Kingston Lacy – the upstairs views

June 15, 2014 stitchesoftime1 Comment

The first house on our recent tour was the very impressive Kingston Lacy. The house dates from the 1600s but was remodelled in the Palladian style later.

It boasts the first plate-glass windows ever to be used in a public house and its owner used them to good effect to give the Italian style he was looking for.

These views reminded me of our trip to villas on Lake Como a couple of years ago.

In the drawing-room was this beautiful embroidered piano cover with a little sewing box on display at the other side of the room. I don’t know what the date was for this piece or who worked it, as is often sadly the case no information was known about it.

The owners enjoyed collecting pieces and architecture from their travels, a pair of doors had come from the Vatican and this ceiling had been brought from Spain.

There was another beautiful painted ceiling in another vaulted room.

All very stunning and well worth a visit. I think the National Trust is fantastic value for money (I am not just saying that as Ellie works for them as I have been a member for years).

It only costs £58 for a year and not only do I get the pleasure of seeing all this amazing art and architecture I feel happy that I am helping in a small way to preserve and protect it.

Thanks for visiting and see you soon for more Trust loveliness!

Meet Eva my first elephant

June 11, 2014 stitchesoftime4 Comments

Hello there

I am very excited to have just finished the first of many of Julie’s fabulous elephants, available from her web site along with all the bunnies and the fox pattern (will have to knit one of those next).

She is a very lucky girl as she has 3 pretty dresses and the cutest little tail.

Eva has gone to live with my cousin’s daughter where she will meet up with my first ever bunny Florence who is very much loved by her elder sister so hopefully they can play together.

Now on to my second elephant – one day I might knit something else but these are too cute to stop!

Thanks for visiting.

A glimpse of life in the laundry

June 8, 2014 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello again

One of the parts of our visit to Kingston Lacy that I most enjoyed was seeing the laundry which they had furnished not only with the equipment used but also examples of the textiles as well, very exciting for me!

The house dates from the 1600s but the display was of the Victorian machines and textiles.

I love this huge roller mangle, I remember my Mum and Nana having washing machines with mangles on top when I was little and really loved having a go, would not have been so exciting to be a full-time laundry maid though.

The drying cupboard was very interesting as well, I assume many large houses might have had something similar but have not seen one before, these racks slid into the cupboard which had heated pipes on the floor.

I also found some lovely textiles in the main house – what a surprise! Will save that and pictures of the house for the next post.

Thanks for visiting.

Beautiful gardens

June 6, 2014 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

One of the things I really enjoy is seeing beautiful gardens and taking pictures of flowers.

I am waiting for my lilies to bloom here (and hoping that the sheep don’t eat them) and though I only have a small garden don’t miss the work involved in having more space and am quite happy to visit other gardens or just admire those all around me.

This is such a gorgeous time of year as all my favourite rhododendrons are in flower here in Marsden and all the gardens of the properties we visited this week were looking lovely.

These pictures were taken at Kingston Lacey in Somerset.

They also had some very cute pigs to feed in the kitchen garden!

And these were at Knightshayes in Devon.

I love those water lilies, they just look so perfect they don’t look real.

Have spent part of the morning sorting out the 285 photos I took (don’t worry I won’t post them all!) and will have some lovely textiles to show you later in the weekend.

Thanks for visiting and hope the sun is shining where you are 🙂

A sunny weekend in Somerset

June 5, 2014 stitchesoftime3 Comments

Hello there

Hope you are all well and happy. I am having a lovely time, having just got back from our week away of National Trust properties. More of that to come, saw some fab stuff as always and had a great time with my very brilliant friend Kerry.

I am very lucky to have someone who I have so much in common with, we have had a wonderful week of camping, mini pyjama parties in the Travelodges and seeing some beautiful stuff.

We started our trip with the Templecombe Medieval Pageant – way down South in a very lovely little village in Somerset. The eight hour journey was worth it as the event was excellent. I have not been to this one for 10 years but will be going again.

The sun shone all weekend (a miracle) and our water and cold flannels were much appreciated by the boys on the field.

For this event there is a mini fort that the boys attack and defend, we were inside on Saturday and outside on Sunday and it was great fun hiding behind the walls listening to the guys with the battering ram trying to get in.

Cooling the boys down before the battle.

Waiting inside the fort.

The battering ram.

At the end of the battle – me in the blue dress looking for survivors!

All these photos are courtesy of the brilliant Pat Patrick who comes along to events and takes so many lovely shots. It is great to have a record of the events like this and we all really appreciate it.

I also got to meet Maria, my friend Kat from re-enactment’s, beautiful new baby and give her this bunny – who I have named Lavender.

I did some finishing while I was away and am very excited to have made my first elephant – again from Little Cotton Rabbits. Photos of her to follow.

Thanks for visiting and see you soon.

My lovely boys !

May 27, 2014May 26, 2015 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there, we have just got back from a lovely (if wet as always) weekend at Ashby de la Zouche Castle where we were doing a show. Over a 1000 people braved the weather this Bank Holiday to come and see us which was very nice of them.

At least it was sunny on Saturday even if Sunday afternoon and packing the tents was a bit wet and cold 😦

The boys in the group have been working really hard all winter on their new kit so I thought you might like to see some pictures of them in their finery.

Luke has adapted his outfit to include chains that hold his horned great helm and his swords so that he can hang the helm from his back as he fights (he wears another smaller helm underneath to fight in).

You can see the chains here on this picture of him and our newest member Jamie and again on a picture taken at the last show of all of our knights on the steps of Bolsover Castle. Thanks to Jamie for these next two photos.

This picture below was also taken at Bolsover and you can see more clearly the helmet that Mark our Dragon Knight was wearing for that show which had a St George’s day theme.

Paul in the blue is a wonderful artist and his costume has such detail on it, his belt has stamped and painted lions and the surcoat and shield are all hand painted.

Shane has got a lovely new helmet for this season (yes it does look a bit like a lemon squeezer!) and some new armour – this picture was taken by one of the visitors as I didn’t get chance to get close-ups due to the inclement weather but he has new arm and leg armour in a blue tint and a new armoured surcoat with plates inside it.

They were all looking very splendid and I was very proud of them 😉

We have a packed summer ahead of us which is brilliant. This weekend we are off to Somerset for an event followed by our week visiting National Trust properties and then another two events to finish off June.

I am really looking forward to the months ahead, my teaching finished last week (just some large piles of marking to come) and my lovely group bought me some gift vouchers for a local wool shop which I am really looking forward to spending!

Just about to make up the first of my (no doubt many) Little Cotton Rabbits elephants and have lots and lots of projects planned for summer – going to make the most of the newly sorted craft room.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Outlaws in the Forest

May 18, 2014 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello again, I hope that you have all had a good week.

I have been enjoying another weekend at home and our first at home BBQ of the year, my last weekend here for two weeks as I have shows then a holiday with my friend Kerry!

Last year we took the opportunity to travel round some of the National Trust properties down South after one of our shows and are doing the same again this year going to visit some places in Somerset, Dorset and Devon.

I am so happy that the season has started again, the joys of cooking bacon butties for breakfast outside the tent and meeting lots of lovely people – it is a great way to spend a weekend. Look at this lovely tent owned by one of our friends – wouldn’t you love to camp in this?

The theme of the first show this year was crime and punishment as it was in Sherwood Forest the home of Robin Hood and his band of merry men. We had another great weekend with really lovely weather so lots of people came to see us. It was just a small event with about 8 groups but there was plenty to see in the living history camps.

It was also a very significant first because Ellie came up in Kim and we drove all the way to re-enactment in the car! She did really well as we went on the motorway and she was not at all fazed (even when there was a big lorry trying to come into the lane). I am really proud of her and it was very lovely being driven all the way there (and back as well by my brilliant friend Kerry).

Because of having all this transport we were able to take the medieval tent and some stuff for the display which was a real luxury, am very happy in any tent but to have my medieval one is very special 😉

We were camped with some friends who were doing weapons and armour talks all weekend and we did our usual headdress and embroidery talks which was a nice complement to their display.

This picture shows the camp after the battle with the boys’ arming jacks and paraphernalia everywhere!

And we had the great excitement of a new recruit to the group at her first event. And not just a new recruit for the main group this is our new sister for our little watercarrying group. Here is Sadie all dressed up and ready to go for her first show.

Sadie works with Ellie at Hardwick and has been sword training for a while but decided she would like to join us as well and she really enjoyed herself, she will be coming to many of our future shows as well.

So here’s to many more sunny weekends to come – don’t really mind it raining during the week as long as it always dries up by Friday 😉

Thanks for visiting and see you in a couple of weeks.

A step back in time – Rothenburg

May 17, 2014May 17, 2014 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Our last trip while in Germany was to Rothenburg ob de Tauber, a gorgeous medieval walled town on the Romantic Road. Not only was the setting perfect, surrounded by forests and rolling hills and fields, but the town itself was so pretty.

I felt severely underdressed and should really have been wearing traditional dress at least if not a Belle outfit, it really was like stepping back in time.

Not only was it gorgeous but there were so many lovely shops, food, gifts, weapons and armour (and embroidery and Christmas shops as I mentioned in my earlier post). We spent so much time shopping we didn’t get to see all of the town so would love to go back someday for longer.

All of the shops and hotel had beautiful signs outside them as well, this was the weapons’ shop sign.

The wells in the town had all been decorated for Easter, these were all real eggs, hand painted and they looked beautiful.

A wonderful sunny day out and a perfect end to our trip.

Thanks for visiting.

Bavarian textiles – a tale of two Margaretes

May 11, 2014May 11, 2014 stitchesoftime3 Comments

There will always be textiles wherever I go as not only are they important and many of the places I visit have them on display as part of the social history of the location but also I do sometimes seek them out 😉

However this holiday I had some very pleasant surprises on the textile front as I found some when I wasn’t even looking for them 🙂

The first nice surprise was this beautiful sampler which had been done by Margarete the lady who ran the hotel we stayed in Germany. She was in her 70s and the hotel has been in her family for over 100 years.

I couldn’t help thinking that she must have had a pretty hard life, she was on duty about 15 hours a day when we were there and I hope that at some points they got to close the hotel and have a holiday themselves.

I like to imagine that she stitched this in her free time and it gave her pleasure and helped her relax, it is a beautifully stitched piece and she was obviously proud of it as it was hung in the bar area.

Then we had our unexpected trip to the Steiff Teddy Bear Museum which was an optional trip on the holiday which the kids really wanted to go to. It was really good with a little interactive piece at the start that told you the history of the company followed by a room with lots of toys that you could touch (and sit on) then displays of the toys throughout the ages.

The company was started by Margarete Steiff who was a keen seamstress, she had polio as a child and never married but sewed children’s clothes then made her first toy, an elephant (by accident it was meant to be a pincushion but it got played with!).

She then went on to make teddies and all manner of other creatures. The above photo shows a reproduction of the sewing room that starts the interactive part.

One of the most interesting parts for me as I have been making toys recently (both knitted and have started a couple of fabric ones) was the workroom at the end where as well as staff working demonstrating the toys being made they had lots of patterns hung up and old photos showing the factory workers. There is a concise history of the Steiff business at this link if you are interested.

Then when we went to Rothenburg we came across this shop selling hand embroidered textiles.

They employ over 500 home workers to do the embroidery so I had to go and support the local economy and all those lovely ladies didn’t I? The kids were very patient while I chose from hundreds of gorgeous things.

I bought these beautiful lavender filled whitework pillows for display in my kitchen and an embroidered runner for the Xmas table. As I reminded Jake I do only have 4 (he seemed to think that was too many last year – no idea why?). This one will go very nicely with my holly decorated dinner set).

Rothenburg is also famous for its Christmas shops (which I honestly didn’t know when I booked the trip kids) and so spent ages in the Christmas Village in the Kathe Wolfahrt shop which was amazing! No photos allowed inside but this is from their website and it actually looks like this.

I bought 2 beautiful lace ornaments for the tree and a little heart that hangs in my kitchen.

A wonderful array of textile goodness to add to a lovely holiday – very happy.

More pictures to come of the town of Rothenburg, it is still raining here in Yorkshire so no alternative but to spend the day in crafting – how sad 😉

Thanks for visiting.

Probably the best castle in the world….

May 11, 2014May 11, 2014 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello again

As you know we are big fans of castles, we have been lucky enough to camp in the grounds of lots of them and have visited many different types from derelict piles of stones to beautiful Victorian rebuilds (Castle Coch and Cardiff Castle).

But I think this is my favourite so far. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited (and I have been very lucky to go to some amazing places).

Not only the castle itself but the location is stunning. These are the views from Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, built by King Ludwig in the 1880s.

The yellow castle you can see is his father’s castle and these are pictures of the one he built.

Sadly he only got to live in the castle for a short while before he died. The inside is amazing as well – wonderful wall paintings of Wagner’s operas and goldwork that you wouldn’t believe on all the furnishings.

No photos allowed of the inside as expected but thanks to the miracle of Google images I did find these to show you of the bedroom, great hall and king’s chamber.

And there are some amazing shots taken by helicopter, look at this one of the castle in Winter – fairytale or what? I now have a mousemat with one of these photos to remind me of the beauty whilst at work.

Will show you some more of the trip later – meanwhile am still enjoying living in my beautiful Marsden as well until I can afford a castle like that, look at this for a gorgeous sunset, picture from the local group Facebook page.

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.

Kingston Lacy – the upstairs views

Meet Eva my first elephant

A glimpse of life in the laundry

Beautiful gardens

A sunny weekend in Somerset

My lovely boys !

Outlaws in the Forest

A step back in time – Rothenburg

Bavarian textiles – a tale of two Margaretes

Probably the best castle in the world….