The Troll

                                    ......Oh ! and I gave the Troll a tidy up  !

Little Owl

O.K. So I have almost completed the crewel wool stitching of my medieval owl picture . I just need some dark grey to define the edge of the stem . .....and then I,m going to put him aside  while I look for some gold threads . The original Illumination has gold leaf applied , which I want to recreate .
The trouble with goldwork is the really good gold threads are so expensive , because they have real gold in them ... I have a few gold metalic threads in my sea chest hoard , but I cant decide . So little owl is going to be put aside , while I do abit of research into Goldwork .

Thought you'd like to see the little owl I am currently working on .
 For many years I have enjoyed all kinds of needlecraft , I have an old sea chest that is my needlework box (will post a pic of it for you to see later on )...even this is not big enough !
 Quilting and cross stitching ...... but always coming  back to needlepainting .
I had been working on a small section of the Bayeaux Tapestry ... using cotton embroidery threads on linen ....I finished it but felt there was something not quite right with it....then I made a medieval purse , to go with my green kirtle ...and embroidered it with wool .....and this too didn,t look right to me , I had wanted it to look authentic and simple maybe a little like a child had made it for her mother ....but it was way too crude it seemed to me .
 So this time I did abit more research and  discovered Crewel Wool  !  So how come I have not come across this before !  Of course I had been using tapestry wool ...... goodness gracious me !  I had even been spending ages trying to seperate the strands !
   So now I have alot of catching up to do ! This is definitely the medium for me !
I couldn't wait to get started , found this little owl picture on the internet , isn't he sweet ?

 Rummaging franticaly through my sea chest I find just enough of this wool to get me started . Putting out appeals to all my friends for any unwanted crewel wool ...and I am eagerly awaiting a parcel from a kind lady on Ebay .
 Oh ! Beautiful Full Moon ! You have brought in the tide of creativity !

In a Medieval Mood

In July my husband had a yearning to play golf at Puckrup Hall in Tewkesbury so we timed it that we could go to the Medieval Festival .
 Very excited , I had bought my beautiful green woollen ,linen lined kirtle back in February , it fits like a glove , so comfortable  ...but I hadn't taken into consideration that it might actually be quite warm in the summer ......  and it was ...32 degrees as it turned out . So my husband took these photos in the town and Tewkesbury Abbey Herb garden very early in the morning . I dont know how they managed to do the re enactment battle in that heat !  I  bought a new handstitched linen coif from a lovely lady, which I will treasure . I enjoyed seeing the beautiful hawks ,everyone in their finest medieval clothes , chatting to fellow belly dancers , I dont remember much else as I then was overcome with heatstroke and had to go back to the hotel ...where I had been given the worst room ever....I couldn,t open the windows more than half an inch ....I flopped onto the bed and spent a few hours stitching ......it was even too hot for my husband to play golf  !