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!

Happy Mother’s Day – baking, beautiful stitching and a major life change!

March 2, 2008February 4, 2023 stitchesoftime1 Comment

I hope that you have had a happy day if you have been celebrating. I have had a very good day for lots of reasons.

First of all I got some lovely presents – my daughter had bought me some lovely presents as you can see from the pic below.

The candles are because I love having candles around the house – not that I light all of them as some are too pretty to burn and the Mrs Beeton cookery books are a very special present which I will say more about later.

I then decided to clean out the cellar – having promised myself a day of just embroidery and relaxing but I was in the mood to declutter and in the process of that we found a lost key and a lost phone so it was very useful. Next weekend it is the turn of the garage which we have some mice in. We have known for a while that we have mice as I was keeping the bird seed in there and it was getting eaten.

We found the nest today but as we were removing the box it was in two of them jumped out so are still somewhere in the garage. Not that I really mind them being there – I felt a bit sorry for them as they had made the sweetest little nest out of old magazines and bubble wrap but we have all of our tents stored in the garage including the expensive medieval ones and all the tapestries and hangings that go in the tent so we don’t really want them nesting in that. We have bought a (humane) trap but they have not been interested.

Ellie and I spent the rest of the day baking as she is having a bake sale at her college on Tuesday to raise funds for her Kosovo project. She is going to Kosovo in July with some other young people from her college to run a summer school for war orphans and they aim to raise about £3,000 through various activities. One brave volunteer, Will, had his legs waxed last week and they raised about £90 from that. They are also selling books and Ellie has made some handmade cards to sell. Below is a pic of some of the cakes with the Mother’s Day card she made me and a pic of Ellie hard at work icing gingerbread.

I have also finished my charity knitting and I am really pleased with the results – it is the first garment I have knitted for years and I did not have problems with any of the shaping or the neck.

I have also recently acquired two rather wonderful pieces of antique embroidery from E-bay. I have bought a few things before but decided that I wanted to start collecting some things that I could display when I start trading at re-enactment events as a historical embroiderer. I am intending to do this in the not too distant future so have bought the items below.

The crewelwork picture of the Tree of Life is absolutely gorgeous and was quite expensive but is really a museum quality piece – it is just as good as the things I saw on display in my recent visit to Gawthorpe Hall. I really had to battle to win the auction – was even checking bids while we were at the hotel in London! It is now hanging in the hall.

The other piece is not in very good condition but it was cheap and I had to rescue it as it is so sad when things that someone has taken so much time over get left to rot. It has some big holes in the top and smelt of mothballs but basically the rest of it is ok. I’m not sure if it is crewelwork but it is wool stitching on linen in various autumnal colours so I suppose that is the best category for it. I plan to take off the side pieces and remove the damaged area and put new backing on it so that I can use it as a table covering for my one of my display stalls in my trading tent.

Now back to the presents from my daughter which I said were very significant. As well as decluttering the cellar and various cupboards over the last few weeks I have also been sorting out some major re-arrangements of my life. I have been in my current job for the last six years – I work full time as a teacher trainer and anyone who teaches knows that full time really means all the hours God sends and overtime when it gets really busy!

I really enjoy my job but I have to work late till 8 or 9pm two or three evenings a week teaching and meanwhile that leaves me out at work all the time, stressed and tired when I am at home and the poor kids having to fend for themselves a lot of the time. Since they are only going to be around for a few more years (Ellie will be off to Uni in Sept 09) I felt very sad that I was not here especially as she is doing A levels at the moment and Jake starts his GCSEs in Sept.

I have worked full -time since Jake started school and have taught evenings for the last 16 years and like lots of women who are trying to build up their careers I have often had to miss things that they are doing at school as I have been at work. I have had fantastic child minders and my Mum lived down the road for four years till she moved to Spain but there comes a time when there is no substitute for parental support – after all proof reading Classics’ essays and helping with all the ‘what am I going to do with the rest of my life’ questions are not something that you can ask other people to do with your kids.

My job was not going to get any easier and I felt that I was really missing out on ‘quality of life’. I have seen other people at work get ill through being stressed and was always determined that it was not going to happen to me. So I have taken the momentous step of downsizing to a half time post from Sept this year!

Actually once I had made the decision it all seemed to be so clear and I have now had official confirmation from work that it is happening. I hope that everything will be ok for my colleagues as I feel very guilty that I have left half of my teaching and someone will have to be found to do that but I feel very much more relaxed already and very positive about the decision.

Which is where the books come in – I have been saying to Ellie for the last year or so about my desire to do more gardening , bake bread and devote more time to the craft and household activities so bless her she bought me the two Mrs Beeton books for when I go half time. I am really looking forward to being in the house more – I have a really lovely house and garden that I have seemed to be hardly ever in and we have done nothing at the weekends for months (apart from Project Nepal) as I have either been too tired or have been cleaning! So I am really looking forward to my new life in September. I plan to take my City and Guilds embroidery qualifications, as one of the things I would love to do when I retire is to teach embroidery and after Xmas plan to join a local Creative Textiles class at an Adult Education Centre.

I put it down partly down to my age (Ellie is convinced I am having a mid life crisis) and to reading all those lovely blogs from people who are at home and doing things but also that in the last few months we have lost two people from the medieval group – both sudden and very tragic losses and it really does make you put everything in perspective. One was a friend’s daughter, which really made me think about how little time you might have with your family, and the other a friend nearing retirement age who did the same job as me. It made me realise that I did not want to put off having quality time until a few years from now and that money is fine but does not buy you extra time which is what I have been sadly lacking.

So yesterday I went and bought new baking equipment much to everyone’s amusement ( ‘what is wrong with re-discovering your inner domestic goddess I asked them?’) including a loaf tin for bread making and today I decluttered and baked. Yesterday glamorous, exciting and totally knackering career, tomorrow (well 1st Sept really) hello the new me!

Visit to London

February 16, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Last weekend we went to London to visit various museums and sights that we did not do on our last trip about 4 years ago. The main reason for going this time was to visit the Tutankhamen exhibition at the O2 in Greenwich which was very good. There were not a huge number of exhibits but those that were there were very detailed such as jewellery, crowns, chairs and chests. It is amazing to think that they are all so old and still exist in such good condition.

We also visited the Tower of London, the Imperial War Museum and had a trip on the London eye – scary considering Jake does not really like heights but good fun! We were due to visit Camden Lock Market on the Sunday as a treat for Ellie but unfortunately it caught fire on Sat night so we went to Covent Garden instead.

We saw the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London which were very impressive (lots of goldwork as well though sadly pics were not allowed) and the ravens who are very big!

First some pics of the family at well known tourist spots –

This is in the London Eye capsule as it got to the very top – it moves very slowly so it is not too scary until you look down and realise you are very high up – we were lucky to have a very clear day so we could see lots but it was very hot in the capsule.

As we got to Covent Garden they were setting up the red carpets and barriers for the Baftas on Sunday night. We could not to stay to see any of the stars arrive but here is Ellie doing her best starlet impression!

Next some pictures of things that I liked the look of –

We went to Selfridges to the Food Hall and they had these very fab cakes especially for Valentines Day and some extremely expensive (£3.50) Valentine’s Day water (give me chocolate please – who wants water!)

These two pics were taken in a very cute gift shop in Covent Garden – just look at those little car glasses – I wonder if they are motorised then your wine would never be out of reach!

This is one of those Sushi places where the little dishes revolve around the counter – have never been in one as no-one in the family will eat raw fish but one day I will just for the experience – I think they are such a wacky idea. I could do with this at home – maybe I could get an adaptation on the fridge and endless dishes will just stream out ready to eat then I would not have to cook!

I also took lots of pics of the lovely architecture – old and new – so have created a little slideshow for you of pics from the Tower, Canary Wharf and the London Eye – sadly no nice doors though!

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.

Blog stats – how wonderful!

February 4, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

I was wondering if anyone was ever reading this blog apart from my relatives and a few friends who I know have left comments (thank you very much) when someone mentioned that there may be blog stats showing how many times the pages have been viewed.

Well not only are there overall number of views (281 at last count – thank you everyone for stopping by!) but details of how many times each post and page has been viewed and when which is very useful. I seem to be getting quite a few hits from people searching for info on medieval stuff so if you are one of those please feel free to ask me any questions through the comments. I am not an expert but know a lot of very talented and knowledgeable people who can usually help with queries. Also let me know if there are any more photos you want to see . Meanwhile if you stop by do leave a comment (yes that means you as well Mum!) – I am guilty of reading blogs for years without doing that but I do now as I know it gives the blog owner a warm fuzzy glow!

I have also changed the blog header – this is a piece of 15th century beadwork that I found on the web – have no more info on the source than that. Have decided to change the header every so often to share with you my large collection of beautiful embroidery pics. Am also attempting to add some other things to the blog – having some trouble but will persevere!

Centerparks holiday

February 4, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

We spent last weekend at Centerparks in Nottinghamshire. For those of you outside the UK or who have never been Centerparks are forest holiday resorts where you can do lots of cycling and all sorts of sports. I have been going regularly for a girls weekend away and we used to take the family once a year but neither things have happened for a few years. However last October we reinstated the girls weekend away and partly because of guilt over that and partly as I wanted something to look forward to in awful Jan I booked a holiday for all of us.

The weather was really good , dry and sunny which was quite amazing considering the previous Monday there had been all the floods. Interestingly that Monday (Jan 21st) is apparently the most depressing day of the year according to some psychologist’s research.

Anyway we had a lovely time cycling, canoeing, boating, swimming, badminton, Pilates, Ellen’s first Spa Experience (now she is 16 and an adult she can do all these wonderful things!) and going on the rapids.

I am not very good with wild water rides but did pluck up the courage to go one time but ended up underwater a bit too much for my liking. I am still testing myself out for the white water rafting as we are having a training weekend in April with the Project Nepal group to do a practise raft and trek and I would like to go on that even if I don’t do the full thing in Nepal.

I would actually have tried again the next day as since I did not drown the first time so was not really likely to the second time when I knew what to expect but it was really packed and there were lots of people landing on other people’s heads. I did pluck up the courage to go down a long covered tube water slide on my own which I thought was good as it was in the dark and quite fast! The fact that there were babies and toddlers going on with their parents gave me courage and I enjoyed it so much I went on four times. There is hope for me yet!

Below are some pics including a couple of all the cute animals I was feeding all weekend – I chose a villa next to the water so that I could feed all the wildlife.

Snow – but luckily winter woollies as well !

February 3, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftime1 Comment

This post is especially for my mother who is having unseasonably hot weather in Spain! We woke up yesterday morning to find that the world had gone white – luckily it did all clear by late afternoon. Snow looks lovely and as you can see my garden is very neat and weed free in these pics (hah hah!) but since this is our only weekend at home this month we had loads of boring shopping etc. to do and where we are heavy snowfalls tend to cause traffic chaos very quickly.

My knitting is coming on well so the recipients of these finishes will at least be warm. The first scarf is a present for my sister in law whose birthday is on Monday and is from the lovely Aunt Purl’s book – this is a pattern she calls magic scarf which uses a checkerboard made from alternate knit and purl sections.

The second is a scarf made from feather yarn – I am in the process of a beret to match this and these are for Ellen to sell to friends for her Kosovo fundraising. She is making cards as well to sell for this as is Granny (thanks for the parcel Mum!) and has already started selling hers and Grannie’s creations at college. She is a very creative person and loves stitching, card craft and beading and is a wonderful artist though she doesn’t always think so.

More Spain pics

February 2, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

As promised here are some more of our pics from our recent holiday to Spain. We did a lot of travelling around as usual and had three long bike rides as the weather was so good as you can see from all the sun in these pics. We visited the spa baths at Archenna and they have built a new pool with wonderful Jacuzzis, bubble jets, whirlpools etc which is fab. Also went looking at boats in the local marina and priced some in the boat dealers in Alicante.

It does cheer me up looking at these pics as we have had such bad weather here just lately – lost a couple of roof tiles this weekend which is a pain. My mother e-mailed Ellen to tell her that they were having unseasonably warm weather there at the moment and told her not to tell me! I really don’t want to turn into someone who is obsessed by the weather but it is depressing when all it does is rain. Having said that it has been nice this weekend and there are spring bulbs coming up in the garden so the end is in sight. Enjoy the pics!

Our little Spanish house with cacti

Bougainvillea in our garden

Alison cycling

Palm trees at the spa in Archenna

Calpe taken from the rock

Work in progress

January 21, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

It has been a very busy week as term has started again at work so very late nights (tea at 10pm) and lots of running around.

As I mentioned earlier I have been busy stitching snowflakes so here are some of the ones I have done already. They are not made up into ornaments yet but I am very pleased with them especially the very fine count ones on the white sparkly fabric. These are quite difficult to do especially as I left my bifocals on the plane on the way to Spain (oops!). I do have spare pair that are not bifocal but they make the telly very fuzzy. The joys of old age!

Snowflakes

This one is a work in progress rather than a finish – again on the very tiny count fabric and is a motif from one of my newer Quaker Samplers.

Partly due to the difficulties of working on tiny count fabric and partly due to one of my Xmas presents I have taken up knitting again. I knitted while a teenager and all through college (baggy legwarmers anyone!) and knitted various ill fitting hats, bootees and rompers for Ellen while I was pregnant. I was also very keen on knitting Barbie clothes for a while – they are very quick to knit! – but have not done any for about ten years,

However I asked for a book for Xmas which my lovely sister bought me called Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair. I found it on someone’s blog (forget who) but it is a fantastic tome – written by one of the funniest women I have ever read Crazy Aunt Purl. Buy her book – read her web and knit coz its fab.

In order to do this I of course had to get some equipment and luckily lots of places were selling very, very cheap yarn (3 balls for £1) so I bought lots! Below is my stash – I have added a few bits this week !

I now have enough to keep me busy for the rest of the year. While I will still stitch as well knitting is fab for when I am really tired after work and cannot see well enough for the little pieces and I have already finished my first scarf. Here it is as a WIP (I will post a completed pic when Ellen has modelled it for me).

As you can see it is knitted from a fab eyelash yarn in just garter stitch which looks very good. I am already on with my second one and I am trying Aunt Purl’s special magic scarf checkerboard pattern for this one and a different yarn.

I have of course been looking at lots of knitting web sites and have bought a couple of knitting mags and have found some fab things out there – isn’t the Internet wonderful! This is one of my fave sites so far, this woman is so talented (as an artist, photographer and knitter) and what she makes is so cute. Go and have a look at Julie’s blog Little Cotton Rabbits and I guarantee you will fall in love with them!

I am not a very good knitter so I shall stick with scarves and maybe some hats and bags though I have downloaded the pattern and bought some wool to knit some jumpers for kids in Africa – see this Feed the Children link for details.

Have also posted a Project Nepal update so go and look at that.

Bye for now!

Internet quiz

January 11, 2008October 16, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

I have done this quiz as it comes from a blog I read regularly and the blog owner has asked everyone to do it on their blogs – so here it is

TEN random things you might not know about me.
1: I ran for Student Union President when at college and lost by 17 votes – the narrowest margin ever in the history of elections up to that point.
2: I used to stand on a street corner selling the Socialist Worker Magazine in my home town on a Saturday morning.
3: I cannot drive – though I have recently got my provisional licence and am going to learn.
4:Up to this date I have lived in 27 different houses.
5:I once said ‘the Internet-can’t really see the point – don’t think I’ll bother with it!’
6:My daughter is called Ellen Scarlett Rose as the day she was born they were showing it on TV – Scarlett O’Hara is one of my heroines.
7:The reason Ellen is called Ellen is that she is named after the Sigourney Weaver character called Ellen Ripley in the Alien movies.

8:When pegging out my washing on the line I have to have pegs that match – you can’t put a blue with a red in my world!
9:Every morning when I empty the dishwasher I count the cutlery to see how many of each sort there are – most mornings the big spoons win!
10:From my 18th to my 25th birthdays I celebrated by having one drink for each year in the one evening at my birthday celebrations- after that I kind of thought it would be good not to continue the trend!

NINE places I’ve visited

1:Sweden – twice
2:France
3:Spain
4:New York – for a hen weekend – very crazy!
5:Florida- to go to Disneyland
6:Disneyland Paris – 3 times coz I love Disneylands
7:Holland
8:London – lots and lots when I was younger

9:Paris – the grown up bit not Disneyland!

EIGHT ways to win my heart

1:Give me red wine
2:Give me chocolate
3:Show me your tattoos
4:Buy me embroidery stuff
5:Take me to see someone else’s embroidery
6:Let me visit churches
7:Take me to places that have fabulous doors
8.Not be sarcastic to me

SEVEN things I want to do before I die

1:Visit every country that ends in’stan’ – currently I think there are 7 but that depends on the political situation
2:Visit every Disneyland at least once – three to go in California, Tokyo and Hong Kong
3:Follow the ‘In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great’ trek done by Michael Wood a few years ago on TV
4:Learn to drive – on the left for the UK and on the right for Spain
5:Embroider a really big Quaker sampler piece
6:Visit every place in the ‘World Landmarks’ book that I just bought

7:Visit the Himlayas – hopefully this will be done in Oct!

SIX things I’m afraid of

1:Worms
2:Forgetting things that are important3:People I love dying
4:Not getting everything done in time
5:Chocolate being made illegal
6:Running out of red wine

FIVE things I don’t like

1:The amount of paperwork at work
2:Not being able to be outside in the winter months
3:People who don’t do things because ‘something might happen’
4:People not putting things away
5:Moving house – though I love looking at estate agents details and viewing houses

FOUR ways to turn me off

1:Not like camping
2:Be sarcastic
3:Be prejudiced
4:Not appreciate the ultimate sanctity of my stitching time

THREE Things I do everyday

1:Clean – unfortunately!

2:Drink red wine
3:Embroider – unless there is a very serious reason not to – like I am knitting or some horrible surgeon has cut my hand open! It happened and I couldn’t stitch for months!

TWO things that make me happy

1:Embroidery
2:My family

ONE thing on my mind right now
1:Will I remember what I am supposed to be doing next week?

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.