The Oxburgh Hangings are not some macabre re-enactment of medieval executions but a set of embroidered panels, housed at the National Trust owned Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk. It being Easter weekend, we were on the lookout for a NT Easter egg hunt location, and the opportunity to combine this with a visit to some needlepoint by none other than Mary, Queen of Scots, was too good to miss. The panels were thought to be embroidered by Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury between 1569 and 1584, during which period Mary was held captive in England. Oxburgh Hall has 3 large panels, in absolutely amazing condition considering their age, mainly consisting of motifs of animals and fish, real and imaginary, copied from illustrations of the time. The embroideries are now owned by the V&A and some are loaned back to Oxburgh hall for display. You can see some of the stock images from the V&A collection here: http://www.vandaimages.com/results.asp?cat1=Oxburgh+Hangings&X8=17-25
Some of the pictures I took of the hangings are below. I'm hoping to perhaps be able to draw inspiration from them for one of my future RSN certificate projects. It was a treat for me to be able to spend some time alone admiring the hangings while the children explored the grounds. I would recommend Oxburgh Hall, it's a gorgeous house, easily explored, with lovely woodland walks. The tea shop though is a bit of a disappointment by National trust standards- my advice would be to picnic in the lovely grounds instead.
I have a confession to make. When I first signed up for the RSN certificate, and I received the design brief for the Jacobean module, I knew I would need inspiration. The internet is an amazing resource, and I soon had more ideas and images than I could sensibly print and keep. Then, I succumbed. I had been holding out for so long but I knew the time was right. I opened my Pinterest account. Within hours I had a board full of ideas and inspiration, and many previous students work. Actually, the design I am working on looks nothing like my ideas, thanks to the input of the RSN tutors and the constraints of the certificate,but I hope to return to some of them for fun maybe over the summer. Now, 4 months on, I have a serious Pinterest habit, lots of boards and more ideas than I know what to do with. This morning I have been gathering ideas for bean bags. I have been saving old jeans for months to upcycle them into a bean bag for my boys. I think I have enough now but I can I find the design /pattern I found online in my pre-Pinterest days? No chance. I now have a new board, where the alternatives are safely pinned until after Easter, when I can dust off my machine again (if it has recovered from its slate frame bag exploits) and experiment. In the meantime, there are more RSN projects to think about, and other fantastic projects I stumble on just begging to be pinned. Happy days.
Progress on my Jacobean crewelwork had to take a back seat this week as I set myself a new but related challenge. For some time I have been wanting to make an bag for my slate frame, as it is so awkward to carry any distance in the rather large plastic bag supplied by the RSN. My idea was to make a simple bag from PVC coated cotton, to protect my frame from the weather. I wanted to line it with cotton, to provide some cushioning for the frame and the embroidery in progress and a couple of simple handles. I wanted a really long zip to go right round the top and sides if the bag, to allow the frame to be slid easily in and out of the bag. The sheer size of the frame the bars are about 32" long, meant that this was never going to be a small (or cheap) endeavour. A trip to Dunelm later and I was equipped with fabrics, super long zip and extra strong sewing thread. I dusted off my sewing machine and channelled my inner sewing bee, and before nightfall I was the proud owner of a new bag for my slate frame, complete with pocket to carry notes, design brief, small books etc. the process wasn't without hiccups (I didn't have the right kind of machine foot for sewing PVC coated cotton and to start off with the cloth just stuck to the foot and the feed teeth). And the scale and stiffness of the fabric meant that wresting with the bag wasn't just a turn of phrase!
My finished bag is by no means perfect, hopefully the embroidery that gets carried in the bag will be a higher standard(!) but it meets my needs and will hopefully allow me to negotiate the cloisters and staircases of Hampton Court Palace much more safely and easily than before! It's back to school on Friday so I will find out then......
