Weekends in fields

August 6, 2012August 6, 2012 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello there

Hope you are all well and happy. I have just got back from another weekend in a field and am busy today sorting, washing (and drying!) bits of kit and tents.

We have had a lovely time at the Midlands Living History Festival and as befits a British summer managed to get sunburnt and soaked in the same weekend!Here is a picture of one very soaked and grass-covered medieval boot, off to dry out.

Generally though the weather was very good and we had two BBQs and bacon butties for breakfast in the sun both days – I love camping!

We are nearly at the end of the re-enactment season with only 2 more events to go which makes me very sad. I am seriously considering joining another group as well so I can have more fun in a field next year. I may do a different period so I can do some other types of embroidery!

This event was multi period so we got to watch a brilliant dark age battle on both days with lots of Vikings and Saxons from groups such as Vikings of Middle England. The battle was very good – scary to watch as they fight with no helmets and very little armour unlike our medieval guys. The pic below shows them at an earlier event and is one I ‘borrowed’ from the BBC website.

Unfortunately I have managed to break my camera (I am lethal with cameras!) and my spare one would not work either so I have no other pics to show you. It will have to be taken to the menders this week as I am lost without it.

I have got a couple more from last weekend – taken by my lovely friend Wendy who was being our official photographer for the weekend. This one was taken from the top of Ashby Castle tower and shows the camp with our activities. I am bottom right helping with the knighting of the kids after their sword training.

This is a brilliant shot of the tournament on the Sunday with me in my nun’s costume on the left.The boys’ armour and costumes look great – even in the rain!

I have got a quiet couple of weeks work wise and a weekend at home now so am going to be doing lots of sewing.

Have just made my lovely friend Kerry a chaperon (but forgot to take a picture of it before the camera broke) and have just sent off my Summer Exchange piece so will upload pics of that when it has been delivered.

Still working on a stitched baby gift and might just get around to making that new peasant dress that I have been promising myself for the last few years. I have also treated myself to some Blackbird Designs patterns after seeing so many lovely ones on the Seasonal Exchange blog so am waiting for those to arrive.

The one compensation about Autumn and Winter is lots of time to stitch as I seem to have done so little just recently. Also I am really looking forward to the start of the new term as I will be going to China with work again twice before Christmas – how exciting!

Take care and have a relaxing week whatever you are doing. Thanks for visiting and see you soon.

The Castle Camping Club

July 29, 2012July 29, 2012 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello and hope you are having a lovely time enjoying the sun! Isn’t it wonderful to be warm.

We have a little group on Facebook for posting pics of our medieval encampments in castle grounds called The Castle Camping Club and there are some fab pics there of people’s camps in the most beautiful settings.

This weekend I was at Ashby de la Zouche Castle in Leicestershire with my group, Swords of Mercia, and we had a fantastic time.This is Kerry and I – as usual with our group I was being Sister Margaret and Kerry was playing a peasant rather than a lady.

And here is Mark and one of our new members Trevor early on Saturday morning.

We were joined by some friends from other groups as well, this is Malcolm and Jean, Malcolm was our King (Edward Hammer of Scots) in our last group and this weekend he came with his box of religious relics.

This was my view on the Saturday evening, a beautifully sunny end to the day, we had takeaway as is traditional at Ashby and sat around the campfire – bliss!

I couldn’t take my medieval tent this time so I took my lovely little ‘just for me’ tent , doesn’t it look pretty in the sunshine!

The weather was really lovely (a little damp on Sunday but it dried up in time for us to pack up!) and we had lots of people come to see was lovely.It was the first show we have done just with the new group, the other events have all involved being at larger events where we are doing slots as part of a bigger show and it was brilliant to be doing a successful show with the new format.

Thank you to everyone who came to see us, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

I now have a busy few days at work before heading off again, next weekend is the Midlands Living History Festival – do come along if you are in the area as it will be great fun, I am looking forward to seeing the Vikings – love those axes!”

Thank you for visiting. See you soon.

Family History

July 22, 2012 stitchesoftime3 Comments

Regular readers may know that my grandmother Evelyn Alice celebrated her 100 th birthday this week so we all gathered for a family celebration last night. My Nana has not been very well and had travelled over from Spain to be here but was determined to make her party to see everyone and get her telegram from the Queen.

Here she is at the start of the party and my cousin Neil (along with Ellie in the background) presenting her with the framed telegram. Apologies that the pic of the actual telegram is not good but you get the gist of it.

My Mum and Aunt had organised a little display of family pictures and mementos so I just thought I would share some of these with you. Ellie absolutely loved this, being a history buff and it was amazing to think of all that Nana has lived through.

She was born 3 months after the sinking of the Titanic in a small Welsh mining village.Her mother, my Nana Polly, was born in the late 1880s and there were some lovely pics of Nana Polly as a young girl in Edwardian dress and Nana as a baby in smocks sitting on her mother’s knee.

She has lived through two World Wars, getting married at the start of the Second World War and had two babies during that war, my Mum and Auntie.This is her wedding picture.

My grandfather, Arthur Percival George (who you can see looking very like Eroll Flynn in one of the pics at the top of this poster below) served in North Africa during the war. On this poster are also her ration books and ID card. Grandad died 28 years ago after a long illness caused by his time as a miner.

I have been reading some very good books recently by Maureen Lee set in wartime Liverpool and it really makes you think about life for Nana and her friends during those times. Have also just read an amazing book called White Dove by Rosie Thomas , a brilliant love story about family history set between the wars.

They were a very adventurous couple – early pioneers of travel abroad (must be where I get it from), going to Spain twice a year from the late 1950s even though they were a very ordinary couple, he a factory worker and she a housewife. They never owned a car and I remember my Grandad cycling to work every day in his blue overalls.

She has 5 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren , ranging in ages from 21 (Ellie) to 1 month old (Alice Evelyn my cousin’s daughter) and who knows may even see her great-great grandchildren.

It is so amazing to think of all the things that our parents and grandparents have seen change and to wonder what life will be like for us in 25 or 50 years.

Happy 100th birthday Nana with all our love xxxx

Thank you for visiting and see you soon!

Pretty things from Tewkesbury

July 17, 2012 stitchesoftime1 Comment

As well as the lovely battles there is also the market at Tewkesbury which is always the biggest and best re-enactors’ market of the season. My lovely friend Kerry bought me this new bag as a birthday present.It will hang from my belt.

It is from Phil Fraser’s stall – Phil also sells pewter badges and I bought some with my initials on.

I also treated myself to some more pilgrim badges from Lionheart Replicas – these are the Virgin and Child and St Albans badges.

The thing I love about buying things for re-enactment is that you almost always know who has actually made what you have bought. Some things are imported but most of the time you know the person that has made your boots, your sword and your drinking mug etc. In today’s mass market economy that is very special.

Thanks for visiting – see you soon.

Tewkesbury 2012 – mud, flood and so much fun!

July 16, 2012 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello there

Have had a brilliant weekend at our biggest event of the year which went ahead thankfully despite some initial uncertainty about whether the site would be ok , a great deal of mud, a very near escape for friends who were on the encampment nearest the river and the sterling efforts of all involved in organising the event. Thank you so much to everyone for what was possibly my best Tewkesbury ever.

I have always wanted to go to one of those festivals where mud is a central feature like Glastonbury and wear festival wellies so this weekend I got my chance. I bought a new pair of wellies on Thurs having only tried one on at the shop and it was not until Friday when we got there that I put both of them on to discover that I had two right feet lol! Had to just go with it as I did not have time to buy any others and managed ok.

Despite some rain most of the weekend was bright and sunny and we had an excellent time. This was my very good friend Kerry’s first time as a water carrier on the battlefield which she loved (despite the very loud cannon!) and it was great to catch up with lots of friends I had not seen since last year.

We went to the Abbey service on Sunday morning which was beautiful, it is a very wonderful place anyway but the service is ‘high church’ with incense and sung gospels, a fab choir and very moving.

Here is me outside the Abbey – I was in peasant dress all this weekend.

The slideshow is of various parts of the Abbey.

Free scrapbook personalized with Smilebox

Hope where you are is not affected by floods – will be back later in the week to share some more Tewkesbury with you and to update you on Ellie’s progress at Powis Castle.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Summer is here!

July 8, 2012July 8, 2012 stitchesoftime3 Comments

Well no not in terms of the weather – though it has been very nice this weekend which is a welcome respite from two days of torrential rain, thankfully we have not been flooded!

I have just had this lovely piece sent to me as a Summer Exchange from Lisa through the Seasonal Exchange blog. It is a JBW design which as Lisa knows is one of my favourite designers and she has used the same sparkly evenweave that I love to stitch my designs on, it is beautiful Lisa thank you.

I have been spending the weekend mainly stitching and watch disaster movies on TV – there is an extreme weather disaster movie weekend on Movies 24 which is very appropriate give all the strange weather we have been having lately. I am currently working on my Summer Exchange plus a baby gift so nothing I can show yet.

I have some additional links to share with you for lovely pics of re-enactment events, Red Zebra Photography were taking pics all last weekend at Harewood and there are some great shots including some of Swords of Mercia walking in the parade amongst the hundreds of pictures.

I met the photographer, Nigel, from Wallace-Iles Photography at the Tatton event – he takes some lovely shots of single re-eanactors and the effects he puts on them make the really artistic.

Next weekend we are off to our biggest re-enactment event of the year, Tewkesbury Medieval Festival – please pray for fine weather for us!

Thanks for visiting and see you all soon.

Harewood House Medieval Faire

July 2, 2012 stitchesoftime2 Comments

As promised here are some pics from our weekend away. This was a new show for us as it was the first time that the event had been staged and we had an excellent time. We did some activities for kids – knight’s training and joust and a short tournament. It was my first event with our new group Swords of Mercia and it went very well.

Here is a slideshow of some of the best bits.Thanks for visiting and see you soon.

Scrapbooking design created with Smilebox

Happy birthday to me – my new tent

July 1, 2012 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello there, hope you are all well and happy.

I have just returned from an excellent birthday weekend at Harewood House. We had a really brilliant time with our new group Swords of Mercia and I have lots more pics to show you of the event which I will post about later.

I took my new tent with me this weekend, I have had this tent for about 9 months but have not used it yet.This is my little ‘just for me without the kids’ tent and it passed with flying colours. It has lots of room for me and all my re-enactment kit, room to cook inside in case it rains (which it did on Sat night!) and is lovely and warm and waterproof!

Here we are on Friday evening enjoying catching up in the camp – I so, so love camping and thanks to all my re-enactment friends for making this such a brilliant birthday!

Take care and will post again soon. Thanks for visiting.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – June

June 28, 2012 stitchesoftime4 Comments

Hello there

I am posting this a bit early as I will be away for the weekend – hurrah!

I took some of these pics in Spain, some at our last event at Tatton and some at home, I have had lots of fun trying to think of unusual ways to meet some of the words and am very pleased with my ideas for a couple of them. The kids have now got used to me saying ‘oh that will be brilliant for the Scavenger Hunt’ as I dash off to take a pic.

Thank you so much to Kathy for continuing to post words for the hunt, I am still really enjoying it and it makes me think about photography in a whole new way.

As always click on the pic above to see the other pics at Kathy’s blog.

At night

This is the painted ceiling of Valencia Cathedral but on my second visit there I bought some posters of the angels so last thing at night what I see is this beautiful artwork on my bedroom walls.

Before

These two were taken at Tatton medieval event – here is the leg of lamb on the spit before it was cooked …..

After

And here it is fully cooked some 5 hours later. Literally 30 seconds after this pic was taken the wind blew a huge deluge off the roof of the canvas awning over the fire, soaking the lamb and putting out the fire! Luckily the group managed to rescue their dinner, we saw them later in the evening and everything was fine.

On the edge

Of the pool outside the Science Museum in Valencia – it was so hot that day, 33 degrees that I did manage a sneaky feet in the water!

Out of reach

The Angora sheep we fed at Tatton Home Farm trying to get their noses into bags of food which are just out of their reach.

Close

Right up close to the door of Elche cathedral – what a wonderful door knocker!

Crown

There is a new group of bronze statues outside Elche cathedral, one is of the Virgin with this beautiful halo / crown.

Diamond

Not quite the Koh – I- Nor but a big sparkly stone on my summer sandals.

Bunting

On a truck at Tatton Home Farm

Majesty

To me nothing beats the majesty of medieval religious art – this pic shows a Bishop from the museum at Valencia cathedral

Sleep

This month old foal was dozing next to his Mum at Tatton Home Farm – so sweet!

Symmetry

The beautiful symmetry of Spanish ironwork – taken in Valencia

Part of history

June 24, 2012 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

As you know I love history, spend much of my non-working life immersed in it one way or another but today like many other people in my town I got to be part of it.

The Olympic Torch relay came through just near where I live. At the end of my road was this coach loaded up with some special torches in a very snazzy holder along with lots of very nervous looking torch bearers!

About half an hour later the procession arrived with various vans from the sponsoring organisations. There were lots of flags waving as you can imagine and then the runners appeared.

By this point I was too far back in the crowd to get a good pic of the actual torch but I got a lovely pic of some of the ladies from my local yarn shop who were there with their knitted patriotic Olympic rings! Isn’t that brilliant.

Hope you have all had a lovely week, I have been very busy at work, the weather has been pretty wet here and I am so looking forward to next weekend when I will be camping! For my birthday – in my new little one person tent for the first time (the kids are busy so I am camping alone) at the beautiful Harewood House.

Will let you know how it went (and whether the new tent is waterproof!)

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Stitches of Time

I have created this blog to share my interest in all forms of stitching, quilting, sewing, knitting, medieval re-enactment and costume making – particularly my love of historical embroidery. I also love travelling,especially when it also involves any of my other interests.

Weekends in fields

The Castle Camping Club

Family History

Pretty things from Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury 2012 – mud, flood and so much fun!

Summer is here!

Harewood House Medieval Faire

Happy birthday to me – my new tent

Photo Scavenger Hunt – June

Part of history