Monday Pictorial Cheer Up Session - Romsey

I suspect you all are recovering from your weekend, and need something to give you a boost on this (potentially depressing) Monday morning.
I still haven't decided about the linky parties yet.  Need to do a bit more research and just haven't forced myself made time for it yet, what with the crazy husband, ridiculously busy daughter who has a wayyy better social life at 12 than I have at 35, Valentine's, etc.
But I thought I'd give you a treat today, to show you how much I love you guys. I live near a seriously old town, Romsey, which I love. It's a very conservative community and church, and always has been. Little bit of interesting history: In the 1530s, when Henry VIII was dissolving (read: stealing) the monastaries, the citizens of Romsey collected together £100 (£32,000/$45,000 in today's money) to buy it off him in order to save it from being dismantled for parts. So its age, even in a country of old stuff, is actually pretty remarkable. It has charm out the wazoo, and on Saturday, Buzz and I took our cameras and went to the Abbey. So I'll introduce you:

This is right outside the Abbey; on the right is the doorway

This is the story of Romsey Abbey - it's been around for a long, long time.

view down the centre of the nave

view into St Aethelraeda's chapel

St. Aethelraeda's chapel - every cushion is hand sewn tapestry.

St. George, patron saint of England, slaying the dragon

So that's all really cool, right? I bet you're wondering where the crafty content is in this post. Well, while there, I took a close look at a pair of curtains.  They were decorated with various saints, and they are stunning. But what's really noteworthy about them is that they're made using free-motion machine embroidery techniques.  You're thinking, so what, but here's the remarkable thing: they were made in 1961! So here I was thinking machine embroidery was a new thing, but it's been around for decades!
I only had a pancake lens on my camera, which isn't too good for real close ups, so these were the best I could get:

Mary and Jesus

close-up of Mary - it's been machine embroidered and free-motion machine quilted

I forgot which saint this is...sorry.

St Catherine and her wheel

This paper describes who embroidered which saint, their age, and the year 1961.

Anyway, so that's Romsey. I'm going in today to have my eyebrows done as they look like retarded caterpillars. So maybe I'll take some pics of the high street too. Is anyone interested?

And, since I gave Buzz his Valentine's pressies yesterday, I can show you what Thursday's tutorial will be about:

It wasn't difficult, but it did take a while! But it's really beautiful and he really loves it. So, Thursday's tute will be the Love Book Tutorial!