Cars, Stitching and cats

I'm starting with my stitching so that you don't have to read all the way down if you aren't interested in old houses and gardens. Last week I found 2 of the bag ladies that I hadn't completed. I took Charlotte with me when we went to Suffolk last weekend but I was so tired in the evenings that no sewing got done.

I had some time to work on her a little on Friday night and finished up the flowers on her skirt and worked on her scarf. So this is my starting point for this evening. I need to give her a bit of a press. I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching

 When we visited Devon a few weekends ago we included some sight seeing on our way home. Killerton is a National Trust property not far from Exeter. We had visited it years ago but neither of us could particularly remember it so decided it needed a re-visit. When we were about a mile from the entrance we joined a queue of cars which rather surprised us as it was still early in the day. As we edged nearer we realised that we were visiting on the day of their annual car rally. That put paid to our quiet visit to the house but it didn't spoil our enjoyment. The meadow on the one side of the drive was resplendent with buttercups.

Because of the large number of visitors they used another meadow as an extra car park and I felt rather sad driving over such pretty flowers.

Killerton is an 18th century house near Exeter. The house has a hillside garden which we enjoyed walking in, and an estate. The house has a collection of 18th to 20th century costumes.

This was the original front door of the house and that led out onto a lawn terrace. the lawn wasn't very big and I couldn't get far enough back to take a photo of the whole of the front of the house. The picture has the effect of making it appear very big but actually is isn't. 

The estate covers some 2590 hectares which includes a steep wooded hillside with the remains of an Iron Age Hill fort on top of it. john and I walked to the top and enjoyed the views.

Before we went round the house we decided to have morning coffee with some cake. I chose a cream tea - scone, jam and cream with a pit of tea whilst John was more traditional and had coffee. Whilst we were sat in the sun enjoying our drinks the house cat came to visit us. She even had her own table to sit on.

As we left she very quickly climbed onto our table to finish up the cream I'd left.

Inside the house there was quite a lot of china on display

The dining room was much cosier and more intimate than the one at Chatsworth. I felt I culd host a great dinner party here.

There was tapestry and embroidery and other fabric work in the house.

The National Trust tend to have quizzes and  trails for children to follow around the houses and at Killerton you had to hunt out the mice in each room. Here's one resting in a flower arrangement.

  Here's another one hiding in the writing desk

The chairs had tapestry covers..

I liked this seat cover in the library.

Yet another wee mousie I found upstairs in the costume display.

 At the top of the stairs was this example of a bed covering.

I liked the fans on display 

and the unfinished slipper tops were interesting .

It was getting rather busy in the house so we decided to stroll in the garden and enjoy the flowers. The view from the top of the hill was good.

The meadows were full of wild flowers. It reminded me of my childhood when wild flower meadows were more common. Now farming is so intense there is less room for the flowers and birds.

Finally we briefly looked at the cars as we made our way back to the car park and our journey home. This Triumph was one of the visitors cars.

The old route master bus was fun. The children were fascinated by it.

I just had to take a picture of the frog eye Sprite. My older brother had one and I remember driving it to Brighton late one night to have fish and chips at the beach. Next to it is an MGB GT very similar to the one my father owned. Not that we love sports cars in my family!

.
Have I shown you my little Mazda MX5 I got last year? Here it is before I took ownership. It was owned by a diplomat and had only done 753 miles when I bought it.

It's the perfect car when John and I go on our adventures.

Now if I'm going to have any time this evening for sewing I need to get dinner sorted. It's due to rain here for the next few days so that means more sewing can get done as once home from work I won't be venturing out again. Pop over and see what everyone has been working on at Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Lyndsey