It’s that time again!  Another four challenges done in  the HSF 2014  and time for me to share some of my favourites with you! I picked things that are interesting, well made, and (most importantly for me) well considered and researched.  Whether they were items inspired specifically by the Historical Sew Fortnightly, or longstanding project that fin in perfectly anyway, all of my favourites demonstrate  the goals  of the Historical Sew Fortnightly; the quest to explore history, raise our skill levels and standard, stretch ourselves (or sometimes just get something done, rather than just procrastinating);  and  the spirit of the individual challenge.  They are all delights to look at visually, and the story behind each piece is just as delightful. I’ve linked to the blog posts where there are posts, and copied the images of the items from  Facebook where there aren’t, so that you can at least see the amazingness.  Do follow the links to the blog posts for the full story on each item! If you want to see the full facebook albums, …

The 14th Challenge in the Historical Sew Fortnightly 2014, due Friday the 1st of August is Paisley & Plaid. This challenge is all about pattern, and all about contrasts and similarities.  Paisley and plaid are quite interesting as patterns, because both patterns are instantly recognizable: the only patterns that are more easily named and identified are spots and stripes.  Both patterns come in thousands of interpretations and variants. One is quite recent, and the other is a very ancient.  Both are strongly associated with specific cultures, though our cultural associations for each pattern are, in many ways entirely inaccurate. Plaid (or tartan or check, depending on where you are from in the world and how you define it) is one of the most ancient textile patterns.  In fact, it is the most ancient known textile pattern.  The oldest textile fragments that definitively have a pattern are woven in a checked plaid pattern.  When most people hear plaid they think of Scotland, but in fact almost every culture in the world that has woven fabric has …