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.
We spent a very lovely (and very hot!) weekend at Tatton Hall in Cheshire this weekend. We love this event – not only is it a beautiful venue , it is near home ( a mere 1 1/2 hours away) and it is always near Jake’s birthday so we have a little celebration.
Jake blowing out the candles on his 16th birthday cake!
We are still going to events by train at the moment as I don’t have a car and by a cunning combination of rail and some very nice taxi drivers we have managed to get everywhere we want to go. Travelling by train means that we have to minimise what take with us – especially for an event like this where we have to take all our food and drink for the weekend as there are no shops nearby.
We have got it down to a fine art now – here are the kids with the luggage on the way back on Sun eve.
This includes the tent all camping gear including cooking stuff and food and all clothes including medieval kit
I think even when I do have a car I will try and travel this light as we really do have everything we need here – we even have chairs (very small stools) and a mini camping table which you can see in the pic below ( not for eating but useful for prepping food).
And it all unpacks as this – here are the kids Fri night at the tent.
Lovely sunny evening in camp
I do love camping (may have mentioned this before!) but this weekend was excellent – great weather (we all came back a little pink!), great company and lots of laughs at the beer tent and round the camp fire. I love being outdoors!
Here are some pics from the event of us in kit –
Here are Lord and Lady Bardolph (Lynn and Paul) and friend Jackie dressed up to go shopping at the event's market on Saturday
Lady Bardolph in her heraldic dress on Sunday
Our knights ready for battle on Sunday
As I have mentioned in previous posts I have been making a new dress for Ellie and I got it finished in time. It is a new style of dress for me to make with contrasting gores in a paler fabric than the main body of the dress and it has worked very well – she is very pleased with it.
Next time I make one in this style I will make the gored pieces a little longer as they flare out so look shorter than the main body of the dress but that is one of the things that you learn by experience. Anyway she really likes it.
Ellie - pretty in pink
We acted as water carriers again at the event – here are Ellie and Jake at muster waiting to go on the battlefield.
Waiting to go into battle
And here are some of our friends on the battlefield.
Men in armour - what a lovely sight!
We have a quiet weekend coming up – we are having a BBQ with my brother and his partner but then are off to Italy next Monday – Venice awaits!
Hope that you have all had a nice weekend – we had one of the very variable Yorkshire ones – very hot on Sat so after domestic chores I did some gardening then we had a lovely BBQ with Ellie’s friends Danni and Becky who had arrived for the weekend before leaving for Spain this morning.
Sunday it poured it down all day – the girls went to Leeds Armouries for the day where it was luckily drier. I sat at the sewing machine all day watching the rain and have nearly finished a new medieval dress for Ellie (pics after once I have done the fastening holes).
It took quite a long time as it is a new design for me – the main body of the dress is a very dusky pink with pale pink gored inserts all the way round from the waist line which give it a lovely flared look.
No time to fettle V and A pics yet so will share a couple of ones of our show last weekend with you – these first two come from Clare Grey who put them on Facebook – I was tagged via a friend in the group so I hope that she won’t mind me sharing them with you. It is rare to get a pic of me in the show which is understandable as I am in the background most of the time behind the glamorous boys in their pretty costumes!
The first pic is when all the knights first come out onto the arena – don’t they look wonderful with their surcoats and mantles on their helms.The mantles – cloths and wooden carvings that go on top of the helms – are new this year and I will try and get some close up pics at some point as they are fab – not allowed a camera when in kit so bit difficult!
You can just see me on the right of the pic in a dark blue robe
The second pic is take at the end of the show when Lord and Lady Despenser fight for the tournament money (she wins you will be glad to know!) I am standing at the table behind them with my water jugs and Jake is next to me – we make sure that all the guys have enough water during the tournament and Jake also helps with the weapons and amour as needed.
The Despencer's way of solving marital disputes!
They always make up afterwards though – here they are after a previous show,
Lord and Lady Despencer
We all spend a lot of time making, mending and adding to costume and kit as well as a considerable amount of money in some cases. The dress that Lady Despencer is wearing here is made of pure silk , all hand stitched with real seed pearls and amethysts – the fabric alone cost £25 a metre and there is a lot of fabric in it! We all have started off with a basic set and added to it over time. The armour and weapons are also expensive – a helm and sword costs about £400 so making our own costume is one way to keep down the expense.
The guys are very inventive and skilled as well – often buying parts and putting things together themselves to save money. The pic below shows Luke (aka William de la Zouche whose castle we were at last weekend) with his new scale mail sabatons ( armoured shoes). He bought the scales from Ebay (don’t you just love the internet!) and put them together himself.
The lovely new scale mail sabatons
So I have the dress to finish for Ellie , an old dress of hers to alter for me, a cloak to mend and another two sets of brais to finish before our next event in 10 day’s time! Lots of sewing ahead!
Hope that you have a very nice week – thanks for visiting!
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.
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.
Lady Anne in brocade dress with veil and crispinettes
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.
This one I bought from one of the medieval traders last year - you can never have too many coifs as they tend to wander!
I then cut a number out and ended up handsewing this one due to the temperamental machine.
A bit of a coif production line hereLord Bardolph wearing his coif under his bicocket (felted hat)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.
After a very long (nearly 9 hour) train journey yesterday due to engineering works we arrived back last night from Caldicot Castle from our last re-enactment event which was one of the hottest weekends we have had all summer.
Caldicot is a beautiful location as these pics show. It is set in a country park so we have lovely surroundings to camp in as well as the historical bits.
The castle walls in the evening sunInside the castle walls showing one of the later Elizabethan buildings
There was a living history display inside the castle which was where the tournament took place on Saturday.
The Noble Tales group inside the castle with their beautiful tent and costumes
The tournament is a ‘full contact’ one which means the guys hit each other very hard – usually with very big swords as you can see from this pic of Carl and Keith in their bout.
Keith (in the blue jacket) and Carl battling with hand and a half swords
There were 10 people who entered from different groups all pictured below. The tournament was eventually won – (after many gruelling and very hot rounds!) by Carl from Companions of the Crow.
My friend Eric was doing the announcing for the event so I took the opportunity to get a couple of pics of the lovely embroidered heraldry on his coat (apologies for him having his eyes closed in this pic – it was a very sunny day and we all got a bit burnt).
Eric and his coat!A close up of the embroidered badge
I bought a new chaperon for Ellie that she had been admiring from Jackie’s stall (Cloaked and Daggered) – here she is looking very pretty in it – it is a slightly different style from the others we have in that it buttons up the front rather than slipping over the head.
Ellie in her new hood
It has been a very busy season – especially as we have done it all on public transport which has taken extra time and meant that we have stayed over at some events till the Mon so it is easier to travel back. I am very proud of the kids for doing all this – hopefully by next season we may have a car but we have proved that we can do it all without one if needed.
Am looking forward to things being a bit quieter now but work wise we have just started a new term so I have a new group of trainees who I met today.
Also Ellie is off to University on Fri so will post pics of my little girl in her new home when we get back from dropping her off next weekend. I am sure she will have a great time – her first field trip is to an Iron Age roundhouse in Oct and she is really looking forward to that.
I had a really good time at this event , me and the kids went on the train all the way to Castle Cary (the nearest station to Glastonbury Abbey ) and thanks to the lovely lady that runs Mum’s Taxis got there in about 7 1/2 hours from home . I don’t know her name but she was a mine of information about the area so thank you very nice taxi driver!
We good weather, a bit of rain and cloud but very sunny on Sunday and lots of people interested in our demos. Team Falchion do more or less the same kind of event as my other group Order of Fighting Knights.
There was the weapons and armour talk –
The armour rack with an impressive display of pointy things!
The cooking of lunch (thanks to Trish for all the lovely food – especially cake and the fab apples from the orchard on Sun!)
Jake chopping carrots for pottage
The range with Trish cooking
But there was also the forge with Alixx making real life metal things! The kids were very impressed as the other group does not have one of these.
Alixx working at the forgeSee that's the way to get rid of the frustrations of your day job - bit of hammering!
We all went out on the Saturday night in medieval kit for a drink round town which did raise a few eyebrows – quite a feat in a place like Glastonbury which is known for unconventional visitors!
Red being the colour of choice for medieval evening wear!
The abbey itself was fantastic – somewhere I have always wanted to go and visit – amazing now but in its heyday it must have been mindblowing.
As re-enactors we always get to be in these beautiful places during the best bits of the day – early mornings and sunsets when there are no crowds – it is wonderful and I am very lucky indeed!
And there was stitching (of course!). The visitor centre had an exhibition entitled ‘Images of Arthur’ and the Avalon Embroiderers’ Guild branch had done these two panels depicting Arthur and Guinevere. They are made up of about 30 separate panels, each being embroidered by a different member of the group, and there are over 40 different types of stitches in each panel.
The Guinevere panelStitching detail from the panelThe Arthur panelCrewel work foliage from the panel
An excellent weekend – a big thank you from me and the kids for making us all feel so welcome.
As promised here are the pics from Plas Mawr in Conwy. I first visited this Elizabethan house 11 years ago on our very first (and very wet!) camping trip when Jake was only 4.
We did that trip in 2 very small two man tents and as I spent most of the time trying to make picnics out of the boot of the car we then bought our very first proper family tent ( one you could stand up in and put a table and chairs in!) on our return. We have lots of really fab camping holidays and are now on our 4th family tent and still going strong!
Since we last visited Plas Mawr it has been extensively re-interpreted – 11 years ago they had done all the structural work but it was very bare but now it is wonderful inside – one of the best properties I have ever visited in terms of the furnishing and detail they have put into the house. And lots and lots of stitching!
The house is one of the best preserved of its period in the UK and is famous for its plasterwork which has been extensively restored. But the little touches such as the rushes on the floor and the fresh herbs in the kitchen really make the house come alive.
Plas Mawr house in the middle of Conwy
An example of the amazing plasterwork
The kitchen with fresh herbs on the table and rushes on the floor - really need smell-o-vision here!
I love the attention to detail like this display of spoons
Part of the courtyard
Because the house has been so well interpreted there is stitching from all periods reflecting the occupation of the house from the 1500s. Starting with an Elizabethan piece in the hall on a child’s high chair.
Scrolling flower and fruit motifs on the cushions
In the bedroom there are two wonderful velvet runners each with appliqued needlepoint motifs that are based on the stitching that Bess of Hardwick and Mary Queen of Scots did – some of which are at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire and some at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk.
One of the runners on top of a wooden chestDetail of one of the needlepoint motifs - bear and ragged staffAnother popular motif - pansiesA needlepoint chair cushion with a combination of tent stitch for the heraldry and a basket weave stitch for the backgroundA blackwork coif on the bedA sadly faded needlepoint runner on one of the tables in the Great HallWhitework from the Plas Mawr attic which was furnished as it would have been in the 1870sThe sewing box from the attic complete with darning egg and buttons!
Once again there is no information on where these pieces came from or who stitched them – I suspect either they were done by willing volunteers or obtained from antique shops or sadly charity shops or jumble sales.
A beautiful venue and well worth a visit.
In family news today lovely daughter Ellie got her A level results – she did very well indeed and is off to Worcester University next month to study History, Heritage and Archaeology (no idea how she got interested in that!)
Here she is last weekend at the Glastonbury show teaching the boys how to fingerbraid.Thanks to Mike from Team Falchion for this pic.
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!
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!
Stitches of Time 