An outing and some stitching.

On Saturday we planned an outing to Lullingstone Castle and The World Garden. It wasn't just to visit the house and garden but to see the quilts on display. Region 2 of the Quilt Guild was having a quilt day and had moved from its usual venue to Lullingstone. We had heavy rain on Friday but Saturday was very warm and dry. We had a couple of chores to do first and then John and I headed off on our adventure. Our destination was about an hour and a quarter from our home. It was a nice drive and a chance to catch up as we haven't had much space for just the two of us this last week.

Lullinstone Castle is a manor house rather than a tradition looking castle. The present manor house and gatehouse were built in 1497 and it has been home to the same family ever since.

The quilts were on display in a marquee and also in the house. The marquee wasn't very big and when we went round it was quite crowded so taking pictures was difficult. However I managed to get this photo of an appliqued cat quilt

I also liked this quilt which incorporated applique, and piecing. There was so much to look at in this quilt. I particularly like the windmills at the four corners.

I only took a couple of other pictures of quilts and these were in the house. The space available for displaying the quilts was relatively small and many were not shown to their best advantage. Some had been positioned in front of the windows and the effective back lighting drained the colour from the fabric. With the big quilts there really wasn't room to stand back and look at the quilt. I liked this small piece which I think was one of the challenge pieces.

In the background you can see a quilt laid out on the floor and a jacket made with quilting. You couldn't get any closer to see these items and the room was quite dark.

I also really liked this small challenge piece that had been awarded 3rd place. My final photo was of a double wedding ring quilt so that I could be enthused to do some more work on my quilt. This was a huge quilt.

       
I took some photos of the grounds on John's camera and for some reason it added a sparkle effect. We don't know why as I didn't alter the settings and some later photos do not have this effect. The house is built  by a 15 acre lake.

         
We crossed the bridge over the weir.

and we discovered some large Roman snails. Roman snails are the largest species of snail in the UK growing to a width of 45 mm.

Having enjoyed a walk by the lake we returned to the house and discovered an eagle.  I think it is a white tailed fish eagle. The guy from the eagle centre said I could hold her on my hand but I refused as she was a little grumpy about something.

Back on her perch she turned her back on her admiring audience and refused to move,

We had a lunch of a large and delicious sausage roll, a slice of cake and a cup of tea. After that we were ready to walk round the world garden. Different sections of the garden have plants from different areas of the world. In the Europe area of the garden we discovered this statue set in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

The curved blue crested wave was made by Will Jordan and Zeus and Europa were made by Marie Prett from glazed pottery,both are local artists. You can read more about the story of Zeus and Europa here We also spotted another installation in this Baobab tree which was in the Australia section of the garden. 

Apart from the main garden there was also a number of greenhouses. We didn't visit them all as it was way too hot and we were both tired. We did go round the cactus house and I took this picture.

       
The light in the greenhouse was a little different but I didn't alter the camera settings at all and this was how the picture came out.

They had a small garden shop and we bought a couple of plants before heading for home. It was a most enjoyable day out.

Once home I set up my machine and managed a few seams before I was forced to stop. What is it with visitors who drop in unexpectedly?  The stitching came a little later in the weekend and I'll tell you about that later.

Lyndsey