The (wet) Castle Camping Club

June 27, 2013September 13, 2013 stitchesoftime2 Comments

As I have previously posted we get to camp in some of the most amazing places with after hours access to historic venues and the wonderful views from the tent for breakfast. This was my view last Saturday morning.

We were at Tutbury Castle for a new event and had a very good time despite lots of rain. Great company, a few campfires and a little bit of cider made for a very nice weekend 🙂 Thanks to Armourial Knights for all their hard work in organising it.

I had wanted to visit Tutbury for a long time as it was one of the places where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned while she was in the care of the Earl of Shrewsbury, Bess of Hardwick’s husband.

As you may know from my posts about Hardwick, Mary was a very keen needlewoman and again as with most of the places I visit I am very honoured to have been in the place where some of that work may have been created.

Here are a few photos – not great shots as it was a very grey weekend but what can you expect from mid summer in England!

I love the shot I got of the owl flying off the perch!

Have had a very busy work week and am looking forward to a weekend of nothing but sewing – lots of medieval kit to make for friends so am going to try to document the process for some new costume making pages.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Fun, sun and a few feathers!

June 17, 2013June 17, 2013 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello and hope everyone has had a good week. I have been busy marking and so it was lovely to have a fun weekend away at the beautiful Tatton Hall event in Cheshire. The weather forecast was not very good for the weekend but luckily it rained mainly at night (although we did have a wet set up on Friday!)

I have just bought a new tent and was planning to take a pic of it to show you (you know how I love tents 🙂 ) but got distracted by the rain.

It is a ‘new to me’ slightly bigger version of the one I use when there is just me camping and is lovely and roomy, for those events when me, Ellie and Kerry might be hiding from the weather!

Ellie is going to have my old tent as the one I bought her as a 16th birthday present is really too small to get into medieval kit in. Plus the kids tell me off if I have too many tents myself – they seem to think I have a problem.

The rest of the weekend was lovely and sunny, we even got a pink yesterday and had a brilliant time as usual.

Ellie was given a new feather for her helm from a friend who had decided to get some very impressive ones for his helm, here she is with her feather and he and another friend Andy and enjoying themselves on the battlefield.

Jake was there as well, it is his birthday today and as he has had the last 10 birthdays celebrated at Tatton he joined us for this one so he was our official photographer, which meant we got some really good shots again.

Here are our friends from Knights and Freemen and Harlech enjoying the battle and a shot of me in watercarrying mode!

He also took lots of shots of cute dogs so asked me to pick one to include in the post so here it is!

I have been making lots of kit recently for friends in my group and other groups and have lots of things still to make so I am going to have a lovely summer of sewing :-).

I have made a couple of chaperons and this weekend Kerry was wearing the one I made for her at the end of last season for the first time so here are some pictures of that.

We are off to Tutbury Castle next weekend for another event, this time a new one so we are looking forward to that as we haven’t been to this castle before.

Have a good week and thanks 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.

It just gets better!

June 8, 2013June 9, 2013 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello everyone and a very special welcome to all my new followers, I have been getting lots of notifications recently about people now following me and am very honoured, hope you enjoy all the future posts.

I have just got back from a brilliant trip to Florence and am sorting out my many pictures of medieval art and churches for a mega post.

I have had a lovely day today so I thought that I would share some of it with you – when I first moved here I promise to post pictures of my lovely surroundings in all seasons so here we have the early summer collection.

I love walking round here and particularly the walks up the valley with the reservoirs but the scenery has just got better as the rhododendrons are now in bloom! I love rhododendrons and they have only just started to come out so the walks will be even better for the next couple of months!

I am so lucky – all this is just about half an hour walk from my house! And there were baby geese on the reservoir today, have not seen them before.

Got back from holiday to find this very lovely Spring Exchange piece from Stephanie at Blue Star Stitcher, my latest partner in the Seasonal Exchange blog. This is a Prairie Schooler piece in an egg-shaped finish with really lovely beading. The backing fabric is really pretty as well. Thanks Stephanie it goes really well in my kitchen where I am currently displaying all my Spring exchange ornies.

Will be back soon with the Florence pics.

Thanks for visiting.

More from Hardwick

June 1, 2013September 13, 2013 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

My lovely daughter Ellie has just sent me some further photos from Hardwick which I wanted to share with you.

The first two are of a painting of Arabella (or Arbella), Bess of Hardwick’s granddaughter, which hangs in the long gallery. This is a beautiful portrait and the detail on the sleeve is amazing.

This one is a ‘slip’ a tent stitched piece which has been appliqued onto a velvet background. This comes from the ‘Mary Queen of Scots bed’ although Mary never stayed at Hardwick but she may have slept in this bed as Bess’s fourth husband George Talbot the Earl of Shrewsbury was Mary’s jailor for a long time and Bess and Mary did spend time together sewing.

The last three are of the volunteers at Hardwick on one of their recent costume days. Aren’t they wonderful. Ellie and I would love to do Tudor re-enactment, the costumes are so fantastic and it would mean I could wear some of my blackwork! We shall see what I have have time to do next year.

Hope you have enjoyed these, thanks for visiting.

‘Hardwick Hall – more glass than wall’

May 31, 2013September 13, 2013 stitchesoftime2 Comments

We have had a very, very lovely day today – not only going to Hardwick Hall for the day but because my lovely daughter Ellie works there had a brilliant ‘behind the scenes’ experience which was amazing.

Here is the Hall in the lovely sunlight – as a contemporary of Bess’s wrote when it was built – ‘more glass than wall’.

Here are some pictures of what the public gets to see.

The beautiful velvet heraldic embroidery created by Bess of Hardwick herself, the blue silk bed hangings, the Great Hall with its bed canopy.

But we also got to go up on the roof! This is the top of the hall and the view from one of the small banqueting rooms that are in the towers.

The best bit for me was going into the textile store rooms in the attic.Here are all the boxes with little pictures of the contents.

And here is Ellie opening one of the boxes for us.This contained a beautiful velvet hanging of flowers.

Another box had some more of the most wonderful of Bess’s heraldic pieces, here I am close up to this piece – no glass at all, heaven!!

I feel very, very priviliged to have been able to do this – thank you Ellie!

And we were able to see the Gideon tapestries that have been away for conservation that she has been helping rehang – go and visit her blog for more details of this. The pictures below show the before and after effects of the cleaning.

A brilliant day – I loved it!

Take care all of you and thanks for visiting.

I am off to Florence on Sunday with my Mum so there may be some pictures of medieval art and churches when I get back – you never know!

The level of detail

May 27, 2013September 13, 2013 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

We have just got back from another lovely weekend away at Harewood House. The weather was fantastic (I am a bit pink!) so we had a great time.

Wandering round in the early morning taking pictures of the living history camps I was impressed, once again, by the level of detail that people will go to to make their displays look special and personal.

Here is a tent from the Rosa Mundi group, look at the beautiful painting on the table legs and chest.

And here the cooking area of the Buckingham Retinue – the meat is being prepared in the picture below.

And here is a beautifully painted and decorated tent and armour display from Knights in Battle, complete with reproduction pottery.

But first prize must go to this group from Italy who brought a replica miniature monastery complete with herb garden!

There were also some crafts being demonstrated.

Basketweaving and loom weaving.

And this person spent the whole weekend making bricks!

We were also lucky enough to find some new shoes for Ellen, we have been searching for a while but medieval shoes are expensive and in limited supply of sizes so we were very lucky to get these in her size for only £45.

I know a lot of people come to this blog for information about costume and my lovely friend Jackie was there this weekend trading, her company is called Cloak’d and Dagger’d and she makes all sorts of medieval clothes so do visit her web site.

Well I hope you have had a good Bank Holiday weekend, see you soon and thanks for visiting.

Way down South

May 19, 2013May 19, 2013 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello

I have just got back from a very lovely trip all the way to the very south of the UK (6 hours each way on the train) to go the christening of my cousin’s second daughter.

You may remember that she was born last summer shortly before my lovely Nana died, her eighth great-grandchild, and named Alice Evelyn in her honour. Neil and Vicky her parents very kindly asked me to be her godmother so Mum and I went all the way to Plymouth yesterday.

It was a great trip, staring out the window at all the lambs in the green fields and seeing all the blossom on the trees makes you realise what a beautiful country we live in, especially the last part of the trip from Exeter going along the coast. I love trains so this was a real treat for me!

We had a really lovely time spending last night at Neil and Vicky’s house which I have not visited before.

I did not see very much of my cousins when we were growing up but we have spent a lot more time together in the last few years, mainly in Spain, and I really enjoy their company and it was very precious family time.

A friend of mine recently posted a joke picture on Facebook saying we are ‘nillionaires’ meaning having no money to which I replied that they are rich in the things that count as they have two little girls of a similar age to my cousin’s children.

I deeply believe that what counts in life is family and friends and I am so lucky to have wonderful, close supportive people both relatives and those who are my ‘adopted’ family.

Nothing is more important than the people you love and helping and supporting them which is why I was so pleased to be asked to be Alice’s godmother.

The christening itself was held at HMS Drake which is the Naval base in Plymouth as Neil is in the Navy and so we had the service in the chapel on the base which was very lovely, dating from 1908.

The service was very High Church which I love, incense and sung prayers and then we had the lunch in the mess hall in the Wardroom with the most amazing model ships hanging from the ceiling and Sir Francis Drake’s sword in a display case at the back of the room!

Here is a slideshow of the church and mess room.

Free slideshow generated with Smilebox

My christening present to Alice was this little sampler – adapted from a wedding sampler from a recent Just Cross Stitch magazine. It is stitched with white cotton on evenweave.

Thank you so much for visiting – we will be at Harewood House this coming weekend for their medieval event so fingers crossed for lovely weather!

Domestic Bliss

May 12, 2013 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello everyone

I am having a rare weekend at home indulging in some domestic bliss.

As I type this I am eating my lunch – the very tasty Olive and Chilli Sourdough bread in the picture below that I made this morning with dried olives from my friend Martin and Suzie’s Cowley’s Fine Foods accompanied by some delicious cheese from the local deli Radish.

The recipe is by Jo Wheatley and is from the Sainsbury’s magazine a couple of months ago.

I have been doing a little gardening – thankfully my lovely new house has virtually nothing to do in that respect but I have just been tidying up the pots and later I will continue making a medieval cloak for my friend Luke.

Embroidery wise I am working on a christening present for Alice, my cousin’s daughter at the moment.All will be revealed when it is finished!

Mum and I will be going to Plymouth for the christening next weekend as they have very kindly asked me to be a godmother which is very lovely!

The recipient of my Spring Exchange through the Seasonal Exchange Blog , Stephanie , has now got her gift so I can post pics of it.

This pincushion is from the Blackbird Designs, ‘ A Stitcher’s Journey’, book and it is stitched on evenweave with Silk Mill thread. The charm is one I picked up at one of the knitting and stitching shows but you can get similar ones from Sitch Direct.

I backed it with some of the lovely fabric from my lovely friends Helen and Lucy at Material Goods and added a little pocket for scissors or an unpicker.

Well must be getting on with the sewing , hope you are having domestic fun as well, take care and thanks for visiting!

Merry Men

May 7, 2013 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello everyone

Hope you are enjoying good weather because we have had a fantastic weekend at Sherwood, didn’t see Robin Hood but Little John was there and there were lots of merry men (and women) there.

The beer tent, the campfire (thanks Kat and Paul) and the excellent weather helped with this as did the brilliant organisation by Plantagenet Events – thanks for everything guys, a very enjoyable event.

As well as the fighting and weapons talks we got a chance to have a couple of walks in the woods, saw the Major Oak (bottom picture ) which is over a thousand years old and lots of other interesting trees.

I also got a chance talk to some people about my embroidery and made a new friend, Seren, who I helped with making a new hat.

This was her first attempt at garment making and she did a brilliant job making this lined coif out of wool and linen which is all hand stitched. She also made a lined bag.

Sadly there are no more events for the next two weekends (how will I survive all that time in a house!) but I have plenty to be doing with making garments.

I am going to be working on a cloak for Luke this week and some helm decorations for other friends.