Day 7: Final Day of Midsummer Pillowe

This morning was Grey and overcast yet the light was quite good in our stitching room and the landscape outside very clearly defined.



The brickwork on the Theatre seemed particularly well defined.

Even through the lead-lighted windows in our stitching room it looked terrific.There are (what I assume to be) CCT cameras in the oddest places.





















We had a great day of stitching. Nicola's design is a pleasure to stitch. It uses varied techniques, interesting threads and you can complete small sections and see an immediate result. There were periods of silent concentration and times of talk. We have known each other now over several years and there is a level of trust.  We are privileged to have found people from all over the world who share our quite narrow interests.







We concentrated on the butterfly "Puck". I was able to finish - mine. That's one of the clever things about the design - it is possible to finish a complete element in a day.

Photos don't do justice to the three-dimensional impact of the finished piece, nor do they convey the sparkle.

I haven't finished Oberon - but it is well advanced. I have more than half of the major butterfly, Titania, to do and the small figure in  the top left hand corner. I'd love to keep working on it. I think it will be finished before I board a plane home.






The buffet lunch was excellent again, and the evening meal delicious. The chef seems to get  proportions right.


Tutors had set up shops this afternoon in the hotel reception area. I bought a Kate Barlow kit.



I also, with permission, offered some of the Guild's Ort Pot kits for sale. Last year I used one of my ort pots in class, and people asked for the pattern. I couldn't provide it, as it is copyright and a fund-raising activity of the Guild. So this year, Gay Sanderson made up some kits and some Ort pots for me to bring to sell. I was planning to offer these to anyone who asked about mine, but Laura suggested I could sell them on the market evening. Sales amounted to 56. The kits sold out completely, since one woman who has to run a workshop for her US Guild in making these pots, bought my entire stock to save having to make the kits herself!



After the market and before dinner Phillipa introduced  Sarah Thursfield, author of The Medieval Taylor's Assistant. on Dress in the Age of Shakespeare. Sarah used portraits to analyse the elements of both men and women's clothing. I knew quite a bit of this from the research project on Tudor clothing I helped Brigid do five years ago.


Sarah stayed for dinner. She was an interesting speaker and it was a privilege to be able to talk to her over dinner.

Tomorrow is our excursion day. It should be good.