Featured XMTS Sponsor for July

[Panache]

The staff of X Marks the Scot is proud to present our featured Sponsor for the Month of July...


The Scottish Tartans Museum

http://www.scottishtartans.org/index.html

The Scottish Tartans Museum is a non profit heritage center located in Franklin, North Carolina. It was founded in 1988 by the Scottish Tartans Society and is the only museum in America dedicated to tartan and Highland garb. The Museum offers many different cultural programs including Burns Night Suppers, presentations, and the annual Taste of Scotland festival.

The Scottish Tartans Museum’s success is in no small part due to its Curator and General Manager, X Marks the Scot's own Matt Newsome.

For many of us the Scottish Tartan Museum and Matt’s personal blog
( http://albanach.org/ ) are our first stop when looking for information.

Though the sharing and promotion of Scottish history and heritage is the primary goal of the STM, their gift shop offers a wide assortment of quality highland apparel and accessories as well as kilt rentals. As a kilt maker and kilt wearer himself Matt is always on the lookout for exceptional handmade merchandise for the discerning wearer of highland apparel.

The Scottish Tartan Museum shop is a valued vendor at many of the local Highland Games and is considered a great asset to the Scottish community both in person and virtually on-line.

We are privileged to have them as our Sponsor and invite all to take some time to peruse their website and, for those fortunate enough to be in the vicinity of Franklin NC, to stop by to view the exhibits and speak with Matt in person.

One last thing of note. Being the nature of the STM as a place of learning and a cultural center, it says much about our forum, that the Scottish Tartans Museum offers a prominent link to X Marks the Scot.com on their website!

Our thanks and wishes for continued success of the Scottish Tartans Museum!

Jamie and the Staff of X Marks the Scot

[Mael Coluim]

A toast to Matt and his excellent staff with thanks for all their contibutions to our Scottish heritage!


Newsome Box Pleat in St. Columba tartan

[Arlen]

Woohoo!
A big thank you to Matt and the museum.

[Jerry]

Congratulations to Matt and The Tartans Museum. As one who has made the pilgrimage, I can say, "it is well worth the trip

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Thanks, Mods, for choosing the museum as this month's featured vendor. Jamie has posted an excellent little history telling what we are all about.

Currently we are busy in expanding mode! Those of you who were here for Kilt Kamp or the Taste of Scotland know that the shop who had the space next door to us has closed down, and we have acquired that space. Right now we are busy rennovating it, diving it up to use for additional office/storage space and also additional gift shop space. I'll post some photos in a bit of some of the construction.

What we hope to accomplish with the extra gift shop space is to add some new lines to our offerings, and also expand some of what we already offer.

For example, one thing that you won't find right now in our gift shop is a lot of inexpensive nick-nacks for children. As a parent of four small kids myself, I know that when I take them to places like museums they always like browsing in the gift shop, but I don't want to spend more than a buck or two on something -- after all, it gets expensive with a lot of kids. We've found a supplier that makes inexpensive items geared towards children of a Scottish nature (little Robert the Bruce figurines, Mary Queen of Scots plastic rings for the girls, stuff like that), and will be adding those to our offerings.

Of more interest to most of you X Markers will be an expanded range of clothing. We will now have the space to keep more sporrans and jackets in stock, as opposed to a few show peices with most purchases being ordered in. Also, we are currently expanding our range of hose, including yellow Lewis hose and garter ties (just got an email that those are on the way), diced hose (have red/black on the way in, and will be ordering red/white soon), Argyle-top hose (like McMurdo has made famous on this forum), etc.

We are working with some local knitters and will soon also be offering the Lewis hose with custom hand-knit tops. Those of you familiar with the Balmoral hose we used to offer will see some similarity, only you will be able to choose from four different top designs.

We are also still working with Empire Canvas Works on a line of shooting jackets and Inverness capes made from Harris Tweed, that will be available exclusively through the Scottish Tartans Museum. I just got in my own tweed shooting jacket (pics to come soon, I promise) and I love it! I know it will be a staple come this winter. And from what Kevin tells me, the first Inverness/Storm cape in in the works, as well.

So all of this is going on and keeping us quite busy. I'll post updates on everything as it becomes available, of course, but I just wanted to give the rabble here a heads up on what to expect.

You guys have all been major supporters of our museum and we appreciate everything that X Marks does for us (both the mods and the members!).

Aye,
Matt

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Just for fun, here's a few pics of the work currently being done in our soon-to-be additional gift shop space. Those of you who were there for Kilt Kamp will notice a wall that wasn't there before...

[ardchoille]

I currently have STM on my wish list for a number of items. I'd also like to say that my knowledge of Scottish dress and history has been enriched because of Matt's posts here and at http://albanach.org/ . Someday I hope to be able to visit the museum

[duchessofnc]

GRATS!!!! That is just so awesome!

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I mentioned yesterday that I had just received my own personal tweed shooting jacket from Empire Canvas Works, and would be posting pictures soon.

The kilt I had on yesterday didn't go well with the color of the tweed, so photos had to wait until this morning.

To give some background, this is some tweed I have had laying around the house for some time now. I bought it on Ebay, thinking it was just some ordinary length of Harris Tweed. When it came in, I discovered (or had pointed out to me, actually, by Bob Martin), that it was tweed woven by Marion Campbell, subject of the biography, A Harris Way of Life, by Gisela Vogler. What made Marion’s tweeds so special was the fact that she oversaw and conducted the entire process herself, from raising the sheep that provided the wool, spinning and dyeing the yarn for her loom right through to the finished tweed length. She died in 1996 at the age of 86.

I had two lengths of her cloth. One I made a kilt from, which you can see pictured here.

The other length I saved until I could find something appropriate to make from it. And when I saw Kevin's first prototype of his shooting jacket cut for a kilt, I knew this was it!

So, without further adue, here it is!






We don't have these up and ready to offer on our web site yet, but if anyone is interested in ordering, we will be marketing these primarily in Harris Tweed, and you can choose from any of the patterns listed here:
http://giftshop.scottishtartans.org/harris_tweed.html

Of course, we can also provide these in our Ettrick tweeds, and even in the Glen Tilt range of "tweeds" (really worsted wool), if someone wanted a lighter weight version.

Cost would be dependant upon the cloth, but the Harris Tweed version would be $425. If anyone interested in one of the alternate clothes would have to contact me for a price quote.

Unless I misinterpreted Kevin's last communication with me (and I'm sure he'll correct me pretty fast if I did), he's ready to start sewing!

Aye,
Matt

[BEEDEE]

Matt - congratulations. Hope to see the expansion sometime in the future.

Brian