Work by Moira Anne Dickson :: Poem by Gerda Stevenson
Scotland Celebrates 3-0 at Easter Road
Ethel Hay (goal), Bella Osborne and Georgina Wright (backs), Rose Rayman and Isa Stevenson (half-backs), Emma Wright, Louise Cole, Lily St Clair, Maud Riweford, Carrie Balliol and Minnie Brymner (forwards), wearing knickerbockers in the style of the Rational Dress Movement, played and won the first recorded women’s international football match, Scotland v England, Saturday 7th May, 1881, Easter Road, Edinburgh.
From Quines by Gerda Stevenson
Artist’s statement
Title of work: ‘Sisters Unite’
Before I’d even read the poem I was sold on the title, my husband with his passion for football and my Mother who’d lived on Easter Road. I’d heard many a tale about her watching, when she was young, the sea of men in overcoats and caps filling the road at the end of a match.
I chose to make my background out of hand stitched, English paper pieced hexagons. I used a mixture of papers, on some I’d written the poem in a continuous script using a stick and ink. The hexagon was to indicate the ball (modern) and quilt making, normally associated with women.
The circle, to signify the joining of the women taking part. I decorated it with intertwined free machined thistles and roses with some lines from the poem in red, a colour I wouldn’t normally associate with Scotland.
A feminine look with flowers and patchwork but the words, taken from the poem, show strength and unity.