Showing posts with label for Carmen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label for Carmen. Show all posts

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Castle for Halloween

Carmen has let me know that the October page has arrived.  So, while she is busily working on pages for the rest of us, I will let you see what I sent.

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I just posted more photos and a "discussion" of how it came to be on my blog. From The Basement.  Come visit me there!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Belated post - Mandy's Castle page for Carmen.

This is rather out of sequence, but here is the Castle page I made for Carmen back in April.



As my attached letter explains, the picture is based on a photograph I took of my daughters playing in the ruins of Beeston Castle.





This rather wonderful ruin is on the top of a steep hill with magnificent views of the surrounding Cheshire Plain. The site was chosen carefully for its strategic value. Built as it was many centuries ago, it was there to help protect the English from the marauding Welsh. With a cliff to three sides and a steep hill climbing to the remaining side, the castle managed to survive for centuries eventually falling during the English Civil War. It has the benefit of an amazingly deep well, which would have been life-saving for the inhabitants during a seige.
As a family, when my daughters were young we often visited this castle. We learnt a lot about the history surrounding it whilst playing amongst the ruins. There are still regular events, where various societies come to re-enact different periods from the Castles long history.
Thanks Carmen for allowing me to wander very happily down memory lane as I put this piece together.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

July Page for Carmen

Since I know that Carmen has received my page I made for her for July, I thought I'd post photos. This is done with machine embroidery (Carol Shinn style) and is based on a photo of the inside of Nunney Castle. I found the photo on the Internet and loved the play of shadows and light.

The back is pretty boring, just black felt but I needed something that wouldn't fray. The technique I used creates it's own edges and I didn't want to cover them up.

Here's a close up. I used tons of thread for this! I hope you like it Carmen.