Having signed myself up to a 100 Day Project involving a lot of stitches, I seem to have committed myself to producing even more over the next few months.

A couple of weeks ago some friends and I took ourselves off to Norwich Castle Museum to see an exhibition. The exhibition was wonderful, but naturally any excursion with chums just has to involve coffee and cake, doesn’t it?

So it was in the Rotunda coffee shop that we spotted an group of ladies beavering away with needle and thread, producing the most amazing stitchwork, reminiscent of the Bayeux Tapestry. Nosiness took over, naturally, and we wandered over to find out what was going on and before we knew it two of us had signed up to join in!

Last Thursday saw us trotting off to the Shirehall alongside the Museum to learn the stitches we would need to create a banner to hang behind the throne in the Keep. Such glory! Such responsibility….eeek!

The Shirehall was a revelation. I’ve driven past it nearly all my life and never before been inside. It is now the Museum Study Centre, dark and gloomy passageways, bars at the windows, but the most fabulous entrance hall, and a beautiful stained glass dome which cannot been seen from anywhere outside.

We had an intensive day with our tutor, it’s a privileged to be able to learn stitching skills like these for free, and amazing how completely exhausting wielding a needle and thread can be.

Yesterday we headed back into the city as some of our fellow volunteers were at the latest Norfolk Makers Festival held in the Forum in Norwich and we wanted to catch up with what was going on. So much amazing work; we are feeling quite daunted but really happy to be involved in such amazing project.

Tomorrow we are back at the Shirehall brushing up on our applique techniques so another day of intense concentration, and I’m still stitching away at my slow stitched shirt every day! (and knitting a sock, but that’s another story!)

And so is the Norfolk Makers Festival! If you are in the area it is well worth a visit, and I’ll be back to tell you more about it.

See you soon…x