Tewkesbury – even more royal goldwork

July 15, 2010July 15, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Well here I am listening to the Yorkshire rain (again) ready to post pics of our gloriously hot weekend at the Battle of Tewkesbury event. I am starting to think I only come home to get wet (and wonder at the speed the hedge is growing while I am away – must cut that this weekend!)

We had a fantastic weekend – one of the very best Tewkesbury events ever – very well organised (thanks to all the hard work of the crew), lovely weather – was very hot Sat morning for our trip round the market but did cool down for both battles. However our water giving services were much appreciated.Great fun both round the camp fire and in the beer tent – altogether fab!

As promised here are some pics from the market – we have medieval markets at most events but as Tewkesbury is the biggest event it also has the biggest and best market where you can purchase anything you want for your medieval lifestyle. There are lots of clothes sellers, fabric sellers (I was very good and didn’t get tempted!), armour, weapons etc but also some amazing craftspeople selling their wares.

You can buy buckets…

market stall 1 — .... of all shapes and sizes

Mugs and jugs a plenty..

Market Stall 2 — Jim the potter (he's been on Time Team!)

Beautiful glasses (not got any of these yet – not very safe taking these on the train!)

And of course lovely food and drink – this German wine and spirit seller was new this year – I passed on the 80% proof chilli vodka but did try the bilberry wine in the long-necked bottles here – very nice!

Market stall 4 — Really gorgeous bottles of fruit wine

Normally I don’t get many pics of me on the battlefield but was looking on Facebook when I got back and was very excited to find a few of me. Here I am in the thick of the battle in my usual blue dress.Pictures taken by Helen Harris Beaumont.

Battle 1 — An interlude to take on water

I spotted this lovely pic of the King in his heraldic surcoat (look at the goldwork on that!)…

And was very excited to find the next pic has me and Ellie in the background!

Battle 3 — There we are - me in blue and Ellie in front of me in turquoise

It really is so wonderfully atmospheric with all the different colours of the heraldry and flags flying – especially at the end on Sunday where we all knelt on the battlefield before the King – brings a lump to your throat!

At the end of the battle the King fights the young Prince of Wales who is trying to take his throne…

King and Prince Tewks — The fight - pictures taken by Michelle Jackson

…. and of course he wins – Hurrah for the House of York!

King and Prince 2 Tewks — Take that you young upstart!

We stayed with my sister for a couple of days after the event and helped Ellen move into her new student house. I bought her some BBQ stuff as a house-warming pressie so she has promised to send me a pic of them in their lovely garden – hoping they are having better weather than we are!

Undaunted I have today refilled the freezer with Tesco’s finest BBQ wares so hopefully at some point this weekend – after the hedges have been cut – we will be out again enjoying the sunshine.

Hope you are having better weather – thanks for visiting.

Castles and camp fires!

April 25, 2010 stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello everyone

I have just got back from the very first re-enactment event of the season hence the post title. We were at the very beautiful Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire for our St George’s Day show. I was only able to make the event from last night due to having to teach yesterday but at least I got my first fix of canvas and woodsmoke for the year!

We had a very lovely time – last night it was great fun sitting round the camp fire and catching up with everyone and today was very lovely and sunny with lots of very interested people visiting us and I got to tell them all about the headdresses and embroidery. The weather was really good up until 10 mins before the end when the heavens opened and we all got soaked! However we managed to finish the show.

I have a couple of pics from the event to share with you. In Jan this year we had an embroidery day here for the girls from the group and Kerry started a goldwork flower – well this her completed piece which is really brilliant – especially as it is her first ever goldwork.

Kerry's goldwork — A borage flower in gold and silk thread

Also took some more costume pics – the first two are of Lady Anne (aka Leanne) who normally dresses as a peasant but was dressed as a lady for most of this weekend in this gorgeous dress.

Lil 1 — Lady Anne in brocade dress with veil and crispinettes

Lil 2 — A close up showing the headdress in more detail

I had a busy week finishing all of the new costume as well as a very hectic work schedule but finally got everything done at 10.30 pm on Fri. As well as Jake’s clothes I am also making a few things for some of the guys in the group. This week I made a coif for Lord Bardolph (aka Paul).

Here is the original coif that I cut round to use as a pattern.

I then cut a number out and ended up handsewing this one due to the temperamental machine.

cut out coifs — A bit of a coif production line here

Bardolph 2 — Lord Bardolph wearing his coif under his bicocket (felted hat)

Bardolph 1 — A side view so that you can fully admire the coif and hat

Have come back with an order for some brais for some of the other men in the group so will be cutting those out soon. Our next event is next weekend in South Wales at Cosmeston Medieval Village which I am really looking forward to as it such an amazing place.

We are planning a trip to Barry Island (to pay homage to the wonderful sitcom Gavin and Stacy) while we are there we will go to the funfair and have fish and chips and a paddle of course!

I will try and post again during the week as I have made good progress on the lacy purple scarf – just need to take some pics of the progress.

Hope you have all had a nice weekend and have a great week ahead.

Thanks for visiting.

More ecclesiastical goldwork!

September 8, 2009January 12, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Wonderful daughter Ellie’s birthday pressie to me this year was a trip out of my choice. I chose to go to York to visit the Minster and we were also hoping to go to the Quilt Museum as well but sadly it was closed so I will have to go back another time to do that.

We had a fab day out – it was great weather and we had a really nice train ride and lovely lunch in a little old pub and a good wander round the lovely shops in York after we went to the Minster – they have a Cath Kidston shop which was full of such cute things!

The painted ceiling of the Chapter House

The Minster was amazing as I had expected with the usual abundance of embroidery! This piece was one of the first we saw – one of the finest and most detailed pieces I have ever seen.

There was no info with it but it depicts the Minster on the bottom right and two figures one of whom is being given a key detailed below.

The key - look at the detail on the hands!

The piece was an amazing mix of appliqued brocade for the gowns the figures are wearing, silk shading and goldwork.

One of the heads at the bottom of the piece - so realistic!

At the back of one of the chapels was this more modern piece composed of a series of goldwork crowns – I couldn’t get any nearer to take close ups but it is really stunning.

The Minster Broderer’s Guild had done a series of panels based on animals found in the church – this is a detail of one of the many Lamb of God pictures to be found there.

One of the exhibition pieces by the Guild

The pic below shows some 13th century chests used for storing priests’ copes – note how they are shaped like the robes so they could be stored with the minimum of folds.

We also spotted this fab fruit basket in one of the gift shops near the Minster which we loved!

The fruit basket to end all fruit baskets - look at those little individual baskets!

Thank you Ellie for such a fab pressie! I had a wonderful day and I am very lucky to have such lovely kids who give me such thoughtful pressies all the time.

We are away this weekend in South Wales for the last show of the season at Caldicot Castle – please keep your fingers crossed for good weather for us last year this event got cancelled at the very last minute due to the site being flooded which was not good news for anyone!

Term starts on Monday with a new group of students to welcome to the wonderful world of teaching and then Ellie is off to University next Friday!

She has had all her joining info re the course and the modules she will be doing and yesterday got details of all of the entertainment planned for the first week of term so is busy working out her new social calendar. We will be going down with her on Friday so I will post next week when I can as it is likely to be a very busy one!

Wherever you go you can always find stitching!

August 3, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

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.

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 robes

The needlepoint cushion on Edward Jenner's garden chair - in the middle are his intials — The 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.

There was also a very lovely effigy on the tomb of Thomas 8th Lord of Berkeley and his Lady Katherine dated 1361.

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!

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 gardens

The 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).

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!

Tewkesbury and the King’s goldwork !

July 15, 2009September 9, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

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.

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.

Ellie with the Order of Fighting Knights banner — 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 instruments

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! — Love the sun glinting off the helmet in this pic!

A close up of the fleur de lys on the surcoat

The 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.

Will post again in a couple of weeks – after Berkeley am straight off to Spain.

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.

A lovely day

February 8, 2009November 24, 2009 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Today Ellie and I have been to the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show in Manchester. I have not been before to this one but missed my usual Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show fix in Nov as I was in Nepal.

It is much smaller than the Harrogate show with much more emphasis on card making and supplies for that but there were lots of lovely stalls and some of my favourite suppliers were there so we had a lovely time.

One of my all time must go and see stalls at any show is Golden Hinde – Sue does the most amazing goldwork and she was there stitching today and she showed me how to make chrysanthemums out of wire thread.

She has really taken modern goldwork to the next level and her work is wonderful as well as her stall selling some very practical (and very cheap!) goldwork supplies. The thing that I like about Golden Hinde is that you can buy little bags of all sorts of gold thread really cheaply – the things I got today were 8Op or £1.50 which means you can soon build up a great stash.

Go and visit their web site or better still see if you can get along to a show and meet them in person – well worth it!

Here are a few pics from the show – one of the quilting displays, a cross stitch stall and one of the crewel work pieces on display.

I have bought two new publications recently which I thought I would share with you – they are in the pic below.

Of course I know I don’t really need any new books, patterns etc as I have enough stitching to keep me going till 2087 as it is but I am going to start doing some quilting and patchwork. Some friends from Embroiderers’ Guild are also members of the Quilters’ Guild so am going to join them. Therefore I thought the book on quilting patterns would be useful. It is called The Essential Quilter by Barbara Chainey and was a huge bargain at nearly a third of the new price on Amazon.

The other purchase I bought last week from my local WH Smith. It is a stitching mag called Inspirations published in Australia by Country Bumpkin and has the most amazing work in it.One piece that I really want to make from it is this goldwork pomegranate below.

Pomegranate illustration from Inspirations magazine

A couple of years ago I did this Tudor Rose piece below from a magazine and thought that the pomegranate would be a good companion on the mantel shelf.

Have not set myself a timescale for completion as have loads of other projects on the go but would be lovely. Will post again soon – meanwhile happy stitching!

Hello from me

September 14, 2008January 24, 2010 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Been a little while since the last post as term has started and have been very busy. Have spent a large part of this weekend and last weekend decorating and doing the garden (hurrah!) as we have finally had some half decent weather so me and the kids have been battling the overgrown hedges and lawn and have got it into some sort of order. The decorating is coming on great – have got all paintwork done in the little room that used to be Jake’s and today have filled holes ready for sanding and wallpapering sometime soon.

I had carpets fitted on the stairs, landing, new stairs and the little room on Monday which makes things look a lot tidier and have a plumber coming to do the fitting of stuff in the shower room in a week or so.

All in all very good progress and most of it should be done before I go off to Nepal in less than a month! It is all getting very exciting!

Went out last night with Sue, my oldest friend here, to the pub and had a lovely time with her and Jill another old friend. Also had friends round for a meal on Mon eve – is nice to be doing stuff like this as have not had time for socialising much over the last year due to work. I am lucky to have very good friends and really value them.

No pictures I’m afraid as digital camera is still at menders from having sand in the lens while in Spain! Do not have much luck with cameras but bought insurance when I bought this one as lots of previous ones have had accidents with red wine, the sea etc (nothing to do with me of course!).

Had a good week workwise – met all the new students on Thurs – a very nice bunch and we are full on next week with the start of term. Has been very nice these last two weeks being officially part-time it may not continue as I think I’m going to need to work full-time again next year but am enjoying it while it lasts.

Have a new feature on the blog – the Medieval Costume page where I am going to post articles about what we wear and how I make it -do visit!

Will leave you with another pic from my needlework collection – this is another of my web collection and shows a fine example of goldwork.

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.

Tag: goldwork