Day 11: Embroidery Retreat Day 9

Today dawned grey and damp - a complete contrast to yesterday. It mattered little to us as we stitched madly all day, but it does cast a bit of a gloomy atmosphere.

This contrasts sharply with the photo sent to me this morning by Laura Turnbull from yesterday's photo shoot.  I did not have a photo of the whole hotel so I'm very grateful to Laura.








Our work today focused on the satin stitch edge of the acorn leaves. Jenny meticulously taught us stitch angles and techniques for prefect satin stitch - and mine improved significantly.














We then filled a quince leaf with Gold Purl- an interesting, painstaking process. After lunch we went through a couple of stitches needed to finish the project before we began to pack up our work.












Lunches have been wonderful this week - light, varied, with lots of salad and soup. Today's soup was parsnip and vanilla - truly delicious. I also chose the Red Bream Salad, which was great.






Some of our work is now on display for a couple of hours. I have reluctantly packed my bag. I don't leave until 12.30pm tomorrow but there is an atmosphere of packing and moving that is hard to resist. I am experiencing the feeling I hated at school in my last year when I was, because of Honours Classes, sometimes in the school when everyone had gone on the last day of term. I hated the sense of abandonment - of being left behind.




Our last evening has been spent in a slide-show of photos, dinner, a quiz and a lot of laughing and clapping. We have also filled out a form indicating our interest in attending a retreat again next year.

A couple of our party are leaving during the night - taxis are booked for 3.30am and 5 am. The rest of us will share breakfast. I have a bag of my projects - one in a slate frame- that Philippa will kindly package and mail to me in Australia. I also have a taxi booked for 12.20 pm  tomorrow to take me to Keswick and the next leg of my adventure.

Day 10: Embroidery Retreat Day 7

This morning the daffodils were fully out and the sun shone on a still landscape.

















Today was full-on embroidery in our second project. We were all pretty keen. We began by finishing our 12 shadow leaves. This photograph was taken with a navy cloth on my lap to give a background to the transparent fabric.







We then worked the centre of the rose (already appliqued in silk) with silk wrap plate.

Our space was light, sunny and very conducive to work and companionable interaction.









By 5.15 pm I and most of my companions had edged and partially beaded the rose, worked a little quince with an eyelet and highlighted satin stitch in silk and added a couple of leather leaves.

Tomorrow is our final day. We have a way to go, but are well positioned to cover all the remaining elements.



















As 6 pm approached, Philipps rounded us all up to have a play with crewel embroidery. She had laid out a wonderful pile of wools, some hoops with a design and fabric in them, and a selection of samples. We had to choose three shades of one colour and a colour we would never think of using.

Philippa was obviously suffering from teaching deprivation. Her energy and enthusiasm was infectious - and the treasure trove of wools and resources were so enticing that by 6.15 we were all sitting down playing with our fabric, experimenting and comparing ideas.

It was enormous fun, energising and uplifting.









We are beginning to talk of what we are doing when we leave on Saturday. There is also a bit of a push to finish the jigsaw puzzle. The hum of conversation is extraordinarily relaxed, warm and underpinned with laughter.