Or comments, really.

Thanks, Jane, for your note. Jane’s from the UK and was curious about our UK stitcher, all of whom were in the US for the Celebrations of Needlework in Nashua, NH, which I believe wraps up tomorrow. I don’t know offhand where Sarah and Susan are from, but I’ll look it up when I get back to the office. Susan has an online needlework shop, Hanging by a Thread, (the shop’s address is London, so there’s a clue) and has been so generous about spreading news of the project. Sarah is Susan’s sister, and they look enough alike that I was having trouble keeping their names straight, though in my defense they were at first introduced to me by the other’s name, so after that I had no chance at all. Anne is Robbin’s mother-in-law (Robbin of the laptop grant, the lacemaking, the thistle calyxes, the gorgeous antique lace wedding veil, and the great photos). I’m pretty sure the information on where the blog hits come from exists, but I would have to go looking for it. (Yah. Who am I kidding? By “looking for” I mean “ask Rich”.) I know coral-seas is in the UK. She returned our first overseas sample, and writes a delicious needlework blog here. Our other international stitcher is Lyn. She comes from Ontario, Canada, and has come down to Plymouth several times now. She’s doing the repro of the Bosworth sampler.

And, in the comments a few days ago (I eventually get there) coral-seas asked if the jacket embroidery pattern has a repeat. The answer is yes, the master repeat is four motifs high and four across. Tricia told the story of discovering the repeat early in the blog - June 2 and June 3, to be exact, (and I can be exact both quickly and easily thanks to Lyn’s awesome index - Thanks, Lyn!).

It’s a great story, like a historical detective yarn. Or floss. Just kidding. Anyway, there’s a panel in the collection of the Embroiderers’ Guild in the UK which is so extremely similar to the 1359-1900 jacket in the V&A (the embroidery design source for our jacket) that they must have come from the same workshop. Examining the photos of the jacket and the panel and fiddling with the motifs for our design, Tricia had a “eureka!” moment and saw the repeat.

The four-by-four repeat is most visible on the back. Tricia worked the original motifs on the back, the ones she stitched in order to illustrate the directions for the instruction manuals. So at that first session the back was the only one with embroidery on it.

I have another great story in my pocket, so to speak, actually, in the laptop. I accidentally left some pictures at the office over the weekend; I will get at them Monday and start the next “bite” then. Tomorrow hopefully I’ll have some different visual treat.

Embroidery sample received from Debbie A; stockings received from Susan J and Monique N; 2 pair gloves received from Linda F. Riches.

Penny and Shaina spent the day cleaning the office, not the big workroom, but the office. The office is a medium-sized room.  There are two bookshelves, about 12 big plastic tubs that hold fabric scraps sorted by content and color, plus a mess of stuff that has no other home. There’s also a big desk that holds the phone and the old computer, a temperamental behemoth which is currently on vacation in the IT manager’s workshop. The past couple of days I have thanked heaven and Robbin for the laptop many times a day. The office also houses everything I had no other good place for. Plus my filing system is haphazard at best. I usually think I will only remember things if I can see them. Out of sight, out of mind. But the desk had gotten to be an archaeological site - I had to find things based on how long ago I’d last seen them. Not good.

So Penny and Shaina volunteered to “help” which meant they did all the hard work. They moved stuff, filed the obvious, vacuumed, dusted, washed, threw out what needed to go and repeatedly encouraged me when my attention wandered. The office looks absolutely great, and I only have three smallish piles of stuff I don’t know what to do with. One of the piles is left over from the great office cleaning of 2003. The other I inherited from my predecessor, from whom I learned my filing system. Ahem.

Mark made some more spangles today. He worked in the Crafts Center, thus visitors to Plimoth were able to watch and ask questions. I saw him on his lunch break and he said he was having fun. So we’ll have more spangles for next weekend’s session (not tomorrow, a week from tomorrow), plus a great exhibit into the bargain.

The other thing I did today was consult with Kathleen and Marcia about food for the 4/11 - 4/14 session and let them know how many we’re expecting. I’m delighted to say that we’ll have more than a handful of workers next weekend - the first time we’ll have embroiderers and lacers working together. I can’t wait. We’ll be in the wardrobe office, and tomorrow’s first job is to send a note to the participants. There’s still room if you would like to join us.

**If you’re having trouble getting in touch with me, please call if that’s convenient (508-746-1622 X8119) or leave a note in the comments. The office computer’s rest cure means I can access new emails to the jhall@plimoth.org address (ones since Wednesday) but not old ones. So I can’t return emails I got before Wednesday. Plus we have a new spam filter, which works excellently but has kept out some legitimate mail. So if you think I should have written back by now, please call or leave a comment.