Oophs where did the last 3 weeks go!

Well how did that happen? One day it was July 23rd and the next August 11th. The last 3 weeks have been a bit of a blur. Work got ridiculously busy and involved a lot of writing. By the time I got home from work the last thing I wanted to do was more writing. On the home front it wasn't so busy but I was generally feeling jaded and tired with no energy for anything, not even stitching. I wasn't unwell just seriously suffering with the heat. We aren't really set up for temperatures over 30 degrees in the UK. Work is fine as it has air con but our house is an old Victorian building, and just opening the windows didn't help as there was no breeze to cool the air. I seem to have spent quite a lot of time napping recently as a result. Prior to the really hot temperatures it had been hot for several weeks with no rain (most unusual in the UK). Now the heatwave has broken and yesterday we had the most amazing downpour. I was driving and the rain very soon created large puddles and rivulets down the streets. The plants in the garden heaved a sigh of relief and guzzled up the rain. I had feared I would lose most of the plants but they have perked up and look very refreshed. I'm feeling the same and spent time this morning sorting out my sewing projects.It doesn't take long to forget where I'd got to with them.

Before work got busy and I wilted I'd started a post about the rest of our trip to Bath. Here's what I'd written. You can read the first bit of our trip Here

Saturday afternoon, after a tasty lunch at the American museum, we headed into Bath. I wanted to visit the  'A celebration of Flowers' exhibition at the Victoria Gallery. A celebration of flowers by Kaffe Fassett with Candace Bahouth. If you want to see a picture of the exhibition you can click Here No photography was allowed in the exhibition at the request of the artists. The quilts were very bright and cheerful but there were only a couple that I really liked. This was one of them and was called Seed Packets.

The colours and patterns work well in this quilt but with many of the quilts I felt that there were problems with colour placement which I found jarring. Obviously this is a personal view but it was interesting that both John and I had been really looking forward to the exhibition but we didn't enjoy it as much as we expected. That didn't stop me having a good look round and picking up some inspiration and ideas as I did so. 

After the exhibition we had a wander around Bath and visited our favourite bookshop, Mr B's. Lucy had asked us to order a couple of books for her and we ended up having a delightful and lengthy chat with one of the staff members about books and different writing styles.

As we walked through the city centre we passed this man with his sand sculpture

We also passed a couple of Owls.

The owls of Bath trail has 82 owls located around the city and outlying area.The interactive sculpture trail celebrates the Roman heritage of Bath and raise funds for four local charities. If you want to see more of the owls click Here . We left Bath and headed out to our hotel The Holcombe Inn

We checked out our room, which was very comfortable and headed downstairs to enjoy a cream tea in the garden.

I'm never quite sure why hotels put so many pillows on the bed but they were great for support for the ideal stitching position for my embroidery after dinner. After our delicious cream tea we needed a short nap to refresh and recharge our batteries before dinner. The bed was very comfortable and we slept longer than we meant to but it had been a busy day. We sat in the garden and chatted and I did some stitching until dinner.

After a good nights sleep we enjoyed a tasty breakfast before heading to my favourite quilt shop, Midsomer Quilting. I needed some thread and they sell King Tut which works well in my machine. I also wanted some fat quarters for my hexie grandmother's garden quilt. They always have quilts on display. I love these fishes.

John spent time trying to work out how this one was stitched together A member of staff explained partial seams to him while I browsed the fabrics.

I also love this tree quilt

I also love the movement created by the placement of the colours in these quilts.

Once I'd made my purchases we headed to Ham Walls on the Somerset levels to do some bird watching. We'd never been there before and our visit was to find out what facilities there were if any and what birds were regularly seen there. We had a lovely walk around the reserve and saw some little egrets. great egrets and a bitten. We spoke to the volunteers who were manning the small reception area and we will be visiting again later in the year. We headed home having enjoyed our break.

As I mentioned earlier I have been working on my hand stitching. I have mainly been working on Constance and Earlene. They are both nearly complete.

I have been trying to spend at least 30 minutes stitching a day. I have a lot of hand stitching on the go at the moment, my grandmother's garden hexie quilt, sewing badges onto my camp blanket, binding a baby quilt and I want to get on with the rabbit I'm making. I'm currently on holiday so I'm hoping to move some of my projects on this week.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching. Why not go and see what everyone has been working on.

Lyndsey