Some excellent links – beadwork and costume

January 30, 2009November 24, 2009 stitchesoftime1 Comment

My recent technical issues with the lovely PC I am currently working on (got to be polite or it might take offence and crash again!) have meant that I have been going through all of my web sites in Favourites and writing down those that I don’t want to lose if the PC finally bites the dust. Am hoping to be able to get new PC soon so am planning to transfer things over.

This means that all the sites are organised in my little book and I have finally got around to working out where some of the pictures I seen have come from! So I thought I would share some pics and their links with you so that you can go off and have an explore.

The first site Medieval Beads run by Jen Segrest has some amazing examples of beadwork through the ages. I hope she won’t mind if I show you a couple of examples from her wonderful collection.

A beautiful 15th century beaded piece - copyright Jen Segrest 2009

Detail of the above beadwork - copyright Jen Segreat 2009

This very talented lady collected all the pictures on this site and her accompanying Flickr picture collection and also makes wonderful beaded work and pincushions. Jen very kindly shares how to make the pincushions in these photo tutorials on Flickr. Here is an example of one of her cushions which you can buy through her Etsy store.

You can also buy a book of how to make some of her pincushions – this is going to be on my wish list for when I have time (right after I find the blog with the knitting pattern for making extra days in the week!).

The second site is another blog that I found by accident – a bit of late night surfing as you do! The blog is called Extreme Costuming and is run by Laura who makes costumes for her roles in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) in the US and her volunteer work at various history projects. I hope that she won’t mind me showing you this picture from her site (the copyright is V. Dye, 2006) but it shows the amazing quality of her work.

Redwork jacket made by Laura of Extreme Costuming

Not only is the embroidery fantastic but the research is as well – on this page of the blog she details the process and includes photos of original pieces from museums in Kent and London. I am hugely impressed by everything this woman does!

As well as this jacket she has many other pieces on the blog such as superb coifs. Makes me really wish that I did Elizabethan re-enactment but then I have enough trouble keeping up with making the simpler costumes for our period!

This is what I love about the Internet. I know there are all those debates about whether it is a good thing or not but having access to all these blogs with all this embroidery, knitting and general wonderful stuff on can only be a good thing! It certainly makes me very happy :-).

Positive day and new beginnings

July 7, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

I have had a very good day today with some lovely things happening. Today we had our end of year strawberry tea when all the staff gather to eat strawberries, chat and those who are leaving are given gifts and thanked.

I went today particularly to say goodbye to one of my colleagues who started me off on my full time career at the University by appointing me to a research post many years ago and was delighted to find another old colleague from the past there as well.

Peter was my old boss when I worked for the Adult Education Service, a lovely man who really supported me through my time there and who is responsible for developing my love of Numeracy teaching as he gave me my first class in that subject. I was so pleased to see him as he has just been appointed to a new post in our section to develop research and funding etc. It was a lovely blast from the past and a very nice new beginning for him and me.

I will leave you again with some fabulous work – not mine again as I need to get things sorted and places decorated before I have the luxury of sitting down with a needle I’m afraid.

The only information I have for this piece is that it is Swedish Blackwork though given that it is a black and white picture it could well be redwork but I really like the scrolling patterns on this.

Optimism

June 26, 2008January 12, 2010 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Well apologies for the lack of recent posts – two and a half weeks later and the builders are still here – I am still cleaning every night (after work, start at 8.30 finish about 10 eat at 10.30 and fall asleep on computer after 3 glasses of wine at 11.30!). However (and she is probably tempting fate by saying this!) it really all should be done soon.

Last bits of electrical work are to be done tomorrow and then two last bits of plastering and it is all done bar the decorating ,fitting the bathroom, building the new furniture, restoring the garden and working out where we put all the boxes of stuff we moved out during the build!
Not been the best time to do this what with the work situation and all but today is a very significant day in the career of. I have just taught my last evening class. Next week I have one group doing presentations so I have no preparation to do for that and that is it – after 17 years! It will be so good (and very weird) to not have to rush around in the morning sorting out tea and remember all the things that need to be got ready. I will be here at home most of the week and even when I do have to go to work will return while there is still daylight!
In light of this I have just got some new business cards done and am going to be fitting out the new study/workroom over the next few weeks with storage for all of the fabric that currently resides all over the house.Am getting very excited now – seems a long long time since I made the decision in Feb and we are now nearly there.
Do not have any pics from build ready to upload but will leave you with another nice piece from my historical embroidery collection.

This is the most wonderful reproduction of Elizabethan blackwork – I have forgotten who the embroider is whose site I got it from but I think it was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) based in the USA as I have visited a lot of their wonderful sites. They have some very talented embroiderers in their groups.If you are the clever person who did this, or know them please leave me a comment so that I can credit you properly.

Hopefully normal blogging service will be resumed soon!

Another exciting acquisition, some religious art and some Tudor textiles!

March 9, 2008November 14, 2011 stitchesoftime1 Comment

As I mentioned in my last post I have been collecting textiles from EBay and had just got some beautiful crewelwork. I was on EBay earlier on this week and one of my fave sites to go and browse on had the most wonderful item ever. Normally this seller Antique Textiles and More has some wonderful bits of goldwork and embroidery but this week she had a full priest’s cope in the most wonderful purple fabric with amazing flower embroidery. Well it was on Buy It Now and I had to rescue it ! Just look at these pics and you will see why I am so excited!

It has some wear to the lilies on the back of the cape that I will try and re-stitch but otherwise it is fantastic and I am so looking forward to it arriving – hopefully it will do tomorrow. It is obviously not medieval – the seller had it listed as 19th century and French – but it is still amazing. Most of the other things she sells are only pieces but a whole cope is fantastic. Do go and view her site and have a look as there are some wonderful examples of embroidery there. I can see I will be visiting again for more birthday and Xmas ideas!

I am very into ecclesiastical textiles as befits my role as a nun (see medieval re-enactment page for pics of me in role) and love visiting churches and looking at altar frontals and preists’ garments. This is of course if the children will allow me in churches – I sometimes get limited to one a day unless I can sneak off while they are not looking! As well as the textiles I love looking at the religious art – below is a fantastic piece which is is the cathedral in Oriheula, Spain.

This following picture was taken in the cathedral in Valencia, Spain which I visited last July.

As well as the wall art the cathedral in Valencia has the most wonderful ceilings with angels playing musical instruments. This photo only gives you a tiny impression of how magnificent it is.

I bought some prints of the ceiling which I have hung in my bedroom. When we moved house a couple of years ago we decorated the room with a medieval theme so that we could display some of our wonderful textiles, boxes etc – I will post some pics of that at some point.

I have also seen some wonderful textile pieces in museums such as the famous Syon cope which is in the V and A museum in London. Below is a small picture of the cope which really does not do it justice at all.

I have spent some time this week looking for embroidery qualifications to do next year, once I am half time at work and I come back from my trip to Nepal. I have been trying for the last year to find a class that I can attend to do my City and Guilds’ embroidery but cannot find one close enough to home. So I have decided to do a distance learning course and have been doing some research on what is available. If anyone has done this and has any feedback on the course they did please leave a comment as that would be helpful – or if you know of somewhere that teaches it is West Yorkshire.I have found some Creative Textiles classes at local adult education centres that are just for leisure without exams that I will enrol on next year as I find it helps to work with others and share ideas.

I have also treated myself to a wonderful book about the textiles at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire which I have visited many times. Hardwick was the home of Bess of Hardwick a contemporary of Elizabeth 1st and sometime stitching companion of Mary Queen of Scots and is full of the most amazing 16th century embroidery. My new book is a catalogue of the textiles – pic of the cover and link below. I have only just started reading it but it has a wealth of detail about the textiles.

The Embroideries of Hardwick Hall – Santina Levey

I also have another book by the same author called an Elizabethan Inheritance which is about the general running of the household and the costs of the textiles. The pic below is just a small sample of the wonderful work that is in the hall so do visit if you can.If not the books are a fab present!

I have been watching ‘The Tudors’ on DVD which was an Xmas present and we went today to see ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ at the cinema. The costumes for both were so wonderful and I would love the chance to see them so if any knows of any exhibitions please leave a comment. I have just found this web site about ‘The Tudors’ series which has some wonderful images in the gallery if you are interested in this era of costume. I am thinking about doing a piece based around ideas of blackwork and Catherine of Aragon (who is credited with introducing it to England) so as soon as I get the huge pile of marking I have to do finished I will start on the research for that!

I will leave you with two final pictures – one of Maria Doyle Kennedy who I think is fantastic as Catherine of Aragon in the series –

and one of the Queen herself.

What I always find rather pleasing (being a woman!) is despite Henry divorcing Catherine in his desperation to get a male heir his second daughter Elizabeth eventually gained the throne and reigned for a very long time, only superseded by Queen Victoria (another woman) who was of course recently beaten in that record by our present Queen Elizabeth. Kind of makes you believe in divine retribution doesn’t it girls!

Blackwork, samplers and a lovely jumper

February 15, 2008November 24, 2009 stitchesoftime3 Comments

I am just starting a new blackwork project which shall have to remain hidden until it is finished as it is a present for someone. Instead I am posting you all a few pictures of some of my collection of blackwork. Most of these pictures have been obtained through various web sites and I do not have the sources for all of them so sorry if you want to go and find more yourself. However I do use the wonderful Web Gallery of Art for a lot of costume searches. I use the search function and then select the years of pictures I want to look at. For costume – particularly blackwork you need to look after 1500 as most of the art before that is religious – beautiful to look at but very little costume.
The picture below shows Elizabeth 1st at the very height of blackwork’s popularity – she is wearing blackwork sleeves which were often covered by a fine gauze to protect them.

The next picture shows an unknown lady dated 1595 in a very fine outfit with black and gold work. The scrolls enclosing the fruit and flower motifs are very common in Elizabethan blackwork.

My final picture is not strictly blackwork but as you can see is very similar in its design to the above picture. This is a picture of an existing jacket dated 1620 which is known as the Laton jacket and is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The museum web site is well worth a visit and if you can get to the museum itself they have wonderful textiles.

I have just come across this blog called The Embroiderer’s Story where they are recreating this jacket – have not had time to read it all yet but will do later! That is the sort of job that I would love!

I have recently purchased two new designs which are based on samplers from a little bit later on in history. I love the simplicity yet complexity of these designs using just a single colour as blackwork does but with such wonderful effect. The first one is called a Quaker Christmas and is from Bygone stitches – I ordered this from the USA from the Stitching Pretty web site. I will probably not do the whole thing as a sampler but am using motifs from it for my snowflake decorations.

I also came across a wonderful web site called Ink Circles which has some stunning designs so I had to order this one below. It is called ‘I Still Do’ and is actually two different samplers of which I have posted close up pics. The owner also very kindly sent me some hand dyed thread to thank me for my order which I thought was lovely!

Again I plan to stitch these motifs to make snowflakes. Am now very out of season with this stitching as it has been quite warm and sunny here this week but snowflakes are pretty at any time of year!

After the success of the three scarves I decided to try my hand at a jumper. I have various friends who are expecting so would like to do some things for them so thought I would practise (the last time I knitted anything like this was 17 years ago when I was pregnant with Ellen!) with a jumper for the Feed the Children organisation. They said on their web site that they accept all sizes so my tension being out should not be an issue! Below is a pic of the WIP -I chose the lovely variegated wool as they said they wanted bright colours!

I had last night finished the back (finished the front last week) but discovered at midnight that I had miscounted the rows (through not starting again at 0 when I finished the rib) so the back was 22 rows shorter than the front! Have now unravelled back to a suitable point and will hopefully finish the whole thing this weekend. Was supposed to be at a Scout Camp this weekend but due to another ear infection which is still not completely gone have given my apologies so will be in the house all weekend instead crafting.

Xmas in Spain

January 8, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello there and Happy New Year- a bit late I know but we have been very busy since we got back from Spain as we have had my sister and her kids to stay so I have only just got back into something of a normal routine. That of course means we are all back at work and school which is very sad – especially as the weather here is so foul and wet.

We had a brilliant holiday again – I have some pics for you but most of the family and activity pics are another camera so all you have here is a few of my architecture ones. The weather was good – it rained the first few days while we were in Valencia but since we were inside doing museums etc. that did not matter. The rest of the time it was lovely – even hotter on Xmas day on the beach. I was wearing jeans and was burning up and had to keep going in the sea for a paddle to cool down!

I had some lovely Xmas presents – mainly books and videos including ‘The Long Way Down’ with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman which I am watching now. This is a sequel to their ‘Long Way Round’ series and is just as fab. I will have finished watching it soon so can start reading the book. Also got Micheal Palin’s ‘New Europe’ book – I watched the TV series recently and it is another book that I wanted so that one day I can do the route myself. Not too sure that I will do the Long Way Down route but would like to visit Ethiopia as it looks fab.

Kids were very happy with their gifts too – Jake got a Wii and games for it – we took that to Spain so the whole family could play. Ellie also had a Wii game, ‘My Sims’ , and has made a very cute town. Ellie and I are big Sims fans – see the link for more info on this fab game and she got (well it was for me really) the latest expansion pack Bon Voyage where they can go on holiday (something I really like doing!).

After Xmas we went visiting – first up into the mountains but it was very wet that day and we nearly got flooded in Calpe – there are no drains so the road turned into a river in about 5 mins and we had to escape to higher ground! We did manage to go and do some castle visiting in Castalla near Alcoy
The castle was closed but we still walked up to it and then into the little town where there were some lovely old houses – some sadly in disrepair like this wonderful one near the town hall.

That is why I love Spain – even in the smallest place you can find these amazing buildings.

We then went back to Alcoy where we went at Easter to see the Moors and Christians festival and I got to indulge in my great passion – which is looking at doors. The children think that this is very funny but in Spain (and all of Europe) they have the most fantastic doors on the apartment blocks and churches and I have been taking pictures of favourite doors for years. One day I will publish a ‘Book of Fabulous Doors’ but I also want to use some of the Spanish doors as inspiration for developing blackwork patterns – they have the most wonderful ironwork grilles on them. My aim at some point this year is to create some blackwork based on one of these doors and get the pattern published.

We also went on some very long bike rides which were great. I am very sad to be back in the wind and the rain and am very much missing the mountains and the outdoor life – we will not be back at the house for a while so I will just have to look at the pics and dream!

I also got lots of stitching done and have completed a whole load of snowflakes for next year’s Xmas fundraising events. Will post some pics of those later.

Stitches of Time

I have created this blog to share my interest in all forms of stitching, quilting, sewing, knitting, medieval re-enactment and costume making – particularly my love of historical embroidery. I also love travelling,especially when it also involves any of my other interests.

Category: blackwork