Copenhagen – churches, castles and Carlsberg!

April 17, 2015February 9, 2023 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello and hope that you are all well and happy. We have had a splendid time on our whistlestop tour of Denmark.

We have seen a lot in a short space of time, taking advantage of the fact that we bought a Copenhagen Card. The card covers entrance to 74 museums and attractions as well as all transport so we visited two castles that were further out from the city as well. Excellent value and well worth getting if you are visiting the city.

This is the beautiful Frederiksborg Castle at Hillerod, an idyllic setting with woodland and gardens surrounding it which we really enjoyed for our picnic and ice cream after the visit, the castle has one of the most amazing chapels that I have ever seen.

We enjoyed a Metro train trip to Hillerod and an ordinary train trip another day to Helsingor which gave us a chance to admire the Danish scenery, (very like England, much less like Sweden than I was expecting, flat and no pine trees, miles of lovely coastline, lakes and beautiful houses).

This is the Kronberg Castle at Helsingor, built to collect taxes and keep an eye on Sweden a short distance away – we did wave but unfortunately as we didn’t have our passports with us couldn’t visit. I have been to Sweden twice before and would love to return one day.

Travel in Denmark was very good, efficient, frequent and comfortable.Our hotel, Wakeup Copenhagen, was 10 mins from the main station and trains were plentiful. The hotel was very nice, small rooms but comfortable beds and a lovely shower 🙂

As a public transport enthusiast it was lovely to see accessible trains with lots of space not only for luggage (I would love trains like this for going to re-enactment events) but also the bikes that are so popular everywhere.

As always on our trips we tried to absorb as much of the history as we could in the short time we were there and not only were there some stunning places but it was lovely to remember again the connections between the UK and Denmark, (not just the Viking invasions), with the royal marriages so it helped put together the jigsaw of European history for us.

It was also interesting to see the human side of the royal lives, as well as the grand palaces and stunning décor there were displays like this of Princess Louise’s sewing chair from the late 1800s in the Ameliaborg Palace , she was obviously a keen needlewomen from the amount of things in her study.

I was also very excited by this display in the National Museum, one of the Scandanavian bog finds which are some well preserved medieval clothes, not a very good picture as my reflection is in the way but great excitement for me to see a real dress and hood so similar to the ones I make for re-enactment.

The churches were very interesting, from spending so much time in Spanish, Catholic ones to the plainer and less ornate beauty here – the top two pictures are Frederick’s church then the Trinity church and lastly the Cathedral.

As well as trains there were boats, a canal cruise and the water bus, the latter to see the Little Mermaid statue.

We also visited the Tivoli Gardens a couple of times, the world’s second oldest amusement park, which reminded us of a mini Disneyland complete with a pirate ship restaurant and beautiful buildings.

Oh and I even found a fabric shop in Helsingor and bought a couple of fat quarters of fun kids’ fabric with penguins and tigers on 🙂

I will be back later in the week with a post about the costume from the castles and churches as there was some amazing detail in the paintings and some great costume reproductions.

Have a lovely weekend ahead and enjoy whatever you are doing. Thanks for visiting.

And they are paying me for this!

March 17, 2015 stitchesoftime1 Comment

I am having a very, very lovely week so far. I have been sent on a writing retreat by work to finish part of my doctorate at a most gorgeous place, the Gladstone’s Library in the pretty village of Hawarden in North Wales.

There are lots of books – this morning I was working in this amazing place.

And also not one but two castles just down the road (pictures in a minute) and a beautiful church with stained glass to die for.

The food is amazing and I am having a lovely time getting to know some of the new colleagues that have joined us at the University recently – there may be visits to the pub and wine involved in that bit 🙂

I am feeling very relaxed and happy and making great progress with the writing (which is the whole point of being here!)

The library was set up by William Gladstone who was Prime Minister four times in the Victorian era and whose family home is this modern castle, sadly not open to the public.

It reminds me a lot of Boddelwyddan Castle just along from here where we have been lucky enough to do a couple of events. It is quite possibly by the same architect.

But I did get to go for a walk in the parkland surrounding the old medieval castle which was very lovely, on a mild Spring day with lots of these gorgeous flowers everywhere – well we are in Wales!

I went for a little walk in the village as well past the old House of Correction and a lovely fountain.

The church, St Deniols, was very nice with an extensive old graveyard with some sad tales to be told from the gravestones of war and childhood death. And an amazing surprise inside, stained glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris.

I am seriously considering staying (not least because Ofsted are due at any minute!) but may have to go home soon so I can still fit in my jeans as there is lovely breakfast, lunch and tea plus morning coffee and afternoon, both of which may include cake – only to be polite of course.

In one of the corridors is a stitched piece by the local WI celebrating the village’s history.

However I do have Ellie’s velvet dress to alter for the start of the season at the end of April and a couple of other things to make so it will be (reluctantly) back to normality on Thursday.

Meanwhile I shall enjoy!

Hope you are all having a lovely week and thanks for visiting.

Lorca – the final set of wonderful goldwork

March 9, 2015 stitchesoftime2 Comments

The Paso Blanco Museum was in an old chapel which had recently been refurbished. So not only was it the most wonderful collection of robes, cloaks and head dresses but the setting was amazing as well.

These were the first robes we looked at, the head dresses have eyeholes in them and the 3D work on the robes was stunning.

This is a close up of the wonderful Roman general’s cloak in the centre of the museum.

Many of the cloaks were pictorial as in the other museums and these had stunning scenes from the bible, the ones below were two of my favourite.

The detail of the people on this one must have taken hours of stitching.

And then there was the chapel to visit, just a little bit of gold in there!

If you feel like seeing any more goldwork I have done another slideshow for you. So much inspiration will keep me going for a long time!

Picture slideshow customized with Smilebox

Hope that you have all enjoyed the goldwork and have a good week ahead, thanks for visiting.

Marvellous Murcia

January 25, 2015May 16, 2023 stitchesoftime3 Comments

Hope everyone has had a good week. Here in the UK we have had our twice yearly, ‘oh my God it has snowed, panic, panic do not travel’, buses stopped and everyone suddenly appears dressed for the slopes at Klosters.

Other countries with real snow all winter must really laugh to see the reaction here and there have been lots of pictures on Facebook of people managing perfectly well on roads with 20 feet of snow either side.However they do have it more than we do and have the right equipment.

It has been very pretty though and this photo from the local news shows you the loveliness of it all. It has nearly all melted now leaving my garden looking worse for wear so will have to get out and give it a good tidy up.

I wanted to show you some of my pictures from our recent trip to the city of Murcia in Spain. Mum, my Aunt Maureen and I went on a coach trip there, it is about 40 km inland from where Mum lives and the drive alone was very lovely.

We often go on these coach trips as it is a great way to see the country, they are good value at about 10 to 15 euros each and it is a lovely day out with no hassle driving or parking.

I have been to Murcia twice before but never managed to get inside the cathedral. This time we did make it and to the cathedral museum, also the museum that houses the large statues that are paraded at Easter and to the Casino, which is the gentlemen’s club built in the late 1800s.

As always there was beautiful goldwork, some dating from the 1700s, in the cathedral and museum.

I have another trip to Spain planned in a couple of weeks and we are off to the city of Lorca where they have not one but FOUR religious embroidery museums – excited MOI – just a little bit 🙂

As well as tapas in a very lovely bar that dated from the 1920s full of old pictures and posters of bullfights and a couple of stops for coffee and a little retail therapy (two very cute Moroccan style tea light holders – I know I don’t need any more candle holders but they are lovely!) we amused ourselves very nicely.

We also found these very cute little chocolate hedgehogs and had one each!

I am planning to hand stitch for the rest of the day, still working on the hexi cars, have changed my mind about the design so yesterday took apart all the stitching I have done this week so am starting again!

Have a lovely week ahead and thanks for visiting.

More Spanish loveliness

July 20, 2014 stitchesoftime1 Comment

On our recent trip to Spain we visited the little mountain town of Novelda again – I have posted before about going to Casa Modernista and we went back to show that to Ellie and my Aunt Maureen.

The church was open this time as they were having a fiesta so I got to take some photos of the wonderful inside, like many Spanish churches it has a tiled blue roof and some restoration had been done on the stonework with new inserts into the pillars which were beautifully carved.

The rest of the town was very pretty as well with an unusual tower on the town hall and gorgeous Art Deco benches.

We also went to visit a small local museum where they store the Moors and Christians costumes for the re-enactments of the Reconquista that are held all over Spain.

A fab time as always, I do so love Spain, the people buildings and lifestyle, I am very lucky to be able to go so often and can never wait to return.

Thanks for visiting and see you soon.

Beautiful Bavaria

May 10, 2014 stitchesoftime6 Comments

Hello there

A rainy Saturday in Yorkshire (again) just right for a bit of a catch up on photo editing and blogging.

We had a really lovely weekend in Sherwood for our first event, the sun shone, I got a bit brown and lots of people came to see us. More about that in a later post as I have some beautiful places to show you. There were also some fab doors – look at these from Nuremberg ! And lovely old churches – the bottom picture is of one in the town where we stayed – Langenau.

The holiday we went on was called Beautiful Bavaria and they weren’t wrong. It was my first ever trip to Germany and I will definitely go back. What a gorgeous country full of all the things that I love best, mountains, castles and old medieval towns.

It was stunning and I felt like I had landed in a Disney film set a lot of the time, all the inspiration for his Fantasy Lands at the Disney parks obviously came from this gorgeous architecture.

This was our first trip solely by coach, we went with this company, Shearings, to Italy two years ago but flew that time. It was a great experience being able to see lots of Europe, we caught the ferry from Dover and went through France, Belgium and all the way down to Bavaria, stopping in Belgium overnight each way.

Lots of time to stare out of the window (how I love not driving!) and lots of time for knitting – perfect! We had a great driver/guide who had researched lots about Germany history and so we learnt so much while we were there. The sort of holiday we all really enjoy.

Our first day trip was to Nuremberg which was very lovely, they have done a great job of rebuilding what was damaged during the war and the castle, churches and beautiful old buildings look perfect now. Below is the church in the city square with its famous clock.

The pictures below show the inside of one of the other churches where there was the most gorgeous little door (think it would have held an icon originally) as well as this casket in gold and silver.

And the usual wonderful religious art (not as much as in Florence but that is the Reformation for you!)

There was the most beautiful fountain in the city square as well and we made a wish by twisting a gold ring in the ironwork. We also ate sausage and sauerkraut, I had a German beer (the kids liked the sausages but not the other things!)

We visited the castle which had a great museum, this crown (which I think belonged to Charlemagne) was very impressive and the boys from my medieval group would love to get their hands on these weapons.

This is the chapel in the castle which was very simple but lovely. It was a brilliant trip and I have more pictures for you later. Meanwhile hope you are having a lovely weekend and thanks for visiting.

The beauty of wood

October 9, 2013 stitchesoftime1 Comment

As you know I love visiting historic properties and have a special fondness for Tudor properties. If I could ever afford a really old house I would love one of this period and the one I visited recently in Ludlow, the Castle Lodge, was amazing.

The lodge and the castle is where one of my heroines, Catherine of Aragon, stayed during her honeymoon after she married Arthur before she married Henry 8th.

The outside of the house is not as impressive as other properties in the town but inside it was beautiful.It is privately owned so if you are in the area do visit, it only cost £3 entry and it would help preserve it.

It has the most beautiful panelling everywhere, more than I have seen in other properties, including some linenfold panelling of the type that Ellie spent many hours cleaning when she worked at Powis castle.

The beds and seats were also carved.

The plaster work was amazing as well.

The St Laurence’s church had some beautiful wood carvings too particularly the misericords on the back of the choir stalls.It was too dark to take photos of these but there are pictures and more information on this web site.

I got some good shots of other parts of the church including a stained glass window containing the coat of arms of Sir Roger Mortimer, the character that my friend Shane in our medieval group portrays.

The end of the season, though sad, at least gives us more time to visit old houses, castles and churches and Kerry and I have many more trips planned :-).

Thanks for visiting and see you soon.

Christmas is coming!

September 13, 2013September 13, 2013 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there

Apparently it is a mere 3 months till Christmas which is obviously why my local Co-Op has stocked up with the Xmas chocs.

That is maybe slightly more understandable than them selling mince pies with a sell by date of the end of October (although you can of course eat these at any time of year and you might want to train up for a mince-pie eating fest at the actual festive season – who knows).

Us crafty types can be forgiven for getting in the mood early on (I have yet to participate in a Christmas in July event but I am intrigued) however I have made a start on the ornaments that I will be hopefully be selling at craft fairs this year.

I have quite a lot of stock from last year as I did not do my usual Oakwell Hall fair due to going to China but am hoping to do that this year.

I did manage to make these two baubles but sadly had a major malfunction with the rest of the polystyrene balls that I had in my stash which literally fell apart as I was using them hence only two completed 😦

I promised you photos of Chesterfield Church that I visited recently when I went to stay with Ellie so here they are.

The church is famous for its twisted spire as it is made of wood and has warped over the years but I did not realise that it had the amazing effigies and alter art inside.

A beautiful church and well worth a visit.

I have been to our last event of the season – fab times and have lots more pics of loveliness for you which I will post this weekend.

Thank you for visiting.

Medieval art anyone?

June 9, 2013February 5, 2022 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Well the trip to Florence with my lovely mother was fantastic!

I think this has to be my favourite city so far – the churches and palaces full of frescos and medieval art, the Uffizi Gallery with even more medieval art, the beautiful buildings and views over the Tuscan hills and the gorgeous food.

View from the Ponte Vecchio looking at the Arno River.

Some of the 80 ice cream flavours to choose from in the shop near our hotel.

I loved the display at this shop in one of the side streets, We came back with pasta, herbs and oils, yum, yum!

And there are also lovely shops if you are into that, personally I am not going to pay 10 times the price I can here for a pair of designer sandals but we did a little window shopping and marvelled at what some of the so-called fashions were priced at.

We stayed at the Albergo Firenze, another one of my fantastic finds from Expedia. Although it was rated only 2 star it was a gorgeous room, really good value for money and the location is excellent – 5 mins walk either way from the Palazzo Vecchio and the cathedral so exactly where you want to be.

I have put a tiny selection of pics here, as there was so much to see.

Angel mosaics in the Baptistry.

Detail from one of the Madonnas in the Palazzo Vecchio.

Detail from one of the Annunciation frescos in the Santa Maria Novella church.

One of the chapel paintings from the same church.

We also saw some beautiful silver and goldwork, this was an altar piece frontal in the museum of the Santa Lorenzo church dating from the late 1700s.

I also loved this ceiling painting from the Plazzo Vecchio with its depiction of women spinning, weaving and sewing.

I had seen some of the fresco paintings from the churches before as many are in medieval costume books – look at these two beautiful gowns from frescos in the Santa Croche church.

I have come back with loads of prints and a new icon with one of my favourite Madonnas by Filippo Lippi so have put up some new art in my bedroom to remind me of the trip!

Thanks for visiting and see you soon.

Art Deco in Spain

January 14, 2013September 13, 2013 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello everyone

Hope that you are all well and happy.

Seems longer than week ago that I was in Spain with those lovely blue skis 🙂

My Mum had surprise day trip planned for me, I thought that it was going to be a new museum of religious art or a fab church but it turned out to be this amazing art deco house in a little town called Novelda, about an hour away from where she lives in the mountains. She discovered it in a DK book that my brother and sister-in-law bought her and first went to visit it last October.

Spain has a lot of Art Deco and Modernist art and I have seen many very lovely things, mainly fabulous doors and ironwork but this was really special.

If you didn’t know it was there you would not really notice the house, the facade is lovely but it is tucked away in a little street in the centre of the town and from the front it looks to be quite a small property but it stretches back a long way and like many Spanish houses it has a Moorish influenced courtyard garden inside the house.

The wonderful thing about the house is that most of the rooms are furnished with original Art Deco furniture and it looks so lived in.

The house is called Casa Modernista and was built between 1900 and 1903 – the DK travel web site has info on location and times info . It is well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in the area.

After lunch (tapas at a lovely little cafe round the corner) we had a little wander around the town and the market and then set off to find a church, St Mary Magdelene’s Sanctury and castle that we could see from the town and that Mum went to on her last trip there. After a few false starts and lots of communing with the locals we found it and it was really beautiful.

As far as we could work out it was built in the early 1900s and reminded me very much of Gaudi’s Sagrada Famila that I was lucky enough to visit a few years ago in Barcelona – on a much smaller scale. A very interesting church and look at those wonderful blue skies! These pictures were taken on the 4th of January!

So back to reality this week, a busy week at work but I had knitting group and a lovely relaxing weekend crafting and cooking so it was not all bad 😉

I have been working hard at creating new stock to take the craft centre, have some new heart ornaments made from recycled charity shop finds that I am just finishing off so will post them next weekend.

I have finished my hat – in beautiful James Brett variegated wool, this was an adaptation of a pattern that I had as a freebie booklet from a knitting mag. I changed the stocking stitch with Fair Isle main part for moss stitch with a stocking stitch crown when I realised how hard it was going it be to do the decreases for the crown shaping in moss stitch.

I am very pleased that it turned out so well and that I now have the confidence to play around with patterns like this. It is very warm and lovely and I just cast on for another one in the purple version of this wool.

This will be followed by matching scarves and possibly wristwarmers in both colourways , at some point in between everything else I want to do. I have still not managed to win the lottery so unfortunately crafting is still subsidiary to my day job – is just lucky I really enjoy what I do!

Exciting job related news – my next trip to China has been confirmed. I will be leaving for Beijing at the end of Feb for two weeks of teaching followed by a few days of exploring the city.I am so lucky, life is wonderful at the moment and I am so enjoying myself.

Like most of the rest of the UK it has been snowing overnight – not as much as I expected but here is the view from my window this morning.Hopefully it will last until the weekend when I can go for a walk on the snowy moors!

Hope that you have a good week ahead and thanks for visiting.

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: churches

Copenhagen – churches, castles and Carlsberg!

And they are paying me for this!

Lorca – the final set of wonderful goldwork

Marvellous Murcia

More Spanish loveliness

Beautiful Bavaria

The beauty of wood

Christmas is coming!

Medieval art anyone?

Art Deco in Spain