Newark Park and the unheralded quilt

 I'm currently on a stint of working away from home from Sunday night to Friday evening, so me and my partner/boyfriend/other half (not sure which term I prefer, probably should decide) are trying to make the most of the weekends.

Last weekend we paid a visit to nearby Newark Park (near Stroud and Tetbury), which is a National Trust property. Despite it's name there is a park, garden and house to visit.

It was a really interesting place - built as a tudor hunting lodge (though not visited by a Tudor monarch - I suspect not many of them were*), modified and extended several times and finally lived in by two Americans who restored the building on behalf of the National Trust and were living there to the early 2000s.

As well as beatiful location and views...

It was possible to see some of the original tudor structure, giving a feel for the original building; this was helped by a really interesting talk with a model of the house demonstrating the phases of the building.

It's not a massive property and very little of the contents are original to the house, and as such there is little explanation of the furniture etc.

One item did catch my eye...

This quilt was evidently random scraps of fabric...

Hand sewn onto a blanket. 

Maybe technically not a quilt as that generally sugests three layer of fabric but I'm not picky! Absolutely zero details about its history but interesting notheless.

If you're ever in the area I recommend a visit, and a walk in the grounds if you have time.

* The original builder's main property, Acton Court in Iron Acton, was visited by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn - we haven't visited it (yet).

A Break in Cumbria

 We've just returned from a very relaxing few days in Cumbria with my family. Here follows my random (but scenic) holiday snaps... 

The only knitting I managed was in the car on the way up. 

From the 1900ft summit of a pass we could just about see Scotland.

Hidden away in the village we were staying we found this miniature village all made by one may over 25 years and now raising money for the Great North Air Ambulance. 

The final full day was dedicated to waterfalls... 

Low and High Force

And a rather gnarly Juniper tree (probably)... 

Getting Crafty in London

I haven't, for obvious reasons, been to London in two years. Although realistically I only went once or twice a year before that - so many other places to visit - but the big city always offers lots of entertainment and interest.

Last weekend The Stitch Festival (previously The Knitting and Stiching Show I think) took place in Islington and my sister and I got ourselves organised enough to visit for the day.

Once we'd worked our way through the hoards of Scouts and Guides (so many of them no idea why) and had a Google Maps fail at finding the entrance rather than following the signpost we made it to the Business Design Centre (a more interesting and attractive venue than it sounded but I still think Alexandra Palace would've been nicer...).

This show was very interesting with sewing, knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, and many more - excellent for the multi-crafter and immensely tempting. 

I went with the aim of finding a pattern to go with some fabric I impulse bought and to take the opportunity of seeing some online retailers and their products in the flesh so to speak.

I'd call this a success, the smock should work with my fabric and otherwise I didn't go too mad and add to my crafting queue. Although I did pick up a heap of retailers cards so when I need to lengthen the queue I'm ready.

Whilst in Islington we paid a quick visit to Loop London to squish some yarn. I was unbelievably restrained there and left empty handed. Lovely shop, just a little busy and I didnt want to carry a bag of yarn around for the rest of the day.

As is traditional for London in the evening I visted a couple of lovely pubs, where I completed avoided the craft beer!

A yarn expedition

Just over a week ago my sister and I took advantage of a free Saturday coinciding with an indie yarn dyer's pop up in a local ish (just over an hour away so slightly more ish than local) yarn shop. I'd been wanting to visit the shop and had been admiring Pixie Yarn for a while so it was a fortuitous (thank goodness for autocorrect!) turn of events.

Alterknit Universe is located in the, what seemed to be with our minimal exploration, small village of Cleeve near Clevedon. The shop is small but perfectly stuffed with eye catching and wallet tempting items.

But we kept focused, mostly, on what we came for... Pixie Yarn. 

A small selection of the yarn available; this was the vegan yarn, a blend of bamboo and linen. 

After a lot of umming, ahhing and resisting I selected a speckled sock yarn and a sparkly sock yarn with coordinating mini.

There were plenty of others I could have chosen. My sister also selected some lovely yarns, including a vegan one for a gift and some that will hopefully become her first pair of socks (she's a good knitter who's tried various techniques but yet to do socks). We then got the fun of watching the yarn being wound into cakes, something I've never seen before. A fun expedition and if we'd brought some knitting we'd have happily spent longer there. 

Postcards from Sweden

Not the quilt. My boyfriend and I have just come back from a four day break in Stockholm and it was amazing.

Day One - Wandering around Stockholm

Day 2 - Royal Park and museums

Day 2 again - The Warship Vasa, the main reason for our visit

Day 3 - The National museum and Kannebulle

Day 4 - Wandering around Stockholm, History Museum and Princesstarte

We packed a lot into our visit - four museums, three restaurants, two bars and about 40km of walking. A lovely city I would happily visit again.

West Country Quilting Show - it'd have been rude not to!

I know I've only just been to the Festival of Quilts, but what's a girl to do when there is a quilting show only a short walk from work?

Of course my friend and I paid it an afternoon visit. Though saying "of course" I have been working near it for the past three years and this is the first time either of us have been.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but I was pleasantly pleased. Lots of artists and groups, international and local, exhibiting. A small (compared to the FoQ) quilt competition and several stalls.

Memories of New Zealand - Jo Gallaway

Cape Town and Sardines by Gillian Travis

Chinese Decorated Fabrics with close up

I also photographed a small sample of the competition quilts...

...unfortunately due to not understanding the linkage between Google photos and my camera gallery I have deleted the names of the quilts and their makers. If anyone can provide me with the details I will update the pictures.

I read the description for the zig zag quilt, which included (I thought) the statement that one of the stripes were green. Whilst having a close look at the quilting (each line is quilted individually) I tried to work out which stripe was green. Admitting defeat, and wondering whether green-grey colour blindness was a thing I stepped back and saw my mistake (and a laughing friend)!

I enjoyed this show on many levels - lots of exhibitors, the opportunity to meet local craft groups, a few of the big stalls and lots of more local stalls that you wouldn't see at FoQ.

And the added bonus was that I got a good deal on a sewing machine I had decided to buy prior to the show...more about that when it arrives.

Ely Cathedral

Whilst at Festival of Quilts I saw a couple of beautiful quilts which reminded me I'd forgotten to share the pictures from a recent (ish) visit to Ely Cathedral.

First the quilts:

Memorial, Ely Cathedral - Magenta Kang

Ely Cathedral - Magenta Kang

I've only just realised they were made by the same person. Interesting concept making two quilts on the same subject, guess you could do similar with different colourways of the same quilt design...my brain is whirring!

Anyway back to the photos. We visited Ely in May right at the start of the amazing hot and sunny spell we've recently enjoyed.  I didn't know what to expect but the cathedral was beautiful...

Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

A Crafter's Holiday

We've just returned from a few days in Fife, visiting my sister and mum. Unusually for me I haven't taken any scenic photos. 

My sister, being a true crafter, decided that during our trip to the nearby coastal towns of Crail and Anstruther (both worth visiting if you're in the area) we should go to Pittenween and visit her favourite yarn shop. (Luckily for those in the group not interested in knitting Pittenween is another cute fishing village).

The Woolly Brew was not the largest yarn shop but really well stocked. I got somewhat distracted by the sock yarn but I did notice a good selection of patterns, a wall full of yarn other than 4 ply sock, gifts for knitters and knitting tools. What I really liked was how there was a pattern available, often through Ravelry, for every item on display.

On hearing about the shop I decided I would just look as I have plenty of yarn...

...

...

...of course once I got there I totally changed my mind.

It started off with the bottle of Eucalan, as I'd been looking for some anyway. Then before I knew it I had the two skeins of Socks Yeah, which I had seen on the internet and thought I would buy some someday. And then there was a lovely scarf which we all admired and suddenly the Zauberball became an essential. Lovely shopping trip though and beautiful yarn. Hopefully I'll get chance to visit again.


I thought that'd be the end of my crafty purchases but no, in St Andrews a compendium of quilt blocks called to me.

And the in the beer shop (another interest not often mentioned on this blog), I spotted this...

...and just couldn't resist!

Gloucester Cathedral

I've visited Gloucester Cathedral several times and whilst always very interesting (the tomb of a king and a king's brother is there) and beautiful I've never taken any pictures before, although I often (including this visit) say I will bring my big camera with me next time for a proper photography session.

East window started in 1350s

I think two things inspired me this time, the mention of the cathedral in a recent history program and the fact the upper galleries and Lady Chapel were open and I'd never seen them before.

It's always cool finding new bits of a place you've visited before and this was no exception, the galleries give a different view on the cathedral, the Lady Chapel is beautiful and the whispering gallery is a little mind blowing.

Add to that cloisters, sunshine, good company, a musical concert warming up and a 14th century peasant playing golf and it all made for a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours.

And for those interested in such things bits of the Harry Potter films were filmed at the cathedral, I think in the cloisters.

The Woollen Mill...or what we did on our holidays!

I'd originally intended this post to be about the week away we've just had, until we visited Trefriw Wool Mill and I realised that deserved a post all of its own.

We decided to go to the mill because of the lovely bed throw in our hotel room. When we first arrived the scene in the shop was less than inspiring, as they were moving all the stock up to one end of the shop and covering over any stock they couldn't move due to their turbine being serviced that day. 

Whilst umming and ahing about whether to buy ourselves a throw we thought we might as well have a quick look at the mill workings which were open to the public (at least until the turbine servicing began).

I didn't really expect much from the loom we saw on the way up to the mill, but when we got up to the spinning floor...wow! I was fascinated.

This machine stretches the wool rovings into thread as it moves across the floor and the winds the thread onto bobbins as it moves back, just like a woman with a spinning wheel but on an industrial scale.

The thread is then wound onto cones and the cones of thread and twisted together to increase strength.

This machine winds the thread into hanks ready for dying.

A few other steps occur, including winding the warp threads from many cones onto a beam, before the weaving happens...

This is just one of several looms and is dedicated to weaving the bed throws. You can see some of the mills historic bed throws in the background.

The mill was a water mill using the mill wheel to drive all the machines constantly. Nowadays the machines are powered by electricity but not from the national grid. The previously mentioned turbine generates the electricity required using the flow of the mill stream. So this historic mill is still water powered...

And after wandering around all this industrial machinery we managed to decide on a bed throw...