Chawton House Museum and Library...Sampler and Lace...Rose Ceremony....8 College then back for the AGM and tea!

At this point of the tour I could see a necessity of returning, with a minimum of three stops per day, I felt a bit too rushed. This was the best part of the tour so far, although the 'great houses' were wonderful, with the exception of Stoneleigh Abby, there could be some question as to Jane Austen actually spending time there. The visit to Chawton House Museum and Library were very informative. We had a private tour of the library which was one of the estates Jane's brother Edward inherited due to his adoption by the Knights. Below is a late Victorian stained glass window showing the heraldry of the Knights. Edwards arms are displayed at top far right.

I have an interest in heraldry, as I suppose we all do. My son recently graduated from Kenyon College which was founded in 1824 and funded by Lord Kenyon. Lord Kenyon's arms are used in the lower portion of the College's arms, displayed all over campus and on t-shirts, mugs, etc. I stitched the fob/ornament below as a remembrance of Ben's time at Kenyon. I did everything, except weave the linen. It is hand embroidered on a 36 count linen with needlepoint silk, I hand twisted the cord and wound the tassel. The gold chevron and white crosses are queen stitch, the black background is tent and the open book and purple ground are all stem stitch. A lot of hours, but well worth it! It is finished with a purple silk fabric and glass beading along the edge. I have taken many finishing classes over the years and can not wait to add finishing touches to my own Regency wear!

The following pictures are of windows where we were told Jane enjoyed sitting to enjoy the view.

                     

I found the door below, which is from an early part of the original house, very interesting, both the size, shape and detail of the wrought iron hinge. The huge folk art painting of the estate, probably not unlike what Jane knew, caught my eye. I have a collection of over a dozen folk art reproduction boxes painted by Elsie Di Cassio. I finished the interiors to store my stitching supplies, mostly silk threads.  I will not get into the details of how much silk and goldwork threads I have, we'll just say it maybe considered extreme!

            
Our next stop was the Chawton House Museum or Chawton Cottage as Jane probably would have known it. This is where Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion would have been completed. The Museum shop is a must see, I found wrapping paper and bookmarks from a copy of the cottage wallpaper. I love wallpaper, what a find! We had a short talk, followed by tea which was refreshing. Below are exterior pictures of the cottage, back yard, side and road frontage, followed by the interior of the front door trimmings.

    

                  

The following pictures are of a built in linen closet with drawers and and another interior door. Followed by, the fireplace where Jane would have made the household tea and a window looking out to the backyard. A very charming cottage!

                            

I'll end this days tour with a picture of the sampler completed by Cassandra Austen, Jane's sister, and a lace ruffle of Jane's handwork. I have completed the sampler reproduction kit in a class with Susan Blomley of Pilgrim Stitchers. Not an extremely difficult sampler, mostly various patterns of simple cross stitch which an intermediate embroiderer could easily figure out. The lace has the tie/cording removed, which from the overall picture would have tied around the neck. Note, on the two detail photos the lace is actually appliqued to a tulle ground, the channel where the cording would have been inserted is easier to see in the last picture.

                         

        

If this wasn't enough, after we returned back to the Hotel we were met with local JAS members of Hampshire, and were visited by Deirdre La Faye in person, a very sharp lady! Next morning we attended a Rose Ceremony in Winchester, pictures below. The stone with inscription where we prayed, our finished spray (someone was on hand to tidy it up a bit) and Jane's beautiful wall plaque!

                       

The doors to Winchester are usually open all day, it's only in the early morning or evening where you can get this beautiful shot of the red doors....

After the Rose Ceremony we walked to 8 College Avenue to see the home Jane stayed to be near her doctor and later died. We were extremely blessed to be invited to see the home, which is occupied by a family. Pictures below are as follows: Looking out the bedroom window Jane and Cassandra shared until Jane's death. The hallway between the bedroom and living areas which Jane found difficult to navigate towards the end of her illness. The corner of the living area where Jane died. The window of the same living area where she would have looked outside. The back of 8 College, finished with a close-up of the back entry.

                          

         

                          

The afternoon of our second very full day in Winchester was spent back on the beautiful grounds of the Chawton Library for the AGM. The guest speaker was Peter Sabor of McGill University, in Montreal, Canada. Tea was served for several hundred people which must be daunting, I was a trouble maker, I did not take cream with my tea, which messed up the assembly line. We were invited to attend Evensong on the grounds. The last pictures are of the graves of Cassandra, Jane's sister (on right), and Jane's Mother, also Cassandra, (on left), and a beautiful rose bush climbing up the wall of Chawton Library!

Next time Wilton House, Wiltshire, Lacock and then on to Bath!!

More Needlepoint...Winchester...Steventon Rectory....

We stayed three nights in Winchester, the midpoint of the 2013 JASNA UK Tour, Linda and I finally hit the lottery because our room faced Winchester Cathedral, and we had a fan!!! The Cathedral is so huge it has a very surreal sort of haze about it. As discussed in an earlier post I was pleasantly surprised to find so much needlepoint covering kneelers and pews in the churches and the chapel at Stoneleigh Abby. Below are a few examples starting with pill shaped kneelers at Stoneleigh Abby's chapel.

The interior of Winchester is so huge that there are probably a dozen rather large areas of worship. One area with wood benches caught my eye. Each seat contained a cushion, there were probably eight rows on either side of an isle with ten to twelve seats per row. So a minimum of 150 seat cushions in all. Some patterns were repeats but usually the background pattern or color would change slightly. I can not imagine the time involved but lets estimate 30 hours each cushion times 150, get the picture?

    

           

         

Our first full day in Winchester started with a short orientation walk and then a drive to Steventon and St. Nicholas church where Jane was baptized and lived the early part of her life. We were greeted with ringing church bells and at least ten congregation members, I found it extremely touching to have so many people care so much to take time out to meet us, pass out gifts and bring refreshments. I'll admit it, I was sobbing I was so touched, there are few times in life when you can experience people honestly appreciating your traveling to see a place it is difficult to not become emotional. Below is a picture of the entrance, note the tree (unbelievably over 800 years old) to the left of the massive door, below is the key which opens the door. At one time the key was conveniently kept in a hole in the tree instead of under the mat...

       



A plaque and a copy of Jane's Prayer on the wall of the church plus a group picture talking to the local greeters.

    

              


Next time picture's of Chawton House Library and Jane Austen's House Museum..too many pictures to choose from...

Jane Austen festival in Louisville... the great houses...crewel and ...

Quite a bit has kept me interested in this project of late. I spent the past weekend at the Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, a solo fact finding trip. It was well worth the 8.5 hour drive from Detroit, over 2 sitting in construction zones, plus the 5.5 hours home. Quite honestly, flying would have been faster!

I participated in a two hour paper marbling class Friday evening, with John Bielik. It was very enlightening to experiment with traditional methods and see the effect on patterns formed while 'combing/raking' the paint. Marbled papers are used to finish the interior drawers and panels of cabinets/caskets, so this class was a must for me. Of course, if you have very old books in your collection, the interior covers will have also been finished in marbled paper, below is an design of Mr. Bielik's. The outdoor venue was perfect and allowed us freedom in distributing the paint which would have been difficult in an indoor setting.

Saturday, two authors from the UK, Jo Baker and John Mullan gave very entertaining talks on their respective books, Longbourn and What Matters in Jane Austen?. There was a combined book signing after. A free copy of P & P was handed out with Jo Baker's book to encourage readers to read them simultaneously. John Mullan did an encore talk on Sunday which turned out to be a continuation of Saturdays discussion, he is extremely fun to listen to and encourages audience participation. Sunday, I attended a workshop on Regency hairstyles by Heather of Custom Wig Company. She went through roller placement and direction which was very informative. I purchased 5 yards of a soft patterned sheer cotton muslin fabric and have many design ideas from the Regency fashion shows held on both Saturday and Sunday. The vendors had period tents set up on the Green, with all the participants in Regency clothing for the Guinness Record breaking attendance, you thought you were in Regency England! The picture below is a very festive period tent of Bingley's Teas Limited, those are customers purchasing teas's, not models or actresses! I had a very enjoyable weekend. I also found that traveling alone just encourages meeting new people. I attended two teas with European seating and in both cases I was seated with very pleasant company, once with two like aged ladies and a daughter and once a mother with two daughters. I suppose a single man would have really enjoyed himself with so many ladies!

As mentioned in a previous post of our JASNA 2013 tour, we stayed three nights in Buxton visiting several 'great estates', Lyme Park, Chatsworth, Stoneleigh Abby and Adlestrop. I managed pictures of interiors with various textiles of great quality on these excursions with the exception of Lyme Park which is still privately owned. Lyme Park has the one piece I was most intrigued with, and therefore can not share, a fireplace screen in the Knights Bedroom of Jacobean design. I know I have seen a picture of this piece before in one of my books on Crewel Embroidery, but I can not currently locate it. I love crewel embroidery and have completed several correspondence courses of Judy Jeroy's in technique and design in addition to completing several kits of Barbara Jackson's. Below are pictured a variety of stitches with Jacobean inspired motifs I have completed for class work. Crewel is my technique of choice as my eyes age, I have been hoarding fibers and projects to complete when I can no longer accurately count linen threads.

Chatsworth's interior was used in the 2005 version of P & P, as luck would have it, our small tour group was escorted into a locked room where 'the veiled lady' was on pallets ready to be shipped out for an exhibition, we had a private viewing all of our own!

Stoneleigh Abby was a pleasant surprise, the entrance looks like Wedgwood pottery, I believe one of Jane's letters mentions purchasing a Wedgwood tea set in London, I can understand why it would have meaning for her family. A set of needle point chairs in the library were present when Jane and her mother stayed at Stoneleigh, also a wonderful red velvet couch with removable 'wedges' or cushions.

I soon plan to return to this region, it is near two places I dearly want to see. First, Hardwick Hall the seat of Bess of  Hardwick, otherwise known as Elizabeth of Shrewsbury, the goddess of Elizabethan embroidery (Mary Queen of Scots jailer) both women are legends in the embroidery world. Second, Haddon Hall, which is supposed to have a collection of crewel work unsurpassed. Pictured below is a class of Elizabethan embroidery and gold work, designed and taught by Tricia Wilson Nguyen, which I completed almost 12 years ago. Also shown, a jam pot and curtains made of fabric inspired by the crewel work at Haddon Hall in my collection.

Enough for today.... more tomorrow as we head to Winchester!