A trip away, a quilt shop and catching up

This weekend we took a trip to Suffolk to visit John's father. Suffolk is in the east of the UK in an area known as East Anglia. We try and combine our visit with a trip to an area of interest or, as in this weekend a quilt shop. The idea was to visit the quilt shop and do some bird watching at Buckenham Fen on the Saturday and visit FIL on the Sunday.

As we set off on our trip the sun came out and and the slight green hue on the trees let us know that spring is just around the corner. During the journey we passed several large clumps of Snowdrops growing at the roadside.

The quilt shop, Quilters Haven is in a small market town of Wickham Market. It was a very pretty town and I loved the dove cot on the roof of one of the houses.

The church spire is in the background. The church had an octagonal tower and a spire. Inside it was very warm and welcoming and had a couple of quilted wall hangings.

The quilt shop had a great range of fabrics, books and accessories. However one of the assistants was rather quick to butt in and tell you how to do things without enquiring if you needed any help. One lady was trying to puzzle out what a fat quarter and skinny quarter were so I explained and she was excited at the thought of using FQ's to make projects in her new hobby.

I just had to have some fabric.(I know I said I'm on a low fabric diet but John wanted to buy me a valentine present.) The artificial light has drained the colours a little. My present was the 6 autumn FQ's and the red flower and seaside FQ. I just love the seahorses. I bought the other two pieces of fabric to use in my Grandmothers garden quilt.

I must admit to buying 3 FQ's last week at my local quilt shop. The bird and the snail fabric are for up coming projects and the flower piece is for the Grandmothers Garden quilt.

Next door to the quilt shop was a tea room where we enjoyed tea and a slice of dutch apple cake. We shared the slice as we are both trying to lose weight.

Then across country to Buckenham Fen in Norfolk. It was a delightful journey with the sun shining. The fen itself is very open and the wind was cold, a lazy wind that went though you rather than round you. 

It looks rather bleak and lonely but we had lots of Wigeon, Shelducks, Golden Plovers, Swans and several other species of bird for company. We spent quite a lot of time watching 3 Barn Owls flying low across the reeds catching their supper. With the naked eye you could hardly see them but through John's bird watching scope they looked amazing.  As dusk feel large groups of Rooks started to gather in the trees and on the electric lines. Every so often they would all take off and wheel around the sky making a huge amount of noise. By the time they made their last circuit before finally settling on their roost for the night there was probably about 20 thousand of them wheeling as a dark flock across the backdrop of the deep red sunset. An amazing experience but very cold, too cold in fact to operate the camera properly so the photos got deleted.

We made our way to Norwich where we were staying and found a lovely Thai restaurant for dinner. Before going to bed I sat and finished cutting out all the template papers I'd photocopied for my hexie quilt. They should keep me going for a while.

Sunday was very foggy when we set off from Norwich but the sun burnt off the fog and we had another beautiful sunny early spring day. Our visit to FIL was enjoyable and we were home in time to cook dinner before youngest daughter returned to University after her reading week. I wonder where our next mini break will take us?

Now I've got to finish of my contribution for the 'It's all about me' hop which starts tomorrow. For the full schedule visit Marlene at Stitching by the lake. My day is Thursday 21st. Looking forward to seeing you then. I must also get quilting on my Dresden plate quilt as I want to finish it up this month.

Happy quilting.

Lyndsey