to look at this altar frontal in 1984?
