More Busy Bees

In September we were in Manchester looking after the grandchildren. I love that the emblem of Manchester is a bee, representing industry and community. For our second collaboration, when Kirsten and I worked on evenweave Aida cloth, I sewed a bee on a golden honeycomb of Spanish work [aka blackwork] 

As we visited Quarry Bank Mill, in Styal, this time round, I bought a Fat ¼ of cotton fabric, printed all over with bees.

I used 2 strands of brown, charcoal grey and yellow DMC floss to cover the printed bee, in backstitch, satin stitch and French knots. 

With iridescent Guterman Sulky, I did backstitch wings.With a reddish brown DMC I outlined some honeycomb in double running stitch.
Using the waste canvas technique I stitched "Quarry Bank" in dark brown. Then I cut the fabric and made up the two squares 

You cannot see it on the photo, but when you move the patches, those wings really sparkle and catch the light. 

I am rather pleased with this month's squares. But it is not straightforward...
In Victorian times, Manchester was known as Cottonopolis, because so much of the UK's supply fabric was woven in the city.
This is a difficult subject for me - I really struggle with the fact that the wealth of so many was built on the labours of slaves - both the unemancipated black workers across the Atlantic, and the poor white men, women and children working long hours in dangerous conditions in the mills like Quarry Bank. Even philanthropists like John Rylands, whose money paid for libraries, public baths, schools, chapels and more, and who offered "Free grown Cotton"  and showed some support for the Abolitionists, still made so much of their wealth on the backs of the poor.
We cannot rewrite history, and it is hard at this distance, to understand the actions of others. Did they know all that was happening out on the plantations, but choose to ignore it? How could the owner of Quarry Bank Mill live right next door with his young family, at a time when children were being injured, mutilated and killed by the unsafe looms? 
But we can make an impact now by thinking about where and how our clothes are produced today, and asking the difficult questions about fair wages and safe working conditions. My little squares are a reminder of our responsibility in this.