Hardwick Hall

The sun was shining, and I have a new car to try out, so Pat and I whizzed one junction down the motorway to Hardwick Hall. We’ve both been before, but, on at least one occasion, that involved accompanying a group of school children, itching to touch everything and desperate to eat their sandwiches. We were a little bit better behaved than that, and had a great day immersed in Tudor history.

Hardwick Hall is fascinating for anyone interested in textiles. Most striking are the huge tapestries covering many of the stone walls. These were purchased by the formidable Bess of Hardwick for colour and warmth in the large rooms, but also as a symbol of her wealth and status. The tapestries  are faded now, with patches and repairs in places, which I found very evocative – a reminder that all artefacts have their own history.  Their fragile state means that most of the rooms are kept quite dark, which makes photography difficult. However, the National Trust has loads of information here http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/place/hardwick-hall.

A squirrel hiding in the tapestry. Photo by Pat because I wasn't tall enough to get the camera angle.

The tapestries are impressive in their size and workmanship, and largely depict stories from the Bible. The figures are on a grand scale, which personally I don’t find very  appealing. I was much more inspired by the Noble Women hangings, commissioned by Bess. These show strong women from classical mythology such as Penelope and Lucretia, and symbolised Bess’s power, wealth and education. Who could fail to be impressed! I was interested in the construction of the hangings.  They are made from fabric taken from Medieval church garments, including velvet, satin, silk and cloth of gold and silver. This has been cut up, appliqued and outlined with gold and silver thread.  The National Trust is great about supplying detailed information about the hangings, their meanings and their makers.   http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1129593.2

A grand four poster.

The house is full of other rich textiles.  I’ve always wanted to sleep in a four poster bed, and this one has gorgeous, heavy curtains. At the other extreme, there were colourful examples of proddy rugs in the kitchens and servants’ quarters. And there is modern work on show as well. This beautiful panel marks 400 years since Bess’s death. The portraits are very finely done, but I especially liked all the embroidered animals dotted around.

The displays around Hardwick have been updated since I was last here, and I loved the way information is now presented in a creative way using fabrics and furnishings. Here’s a quote describing Lady Arbella Stuart

And rather less glamorous

Textiles are fragile, and there has been a concerted effort to restore and preserve the precious collection at Hardwick. There is a wealth of information on display to describe the construction of the pieces, and the conservation that has taken place, right down to the identification of bugs that eat away at the fabrics. It was great to see the examples of the back of the tapestries, where the colours are less faded owing to the lack of exposure to light.

Comparing the back and the front of the tapestries

There was also an interesting exhibition about Evelyn, the last Duchess at Hardwick, who died in 1960. Evelyn was committed to the preservation of the textiles within the Hall, and worked on the some of the tapestries herself. Her workbox was on display too, a personal touch amongst all the grandeur. 

Even a Duchess can have a messy workbox

The Challenge

There's nothing like a challenge to get the creative juices flowing.  Sarah & I had already decided the parameters of the project before the holiday started so we were ready with our cameras, looking for inspiration, from day one.

We both initially had some ideas about the lock gates, the patterns in a lock flight or on the old ironwork bridges.

Big old lock gates supporting their own garden on the Hatton Flight

At Bournville we saw the brown and white timbered buildings, a quaint octagonal building and, a perhaps unlikely source of inspiration, graffiti.

The octagonal building on Bournville Green, will the shapes and textures find their way into my project?

But it was Birmingham which gave us a wealth of inspiration.  William de Morgan's striking motifs and colours caught our eye in the museum display.

William de Morgan's lively cockerel on an unlikely background of fish could provide an interesting motif

The Jewellery Museum contained a variety of industrial tools in various shapes and sizes and a collection of vesta boxes, each a ready made miniature design. 

Part of the vesta box collection but I won't be using the one on the left!

The Festival of Quilts was a wonderful showcase of all that is possible with a needle and thread (and in some cases, with the aid of fabric glue).

Frances Meredith's Pies and Tarts quilt shows how a simple idea can make a stunning design

So we have plenty of inspiration and some colourful new fabric, now it's time to get creative.

Travels and Challenges

I've been off on my travels, with camera in hand, for a couple of weeks of exploring, walking and quite a bit of eating (not all of it healthy, I'm afraid). Sam and I went back to Oxford, where we stayed in Wadham College, and had hearty breakfasts in the imposing dining hall. In between solving our murder mystery and visiting Blackwell’s book shop, we nipped into the Museum of the History of Science to have a look at their collection of beautiful astrolabes.

 

The spherical astrolabe - an old friend

The following week, I joined Deb and Kev at Leamington Spa and we followed the canal to Birmingham, developing previously undiscovered arm muscles on the flights of locks. The weather wasn’t great, but Kev kept us busy with his drawing challenges, which, of course, got trickier as the week went on. 

Crossed Keys, the easiest of the drawing challenges.

In Birmingham I was impressed by the striking modern architecture of the library and 'The Cube', but we also glimpsed the industrial past, with walks along the canal towpaths and a lively tour of the museum in the Jewellery Quarter. Birmingham Museum was full of treasures, including the Staffordshire Hoard and some beautiful William de Morgan tiles. Sitting proudly among them was a home-made teddy from the war years, looking a bit loved around the edges, as all bears should.

However, the icing on the cake was our visit to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC. Along with about a million other quilters (that's what it seemed like in the queue to get in!), we were amazed and inspired by the beautiful work on show.  We may have spent a bit of money too, but it’s in a good cause, because Deb has set a holiday challenge!

It was impossible to resist these beautiful batiks.

The challenge is to design and make a piece of needlework based on something that inspired us on the journey. We agreed that the piece should be no bigger than 12 inches square, and, as an added twist, it has to include something we bought at the show. Good job there was plenty of beautiful fabric to choose from. I also treated myself to a cross stitch kit from the Michael Powell collection, a bit of an indulgence because his designs are so appealing.

New glasses might be required before I attempt this.

Now I'm back on dry land, the photos are downloaded, the sketchbook is open and design work is about to begin. And so is the diet!

A Snowflake in July

One of my summer targets was to move this project from the 'Never Likely to be Finished' pile to become merely 'Unfinished'. It was started in a burst of enthusiasm as part of a much bigger, very complicated pattern involving hundreds of 1/2 inch hexagons. I liked the idea of a hexagon design that wasn't flowery, and I thought a snowflake in hot colours would be a good twist. So material was cheerfully chopped up and paper hexagons were cut out with excruciating care.

Hot snowflakes were never going to catch on!

Unfortunately, as the sewing progressed, my enthusiasm declined. The twists and turns of the pattern were tricky to follow, and the colour contrast wasn't strong enough, making the snowflake difficult to see. It sank to the bottom of the sewing pile. However, the piles of unsewn hexagons niggled away at me, especially as a few fluttered out every time I opened my sewing drawer. In the end, I decided to abandon the rest of the snowflake and fill in the space with darkening reds. Because paper piecing is so easy to pick up and work on for minutes at a time, it has slowly turned into a square - large enough to make the front of a cushion cover. Now it must hang around as an Unfinished Object while I decide what to do for the back of the cushion. And, of course, seek out a project for all those remaining hexagons.