Pumpkin Scissor Fob and Jamestowne.....(284)

I'm going to get my Stroll piece out of the way first so  can move on to our visit yesterday to Jamestown. Pumpkin Keeper is a free design from The Drawn Thread. I stitched this back in 2000 along with her other keepers. I gave most away as Christmas gifts but kept this one for myself. The size is about 2 " square and I filed it with the tiny rocks you find for aquariums so it's nice and "heavy". It, and the others, can still be found on Cynthia's web page http://www.drawnthread.com/freecharts.html. 

We had a very pleasant visit to Jamestowne yesterday starting with a ferry ride across the James River. You get off the ferry less than a mile from the entrance to the historic Jamestowne Settlement.

This ferry was going in the opposite direction

 The visitor center/museum is an absolutely stunning building--too large to do justice with a photo but lots of beautiful wood. The Pocahontas Imagined exhibit was a little disappointing as it was geared mainly to children, but there was interesting info about Pocahontas though speculation about her relationship with John Smith. A lot of the exhibit focused on various paintings/images of Pocahontas and it seems no one is sure what she really looked like. The best guess is the depiction here (after she traveled to England and is dressed in English clothing) which I don't want to believe as she looks spectre-like and quite scary. She was only 21 when she died and I prefer to think of her with long dark flowing hair running barefoot through the forest near where I now live.

 I did stumble across two samplers and some embroidered clothing but the lighting was so low, it was hard to really see. There were three exquisite whitework night caps that I would have loved to inspect up close and personal!

There is the river front where replicas of the three ships that sailed from England are harboured. Here is the largest, the Susan Constant, which we could go aboard.

There is an Indian village where I learned to make cording (which they would turn into rope) just using my fingers...boy could I have taught them a thing or two!!! LOL

Here is a canoe being carved out using just oyster shells on burnt wood.

Then there is the James fort where I was intrigued with the thatched roofs on the buildings. The interpreter said they could last 40-80 years.

Close up of the willow reeds used to make the roof

 I came across some hornbooks in the church which had church symbols and prayers from the Anglican Church on them.

 All in all...very informative and enjoyable. We picked a good time to go as we were told in a week they will begin hosting approximately 3000-4000 school children a day on field trips.

If you've stuck with me this far, you may be a glutton for punishment, but thanks. I'll end with my current stitching project...Lesson#2 of the Summer Schoolhouse series.

Thanks for stopping by and your "twisted threads" of friendship!

Stasi