The Academy of St. Clare - Event "report"

This weekend just past I attended and taught at The Academy of St. Clare, Stitches in Time in the Shire of Abhiann Ciach Ghalis, part of the Kingdom of Aethelmearc (or, in the modern world, Milmont, Pennsylvania).

The event was held at a lovely boy scout camp, with quite comfy cots in a cabin and a large dining hall/general building for most of the meetings and classes.  Sadly, as too often happens, my camera did not come out of my basket, so my words will have to do.

I arrived Friday night (a little later than originally expected, due to some modern world issues) to a warm welcome.  The evening's activity was slated to be a round table on tools and suppliers for needlework.  The time I spent in the general room conversation was more general, which was not a bad thing.  Then I retired to the sleeping area I was to be in to catch up with friends.

Saturday morning we all got up bright and early and readied ourselves for a day of learning and sharing.  The main building for meals, meetings and classes was not far, and before long we were all assembled for breakfast and a keynote talk on the topic "Common Ground."  Duchess Meriwen uerch Owein entertained and us and gave us a lot to think about on the whys and wherefores of embroidery through history.

Having had our bodies and minds fed, it was time for the morning classes.  I attended the first part of the class "From Picture to Pattern" then wandered over to listen to the end of the class on the Oxburgh Hangings.  Both very interesting classes.  Though neither class was completely new material to me, I find that attending classes on "known" subjects often brings a nugget of new to add to my own thoughts and knowledge. Two other classes were in the morning session, "Tools and Supplies for the Beginning Embroiderer" and "Handsewn Applique: A Hands on Practical Approach."

After the morning classes there was time to look at the items that had been brought for the embroidery display -- and to fondle silk for sale.  I successfully admired others' work, and avoided the siren call of the silk.

Lunch was a lovely array of food and time to chat and share what we had learned so far.  Then it was time to clear up and prepare ourselves for the afternoon classes.  This was the unique part of the event.  Instead of the usual 1 hour "try it" type of class usual for SCA events, these were three hour full project classes.  My only regret is that since I was *teaching* one, I couldn't *take* one. There were four classes: 16th Century White Work, Embroidered Hoods, Pleatwork Embroidered Apron, and the one I was offering, German Brick Stitch. I probably would have been hard pressed to pick just one of the other three if I had not been teaching!

I had three students. At first I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to fill three hours.  When I "practiced" the class in my head a bit, I had thought about setting a schedule along the lines of "for the first X minutes we'll work on this, then I'll move them to that...." but it did not work that way.  As I have for the two times I taught the smaller class, I started by showing how I had set up the canvas (done for them in the interest of saving stitching time), then had them start with the very middle bit of the design.  While they worked I talked about the design, about how I worked it, and about the second design in the kit.  Then, I mostly sat back and let them stitch, answering questions and helping as needed.  The best part of the three hour format for this particular project is that it gives time for a goodly chunk of the work to be done. Even the slowest stitcher had one diamond complete, and the fastest of the three had most of her first framework done by the end of the day.  I did fill in some of the silence by talking also about the uses of brick stitch.

One of the kits all lined up to be constructed

Finally, after the afternoon classes were done everyone gathered back in the main building (at least one of the classes was in another building) for more display viewing, shopping and socializing over tea.

Supper was a lovely meal of foods not unfamiliar to the modern palate, but also period -- a great balance.

After supper we gathered our things and returned to the sleeping cabin which has a meeting room attached to it where more round table discussions took place. Many ideas were shared, and one thing was said which has added another project to the array I'm working on for my supporting pieces for my expert panel.  Finally, eyes no longer able to stay open I headed for my comfy cot and got a good night's sleep.

Sunday morning they weren't done with us -- providing breakfast and two talks on documentation and research, leaving lots of information and thoughts to swirl in my head as I drove home.