Highland Dancer

The central image of this panel is a figure which almost all Highlanders will have emulated at some point, the Highland dancer. We named our dancer Bonny and set about bringing her to life with intricate stitched tartan and gold detailing on her jacket.

Every highland dance has a story behind it. The Highland Fling and Sword Dance are apparently related to the military, a warrior celebrating their success in battle. The Seann Triubhas celebrates the repealing of the Act of Proscription in 1747, where Highland men shook off the trousers and were once again allowed to wear the kilt after the failed Jacobite uprising of 1746. The Flora MacDonald's Fancy is dedicated to the Flora MacDonald who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to Skye. Each dance has its own history and story to tell.

So, when you watch a Highland dancer leap and turn, you are watching a retelling of history - an ancient connection to our past through dance. We wanted to encapsulate this in our dancer.

Bonny is surrounded by journey stones depicting bagpipes, ancient and modern landmarks and the iconic thistle. We hope that Bonny captures your imagination as much as she did ours.

'I really enjoyed being part of this project and meeting the other lovely ladies in our stitching group; it was great to meet them all for a regular chat if nothing else! I did sew parts of the panel and completed my journey stone however, I fell pregnant right at the beginning of the project and by the time our group received our panel outline, I was the size of a house and found it difficult to hold anything close enough to stitch. I did somehow manage to finish my journeystone the night before she was born though!

Once my daughter Delphi was here, I took her along to a few meetings and the other stitchers took it in turns to hold her and entertain her while I sewed some bits on the panel. They had all seen me getting bigger and bigger at each meeting so it was really nice to be able to take my daughter along to meet them all too. I will always associate our panel with my daughter because she was with me the whole time.

It was very special for me to be able to bring Delphi to deliver the panel when we finished; she loved looking at all the other panels and was transfixed by the hunter on the Isle of Lewis panel and all the colours on the Gairloch panel. 

I feel very lucky to have been able to be part of this project and to have met the lovely ladies in my group. I didn't have much experience in stitching before this, but hearing the other stitchers talk about other projects they were working on or training they had received, and all their ideas for the panel was an amazing experience. I learnt lots of techniques from watching and listening to them. I think stitching will be a brilliant craft to share with my daughter when she is older.'

Read more about Nina's journey below

• A Newcomer to the Highlands