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.
Checked today on the All Seasons Exchange Blog to find that Lisa has got my ornament so I can now share the pics of it with you. It took about 5 days to get to Australia which I was very impressed with.
Lisa also likes Quaker patterns so I did this little tree pattern which is called Quaker Tree Third – it is a freebie from The Workbasket site which I have had in my patterns file for a while. They have some wonderful Quaker designs and quite a few freebies including two more trees.
The front of the exchange ornament
The fabric is a sparkly evenweave which is part of my Xmas ornament stash and the thread is from the Silk Mill.
Here is the back of the ornament – I have used the same little scissor charm that I put on all the scissor keeps that I made for the girls this year.
An L for Lisa and a charm
Have just got back from a lovely weekend at Glastonbury Abbey. Thanks to everyone in Team Falchion for a brill time (especially Trish for the food and Alixx for the blacksmith’s forge – the kids were very impressed!)
Will have to post pics from Wales first (mucho stitching!) then get some of this weekend’s pics sorted later this week when I have more time but here is a little taste of the Abbey with another one of my architecture shots.
I have for a while been looking at sites that exist to offer stitchers the chance to exchange stitched gifts with other people and this summer took the plunge and signed up to one.
I stitch a lot for family and friends and know they appreciate it but seeing all the lovely stuff that people exchange through these blogs thought I would give it a go.
I have just got my gift from my partner Lisa – who was the person whose blog I read that lead me to the All Seasons Ornament Exchange in the first place.
This exchange was based on your partner’s likes and dislikes and so she sent me this lovely Quaker piece.
My exchange gift from Lisa
It is a beautifully finished pinkeep which I am really pleased about as I don’t have one of these and have seen lots of lovely ones that other people have made so this will be joining my travelling stitching kit!
My gift to Lisa was posted yesterday – it is going to Australia so will probably take about a week to get there. Once I know that Lisa has got it I will post a pic of it here.
We are off to Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset tomorrow for another event which is somewhere I have always wanted to visit. Will be posting pics of that and the embroidery from last weekend very soon!
Only a short post tonight as it is rather late but I have masses of lovely stitching to show you from our trip to Wales this weekend for the Bodelwyddan show which I will post next week when I return from Glastonbury.
We went to Conwy on Friday to visit the castle and an Elizabethan house called Plas Mawr which is where all of the embroidery was. I have visited both places before on our first ever camping trip when Jake was four ( it rained a lot that time!) This time the weather was much better!
I do like taking ‘arty shots’ and was very pleased at the way this one turned out of an arch in the King’s Hall at the castle.
Arch and clouds
We had a lovely sunny weekend and a really great event as usual with lots of sitting round the campfire with friends – I do love going to Wales and it is such a nice venue for an event. Thanks very much to David Smith the organiser, who did a great job as always.
Beautiful Welsh hills - the view from Conwy Castle
As you know on my travels I like to look for textile arts of all forms and the recent trip to Berkeley Castle for the re-enactment event was no exception and there were some excellent examples there.
We arrrived on Thursday for a very, very wet pitch – soaked to the skin by the time we got the tent up but we dried off and had a lovely if a little damp weekend as it also rained heavily on Sun as we were packing up. It is a fantastic castle which has been in the same family for over 900 years and we were lucky enough to be camped in the meadows with this view.
Berkeley castle on an overcast July day
It is always a real shame when wet weather happens as the organisers of the events (in this case the lovely Plantagenet Events people) put such an effort into doing this and without paying members of the public turning up they will not happen. I know that it is not the same coming to an event when the weather is not good but can I make a plea to all you out there to not let a bit of rain put you off coming to something – you will still have a great time .
We pull out all the stops to make sure that things go ahead as planned and things will only be cancelled as a last resort if it is really unsafe to go ahead.The people that run these events do not do it to make a vast profit and a couple of bad events can bankrupt them, they do it for the love of keeping our history alive. As participants we do it all for free, we receive no expenses at all for the bigger events and fund all our own costumes, travel and kit (hence the need for the day job!). So please come along – you may be a bit damp but you’ll still have a good time and if you stay indoors every time it rains in England you’d never get out!
We had intended to go round the castle on Fri but it was shut so instead went to the Edward Jenner museum which is located in Berkeley Village right next to the castle in the doctor’s old house. It was a very interesting museum indeed – I knew the story of how he experimented with inoculation having learnt it at school but there were lots of original exhibits relating to his life and family including these two touching examples of stitching.
The whitework detail on the Jenner Family christening robesThe needlepoint cushion on Edward Jenner's garden chair - in the middle are his initials
This is what I love about stitching – it is everywhere from the most ordinary places to the biggest palaces and it still absolutely fascinating me that so much work has been done by so many people that we will never know anything about. I would love to know more about the people (women?) who made these items but sadly nothing is usually recorded.
We then visited the 13th century St Mary’s Church which is between Edward Jenner’s house and the castle. There was some lovely goldwork on the altar frontal and banner.
St Mary's ChurchPainted screen inside the churchA tudor rose motif on an altar frontalThe same motif on a beautiful banner
There was also a very lovely effigy on the tomb of Thomas 8th Lord of Berkeley and his Lady Katherine dated 1361.
The effigy
Ellie and I were admiring the headress and discussing what type it was ( a nebule or goffered headdress ) and I remarked that my friend Kat had made one similar which was on her web site. When we came out of the church who should we bump into but Kat, Richard and Isabella who had come to look at the same effigy before going to the event!
Lady Katherine's nebule headdress
We had a very good tour round the castle itself on Saturday – the grounds were really lovely and I took lots of flower pics which I intend to use as the basis for some embroidery projects later on.
My friends Carl (Geoffrey of Woodstock) and Denise (Matilda de Monfichet) in the castle gardensOne of the paths leading to the castleThe view of the medieval tent enacmpment from the castle
Sadly you couldn’t take any photos inside the castle as there was the most amazing embroidered bedspread and pillow slips made for Elizabeth 1st on display. Couldn’t find any pics of it on the web either so you will just have to go and see for yourself!
We have just come back from another event at Ashby de la Zouche Castle – a mixed weekend in terms of weather with rain all day on Sat (big thanks to the 120 people who came to see us in that!) and glorious sunshine all day Sunday so we got to pack the tents away dry!
I will leave you with a lovely picture from Tewkesbury this year with yet more embroidery and lots of shiny armour. This is us on the battlefield under the very fine goldwork banner of the Duke of Gloucester (aka Rob).
Lots of men in shiny armour!
You can just see my head and hand on the right of the pic giving water to Dave . This pic was taken by someone called fac man who has a Flickr site with more pics if you want to see more of the event and the armour!
Not here as we are now back to the lovely Yorkshire rain ! However Spain was very, very hot so we did little but read and swim during the day but had some lovely evenings out as the sun went down.
We went over to the local town of Guardamar one evening for their Moors and Christians’ parade – a couple of years ago we went to the biggest one in Spain at Alcoy – this was a lot smaller but still very, very loud – even the kids who are used to cannon going off had to retreat when the gunners started!
There were some lovely lights and the costumes were excellent – no close up pics unfortunately as it was very crowded.
The street lights for the festivalThe Christian King and QueenThe Christian King and Queen - rear view!The Moorish King and Queen
It was my grandmother’s 97th birthday the day before we got to Spain so we went out for a meal with family and friends to celebrate – here she is with Jake and Ellie at her favourite Chinese in Guardamar which does an excellent 3 course meal with half bottle of wine for around 4 euros!
My Nana Evelyn at 97 years young!
Ellie has discovered she likes sangria – especially when it is served looking like a proper holiday drink with the requisite decorations – here she is with a very large glass!
The biggest wine glass in Spain
We are off to Asby de la Zouche Castle in Leicestershire for another show this weekend so will post pics from Berkeley when I can. That was a lovely event – bit wet but we had a great time at a stunning location.
Am posting this from my sister’s house (by the miracles of modern technology if I can get to grips with her picture editing software!) We are having some very nice R and R in between Tewkesbury and our next event at Berkeley Castle this coming weekend. Ellen hopes to go to University here in Worcester in Sept (fingers crossed if A level grades are ok which they should be) so today we are going for another look round the Uni.
We had a fab weekend again at the event which re-enacts the 1471 War of the Roses battle. As usual some of the guys had new armour and kit. This is Luke with his very shiny new 15th century helm (bought from E-bay with brass decorations added by him).
Luke in his shiny new helmet
Paul was fighting for the first time at Tewkesbury and he had painted a new surcoat. He is a very talented graphic artist and he has painted our new group banners as well.
William de Bohun in his new surcoat
Ellie was on the battlefield as usual but this time as a banner bearer which meant on the Sunday she got to go and stand with all the banners during the King’s parlay with the Prince. Here she is with the guys before they went on to battle and with our group flag.
At muster before the battle Ellie with the Order of Fighting Knights' banner
She is wearing her new turquoise dress that I recently finished. On Saturday night we went to a friend’s camp and as it was raining heavily ended up all being in Andrea and Mick’s tent sheltering.
Andrea does a demonstration of medieval surgery and was showing us some of her props. Having just watched a couple of episodes of Casualty 1909 things had not moved on that far by then!
Andrea with her bag of surgical instrumentsAndrea's amputation saw!
I also managed to get some pics of the King’s (Edward IV) goldwork on his surcoat and cloak before the battle on Sunday. This is Simon de Montfort of the Sun in Splendour group in his wonderful outfit.
Love the sun glinting off the helmet in this pic!A close up of the fleur de lys on the surcoatThe Order of the Garter emblem on his cloak
A brill weekend – we were all very glad to get to Jackie’s on Monday for some rest before we head off to Berkeley Castle this Thursday. Here is Jake playing the littlest hobo resting on the bags at the train station.
Jake resting!
Will post again in a couple of weeks – after Berkeley am straight off to Spain.
I ahve some more pics of the stitching at Tatton to share with you. There are also some more pics of the armour and battle.
Stitching first! The Old Hall was occupied continuously from the 15th Century so the display reflect this as various rooms are decorated in period style. Upstairs all the earlier rooms have been restored and this room is typical of the Jacobean period complete with reproduction crewel work bed curtains.
Crewel bed hangingsDetail of the hangings
This is a typical tree of life design and is beautifully worked. The volunteer looking after the room didn’t know anything about crewel work so I was telling him about various aspects of the design – hopefully he found it useful!
Downstairs there were Victorian rooms with some beautiful whitework laid out on one of the beds.
Whitework garments and pillow covers
I find it incredible that such fine work was done on everyday garments – one of the items on display was a child’s pinafore which had obviously been well used judging by the stains on it!
Whitework detail on the nightgown
We also watched the firearms and cannon display by The Company of Ordnance, there are usually these weapons on the battlefield but we are the other side of the field from them for safety reasons during the battle so it is nice to see them close up.
This is Bucket lighting the cannon – pity we don’t have sound cos it’s very loud! Bucket is a very talented embroiderer as well as making things go bang – you can just see the blue bag hanging from his belt with a heraldic horse on it.
Bucket making the cannon go BOOM!
Esme, one the kids, was taking pics on the Sun so we got some really good photos. Here is one of the guys all ready for battle.
All ready for battle Ellie and I on the battlefieldKeith after the battle
I think this is a great shot – very atmospheric!
One of the battle flags
And finally a pic that sums up what I love about reenactment – sitting round the camp fire late at night just mellowing!
Yesterday we went to Ellie’s college for the Fashion Show and Art, Textiles and Graphics Shows. Ellie has just finished her A levels – she did Art, Medieval History and Classics so now eagerly awaits her results in August!
The standard of work was fantastic – much of it at the same standard as the degree shows I have been to at the University here – there are some very talented kids out there!
These pics are of two of Ellie’s final pieces – they do not photograph that well being 3D pieces but hopefully you can get a flavour of what she has done.
Seven Deadly Sins
This is a collage piece with images representing the seven deadly sins – there are matchboxes on the piece for each sin with small artifacts in that represent lust, gluttony, envy etc.
The history of film
This piece has lots of tiny slides that she has decorated and themed to represent important moments in film history. They are difficult to see but she has lots of lovely detail – my favourite is the ‘Saving Private Ryan’ one which has a surround made of film wrapped with barbed wire.
The following are some pics of other students’ work from Textiles and Graphics. Well done to all of you and every success for your future careers!
3D Textile development piece
Fabulous machine stitching on an evening dress
Corsets were very popular - this is a really pretty one
A development piece with machine stitching and applique
A beautiful development piece with a variety of textures
Development work on soft toys
Hugo the mouse
The last two pics are work from Ellie’s incredibly talented friend Sarah who quite rightly was awarded best in show for her work making toys for seriously and terminally ill children. Not only did she make the toys but extra clothes for them and little books with illustrated stories about them – wonderful stuff. She is going on to University to do a degree in illustration and I am sure she will be very successful. Her work reminded me very much of one of my favourite blogs, Little Cotton Rabbits.
Am having a quiet weekend after a very busy week which will be nice – have done no stitching this week due to late nights for various reasons so am looking forward to getting back to normal next week!
We always really look forward to June as we have two family birthdays – Jake’s first followed by one of our favourite events then my birthday at the end of June.
Jake was fifteen last week – luckily the scanner is not connected to this PC since I had my switch round so he is spared the embarrassment of a baby photo ( he was very cute!) but here he is looking very grown up with some of his pressies.
My very lovely (and very tall!) son
We went to Tatton Hall near Manchester this last weekend – this is a really good venue for an event, there is a very nice 15th C Old Hall and we camp near a copse of trees in the deer park with beautiful views of the parkland. It is also the nearest event we do which is a bonus!
It was a little bit wet on Sat and for our pack up – tent hanging in the garage drying again – but not too bad and it stayed fine for the battle both days. Here are the boys in our camp all ready for battle on the Sat.
The boys from OFK and Team Falchion ready for battle
These are our friends Stan, Denise and Carl from Companions of the Crow looking very scary.
The Crows
Lady Bardolph was again looking very lovely in a cream and blue outfit.
Lord and Lady Bardolph
Me and the kids stayed over till Monday and had a nice evening on Sun relaxing in the camp, playing cards and watching the sun go down…
This weekend we were camping again but here in Yorkshire. Some friends, Jane and Patch, who live locally have a beautiful barn conversion which used to be an old mill complete with large mill pond – see pic below.
The mill pond
They host a little gathering every year where we all go and camp, bbq, have a bit of a sing song round the campfire etc. in the field attached to their house. This year we were entertained as well by friends who have band called Stringfellows.
Stringfellows bandEllie and Jake chilling out to the band
We had a really lovely time and it was nice to catch up with a few people I have not seen recently.
Our little weekend away tent
Last year I downsized a bit and bought a smaller tent that I could take more easily on the train – the pic above shows us in it this weekend. It is a Vango 500 and is a great tent for a couple of nights away with plenty of space for sleeping, kit storage and cooking if the weather is not good. It has its first outing in on a clifftop in Cornwall last year when we did the Tintagel event and survived a very windy pitching and a few heavy rainstorms which is a very good test of any tent.
We still have the very large tunnel tent (nicknamed the aircraft hangar) which I will use again when I get a car, two small two man tents (one of which is Ellie’s) and a medieval tent. I love tents – could quite happily own loads and loads and love spending time when camping going round and looking at other people’s tents!
The weather was fab – apart from a short but heavy shower about 10pm Sat night there was sunshine all round. It has been really hot today as well so after we got home and cleaned, sorted and re-packed the tent ready for the event next weekend (hurrah more camping!!!) I did a bit of a garden tidy up.
I have also finally put together the new bike I bought myself a while ago – it was a winter sale bargain but it has been in its box waiting to be fettled. Being a well trained girlie I was able to put it together with a bit of help from Ellie keeping it steady as I sorted the brake calipers. Just need to get a new bike pump and I can be off!
My new pink bike!
Had another bbq for tea tonight – must be the 7th one so far which is a bit of a record for this time of year – weather has just been so nice we need to make the most of it and I love cooking outdoors.
Have had a busy week costume making – have completed a new peasant dress for Ellie and three pairs of brais (trousers) for Jake and two of the boys in the group. Am off tomorrow to a goldwork day workshop at my Embroiderers’ Guild so am really looking forward to that. Will post some pics of what I do later.
Saturday was my very last day of teaching for this year and Ellie has now finished all her A level exams so we are looking forward to a very mellow summer of camping, stitching and generally chilling out. Life is very good!!!
Stitches of Time 