Friday was John's birthday and so we headed for our favourite hotel in Somerset to celebrate. We left earlier than usual because we wanted to visit Nunney Castle which is near Frome. The journey from home was wet and therefore tiring. We needed windscreen wipers on and after a while the noise of their motor starts to give me a headache. Once we had turned off the motorway the rain started to ease and by the time we reached the castle it had stopped.
Nunney castle is a medieval castle at Nunney and was built in the late 14th century by Sir John Delamare. It is a moated castle and it's design may have been influenced by the design of French castles. It was remodelled in the 16th Century but was besieged and damaged by the parliamentarians in 1645. The castle is now a ruin maintained by English Heritage and is a tourist attraction. Whilst we visited the castle the sun decided to shine and the sky was blue.
We started our visit by walking all round the outside of the moat. There was a Little Egret that moved as we got close to it plus several mallards who kept their heads tucked in and carried on snoozing. As we walked round we saw this old barn.
We crossed the moat by the wooden drawbridge which is firmly fixed.
The keep is now badly damaged but inside you can get a good idea of the design of the castle. All 4 towers are still standing with the damage being to the walls. The castle originally had several floors but none of them remain but you can see where the floors would have been.
From one of the windows you could see the local village church so we decided to visit.
We crossed a wooden bridge over Nunney Brook to get to the church.
The church is a listed building dating from the 12th century. In the porch there was this pretty metal flower display.
especially the appliqued and embroidered fritillary.
This flower was growing in a pot near the little shop area. I can't remember what it is but it was very pretty.
Today we visited my favourite quilt shop, Midsomer Quilting in Chilcompton. I wanted to buy the fabric for my double wedding ring quilt. I knew it would take some time to make decisions about the fabric so we decided we wouldn't plan any other visit today. As always there was a lot going on. One lady had bought her hexagon quilt to be quilted on the long arm. I was able to take a couple of photos. Some of the blocks had embroidered flowers and butterflies.
It's always fun when you get into conversation with other quilters. Their enthusiasm for their craft is infectious. Having chatted to these ladies I went back to choosing fabrics. I kept circling the shop as I slowly made my choices. My pattern is from Today's Quilter.
This is only the second time I have bought all the fabric for a quilt at the beginning. The last time was for the Mariners Compass quilt I made through 2017 into 2018. I renamed my quilt The compass home as making the quilt helped to keep me sane whilst I went through treatment for breast cancer. The pattern was a Quilters Guild pattern and I used their fabric choices.
The theme last year was phrases or sayings. This year the theme is Bucket list. I haven't taken part yet but I have a couple of ideas for the theme and so I hope to submit at least one mini. Most of the minis are auctioned to help raise funds for the hospice.
I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching link up. I need to catch up with my blog reading as I haven't visited any since Thursday. I love seeing what everyone is making.