S
EW
E
S W
From the Editor This Christmas issue of our magazine is full of interesting articles and stories written by the members. There is much to interest you. Ghosts at the local arts Centre, the trails and tribulations of trying to sew whilst on holiday or completing the Christmas quiz. 70 years ago in 1945, Britain was celebrating the end of the war in Europe. Some enterprising ladies, together with the Red Cross formed the Berkshire Branch of the Embroiderers Guild. They assisted with occupational therapy, much needed at that time. Now known as the Reading Branch, read how they celebrated this event. The Region, as part of the Embroiderers' Guild are making plans to celebrate the 300 year anniversary to celebrate the contribution Capability Brown made to gardening. As well as landscapes of all descriptions we will be making cushions with strict instructions that they don't look chocolate box. May Christmas end your year on a happy note and bring you piece in the new year. Include in your New Year Resolutions the making of time to stitch. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
KEEP STITCHING
Norwegian Holiday Bog cotton in the Arctic Tundra just outside Longyearbyen, Svalbard.
The Making of ATribute to Brian
A Christmas
Quiz
1. Feliz Navidad is Happy Christmas in which language? 2. What was Mr Bean looking for when he got his head stuck in a turkey. 3. What is the name of the Jewish festival that occurs just before Christmas, where presents are given. 4. What colour normally was Farther Christmases coat before Coca-Cola's red coated Farther Christmas. 5. Christmas Day falls on the 25th December under the Julian Calender, which date should it fall on under the modern Gregorian calender. 6. Which musical sound track was the first Christmas number one album in 1956. 7. The plant Helleborus niger is better known as what. 8. What does Nativity actually mean. 9. Which king started the annual Christmas day message 10. In which country is the Boxing day tradition of feeding the wren. 11. Which Anglican poet wrote the Christmas poem, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. 12. In which month do some Southern Hemisphere countries, celebrate a second Christmas. 13. In a Christmas carol, which town is known as Royal David's City? 14. What alcoholic beverage is used in the English Christmas game called 'Snapdragon'? 15. In the Only Fools and Horses episode 'Thicker then water', who stays for a few days. 16. Frumentry eaten at Christmas in Medieval times, is the forerunner of which traditional dish. 18. In which country is Christmas called Sheng Dan Jieh. 17. The Morecambe and Wise show ran from 1969 until 1980. There was a Christmas special every year except which year. 19. The 1982 anthology special including mini-episodes of several BBC programs including The fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Butterflies, Only Fools and Horses, Last of the Summer Wine, Sorry!, Three of a Kind, Alas Smith and Jones, Open All Hours, and Cissie and Ada, was called what. 20. In which decade was the first Blue Peter Christmas special
Wellington’s Wellies Or how Windsor & Maidenhead Branch came to own 15 pairs of size 4s
Gods Creation A
Christmas Crackers In 1847, almost by accident, T om Smith invented the Christmas cracker. It was a simple idea which became an integral part of the British celebration and tradition of Christmas. It was on a trip to Paris in 1840 that he first discovered the 'bon bon', a sugared almond wrapped in a twist of tissue paper.. It was a simple idea which, over the next 7 years, would eventually evolve into the Cracker.T om decided to place a small love motto in the tissue paper A ' crackle' would add the necessary excitement and spark to his novelty 'bon bon'
Your Christmas Menue Jacobean Style The Great PYE
�Make a forcemeat by pounding beef or mutton into a fine paste. Season with pepper and salt.
Lay this inside a pastry case. Parboil capons, hens, rabbits, mallards, woodcocks, teal and any other birds. Place inside each of these salt and pepper and lay them inside the pie. Cover them with the remainder of the forcemeat, over which is strewn chopped marrow, hard egg yolks, mace, cinnamon, currants, prunes, dates, clovers and saffron. Tightly close the lid and bake in the oven." This recipe was included in Philippa Pullar's Consuming Passions: A History of English Food and Appetite (Hamish Hamilton, 1970).
For Six Mince Pies of an Indifferent Bigness
'Take half a peck of the finest flour, 2lbs of sugar, 2lbs of butter, a loin
of fat mutton with a little of a leg of veal to mince with it, 2lbs of raisins, and as many currants. Of cloves, mace and nutmeg one ounce. For the pastry mingle one pound and a half of sugar with the flour and break in the yolks of six eggs, then work it together with three parts of the 2lbs of butter. Set on a little [boiling] water and let it seethe, then skim it and put in the fourth part of the butter and when it is melt ed, skim it clean from the water and work it with the pastry. For the meat let it be seasoned with pepper and mingled with half a pound of sugar, the other fruit an spices. The raisins must be stoned and some of them minced into the meat, the others put in whole. Add the juice of two oranges and one lemon and their grated rind. When the pies are filled, chop dates and put them on the top. When you put them into the oven brush them with the egg yolks and pin them up in papers." This recipe, dated about 1610, was found in the Conway Papers at the Public Record Office reference SP 14/189/4.
To Make Good Marchpane
Take two Pounds of Jordan Almonds, blanch and beat them in a
Mortar with Rosewater, then take one Pound and half of Sugar finely searced, when the Almonds are beaten to a fine Paste with the Sugar, then, take it out of the Mortar, and mould it with searced Sugar, and let it stand one hour to cool, then roll it as thin as you would do for a Tart, and cut it round by the Plate, then set an edge about it, and pinch it, then set it on a bottom of Wafers, and bake it a little, then Ice it with Rosewater and Sugar, and
the White of an Egg beaten together, and put it into the Oven again, decorate with gold leaf The Queen ‐ like Coifer or Rich Cabinet by Hannah Wolley 1670
To Make a Good Cake
Take half a peck of flour, three pounds of butter, some nutmeg, cloves
and mace, cinnamon, ginger and a pound of sugar; mingle them well together with the flour, then take four pounds of currants well washed, picked and dried in a warm cloth, a little ale-yeast, twelve eggs, a quart of cream or good milk warmed, half a pint of sack [a sweat fortified wine], a quartern of rosewater. Knead it well, and let it very lithe, lay it in a warm cloth for half an hour against the fire. Then make it up with the white of an egg, beaten with a little butter, rosewater and sugar. Put it into the oven and let it stand an hour and a half.” The Gentlewoman’s Cabinet Unlocked published in 1664.
An Excellent Boilled Salad
To make an excellent compound boil'd Sallat: take of Spinage well washt two or three
handfuls, and put it into faire water and boile it till it bee exceeding soft and tender as pappe; then put it into a Cullander and draine the water from it, which done, with the backside of your Chopping-knife chop it and bruise it as small as may bee: then put it into a Pipkin with a good lump of sweet butter and boile it over again; then take a good handfull of Currants cleane washt and put to it, and stirre them well together, then put to as much Vinegar as will make it reasonable tart, and then with sugar season it according to the taste of the Master of the house, and so serve it upon sippets. The English Huswife, 1615
Holiday Occupational Therapy This year we went camping in France in July. Packing to go I thought “occupational therapy”. Well the piece of gold work sitting on my frame at the moment was far too big and I can just imagine my husband’s reaction should I suggest including that to be put in the already full car. I might be left behind instead. Had to be something smaller. Now where did I see an interesting design…. Ah yes in a magazine. I set to work and stapled some calico to a small square frame my husband made for me some years ago. Yes much better size could go in a small bag and I had enough silks to work it in my store. Usually I find I have every colour under the sun but the one I want! It was stump work, done as I have never seen it done before. The design was dandelions and leaves. It fitted well into our load quite unnoticed under my chair. The combination of wool and silk required to be brushed on completion to fluff it up. When we arrived on the first campsite and had time to relax, I took it to the swimming pool side and sat in the sun to start work on it. Not a good idea because having done the design on water soluble tissue it did not appreciate a couple of children running around the pool shooting each other with a water pistol. (I was able to fill in the bits of the now missing pattern). Days later, having made some progress, people were coming up to me and asking what I was doing. They followed the progress of the work until we moved on to another site where again people came to look and chat. It was a good way to make new friends. Slowly the work got to the finishing stage and by this time we were back on the first site, having to consider the journey home. To complete the work I needed a small wire brush. Now what is French for wire brush? We knew the nearest village, a beautiful place, had a hardware shop so I went in and asked Madam for a” brosse de metal”. She looked very pleased and told me she had indeed got one. Off she went to the back of the shop only to return with indeed a wire brush but….. it was the size of a brush pan sweeping brush. “ Non Non Madame plus Grand” Was my response ,"I need a small one". She looked a little surprised but said in French “ Ah for your shoes” which luckily I understood. She was so surprised when withpout thinking I automatically said “ No for my embroidery!!” I think she will have gone home and told her family that she had a funny English woman in the shop wanting to brush not her shoes but her embroidery!!
The Reading Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild Formerly called The Berkshire Branch 1945 The Berkshire Branch was formed by The Red Cross detachment of Yattendon as a result of the enthusiasm caused by winning the hospital prize at the Embroiderers' Guild Exhibition in 1945. A big meeting was called at the Rectory, Yattendon in October, at which Miss Dale, a member of the Guild Executive, spoke. It was decided then and there to form a branch; the Hon. Lady Glyn consented to stand as President and an Executive Committee of six members was elected. A great many villages were represented at this meeting, and many of them have now joined as affiliated institutions. Some of these groups have now undertaken occupational therapy work. In Yattendon, monthly meetings have been held. Members bring their embroideries and a different subject has been studied each time. The subjects have included lace, Chinese embroidery, samplers, Jacobean work, stump work and patchwork. Great interest has been aroused and more members have joined after each meeting. It is hoped to hold, in the near future, at last one, or possibly two exhibitions in the county of the work done by members of the Berkshire Branch
S T U NNI NG S E V E NT Y S T U NNI NG S E V E NT Y
Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.
The Vegetarian Feast
How to publise you Event When branches decide to host an event to either promote their work, celebrate an anniversary or as a recruitment drive publicity is key. I am a freelance copywriter and have recently helped Reading branch publicise their 70th anniversary as my mother is a member of the Guild. If you follow a few simple rules, publicising your event is easy to achieve – but like any beautiful piece of Embroidery it needs to be planned and thought through beforehand. Perhaps one of the most important things is, where do I want to publicise this, and when do they need the information? Publicity is not an afterthought, it is not a thing you can leave until the last minute. “Contact” the Embroiderer’s Guild magazine only comes out 3 times a year, some magazines are bi-monthly and some monthly. It is probably true to say, you will stand a better chance getting an article in a magazine delivered free through the door than a local paper. So, once you have identified your possible magazines, you have your target dates to work to. In any event, keep every one informed on what you are doing and pass it by those in seniour positions if you are going national. A lot of people concentrate incorrectly on how short or long an article should be. In fact, that is perhaps not the best way to look at it, we need to go back to handicrafts and this time embroidery in the form of patchwork. Each paragraph is like a patchwork in shape, it stands on its own as a piece but can also interlock with others to make a larger pattern. The advantage of this is that it means if you write to numerous editors they can all fill gaps in their papers with articles of differing lengths that still make sense. The most important of these paragraphs is the first, this needs to grab the eye of the reader. In addition in just a few lines it must convey the vital information. Who, What, Where, When, Why. (Remember the poem by Rudyard Kipling) Hence in my case I began alliteratively "Seventy years of Sewing will be Celebrated in Reading on 17th October. The Reading branch of the Embroiderer’s Guild will be holding an exhibition in Park United Reformed Church Palmer Park Avenue, Reading from 1:30pm". This paragraph continued with details about what could be expected such as an exhibition including a guest speaker and the cost. The next paragraphs then all give individual information which follow in a logical sequence so they read well, and give more information about the event, the organisation, and its members. In my case, I went onto precis information about the guest speaker, the history of the branch, and then profiles of a couple of members (this was changed between various newspapers). The last paragraph of a press release, is a conclusion and should always send the reader off happy and could tell them where to find more information about the group and where and when they meet.
If you do have pictures, these work well with articles, however, if you are approaching magazines which are glossy, they will need to be fairly high definition. Though, from experience, you can scan postcards of your work which will come out very well. With pictures, of course, one of your paragraphs can and should describe the photograph, what is shows and the history behind it. When sending the press release to a newspaper, ask that they send a photographer. If your event is during the week, you will probably stand more chance of a photographer attending, as at the weekend sport tends to take the priority. Hence it always pays to have your own photographer, not only so that you have a photographic record but so that you can send a follow up press release about the event. You are always more likely to get the publicity you desirethis way.
Creative Arts Safari to India Anne Dowsett organised a textile safari to India for members of the Andover Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. So fourteen intrepid stitchers set off on a cold February morning to arrive at 3am in a much warmer Delhi and after a lot of form filling and chaos in customs, the tired group escaped by 5am and settled into their hotel. In Delhi they found time to visit craft museums, the Lakshmi Temple and the Gandhi Museum, take a rickshaw ride, visit a spice market.... and shopping! Before moving on to Agra. Here they visited the Kohinoor Jewellery Store and saw Shams' beautiful embroideries and had the opportunity to learn some goldwork techniques from the highly skilled craftsmen. Of course they had to find time to see all the wonderful buildings including the Baby Taj and the Taj Mahal whilst getting inspiration from the beautiful patterns on all the buildings they visited....and of course more shopping! And then on to Jaipur Here they were able to learn about the textiles and everyone had a go, first with indigo dyes and then with block printing. They all brought back samples of their work, showing the super designs. Even with the workshops, they still found time to visit a step well, the
Amber Fort, the Water Palace and the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur which dominates the skyline and contains some wonderful artefacts and decoration......And more shopping!. And then on to Udaipur Where visits included a Jain Temple, a tie-dye workshop and a boat trip ... and of course, shopping! After Udaipur, everyone boarded the overnight train back to Delhi, well laden for the flight home.
Ready for the Christmas Rush???
Capability Brown
Broughton Castle
The Golden Valley, Ashridge
Blenheim Palace
Stansted Park
Sir Harold Hillier Gardens
Afternoon Tea
Mirrors reflected in the mirror at Claridges
In the summer I had a wonderful treat. I meet up with my cousins and we had afternoon tea at Claridges . It was an amazing experience, from walking through the doors to the powder room then tea. It was a hot sunny day in the last week of Wimbledon. On entering, the mirrors attract your attention, as, when you look in them they go on and on. Reflecting the flowers which were in the Wimbledon colours, white, purple and green hydrangeas, which were stunning. There was a pianist playing easy listening music. The atmosphere was calm serenity, the staff were discreet but attentive The table was a joy to behold. All the crockery was in the wonderful green and white strip of Claridges. The tea was wonderful. We had lovely finger sandwiches and a selection of teas. From the extensive menu I chose the Cornish Earl Grey. It was lovely and refreshing and helped the scones and cake go down. Then a couple of weeks later it was a tour of the Brighton Pavilion and afternoon tea, my Christmas present from my son and his partner. Sitting out on the roof terrace looking at the gardens was so nice. There was the tallest hollyhock I've ever seen in the gardens. The Palace was having a lot of restoration work done, it was interesting looking at the layers of wallpaper being found. Both these teas were a great treat but it's the company as well which is important. Keeping in touch in our busy lives is essential or we lose touch with our families and friends. It would be good to have a list of places in the Region for afternoon tea. That seems like ages ago but with winter coming it's a lovely thing to remember. So where to go next for afternoon tea? As it's become the new lunch it does mean you can have tea instead of lunch and dinner! As you usually get too much to eat..
It was always snowing at Christmas. December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeers.
Acquisition of Jewish Embroidered Hangings by the Rothschild Foundation
Alone
A Christmas Quiz
I love old Christmas cards but this is believed to be the oldest, dating back more than 160 years. The lithographed card caused a controversy in some quarters of Victorian English society when it was published in 1843 because it prominently features a child taking a sip from a glass of wine. Approximately 1,000 copies of the card were printed but only 10 have thought to have survived. The card was designed for Henry Cole by his friend, John Calcott Horsley. Cole wanted a ready-to-mail greeting card because he was too busy to engage in the traditional custom of writing notes with Christmas and New Year's greetings to friends and family.