It doesn't suck to be us...
Jan. 29th, 2008 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grnvixenThat was a phrase used several times last week by my travel companion, a friend from EGA, while we were in Plymouth, MA working on this.
Yup, I got to go work on the Plimoth Jacket! Woo Hooo :).
Part of the 'doesn't suck' part was that we were actually stitching on the jacket, with threads that had to be recreated (silk and gold no less) for this project, eating seafood just about everynight, and enjoying an oceanside room at off-season rates. And while the temps here never got out of the teens we enjoyed the balmy thirtys our entire time in MA.
Longer account for my memories but cut for length This trip just kind of fell together. I knew I had wanted to go, but probably couldn't have afforded everything by myself. Enter D.P., a friend from EGA who is also enthusiastic about historic needlework. Her B-day was last tuesday sooooo, last fall she said, let's go! Incredibly cheap non-stop flights with Midwest to Boston cinched the deal and the rest of the planning began. I love the Internet, I was able to find everything; hotel, rental car, transport to and from Boston/Plymouth on-line. And we couldn't beat those off-season rates!
We flew into Boston on saturday and had a driver take us straight to the hotel in Plymouth. This was a little more expensive, but waaay less of a hassle than catching the shuttle and then a cab. Given the time of year and weather possiblities having a driver also provided some peace-of-mind if we had delays. Icing on the cake were the chilled bottels of water the driver had waiting in the back for us. Oh yeah, I could get used to this.
Weather was sunny and clear when we got to Plymouth and since there were no delays we had a whole afternoon to explore. Our rental car was waiting at the hotel as promised so off we went. Stumbled on the, apparently, only gourmet seafood resturant in Plymouth for lunch, then found the local needlework shop. Also spotted a knitting shop we visited later. Looked like there were several fun shopping spots in Plymouth but they were closed for the season, probably just as well for my budget.
Sunday was the first day stitching. Drive into the Plimoth Plantation was cool; seeing the 1627 village through the bare trees. Found the building we were going to stitch in with no trouble. TWN is the modern embroidery designer who is spearheading the project and she was one of those there to greet us. She had us practice on a doodle cloth and then started assigning motifs. Apparently we did allright on the practice cloths because after just a few small silk motifs we were started on, ta da; the new silk gylt twist thread! This stuff is beautiful, a wrap of gold around a silk core, and it was neat to be able to work with this, a 16/17C thread that hasn't been around for a couple of hundred years but, I have to admit, I love the straight silk best.
So the next three and a half days were pretty much all stitching :). We did leave a bit early one day to hit the yarn shop and I took DP to dinner for her B-day (back to the gourment place :)), and one night we stayed late so one of the wardrobe staff went out for Thai. It was a small group, which was nice in some ways, no crowding for the best light :). There were always one or two folks there from PP to either stitch or make sure we got fed (PP provided a breakfast snack and a great homemade lunch every day). We also took breaks. I went up for a quick tour of their wardrobe department (gee, I can't imagine why :) ), and we got a short tour of their artifacts collection. This is where I almost hyperventilated. We went across to the education building to see the two 17thC samplers the plantation has. What I didn't realize as I walked through one door was that the entire storage area on the other side was *filled* with **real** 16th/17th century artifacts. It took me a minute to catch my breath :). I wish the village itself had been open but that will be a good reason to return.
It was hard to leave on wednesday. We were at PP in the morning, caught up with TWN on our progress, reluctantly said our goodbyes, then met our driver for the ride back to Boston for the icing on the trip. Thanks to my sister who had been in Boston for the Early Music Festival last summer, we had a lead on a decently priced hotel just a few blocks from the MFA (and off-season was even better :) ). So long as we had come all this way, I asked DP if she would like to stay over an extra night and see if we could get an appt at the MFA to study some of their embroidery collection. She agreed, so did the MFA, so to make a long story short we had two and a half hours thursday afternoon in the textile depart of the MFA where I had my nose (and magnification device) less than an inch from two embroidered caps, a coif, 3 samplers, 3 pairs of gloves and a back piece from an embroidered jacket. Near HV episode two was when we entered the rooom and it was all laid out in front of us so we could take our time and work at our own pace. They even let us take pictures! I took a lot of them, and notes, and naturally remembered some I should have taken on our way to the airport :). I'm still processing all the info but I see a major project in my future :).
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
galactusprime met us at the airport and we got to enjoy a day of the local temps before it started warming up last weekend. Oh yeah, and we had a backedup sewer line at home that involved two visits from the plumber and some, errr, timing issues on flushing for a couple of days :). Laundry finally got started on saturday and I was back at work on monday, putting together the notes and pics on my lunch break.
And sorry about the ads but I needed to add the new icon; that's my hand, stitching on the jacket :).
Strike for the show at OCTA is saturday and after that, I'm going to be stitching!!!
Yup, I got to go work on the Plimoth Jacket! Woo Hooo :).
Part of the 'doesn't suck' part was that we were actually stitching on the jacket, with threads that had to be recreated (silk and gold no less) for this project, eating seafood just about everynight, and enjoying an oceanside room at off-season rates. And while the temps here never got out of the teens we enjoyed the balmy thirtys our entire time in MA.
Longer account for my memories but cut for length This trip just kind of fell together. I knew I had wanted to go, but probably couldn't have afforded everything by myself. Enter D.P., a friend from EGA who is also enthusiastic about historic needlework. Her B-day was last tuesday sooooo, last fall she said, let's go! Incredibly cheap non-stop flights with Midwest to Boston cinched the deal and the rest of the planning began. I love the Internet, I was able to find everything; hotel, rental car, transport to and from Boston/Plymouth on-line. And we couldn't beat those off-season rates!
We flew into Boston on saturday and had a driver take us straight to the hotel in Plymouth. This was a little more expensive, but waaay less of a hassle than catching the shuttle and then a cab. Given the time of year and weather possiblities having a driver also provided some peace-of-mind if we had delays. Icing on the cake were the chilled bottels of water the driver had waiting in the back for us. Oh yeah, I could get used to this.
Weather was sunny and clear when we got to Plymouth and since there were no delays we had a whole afternoon to explore. Our rental car was waiting at the hotel as promised so off we went. Stumbled on the, apparently, only gourmet seafood resturant in Plymouth for lunch, then found the local needlework shop. Also spotted a knitting shop we visited later. Looked like there were several fun shopping spots in Plymouth but they were closed for the season, probably just as well for my budget.
Sunday was the first day stitching. Drive into the Plimoth Plantation was cool; seeing the 1627 village through the bare trees. Found the building we were going to stitch in with no trouble. TWN is the modern embroidery designer who is spearheading the project and she was one of those there to greet us. She had us practice on a doodle cloth and then started assigning motifs. Apparently we did allright on the practice cloths because after just a few small silk motifs we were started on, ta da; the new silk gylt twist thread! This stuff is beautiful, a wrap of gold around a silk core, and it was neat to be able to work with this, a 16/17C thread that hasn't been around for a couple of hundred years but, I have to admit, I love the straight silk best.
So the next three and a half days were pretty much all stitching :). We did leave a bit early one day to hit the yarn shop and I took DP to dinner for her B-day (back to the gourment place :)), and one night we stayed late so one of the wardrobe staff went out for Thai. It was a small group, which was nice in some ways, no crowding for the best light :). There were always one or two folks there from PP to either stitch or make sure we got fed (PP provided a breakfast snack and a great homemade lunch every day). We also took breaks. I went up for a quick tour of their wardrobe department (gee, I can't imagine why :) ), and we got a short tour of their artifacts collection. This is where I almost hyperventilated. We went across to the education building to see the two 17thC samplers the plantation has. What I didn't realize as I walked through one door was that the entire storage area on the other side was *filled* with **real** 16th/17th century artifacts. It took me a minute to catch my breath :). I wish the village itself had been open but that will be a good reason to return.
It was hard to leave on wednesday. We were at PP in the morning, caught up with TWN on our progress, reluctantly said our goodbyes, then met our driver for the ride back to Boston for the icing on the trip. Thanks to my sister who had been in Boston for the Early Music Festival last summer, we had a lead on a decently priced hotel just a few blocks from the MFA (and off-season was even better :) ). So long as we had come all this way, I asked DP if she would like to stay over an extra night and see if we could get an appt at the MFA to study some of their embroidery collection. She agreed, so did the MFA, so to make a long story short we had two and a half hours thursday afternoon in the textile depart of the MFA where I had my nose (and magnification device) less than an inch from two embroidered caps, a coif, 3 samplers, 3 pairs of gloves and a back piece from an embroidered jacket. Near HV episode two was when we entered the rooom and it was all laid out in front of us so we could take our time and work at our own pace. They even let us take pictures! I took a lot of them, and notes, and naturally remembered some I should have taken on our way to the airport :). I'm still processing all the info but I see a major project in my future :).
galactusprime met us at the airport and we got to enjoy a day of the local temps before it started warming up last weekend. Oh yeah, and we had a backedup sewer line at home that involved two visits from the plumber and some, errr, timing issues on flushing for a couple of days :). Laundry finally got started on saturday and I was back at work on monday, putting together the notes and pics on my lunch break. And sorry about the ads but I needed to add the new icon; that's my hand, stitching on the jacket :).
Strike for the show at OCTA is saturday and after that, I'm going to be stitching!!!
