Italian Textiles

May 12, 2012May 12, 2012 stitchesoftime1 Comment

There were some really beautiful things on our recent trip to Italy so I thought I would do a post just about all the pretty textiles.

First of all some lace and stitched household items in a little shop in the very pretty village of Bellagio.Some of this lace comes from Venice, from the island of Burano.

Then we went to the town of Como which had a wonderful market and there was this stall with so many beautiful Swiss textiles, the Italian Lakes are very near the Swiss border and there was all sorts of beautiful table linen and little curtains for hanging at your chalet window.

I spent ages trying to decide what to buy (Jake got very bored at this point!) but ended up getting this beautiful table runner which I will use at Xmas.

I have a number of stitched red and white Xmas ornies with similar themes such as this one below so I thought the runner would look good on the lounge coffee table.

We visited a few (!) churches during the week and since it was Easter there were some icons on display including this one from a church in Mennagio with some gorgeous goldwork.

We also bought some lovely pasta, polenta and spices from a little deli in the same village – on the walls there were these large-scale kitchen cross stitch motifs which were beautifully framed.

Apologies that the picture is not very good, the light and the glare made it difficult to take nice pics but there were about 10 of these collections in the shop which must have taken such a long time.

On our day trip to Milan I came across a fab shop full of cross stitch and embroidery supplies and bought 3 sets of embroidery transfers, there are lots of different designs here including about 20 alphabets and very good value at only 3 euros per pack.

And from a little gift shop in Como not textiles but this cute display of table napkins which are another little addiction of mine, I was very good and didn’t buy any (have a few in stock already) but aren’t they so cute!

I do hope you are having a lovely weekend. I was supposed to be at a re-enactment event this weekend but have got a poorly back again so instead I am having a very nice relaxing weekend stitching and knitting and watching DVDs. Very blissful and the weather is sunny which is so nice to see after all our torrential rain.

I am currently working on the large cross stitch of the Chinese Emperor but am going to start another Spring ornie for me in the meantime as that is a long haul project and I want a quick finish inbetween.

Thanks for visiting and do have a very good week ahead.

Chinese textiles

March 22, 2012 stitchesoftime7 Comments

As might have been expected I found some lovely things in China! I thought I would put these in a post rather than with the other pics I have been working on for a separate page so that they will appear in the tags at the side.

China is of course famous for silk and while in Guangzhou (which was formerly known as Canton) I went to the old 19th century area for a visit and found this beautiful piece of embroidery on silk in an antique shop there. There were many pieces to choose from but I bought the lion as that is a very traditional Chinese symbol. I love the bright colours and the detailed stitching. There were so many lovely things in the shop (that I could not afford) like caps and gowns and stitched shoes.

I also came across some lovely cross stitch kits – these were being sold by a street vendor on one of the bridges near the hotel I stayed at in Guangzhou and worked out at about £1 per kit so were a real bargain. I have just started stitching the Emperor one to remind me of the dressing up with Mo that I posted about last time.

The first group of people I worked with in the city of Shantou gave me a gift to say thanks at the end of the week which was very kind of them. I was thrilled when they gave me this beautiful set of local lace.There are about 12 of these in the set they gave me. They told me that lace making was brought to the area by missionaries in the 19th century so they thought the present was appropriate as it was a blend of West and East which was so lovely. They didn’t even realise when they chose this gift what a textile addict I am so it was perfect!

I was lucky enough to be taken out on a brilliant day’s tour of cultural sites when I was in Shantou. I spent most of my time in China teaching but had 3 rest days while I was there and the school I was working at took me to a historic house nearby where they had museum displays. This is part of a wedding carriage and is appliqued embroidery on silk.

Puppet theatre has a long tradition in Chinese culture and in the same museum there was a puppet theatre display with beautiful goldwork side panels.

I am still working on the rest of the pics to choose some for my page – I took so many so am spending a lot of time editing them and hope to post that at the weekend.

Thank you for visting and see you all soon.

The end of a busy week….and then there was embroidery!

September 18, 2011 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello everyone , hope you are all well and happy. I am currently feeling tired but happy after a very busy first week of term, I must be getting old as I was very glad to see Friday :-). I have had a lovely time with my new group of students, they are very lively and I’m sure we will have a great year ahead.

I had a nice relaxing weekend planned and I have been enjoying myself – once again surrounded by textiles. My local branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild were having their biennial exhibition on Saturday so after meeting at Lydia’s lovely yarn shop Spun for a couple of hours of the WI monthly craft session where I cast on for a new pair of wristwarmers I wended my way to that.( I love that word ‘wended’ don’t you – always sounds like something out of a fairytale!)

I have not been able to attend a meeting this year due to work pressures but it was very lovely to see everyone, eat nice cake and marvel at all the wonderful talent that is in the group. The slideshow below shows just a small selection of the fabulous work there was on display.

Free picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

I also bought a couple of books on historical textiles (bargain at £1 each) and added this little piece of needleace to my collection of textile creations.

Today we had the first full planning meeting for our new re-enactment group Swords of Mercia held at the Hardwick Inn, this is a lovely old pub – see pics below, in the grounds of the fantastic Hardwick Hall – once home to my heroine Bess.

Apart from a very nice lunch and a catch up we also organised lots of things about how the group will be run , I am to be secretary, booking us into events and also help with costume making and advice. We have until next year probably before we do our first show but I already have some fettling to do to make new hangings for the display tent we will use for talks.

I have finished the stitching on my Autumn exchange pice (no pics allowed as it is not be posted till 1st Nov) so as well as the wristwarmers I have started on another Xmas stitch – this is a Nordic inspired tree design from the Cross Stitcher mag I treated myself to yesterday.No pics yet as not much stitched.

So a busy week but a very nice one, have had great fun once again and am very much looking forward to the year ahead – both personally and professionally.

Hope that you all have a nice week ahead and see you soon. Thanks for visiting.

Simple Pleasures

September 3, 2011 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there

Hope that you are all having a nice weekend, I have been very busy with decorating since early this morning so have decided to have a nice sit down and do a post with a cup of tea before I go and cook.

Ellie has gone back to University – we helped her move in to her new house on Thursday and left her to unpack.She has got a bigger room this year which is good as she had a lot of stuff! It is a very nice house with a brand new kitchen (not at all like student digs in my day!) so I’m sure she will be very happy there.

I had a good journey back just sitting stitching another JBW Xmas ornie with a cup of tea, looking at the lovely views out of the train window now and again. It was a very lovely couple of hours and I really enjoyed it. I do love using trains, I’m sure that driving is very useful and I can see the advantages sometimes but I was very happy sitting and relaxing with my stitching and reading my book.I felt very peaceful and mellow, it was great!

I have treated myself this week to some new books that have been on my wish list on Amazon for a while so I thought that I would show you them (in the absence of any finished stitching – do have two Xmas ornie WIPs which should be done soon!) I do love reading – again another one of my fave things to do and am very sad that the book below is the last in the series at the moment. I started reading the Elm Creek Quilt series last year on the recommendation of a friend from knitting and I love them, they are a wonderful mix of quilting patterns, history and the story of the women who make the quilts.

This book as you have probably guessed is about the American Civil war and picks up the stories of the lives of some of the quilters in earlier books such as The Sugar Camp quilt and The Lost Quilter. I really hope that there are more planned for the future!

My other great pleasure is of course finding out more about the history of needlework and this is a book I have had on my wishlist for a long time, I noticed last week that there was a very cheap second – hand copy for sale so snapped it up. The book is a history of American Needlework written by Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ fame. It was Rose who encouraged Laura to write all her books, being a successful author herself and I can’t wait to get some time to study this in more depth.

Here is just a little taste of the lovely stuff inside, some red embroidery, traditional patchwork blocks and an applique quilt from the Brooklyn Museum.

I have also treated myself to some new JBW patterns from Sew and So – yet more little Xmas ornies! I love these as they are so quick to stitch.

My last treat is some new silk thread from The Silk Mill to stitch all these ornies with – an Xmas colour pack and some extra greens as they are having a 35% off sale until the 5th Sept – to good to miss. That has not arrived yet but will take a pic of it when it does for you so you can admire the silky loveliness!

Well I do hope you all have a lovely week ahead, we are gearing up for the start of a new term with Jake back at college this week, my new students will arrive the week after so it will be all go then, no time for being mellow but I will try to factor in lots and lots of stitching time!

Thanks for visiting.

Just in time!

July 27, 2011 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

I am pleased to report that I have almost finished the Makower Farm fabric quilt in time to take it to Spain next week. In fact I do have enough time (and hopefully enough fabric) to make a little bag to go with it to keep all the animals in.

I was going to be very pushed for time but as Ellie arrived home late and very tired (but happy and very brown) from her dig yesterday evening we decided to have a quiet day in today so I got it finished. I have not got pics of the completed quilt yet as I need to do the bottom hem but plan to do that tomorrow. This was my progress up until today (as modelled by Jake!)

Six of the labels have a pocket on them (made of an extra label with the same design shown on) and I have bought six little plastic farm animals to put into the pockets as well as a set of bigger animals.

As this was my own design I have spent a lot of time trying to work out what I could do with fabric I had bought and would it have been much easier had I bought more plain and co-ordinates for sashing and borders but I will know for next time. I have just quilted the top and then made a ‘bag’ with the backing and turned it inside out, partly as I thought it would look better and partly as I was running out of time and fabric to do a border. I think it looks great as the outside border has enough pattern on it anyway.

We have been for a few days out since Mum arrived at the weekend. Firstly to Marsden which was lovely and sunny.

Then to Temple Newsam House near Leeds which is a Tudor and Jacobean mansion that was the birthplace of Lord Darnley who married Mary Queen of Scots.

Lots of fab rooms and textiles inside , including some wonderful portraits, lots of embroidery spotting. No inside pics allowed but I did find a copy of this pic of Arabella Stuart on this very informative website.

The jacket she is wearing reminds me very much of the Layton jacket in the Victoria and Albert Museum that I have written about previously. Below is a pic of Margaret Layton wearing the jacket.It makes me wonder about who made them both and how many more similar jackets exist – was it a popular design, did they know each other and did they ever meet (hopefully not both wearing their jackets!). They were both alive at the same time.

There was also a very interesting quilt on one of the beds – no pics allowed so I will have to try to describe it to you and see if anyone has seen anything similar as I have never come across one like it before.

It was made of glazed chintz, Chinese inspired flower / tree of life type designs so late 17th or early 18th century I think. It was patchwork but did not seem to be quilted, no wadding as far as I could tell and the patchwork design was of large squares about 14″ diameter set on point with half triangles at the border. I went to a quilt exhibition at the V and A last year and saw quilts there dating from the 15oos but nothing like this. It looked quite basic, not really stately home style and I was very intrigued so if anyone knows anything about it please let me know.

We have a trip to York to the latest Quilt Museum exhibition and the Minster planned for later in the week which will be lovely. Hopefully I will get chance to post again before I leave for Spain (with my completed quilt – hurrah!).

Thanks very much for visiting, see you again soon.

Little stash, big ideas

May 1, 2011May 1, 2011 stitchesoftime5 Comments

Hello there

I have been having a very lovely week and I do hope you have too. It has been absolutely glorious weather, I have spent lots of time in the garden, doing both boring practical things like cutting the hedge ;-( and nice stuff like having a bbq and enjoying my flowers. My garden has really matured this year , the clematis is about 3 times the size it was last year and everything is looking very lovely so please indulge me while I show you a few pics.

Quite a lot has been going on indoors as well though this has been a relatively quiet week for me (like most of the population here in the UK) with only 3 work days and lots of lovely holiday. I celebrated the Royal Wedding by having a few friends round for cupcakes and Cava during the ceremony and a little buffet lunch afterwards. I thought Kate’s dress was absolutely stunning – just perfect for her. Will not post pics of that as apparently a third of the world’s population watched the wedding so I’m sure you will have seen it! However here are my cupcakes that I made for the do – the first chance I have had to use my cake stand!

On the crafting front I have been working on my pink Sublime baby cardi and my JBW Plum Pudding Xmas ornie – the latter is nearly finished. I also have started a new quilting WIP. I said a while ago that I wanted to organise my quilt fabric stash in a similar way to how I have seen other people sort things on their blogs so bought some plastic storage boxes and was surprised to find that I actually have very little quilt fabric (lots of other types of fabric but that is another story!) This is it basically.

Pretty poor isn’t it compared to some of the big names out there in the quilting world? However I am planning trips to the Malvern Quilt Show at the end of May and the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August so will have a chance to add to the stash. Sorting it all out did give me a chance to mull over a project I have had in mind for a while which is a small throw for the back of one of my sofas in the lounge. It is a brown leather sofa which is quite plain and since I have lots of lovely medieval style fabrics I thought I would make a start on cutting out some squares which I did this afternoon.

This is not the final layout just a bit of a working plan, I am thinking about a large central square of one of the dark red fabrics with gold silk sashing and then strips of all the other squares with red silk sashing in between each square. No time limit for this piece just something to pick up as and when I get time – things are about to get very hectic round here with term starting again and all my re-enactment and other things.

I have finished my Spring Exchange piece for the Seasonal Exchange with a whole 3 days to spare and that has been sent to the USA this week so will post pics of that once it has been received. I got mine from Lisa last week when I got back from holiday so here are the pics of it. Please do go and visit her blog as she has loads of lovely stitching on it.

It is very lovely, the finish is so neat with lots of really even blanket stitch and I love the backing fabric as well. It is hanging on my patio doors with last year’s seasonal exchange Spring ornie making me feel very happy – I do love this season camping, bbqs just being able to be outdoors lots – fabulous!!!

Finally Elmsley Rose asked me in comment a while ago what my header pic was – it is part of a crewel work picture I bought from E-Bay about 4 years ago, unfortunately no info came with it about date or maker but I did promise that I would take a pic of the full thing so here it is. It is not a brilliant pic as it is framed with glass so there are some reflections but I really like this piece – it hangs in my hallway.

Well I will love you and leave you and hope that you have a very good week ahead. I am looking forward to a quilting workshop next Saturday and as much crafting as I can squeeze into my tight schedule!

Bye for now and thank you for visiting.

St George’s Day re-enactment show at Bolsover

April 26, 2011April 26, 2011 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Well we had a very lovely time this Bank Holiday weekend – very hot weather on Saturday (thankfully cooler on Sunday and Monday as the boys were really melting in their armour!). About 3,000 people came to see us over the three days – thanks if you were one of them. I was doing my head-dress and embroidery talk again – this time in Lady Percy’s tent (as she is being the cook this season in the mornings) assisted by Lady Alice.

Here are some pics for you – starting off in the early morning when we are all getting ready for the public to arrive.

Bolsover April 2 — Lord Bardolph (aka Paul) setting up in the arena

Bolsover April 4 — Lady Bardolph (aka (Lynn) ready for calligraphy

Bolsover April 3 — Lady Percy (aka Tracy) and Ellen and Jake in the kitchen

Bolsover April 6 — Cameron (aka Keith) and Paddy setting up for the armour talk

Bolsover April 7 — Esme tidying up the flags round the displays

Bolsover April 8 — Lord De Bohun (aka Paul) putting on his armour

Bolsover April 9 — Lord Zouche (aka Luke) in his padded jack and coif

Bolsover April 10 — More of Lady Bardolph's embroidery on Lord Despencer's shirt

These pics from the afternoon show are all taken by my lovely friend Jan from her Facebook page (hope you don’t mind me using them Jan) – as I am not allowed a camera while in kit I have to ‘borrow’ other people’s pics to show you the action.

Bolsover April 13 — Lady Despencer (aka Bev) in her heraldic dress

Bolsover April 11 — Ellie giving water to Zouche during the tournament

Everyone wanted me to post this one as well as they loved the crazy look on my face – I am just happy that the season has started again and I am camping!

Bolsover April 12 — Me (as the nun) Ellie and Zouche

Virtually no crafting has gone on this week – at the weekend we were too busy with medieval stuff to do anything apart from me doing a bit of hand sewing of a coif during the day. I will have to crack on this week as my Spring Exchange piece needs to be mailed by the 1st May. I have had mine from my partner and it is lovely so will take some pics and post that at the weekend.

I am looking forward to the Royal Wedding on Friday – some friends are coming over for cupcakes and cava and then I am hoping for a nice weekend so I can be out in the garden, there may even be a bbq or two!

Hope that you have a nice week and thank you very much again for visiting.

More talented friends and relatives

February 5, 2011February 5, 2011 stitchesoftime3 Comments

You may remember some time ago I wrote about my talented friend Bucket and his 18th century embroidered waistcoat. Well here is a pic of it in its finished state – I hope Bucket does not mind me sharing this pic from his partner’s Facebook album. Look at the amazingness of this!

Bucket's waistcoat finished — A master embroiderer indeed!

My wonderfully talented daughter Ellie has also been very busy – she had a very cute patchwork cushion kit from Madeline Millington for Xmas and her friend Gemma has given her a sewing machine so she has produced this very lovely cushion.

Here it is on her bed.

Ellie's patchwork cushion 2 — Being looked after by her collection of frogs!

I have not got much to report myself this week – so it is a good job Facebook came to the rescue for me as I am still only halfway through Ellie’s hat – since it is knitted in black and the weather has been awful I don’t think I could have got a decent pic for you anyway. Would have made more progress but have had another very busy week. Did have a long train journey this week and took the knitting but sadly it was a crowded train and I didn’t want to poke the guy next to me with my needles so got little done – must learn to knit on circulars so I can knit more on trains!

I was hoping to do a bit of garden tidying this weekend – we had a couple of days with a bit of blue sky and I got all optimistic but then I remembered that I live in Yorkshire and it is only the first week of Feb! The poor garden looks so tatty – I am longing to be able to get out and restore it to prettiness – roll on summer!

The very, very good news is that full boiler function was restored on Weds – ohh the warmth – it is so fantastic and it did not mean having to have a new boiler thank goodness so we are all very happy and toasty once again.

I have just ordered a new book from Amazon as I am going to be participating in Crazy Aunt Purl’s book club on her blog. I have meant to join in before but have missed deadlines but this book looks particularly good as it is about immigration to the USA which is a subject I am really interested in. The book is called When We Were Strangers and looks like a very nice read. It may well be my holiday book as I am off in two weeks for a little bit of ‘blue skies and bougainvillea’ therapy in Spain again. Have also treated myself to another Laura Ingalls Wilder book as I love reading things from her life.

Well I hope that you are all having a lovely crafty weekend and are nice and warm and toasty – just listening to the rain lashing down makes me very glad to be inside – off to stir my beef stew now!

Thanks for visiting.

Talented friends

November 10, 2010November 10, 2010 stitchesoftime4 Comments

As you know I have very, very many talented friends and I just wanted to share with you some recent pics of their work that they have posted courtesy of their Facebook profiles – I do hope they don’t mind me sharing their skills with my blog readers.

The first is my lovely friend Kat who as you know does medieval re-enactment and I have posted before about her costumes and her business Kat’s Hats . Well she also does Tudor re-enactment and these costumes are even more wonderful than her others due to the level of detail and complexity in them. This pic was taken recently at an event at Buckland Abbey with her Tudor group.

kat and granny - Buckland — Kat, her beautiful daughter Isabella and her granny

What amazes me about this pic is that it looks like a scene from the Tudors (love those series – have all on DVD) but all of these costumes were made by Kat.

I have also mentioned Bucket before but have never had any really close up pics of his embroidery to show you. Bucket is one of the rare men who embroider and he along with Kat does many different periods of re-enactment. Bucket’s partner (also called Cat!) recently posted this on Facebook which is his work in progress on an 18th century waistcoat – up to the moment the work has taken 245 hours and counting!

And here is the man himself with his work.

Bucket's embroidery 2 — Here he is with a well earned beer

Fantastic work both of you – I am honoured to know you.

Thanks for visiting.

Crafting friends

October 24, 2010 stitchesoftime2 Comments

I am very lucky to have lots of lovely friends who do all sorts of crafts who I have met over the years of going to embroidery and knitting groups. Recently one of them , the very talented Barbara, came for lunch and a crafting session. Barbara was the person who inspired me to do crazy patchwork with her amazing tea cosies and I have shown you some of her work before. She is a very creative stitcher and is always trying out new things. She does not have a blog but I will find out where you can see more of her work on Flickr and post the link.

We had a lovely lunch and the got down to the serious business of exchanging fabric, ideas and having a little show and tell. Barbara has been participating in some private exchanges with some other crafters that she has met through her Flickr site and had brought this wonderful Victorian inspired crazy patchwork piece to show me. Apologies I have forgotten the maker’s name (it may be Maggie) but I know she lives in Australia.

Barbara - exchange piece — Look at all that wonderful stitching and little charms!

Barbara has been working on these techniques herself including printing pictures on to fabric and look what she brought me!

: Pressies for me!

The needlebook case on the left has gorgeous little rosebuds stitched after the picture and the little bag with me on is so clever! What I forgot to take a pic of was the bottom of the bag – she has lovely sparkly pink shoes all stitched in metallic thread and Barbara has written ‘girly shoes’ next to it – she is a fabulous machine stitcher and I am very, very pleased with my gifts. thank you again Barbara!

She also brought along a sample she has made using her new flower foot on her sewing machine.

Barbara - flower stitching — The piece includes hand dyed silk carrier rods and hand stitching as well as machine

Aren’t the colours in this gorgeous – just what you need on all dull day – I told you she was clever!

Barbara made a little tree ornament while she was here and we exchanged some Xmas fabrics – I have been cracking on this weekend with my Xmas crafts , have finished putting together the quilt wall hanging – now I just need to quilt it. I was going to machine quilt most of it but don’t thick it will fit under the machine now the wadding is quite thick so will hand quilt in metallic thread instead.

Barbara - making tree — A live trial - Barbara seeing if she can follow my tree making instructions

In the exchange I got some fabric with trees on so I have put it to good use and made some little bags for my craft fair stall – I also made 3 more with some robin fabric that I had in my stash – I have to get rid of some of the fabric to justify my expenditure at Harrogate you see!

Xmas tree gift bags — Just got to add ribbon ties to all these

A couple of days later I got this lovely parcel in post from Barbara with even more fabric and some very cute charms which was very well received.

Barbara - fabric — Flower fabric with sequins

Barbara - charms — Need to think of somewhere to use these - look at the tea cups - very cute!

I have finished and posted my second Autumn exchange – this one to Oklahoma in the USA – will post pics of both when they have been received.

I managed to get to two of my knitting groups this week which was great – haven’t been for while to one during work and it wa so nice to see everyone again. All in all a wonderful week!

And I am off to Spain tomorrow – yipee! Am packing lots of knitting to take with me hoping to finish off a couple of the Xmas gifts while I am away. Will post when I get back.

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: embroidery

Italian Textiles

Chinese textiles

The end of a busy week….and then there was embroidery!

Simple Pleasures

Just in time!

Little stash, big ideas

St George’s Day re-enactment show at Bolsover

More talented friends and relatives

Talented friends

Crafting friends