Moody Castles

My Stitchscape Swap themes are usually thought up in August/September for the following year - I'm currently in the process of trying to think of themes for 2025 - and just because I think up the theme doesn't mean that I know how I'm going to interpret it, or even if I'll feel inspired by it. Which is much the case with the Castle Ruins theme. It always sounds like a good idea because there are so many little offshoots you could make for it and I try to come up with themes that are fairly broad without being so wild that no one understands what you mean. The idea of these cards is that they are briefly put together as a collection so they kind of have to all fit in together. 

I thought about some of the castles that I have around me, but I wasn't really liking their shapes so I ended up just literally making my own up. We've been to enough castles and bits of castles and once-was-a-castle places in our family holidays to know roughly what a castle shape is and I just drew one out on paper until I was happy with the shape (it had to have a kind of drawbridge arch to it) and then I used that as my template. The castle is cut from one piece of fabric, it's not bits put together, but then I have drawn the lines and details in with stitches and thread over the top to bring areas out or distinguish a tower from a wall. 

I thought the batik fabric was quite nice with the wiggy lines. You can just about make out oak leaf shapes in some of the castles but generally it was the kind of darkened, weather worn dark colours that drew me to it. Like little scars in the stonework. 

The original intention was for the whole card to be quite dark and moody, but the other fabrics kind of chose themselves and ended up being fairly bright. I expressed my indecision over them on Facebook and was reminded that the reds and golds could be late evening sun adding a rose tint over scrubby grasses so I kept them in but didn't add anything else in those colours so they didn't overpower even more.

Working through the cards, the top fabric layer just has fly stitch birds on and nothing else but the birds have two colours in them, with a single strand of blue and grey added into the needle at once to give them different areas of light and dark to try and hint at movement. The next background layer is a kind of greeny/yellow fabric with gold metallic crackle lines printed on it which I liked as it was so I've just added in some french knot bushes to the top to hide the raw edge, again using two colours at once (yellow and a zesty light green), and trailing off the knots down into the fabric layer, making them smaller as they go down to hint at bushes or plants on the hillside. 

Underneath the castle is my bold choice of a sunset type print with orange and yellow and pink tones in. For this I've added bullion knots along the edge, using a whole strand thread a bit like coton a broder, so it has a slightly different texture to my stranded threads, which is also variegated greens. The bullion knots in this case have added quite a hard edge as I wanted it to look like the castle is rising up behind the crest of a hill. In the same thread I've also worked lines of running stitch and some perpendicular whip stitch which adds in some nice shadows under the thread line. 

For my bottom layer I've stitched longish back stitches along vertical lines that were already in the print (a Moda ombre fabric), added delicate single strand lazy daisies (detached chain stitch) in white over the top with yellow french knot centres, and then some peachy french knot flowers around those to help kind of draw those warm colours down but in a lighter kind of way. Several different colours of green embroidery thread have been couched to the top, mirroring the variegated thread colours. 

My castles have been stitched with blanket stitch which does the dual job of stitching down the fabric (which has just been cut and stitched, there's no fusible film or stabiliser added here - partly because batik fabrics tend not to fray much) and adding the impression of rows of stone work. I've played on this by varying the length of the blanket stitches where they work over the fabric, and using them to build a stone archway which has worked brilliantly well. 

Definition to tops of turrets and walls has been added with split stitch which creates more of a continual line than back stitch - I could have just done really long stitches from one end of the turret to the next but I wanted more threads through the fabric to help hold down the edges for me. Little straight stitches have been worked over the edges of my crenelated tops and then just a stitch on the edge of the fabric to match it back in with those edges that have been blanket stitched. 

The most difficult part was adding in black window spaces in my main tower - as I was out and about when I started stitching this bit, the only black thread I had on me was a coton perle which is much thicker and does not like going through batik fabrics! I had to upscale my needle size to a more hench needle and do a lot of circular wiggling to get my needle through the fabric layers for those. It did feel a bit like I was attacking the castle.

I really love these sunset photos - the gorgeous sky appeared just as I was finishing these cards off and it was almost like it was inviting me to go out and snap some photos as the colours matched the fabrics so perfectly! 

The final stitch run down for these cards is; straight stitch, fly stitch, blanket stitch, stem stitch, french knots, bullion knots, couching, detached chain stitch, running stitch, back stitch and whip stitch. 

Hinton Ampner

Our final day, and travelling home day, found us at Hinton Ampner in Hampshire. We didn't stay here very long at all really, and definitely missed out quite a lot of it but it was so hot, one of the hottest days if I recall, and Baby F was distinctly grumpy after having such a stimulating few days. My two nephews who were with us are currently 4 and 2 (the youngest one only 6 months younger than Baby F) and, they spend a lot of time with each other anyway, but there is routine to when they see each other and their days spent together. Whilst the holidays are exciting and different they definitely need to get back into their routines afterward and just have some slightly less exciting days to recharge. 

It would be nice to revisit this place at another time, and perhaps when it isn't quite so meltingly hot. The extra kids play area put out for the summer was circus themed which was brilliant, but there was no shade around it at all so we couldn't stay and play for that long before we were frazzled to a crisp. 

It was a relief to get out of the car though and stretch our legs. We immediately headed to their cafe and the little ones could cool off with some ice cream. Partly by wearing it because they weren't eating it fast enough so it just dripped everywhere, and partly through the usual method of ingestion. Luckily we don't travel anywhere without several packets of wipes to tidy everything up. 

There is a nice walk around the gardens but thinking back, I don't recall anything specific about it really. I would love to know what this shiny plant is though, the flowers or seed pods or whatever they are look so juicy! And I love the ombre from green to magenta to deep shiny purple, how cool is that? I don't think I've ever seen these before. 

We never even attempted to go around the house. On the way back to the car, having admitted defeat with three grumpy small boys after several tantrums and sticky meltdowns, we walked back through the vegetable garden which was stunningly beautiful. These bits are often my favourite area of these grand houses, especially the cutting garden areas, but I like to see what else they are growing and any innovative ways to grow fruit and veg. My dream is to just have a garden, with a lawn space, a couple of borders, some raised edible beds and an apple tree. Currently, I have a fire escape balcony with some pots - and my thornless blackberry (bought for £1 from B&M last year) isn't overly happy in the pot so hasn't produced any fruit at all yet. Not even a single solitary flower. I'm wondering whether strawberries would survive the harsh conditions of my balcony as they would work brilliantly in my saddle pots, but it's very windy and the only plants that really seem to survive are hardy wildflowers or alpines. 

Anyway, I digress. I did have one dahlia plant come back this year, the rest all got killed off with frost sadly, but it wasn't anywhere near as spectacular as the ones in this garden. Those roses as well, so pretty. 

I hope that you have enjoyed my few little random posts about our family break away to Wiltshire. It's been one long run of touring National Trust properties and collecting their badges for our blankets. Honestly, if you have little kids, it's a worthy investment so that you can visit these places - effectively for free if you visit them enough like we do. We have the few around us that we visit regularly throughout the year, and you need only really visit eight times/places a year to make your money back. They make great holiday stop offs with nice food, toilets and something interesting to look at and walk around, and each of them is slightly different - although I'm not sure Mr DT is really that interested in the houses. 

I have just asked him what his favourite NT place was though and, after extensive digging through my photo archives after his vague description of "a three-sided big house which you could get a shuttle bus down the driveway too, somewhere Cornwall way"....we've found out that his favourite place so far is Lanhydrock. Don't all rush at once. 

Lacock Abbey & Village

I have walked in the footsteps of Harry, Ron and Hermione!! And all of the other famous Harry Potter characters who have ever walked along the arched, cloister-like hallways of Hogwarts because, Lacock Abbey is where they filmed parts of the Harry Potter films! 

How exciting is that? 

The abbey is now looked after by the National Trust and sits in Lacock village which itself is a treasure to visit as it almost appears frozen in time with small medieval streets and beautiful timber framed houses - there are no big street lights or telegraph poles or very much of what could be considered 'modern', other than the cars that are parked on the roads and tourists wandering around with iPhones. People do live there and many sell little trinkets in baskets outside their doors which is fascinating (lots of Harry Potter themed things) and apparently many TV shows or films which require 18th or 19th century town scenes is filmed here - think Downton Abbey, Cranford, Pride and Prejudice - as well as Harry Potter.  

The abbey started out in the 1200s as a nunnery, then was converted into a Tudor home. The cloister isn't the original one but a second one built to replace the first in the 1400s. After the dissolution of the monasteries, Sir William Sharington bought the building and turned it into his country house, keeping much of the original architecture and adding other Italian-inspired Renaissance architecture around it. Gothick features such as a Great Hall and entrance arch were then added by John Ivory Talbot in the 1700s when he inherited the site and it's remained pretty much the same, save for a remodel of one section and a big window, since then, which is why it's a favourite for film scouts. 

More importantly, for us with three small children under 5 on holiday, the wonderful courtyard had big toilets, a lovely cafe to sit and recover from travels and lots of wide open space to run off energy. As always, we had a whistlestop tour of the inside which, for once, didn't have quite so many breakable and really precious items within the reach of small grasping hands, but for us the real gem here was the amazing woodland and parkland around the abbey. 

I imagine cloisters are at their best when it's raining. The idea of being able to walk and stretch your legs whilst watching the rain plop down in the middle really appeals to me. That, and when it's sunny so that there are different shadows cast on the floor as the sun moves around. Sadly we had neither of those weathers in this cloister!

Around the grounds there was a gazebo for creativity with paper and crayons and charcoal you could use, a mud kitchen, a badminton net, a dress up story-telling tent with lots of costumes to try on, little throwing competitions and so much more. We spent hours here playing and laughing before wandering off to find our picnic lunch, eaten in a nearby playing field in the village which was having a cricket match - and there was a really good playground for the boys. We ate delicious ice cream and walked around the village marvelling at the quaintness of it (although I didn't take any photos it would seem), popping in to some of the little tiny shops - a deli shop, art shops selling box frames filled with delicate painted egg shells, a chocolate shop, a crafty gift shop and an arty shop with handmade gifts and local spun and dyed yarn. There were coachloads of people being shipped in to wander round and being given advice by their guides on which pub served fastest or had the most space and where to find the best souvenirs. 

By the end of the day, the boys were so tired they were falling asleep upright bless them, it was a brilliant place to visit!

The Courts Garden

 

Whilst on our short break away to Wiltshire, we visited The Courts Garden, another National Trust property within half an hour from the door of our holiday home. We were really lucky with our position actually because we managed to find lots to do within a short distance every day, and I think we visited at least one National Trust property every day too so it ended up being a much cheaper holiday than we'd expected - plus we were able to collect lots of embroidered badges for our camp blankets. Going away during the school holidays is always so much more expensive but with this being worked around a wedding, plus some of my family working within a school setting, we didn't have much of a choice so it was good for our bank balances to keep visiting National Trust locations. 

I'm not sure there's a hugely long or involved history for this place. It seems to have been linked to the wool mills as it is very close to Bradford-on-Avon which was a wealthy wool town in the 1700s, and one of its early owners was the builder of a cloth mill next door to it, part of which is now covered by the garden as it was later demolished. The courts part of the name came from its use as a village law court where cloth weavers could settle their problems. It's had a string of owners who have all added their own little stamp or mark on it, bits of architecture or a new garden element. Queen Mary visited at one point when it was lived in by Major and Lady Goff in the 1920s or so and I believe Lady Goff was the one who implemented all of the garden rooms that you can walk around today. 

Whatever its history, for us on the day it was a lovely place to visit. It also had the extra outdoor activities for the kids and a kind of forest school/mud kitchen/bivouac making area which they absolutely loved. We've got so many lovely photos of us and the kids so it helped us to make amazing holiday memories. 

The different garden rooms were gorgeous to look at, and I especially loved the ornate waterlily pond! The planting in general was lovely - with a kind of wildness to it so it wasn't all box hedge and straight lines but more free-flowing and natural whilst still being beautiful cultivated flowers, and the dahlias below were dinner plate sized!

My brother-in-law managed to badly break his ankle in three places about a week or so before we left for this trip and borrowed a wheelchair from a family member as he was all strapped up in a big boot. It turns out that the wheelchair really wasn't that robust and we have even more hilarious photos of him being pushed over the bridge in the below photo - I won't embarrass him by sharing them here but lets just say his facial expressions don't imply he had much confidence in my sister pushing him over the hump and down the other side. 

We spent the afternoon wandering around Bradford-on-Avon itself, although got very lost after following what we thought was an easy path to the canal and a playground that turned into a bit of an intrepid adventure through a graveyard, up steep hills and bobbly roads, across a railway line and through a load of fields. The wheelchair didn't even make it past the graveyard before they turned back, and Mr DT was ready to turn back at the railway line but we pushed on, eventually found a playground with a really old fashioned booth selling slightly bizarre flavoured ice lollies for more money than they were worth, which ended up staining the boys' skin and clothing. We ended the day slightly hot and bothered, if I recall rightly after our lovely start at The Courts garden, and didn't see the canal but it all adds to the holiday memories!!