Sunny weather!

June 8, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

It has cooled down a bit in the last few days sadly but we have been having some really fab weather here recently! Apologies for the lack of posts but what with work and general busyness have not had time to do much. However today was the last teaching session of the year so apart from the huge piles of marking I have to do things will be a little quieter from now till Sept!

We had a wonderful show at Ashby de La Zouche Castle the last May Bank Holiday. Traditionally this is a very wet event which we packed lots of warm gear for but it was so sunny that lots of us got burnt on the Sunday (it was actually a little bit warm for being in armour but can’t complain!). A brill weekend and I have some pics to share with you of the event.

Our little medieval tent in the evening sunshine

Round the fire with our lovely friend Keith

I finally managed to give the girls their scissor keeps which they were all very pleased with – this is a pic of them displaying their gifts!

Over the years I have made them various blackwork and needlepoint gifts for them and Tracy and Bev had some of theirs with them so I got a chance to take some pics as pre-blogging I didn’t keep a record of my stitching.

Decorated initial in needlepoint as a pin box made for Tracy in one of her earlier medieval roles

Bev also had the blackwork pin box I had made for her as the start of the set – last year I made needlebooks – of which there are pictures in the Finishes 2007 link above if you are interested. Bev’s motif is an oak leaf so I have used this or acorns in all her gifts.

Bev;s blackwork pin box — Bev's blackwork pin box

We have had wonderful weather here at home – last weekend was gorgeous which was lucky as I have had miles of hedges to cut and lawn and general garden stuff to do. We had 3 barbecues in four days which was lovely and ate outside for all our other meals as well – it was fab!

Jake waiting for his sausages to be cooked

There now follows a whole string of event and holiday weekends, only got a couple where we are not busy between now and September so lets hope for more lovely weather! Are off camping at a friends’ place this weekend so more prawns on the barbie and beers in the cooler – it is a very nice life indeed!!!

Project Nepal Update

May 22, 2009June 2, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

A couple of weeks ago I went to the official dedication of the new building that we built at the scout campsite as part of the Project Nepal experience. It was really lovely to see everyone again and I will post some further pics of the building on my Project Nepal web page. The main structure is finished but it still needs work on the interior and landscaping.

This is a pic of me next to the stone in the building that I carved my initials on. You can’t see them but they are there honest!

We had a lovely evening with a fab meal and talk by Doug Scott, the mountaineer who set up Community Action Nepal the charity we worked with , who showed us some of his pics of mountains. We also saw the videos that were made of both the build in the UK – over the 12 months of the project- and the build in Nepal – over the 2 weeks we were in the village. That was just brilliant to see and brought back so many memories. It was a very emotional moment. I am very glad that I was able to go given all that happened last summer and it was such an amazing experience. It was so good in so many ways – re-affirming my faith in myself and my restored health, the fact that I managed all the very hard physical work given the state of my mobility a few years ago, and just brilliant fun as well.

There is another project planned which will start later this year – I would love to be involved in some way but don’t know if I would be able to go to Nepal with them again. Lots of things are still very up in the air with job and future plans so can’t really make any definite arrangements for Oct 2010 at this point but hopefully I can help with the project anyway.

As well as the success of the project in terms of the building we did there were some lovely outcomes that no-one expected. We were saying at the evening that there definitely must have been something in the water out there in Nepal as three romances came out of the project , two between project participants and one between one of the project members and one of the Nepalese team who looked after us out there. Kim went back to Nepal in Feb and married Bijou and she is now waiting for his visa to be sorted so he can come to the UK.

There were also two weddings, one just before and one soon after (and that couple now have a baby on the way!) I think that the reason why all of this happened is that when you are halfway round the world away from all the people you love you realise what is important in your life and what you want to hang on to. It is lovely that there was so much happiness from the project.

Things have been busy at work but my full time students have finished – they bought me some lovely presents which was very kind of them.

They know me very well and bought me some very nice wine and the most enormous glasses to drink it from.

We are away this weekend at Ashby de La Zouche Castle with the re-enactment group – I am nearly done with the packing for this and we will be there till Monday evening. Hopefully we will have some good weather as it has rained really badly most of the week here!

Hope you all have a fun Bank Holiday!

Cosmeston part 3 – the one with armour!

May 12, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

The battles at this event took place on Sunday and Monday and were fairly small by event standards as this is not a large venue – only probably about 100 people on the battlefield including some very fine archers who did a great job of firing at the English. We were on the Welsh side and Ellie and I water carried on the Sunday (she did that alone on Monday while I packed up the tent so that we could get the early train home!).

Before the battle - lining up with the flags

This picture shows the Welsh troops just before the battle began – our lot are at the back of that somewhere!

Since it was not a recreation of a particular battle but a scripted event there were lots of different weapons – these are pikes on the left with a bardiche (large silver blade) on the right of the picture with some swords in the background.

So lots of shiny armour everywhere and as it was one of the very first events of the season there were lots of people with very new kit. This man Gaius ,of the Medieval Combat Society , was camped opposite us and he kindly let me take some pics of his very new and very shiny armour!

These are his shiny new arms …..

and shiny new legs!

It was great to catch up with all our friends, have a drink or two.

Richard was there with his partner, my good friend Kat who is the very talented costume and headdress maker that I have mentioned in earlier posts. They were out for the day with Isabella their daughter who has just turned 1 years old. Look at this for an adorable re-enactment family!

Edward and Lady Joan aka Kat and Richard

Cosmeston – Part 2

May 11, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

The main events of the weekend took place on Sunday and Monday with a mix of fight displays, archery, manorial court and a battle each day – Welsh against English of course!

We were camped in an ordinary tent in the field out of the way of the public but there was a large display of tents in the Living History section where the rest of Team Falchion were.

This pic shows us in camp ready to have lunch on Sunday.

I am in the middle of this pic in a blue dress and pale blue coif (headgear) and my daughter Ellie and son Jake are next to me in dark cloaks.

I did spend part of the day dressed as a lady but it was a bit cold!

Me in my gold dress and torque headdress

We took a wander round the Living History camp and came across the Knights of Longshanks who had a lovely display of weaving of all different forms. One of the group – Alice Fitton – was creating a sampler of tablet weaving patterns as shown in the pics below.

This is what I love about re-enactment. As well as the general fun and the beer tent and the friends there are so many people who are into all of the stuff that I am and I am constantly meeting people who are interested in stitching and costume. I could have stayed talking to Alice for ages but the rest of the family were getting a bit bored!

The day ended with a beautiful sunny evening. Thanks to Shirley , our camp cook, for an excellent beef and ale stew and then Darryl ,the group’s minstrel, did a bit of musical improvisation with the kids round the campfire before we all headed off for the beer barn again! It’s a hard life …….

Smoke gets in your eyes .... Darryl with his lute and Ellie on tambourine

Cosmeston weekend part 1

May 10, 2009June 2, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

I have so many pics that I want to post from our recent event at Cosmeston Medieval Village in South Wales that I have split it into a few posts. Apologies for not posting these sooner – we did not get back till 11pm on Bank Holiday Monday evening and what with working all week and being away at Stefon’s all weekend have had no time at all.

We had really good weather all weekend – it rained a bit when we arrived on Fri while we were pitching the tent (typical!) but then was really nice Sat and Sun with cooler weather on Monday.

Saturday we did not have a show so went for a walk on the beach – walked about 3 miles on an amazing rocky beach at Lavernock Point then ended up at a very nice pub for lunch.

Here are me and the kids in a very album cover type shot.

Got back to camp about 4pm and then later into the beer tent (or beer barn in this case as the Tithe Barn in the village is used for events!) for a few more ciders and some mead. Ellie was able to buy her first pint at an event!

Darryl, Shirley and Darren at the beer barn!

I have included some pics of the village so that you can see what it is like – it is a wonderful place – a recreation of a 14th century village that died out in the plague. For a re-enactor this is heaven – authentic dark, smoky cottages, chickens running around, pigs in the piggery and lots of mud when it rains. It has an amazing atmosphere and I love going there.

Part of the village with the archers' encampment

A weaving loom inside one of the cottages

The Cosmeston pigs asleep - they are huge!

Will post some more pics of the actual event later in the week.

The first show of the year!

April 29, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

As I mentioned in my last post we had our first show at Bolsover last weekend so I thought I would share some pics of that with you.

Here is Bev looking very lovely all dressed up for her morning role as a peasant – in this role she does calligraphy and takes part in the manorial court and the archery display – involving being ‘rescued’ by Robin Hood!

This is wonderful daughter Ellie all dressed up as Lady Rose – this pic was taken early in the morning by the kitchen awning where we cook and eat – you can see what a lovely day it was, really bright and sunny.

John Neville (in real life Mark) is one of our newest fighters and here he is in his lovely new surcoat and mantle (covering on top of the helmet).

This photo shows on the left our other new fighter William de Bouen (in real life Paul Martin) who has done a great job of painting the heraldry on his surcoat.

I managed to finish a new outfit just in time for the show – nothing radical but the old one was very faded and had shrunk – I was showing my ankles which is very frowned upon for a C14 nun!

The very scary dragon being shot by Pete and Bev

Since it was a St George’s Day show we had the dragon – very well played by Luke who is being shot here during the archery display – he is very well padded!

My role during the tournament, which is the last part of the show is to make sure that all the knights have water, to keep an eye on the crowd in general to be alert for any issues and to make sure they all shout very loudly for their favourite knight!

We have another event coming up this weekend in South Wales at the Cosmeston Medieval Village which I am very excited about – check the Events 2009 page for details of that.

Tomorrow evening I am going to Bradley Wood Scout Camp site for the official opening of the building that I helped build as part of Project Nepal. Have not been able to get down to the site in recent months due to work and general family stuff so I am really looking forward to seeing everyone I went to Nepal with again.

Will post pics of both events some time next week.

Lady Bardolph’s embroidery

April 26, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftime1 Comment

We have had a lovely start to the new re-enactment season with our first show at Bolsover Castle. The weather was really good – we have all come back glowing with red noses – not bad for April! We had about 800 people attend today which is very good so thank you to everyone who came including my friend Ange and her partner Paul.

It was brilliant to be round the camp fire last night . It was a bit chilly last night but only to be expected this early in the year and I had the joy of cooking the first lot of bacon and sausage butties outdoors of the year. I absolutely love camping!!!!!!

My good friend Lady Bardolph was there (also known as Lyn) and I was really pleased to see her as she has been in hospital for a major operation so it was lovely to see her looking so well. She has a new medieval tent which she had made all the hangings and bed covers for and also had the most beautiful heraldic embroidery that she had done over winter.

This is Lady Bardolph in all her finery.

She is wearing a blue brocade underdress and a red velvet surcoat over that. Her head dress is a red velvet torque which you can see in detail below.

The torque showing the braiding and beading detail

Below are pictures of hers and her husband’s heraldry in embroidery . These have been stitched on linen using mainly satin stitch – the detail is wonderful! These hang in her new tent.

Detail of the griffon at the top of the crest

Am off to bed very soon as am very pleasantly tired but very happy – have a busy week ahead at work and then we are off again on Friday to South Wales for another event over the Bank Holiday weekend. Have just put up my Events 2009 page – not complete yet but it does gives details of the Wales event and the next May Bank Holiday one so do visit and remember to come and say hello if you visit one of our shows!

Embroiderers’ Guild Conference and my recent stitching

April 22, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftime1 Comment

I was lucky enough to go for a day to the recent EG conference in Sheffield. My lovely children paid for this as a Mothers’ Day present and I had a wonderful day out listening to talks about embroidery and having a visit to a Sheffield branch of the EG and to the Sheffield Cathedral. Sadly I forgot to take my camera but took a few pics using my phone which Ellie was kind enough to transfer for me.

The first talk was an illustrated lecture by Anthea Godfrey on embroidery as used in haute couture and had the most beautiful images of all sorts of techniques used on the catwalk. She teaches embroidery at the London College of Fashion Arts – I would love to be able to study there but will have to content myself at the moment with my local guild meetings and some day workshops!

After lunch we went to one of the local Sheffield Guilds for a talk by Diane Grant about ecclesiastical embroidery and the work of Beryl Dean. I have read a couple of Beryl’s books before and it was a very good talk illustrated with Beryl’s work throughout her lifetime. Below is an example from the 1950s, this piece is in the V and A museum and features a stylised disciple or maybe Jesus with a fish and net.

The guild members had also put on a small display of their work which was brilliant – one particular member called Marjorie Holford had done some Elizabethan sweetbags which I really liked – she had larger display of those at the main conference hall.

After that we went to Sheffield Cathedral which was treat in itself as I love visiting any church and had a special display of their ecclesiastical textiles which were very lovely. Most of the priest’s robes were quite modern but there were also some older pieces which I really love and I have put some pics of these below.

Image from an altar frontal at Sheffield Cathdral

A banner which had been restored by the church embroiderers

I must go back with my camera one day and get some shots of the cathedral.

I have been busy stitching a few gifts recently and have a couple of finishes to show. The first one is a blackwork scissor keep that I have been working on for a friend – I am making five of these in total.

The design is a motif from one of my Lesley Wilkins blackwork books.

I have the rest of the scissor keeps to finish but need to get on with sewing up a new nun’s outfit that I have cut out as we have our first re-enactment event this weekend. It is at Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire on Sunday from 10 – 4pm so if you are in the area do come along and say hello. I will be easy to spot being the only nun in the place! I am very excited that the season is starting again – nights under canvas and sitting round a real fire – bliss! Hopefully the weather will be as nice as it has been this past week.

Parisian antique textiles

April 20, 2009November 24, 2009 stitchesoftime1 Comment

While we were in Paris last week we made a trip to the flea market at St Ouen. This was always on Ellie’s to do list and due to the Versailles Palace being unfortunately shut on the Monday we made it and it was a little piece of textile heaven!

It was a very interesting experience generally- it is a huge market with lots of modern stalls and a big second hand market with everything from very expensive antique furniture to people sitting by the road with what looks like piles of the most random junk.

The textiles are wonderful! There were lots of costume dealers and three or four who specialised in antique textiles which were amazing. The first stall had the most amazing collection of whitework and lace goods including loads of baby clothes obviously late Victorian and early 20th century.

She did have some pieces of cross stitch as you can see in the red pile of stitching near the middle of the pic but most was work like the two pics below.

There were a couple of other stalls which made me want to win the lottery immediately – this one below had literally stacks of goldwork and huge embroideries everywhere – lots of Ottoman garments and ecclesiastical vestments.

I really wanted to rescue all these poor things and give them a loving home but sadly did not have the funds!

These were some more pices outside one of the other stalls – just sitting there. The thing that makes me sad is that I know just how long it takes to make pieces like this and is is tragic to see them being unloved and unwanted. At least the people reading this will appreciate them!

If you ever want to go the nearest Metro stop is Porte de Clignancourt and there is a map at the Metro stop and signs once you get outside – look for Marche aux Puces.

Sunny Sunday and holiday pics!

April 19, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Apologies for the lack of recent posts – we have been away on a little holiday and I have some pics of that to share with you. It was a special birthday treat for Ellie for her 18th and we went with my Mum to Disneyland for 3 days followed by 3 days in Paris.

We had a great time – weather was very good after the first day and we really enjoyed everything. Went on loads of rides – some very scary like Crush’s Coaster and Armageddon and saw lots of parades including of course lots of Disney princesses for Ellie.

Mum and kids outside the castle in Disneyland

It was Mum’s first time in Paris so we did a lot of the sights – me and the kids have been a few times before though not for a few years – this was actually our 4th trip to Disneyland Paris – we are all big Disney fans and are planning more trips in the future – on our own and with grandkids (the kids have promised me lots of these!).

I have been busy since we got back – we celebrated Mum’s birthday before she went back to Spain with a lovely meal out with us, my brother Ben and his girlfriend Amanda. I gave her the crazy patchwork bag that I have been working on which she thankfully really liked. Ellen gave her a goldwork picture that she started for her about 18 months ago.

I have really enjoyed making this project – I got the inspiration from Barbara at Embroiderers’ Guild who makes the most amazing crazy patchwork tea cosies. She was going to lead a workshop on this in Feb which got cancelled due to the bad snow we had then but since I had all the stash for the project I decided to do it anyway on my own.

I have really enjoyed the unstructured and experimental aspects of the work as I normally do very controlled and counted pieces but I liked just letting the project evolve and seeing where it took me. I am particularly pleased with the little embroidery embellishments which I think look very pretty and I found some lovely buttons to add to it.

: Mum with the completed bag

Mum with Ellen's goldwork picture present

Mum and her birthday cake and shot of sambucca

I have had a very productive day today – have spent most of it in the garden as it has been gloriously sunny here. Was going to do lots of sewing making a new nun’s outfit but it was too hot to stay in the conservatory where I normally sew – I did get the outfit cut out later on but spent a lovely afternoon tidying up and refilling the pond – the garden now looks lovely ready for summer.

A beautiful sunny afternoon in Yorkshire

Have lots of other pics to post this week of various textile treats so will get round to that later in the week. Meanwhile off to finish stitching a baby card for a new arrival.

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.