Needlework samples

"In 1971 I attended a school called St Marthas in Navan, for girls interested in pursuing a career in horticulture, agriculture, or domestic science. This 12 month course was to introduce girls to various subjects before they made a final career choice. The Dept. Of Agriculture offered scholarships to the course which was very wide and varied. We studied cookery, both domestic and catering, dairying which included learning to use a milking machine, a churn for making butter, a separator for separating the skim milk from the cream, which was used for making the butter. We also made yogurt, cheddar or hard cheese, Cheshire or crumbly cheese, and cottage cheese. Poultry keeping, which included learning about preparing turkeys for market, management of chickens, egg production. Killing and plucking a turkey wasn't my favourite part of the course! Of course all this was backed up by theory in the classroom. We also had a class where we acquired the skills to make all sorts of crafts e.g. curing the sheepskins to make beautiful rugs and sheepskin gloves. We made sisal seats for small square stools which were to be seen in many Irish homes in those days, cushions, crochet, embroidery , to mention a few. Needlework , making garments etc . I made a christening robe which was donned byseveral babies ! A beautiful cardigan, blue was worn by my first baby. I think I was as proud of the cardigan as the beautiful son!! Anyway there was no end of subjects covered including very interesting speech and drama, music and singing, ballroom dancing, even learning to curtsy with grace lest we should run into royalty! Always ahead of their time, the Sisters of Charity who ran the course with grace and modern thinking of the time also taught us about such diverse subjects as kitchen design to reduce labour, public speaking , typing and office skills, benefit of sport in our lives etc. It was for me what would now be called a gap year. Anyway, my photo is of some of the needlework we practised before embarking on making a summer dress. I actually wore that same summer dress when I went off to nursing school the next year. I can't imagine today's 18 year olds doing that today"