Liz McGregor writes...

Mairi,

Every week I learn something new about the gifted and creative women that are part of Carrubbers.  You are one of these very talented ladies so thank you for being willing to tell us a little bit about your life!

We often see you wearing beautiful, unique pieces of lace when you come to church and I believe you actually design and make these yourself. Where did your interest in lacemaking come from?

The first thing that attracted me to lace was the bobbins.  I remember seeing old lace bobbins in a museum in Northern Ireland and was intrigued by them.   That year, 2010, my sister gave me a lace starter kit for my birthday.

Most of us probably think about our grandmothers when we think about lace making. How did you learn?

Life was busy and my starter kit ended up in a drawer until I went to a Craft Fair in Glasgow with my sister.  There I met ladies who were excited about making lace and I guess I simply “caught the bug”!  I bought a book for beginners on lace making, went home, got my starter kit out and worked my way through the book until I had taught myself the basic techniques of Torchon Lace.    Later I joined the Edinburgh Lace Club and my lacemaking came on by leaps and bounds.  I also started creating my own patterns with the help of a lace tutor.

I believe you’ve now won some awards for your lace making. Is that correct?

Yes, in 2013, just for fun and to give me something to work towards, I entered my lace into the Royal Highland Show.  I made a brooch and bracelet on the theme “An evening stroll along the Promenade”   To my amazement and delight my brooch won 2^nd prize, my bracelet won 1^st prize and was voted the “best in show” for the lace section!    It was a great boost to my confidence both as a lace maker and designer.

It looks so complicated and fiddly to me. When you are creating a beautiful lace design how do you feel?  What does it mean to you?

 It’s a wonderful process.  If I’m creating my own design, it starts with a small seed of an idea in my head, perhaps developed from a photograph that I like.  Slowly I work it out over a few days, sometimes over a few years until I’m ready to draw it, develop the pattern and then make the piece.  And when it works it feels amazing – it truly is a gift from God.  I love the challenge of working from a pattern and it has been inspiring to learn this beautiful craft from older women here in Scotland and also in Belgium where I have taken courses.

I’ve learned that when something seems impossible, not just in lace making, and I pray about it, God helps me and I am able to thank him.

Have you always been a creative person?   

No, when I was a child I never sat still for a minute – sports were my thing then but all that changed in my late teens when I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.  Instead of playing the sports I loved, I was at home lying on a couch so weak that even a shower exhausted me for hours.   Seeing my frustration as I lay around watching TV, my Mum came home one day with paper and coloured pencils and suggested I might like to draw: being dyslexic meant reading wasn’t that enjoyable then.  Suddenly the artistic side of me that lay hidden was revealed and I began to draw and paint and to make cards and jewellery.

Later I realised that I also love photography.   As I look at a beautiful scene through my lens I see something of the amazing God who loves me.  I cannot help but worship and enjoy his presence.    My phone is full of my photographs, reminders of how I feel about God and his creation.

With my lace and photography I hope that my work will encourage others in their search for beauty and the creative excitement in God’s beautiful world around us.

It must have been hard to come to terms with a chronic illness as a young person. Can you tell us about that?

I had attended church as a child but stopped going when I was about 16.  As I faced what was happening to me I realised that I needed God back in my life and I started going to church again with my Mum.   But it wasn’t until I came to Edinburgh and began to attend Carrubbers that I actually became a Christian.    David and Janice Anderson took me under their wing.  Now as I look back I see that through my illness, their love, concern and clear communication of the gospel, I was open to God in a way that I had never been before.     I will be forever grateful to my Mum, to David & Janice and to the Lord.

How has God continued to work in your life since you became a Christian?

13 years ago I had the worst flare up of my disease.  I was in hospital for weeks and in the end had to have surgery to remove the whole of my large intestine.   Two further surgeries later I now have an internal pouch.  Thankfully my health is much improved now although I still have spells when I am very low in iron or I have an infection in my pouch.  These times are tough but they come and go and I just have to take one day at a time.    When I’m feeling good I get on and do lots of fun things, when I’m not feeling good I just accept that I have to stay home and rest.

All this has meant that I can’t have children.  It’s so interesting how things turn out.  When I got married to Paul, I was determined to have children and be a stay at home mum – that was all I wanted to be and to do – nursing (my current vocation) for the next 40 years was not on my agenda!    But God has a different plan.  Through all of these difficulties and disappointments over these past years I have grown so much in my faith and trust in God.

One day a non-Christian friend pointed out that I was so focused on becoming a mum that I wasn’t enjoying being a wife.  This was hard to hear but suddenly I realised what a wonderful husband God has given me in Paul.  He is my best friend and we have a wonderful life together with so much to be thankful for but I was forgetting this in my determination to become a Mum.  It wasn’t easy to let go of my dreams.  I found it hard to be around family and friends who were all getting pregnant and having babies.  This is one of the hardest things I have had to face.  It has been quite a journey.  But God IS faithful and his plan IS the best.  I have now accepted what God has for Paul and I and we couldn’t be more happy, at peace and thankful.

Yours is a chronic invisible illness, something that most of us don’t have to cope with.  Can you help us understand how this affects you?

“You are looking so well, you don’t look ill, you look so healthy.”  These are some of the things people often say to me.  I know they are genuinely happy to see me looking well but…if they only knew the truth.  Life is generally good but there are times when it is not; during a time like this I wake up so tired, so exhausted in the morning that I just don’t know how I will get through the day.  While my body screams to stay home, I get up, put on a smile and head to the hospital to work.  I make it through the day but by the end of my working day every fibre in my body aches and even breathing is hard work.  I wonder how I’m going to find the strength to walk home – a 20 minute uphill walk but I refuse to pay £1.60 for 2 stops on the bus! Day after day it goes on like this until there’s nothing left to do but cry. It isn’t easy living with a chronic illness but thankfully it isn’t always like this - just when I am having a bad spell.

As you look to the future, say in 5 years’ time what would you love to be doing?

I look forward to living in the house that Paul and I are currently beginning to build, running my own craft business and joyfully and contentedly living the life that God intends for us to live.

What is your favourite passage of scripture?

It’s Matthew 10: 29 -31.  David Anderson shared these verses with me when I was very ill in hospital just after my first surgery.  I still remember it as if it was only yesterday.    These verses have helped me through other tough times and I often go back to them even today. 

 Jesus said to his disciples “are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of the Father. And even the very hairs of your head are numbered.  So don’t be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Thank you, Mairi for being willing to tell us your story in such an honest and helpful way.  I know we will all be challenged by what you have shared.  How can we pray for you?

 Please pray that:

• I will put my trust in God and live my life with him at the centre, knowing that his plan for me is the best even if I don’t understand why something is happening. This is an ongoing journey of faith. 
• My lace and photography will be used to glorify God and that He will use it for good.
• Paul and I will trust God each step of the way as we work hard to build our new home.

As you pray for Mairi be sure too to look out for her at church and see if she is wearing one of her unique pieces of jewellery!  You can email her at mairigoldlace@gmail.com if you are interested in finding out more about how to buy or commission a piece of her lace or photography.  Or, check out her website at www.mairigoldlace.co.uk  to see some of her work and commissions that she has done for people.