27 August 2008

English Heritage Videos

English Heritage has started a website with lots of videos on a number of historical topics (my fav so far - How to catch a rat!). Educational and interesting!

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.18536

26 August 2008

National Library of Australia - Newspapers Beta

The National Library is undertaking a beta project to digitize a number of historic newspapers. The site is very impressive, easy to use and allows user interaction in correcting errors. A small price to pay when you can find information on ancestors.

The site is: http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home

Here is one I found about my great grandfather, Henry Vincent Canet:

"The Argus, 5 June 1925

..SALE OF AIR RIFLE.

Buyer Under Age

'An unusual case was heard at the Fitzroy Court on Thursday, when Henry Canet, of the Blue Bell Cycle Works, Brunswick street, Fitzroy, was charged with having, on or about May 6, sold two air rifles to a person under the age of 38 years. Mr. D. Grant, P.M., and Mr. A. Rosen, J.P., were on the bench.

George Buchanan Robertson, schoolboy, said:- My brother and I visited Canet's shop and asked for two Daisy air guns. He asked us whether we had our parents permission, and sent us back for a note. We obtained a note and gave it to him, and he let us have the two guns. We paid 8/6 each for them.

Mr. J. Carroll, who appeared for Canet, said that his client had acted in ignorance of the regulations. He had expected to find the regulation in the Firearms Act, but had found it in the latest amended Police Offences Act. He thought that many shopkeepers were ignorant of this regulation.

Mr. Grant said that he believed that Canet had acted in ignorance of the law. A fine of 40/ was imposed."

In his defence, he did at least ask them for a note from their parents!

25 August 2008

1930's Quilt

I have all the flowers sewn down and I am ready to put the pollen spots in. They are only small so it should only take a night or two to get that done. Then it's on with the half square triangle border. I am really pleased with how the quilt is looking.

24 August 2008

New ISP

I've been a bit quiet lately. Two reasons, firstly, I signed up with a new ISP. Goodbye, Bigpond!! I love the new place, so easy to do. I now have 16Gb peak and 48Gb off peak downloads. I couldn't use that much up if I tried. So now I will be able to upload stuff on the weekends. Yeah!

Secondly, we've got this monster deadline at work and I've been pulling lots of flex. Nearly back to normal now.

18 August 2008

1930's Quilt - Flowers Nearly Done

I managed to get all the flowers on the quilt this weekend. I just need to do the yellow circle in the middle of each of them. This might take a while as I haven't made the middle bit yet. But the end is in sight and the top is really starting to look nice.

11 August 2008

Stockton's Embroidry Shop Open!

In an attempt to purchase the new Hardwick Hall embroidery book, I am going to (hopefully) sell some of my blackwork and wool embroidery. The wool items are one offs and the blackwork is made to order. Shameless begging - please link to the site!! Please let me know if there is any info you think I should include to make people more likely to buy!


10 August 2008

Flowers Added

Rather than pin the flowers (and all the other applique elements) onto the quilt top, I've been using fusible tape to keep them in place. I've done this as it's easier than working with pins and it lays flatter when you are doing the sewing. So all the flowers are in place, just have to do the sewing. Final stage will be making up the yellow circles to go into the middle of the flowers.

9 August 2008

Quilt Update

I finished sewing the birds on my 1930's quilt. That leaves only the flowers to complete all the applique and finish the top. With a bit of luck (and work) I should be able to get the top to quilting stage in the next couple of weeks. I am on a bit of a finishing binge at the moment, so no new projects until this one gets to quilting stage.

8 August 2008

11th Century Vestment Conservation

A set of fragments from the 11th Century are being conserved. The fragments were discovered at Worcester Catherdral in 1870 and were thought to have been hidden during the Reformation to protect them from destruction.

There is a detailed article and images at the Worcester News website.

7 August 2008

Lost Cousins

Lost Cousins is a family history website that links people together via common relatives. What makes this site slightly different is that rather than comparing GEDCOM or family tree files, you enter specific census records for your relatives. The site them compares everyones entries and common ancestors or relatives are identified. It's harder to get a match but when you do, you know it's the right person.

If you are interested in joining, let me know and I will send you a referral. Purly selfish on my part as I get a free months membership for each person who signs up! It's free to join. But you need to subscribe to be able to contact anyone you match up with. It's about $10 a year.

I've only had a few matches but as I said, they've been solid.

Lost Cousins - http://www.lostcousins.com/

6 August 2008

New - Mary, Queen of Scot Embroidery on V & A Website

I just did my regular search of the V and A Website for new embroidery images and it looks like there are quite a few new images of needlework by Mary, Queen of Scots. These appear to be both full and fragments of items associated with the Oxburgh and Marian Hangings.

To find them, search for "embroidery" then choose "last" in the text menu on the right of the screen. This takes you to the last page of the search results.

5 August 2008

New Puter

I've been quiet the last week as I bought myself a new laptop!! It's SOOOOO cool. But it's taken a while to get it all sorted as far as getting software on and playing with bits (TV Tuner!). So now I have something decent to take with me when I am doing research etc, work straight on the computer not take notes etc. So I should be posting again soon.

4 August 2008

Finished Hat


Finished Hat, originally uploaded by Jane Stockton.

This is the finished hat. It turned out just that little bit small. And I think I might've interpreted the pattern incorrectly as there don't seem to be enough knit rows to curl the bottom edge up. So I gave it away. I am going to reknit on 6.5mm needles (thanks Jane-Beth!). I think that will make it just right (with the addition of more knit rows). I was pretty close guessing 6.0mm needles. Anyway, it's a quick project and quite funky. But I will probably need more wool.