A castle and some quilting.

When we visited Winchester last week, we not only visited the cathedral, we also found a ruined castle, Wolvesey Castle. Having finished our lunch in the cathedral cafe we followed signs to the castle. The route took us via the cathedral close and this view of the Cathedral..

As we headed towards the castle we passed this house. I love the shape and the timbers. There are a lot of old buildings in Winchester which isn't surprising since it has a long history and during the Anglo-Saxon period it was one of the most important cities in England..

We followed the road to the right and then under Kingsgate. 

Arriving at the castle we could see the curtain wall in the field but there was no entry to this area.

We followed a narrow path between the field where children were enjoying their end of term event and on our left, the school buildings. The castle was the home of Bishop Henry of Blois. He was the younger brother of Stephen, King of England who ruled from 1135 to 1154.

The building before Wolvesey Castle, was constructed around 970 by Æthelwold of Winchester, who was the Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984, as his official residence or palace. A new hall was added by the next bishop but the castle was mostly built by Bishop Henry in the 12th century. It is now a ruin but the 15th century chapel is now part of Wolvesey Palace, the current home of the Bishop of Winchester. 

In 1141 Winchester came under siege by Empress Matilda who claimed a right to the throne. Winchester held out for three week until relieved by King Stephen's wife Matilda. This period of civil war is known as The Anarchy. As a result of the siege Bishop Henry enlarged and fortified the palace by building a curtain wall which made it look more like a castle than a palace.

It was interesting walking around the ruins. In places they were unsafe and had been fenced off.

Unfortunately some bright spark had spray painted over most of the information boards so it wasn't easy to decipher what some of the different areas were.

It was now getting very close to the end of the time we had paid for our parking and so we headed back. On the way back we Crossed over a couple of waterways. I couldn't see any fish.

As we arrived back at the car it started raining and so it was definitely time to drive home. We had a great day out.

Over the weekend I had some time for sewing as John was leading a walk for some friends. I took the dogs out for a good run in the park. When we got back I wanted to quilt the Trip around the world quilt so first I had make the quilt sandwich. That done I set my sewing machine up on the dining table and once I'd checked the tension I was ready to play. I started by stitching diagonal lines in each direction 3 inches apart and then I did zigzags between the squares. I managed to get it all done on Saturday. This is how it looks from the front.

and from the back it looks like this.

I could have gone wider with the stitching either side of the middle line but when I practiced this I decided narrower was what I wanted for this quilt. I will be using this quilt design again but will try it with the bigger curves as it then makes a nice circle as a secondary pattern.

On Monday I did some quilting on the dinosaur quilt. I now have 1 dinosaur left to quilt and the borders. I'll take photos when I'm finished. This quilt is very large and heavy and it has been quite tiring to quilt. 

Today I need to decide on the binding for the Trip around the world quilt, I have two or three potential choices but need to check that I have enough fabric before I make the final choice. I'm also working on several other projects. I like to be able to decide what I work on based on my mood and what I feel like doing. It's not everyone's way of working but it suits me.

Tomorrow I have to attend graduation as I have students graduating. It should be my none working day and John and I had planned an overnight trip. That will happen but we won't be leaving London until a little later than planed. I'll tell you more next week.

Take care

Lyndsey

A visit to Winchester.

John and I had planned a visit to Winchester earlier in July but had to cancel it. I can't remember why we cancelled but on Monday we decided it was a perfect day for our trip. Winchester is a cathedral city in Hampshire in the south of England. It sits on the western end of the South Downs National Park and is only 60 miles southwest of London, making it a perfect venue for a day out. Winchester developed from a Roman town but there was an iron age settlement on the site before the romans came to the area. The area around Winchester has three iron age forts and as well as visiting the cathedral we also wanted to walk to the top of St Catherine's Hill. At the summit of the hill there are earthworks of the Iron Age fort, buried ruins of the Norman chapel that gives the site its name, and also a copse of beech trees. St Catherine's Hill is also a nature reserve.

The day was perfect for visiting, a good temperature but not too hot. We planned to visit the Cathedral in the morning and then do the walk after lunch. The best laid plans can be derailed. There have been road works on the A3 at it's junction with the M3 for some time whilst they widen the intersection to improve traffic flow. The road works didn't delay us but the 'incident' did. We were held up for quite some time and so we arrived in Winchester around lunch time. We had already planned our parking so headed straight there. I took a photo of the Cathedral from the car park. As you can see it doesn't have a spire and from this angel looks quite small.

In reality Winchester Cathedral is the 6th largest cathedral in the UK and is among the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The cathedral was built from 1079 to 1532 and is dedicated to several saints with St Swithun of Winchester being one of them. Here is a photo from the front.

The cathedral has a very long and wide nave and is built in the perpendicular gothic style. The overall length of the cathedral is 558 feet (170 m), which makes it the longest medieval cathedral in the world.  When I took the photo I wasn't at the end of the nave, so it gives you some idea of the size of the space.

As always I'm on the lookout for textiles. I liked the textile art in the nave. It added a lot of colour to the area. This altar front was beautiful.

as is this one that I found in one of the side chapels.

In the epiphany chapel there was this beautiful altar front. The cathedral has its own embroidery team and this was designed for the cathedral and stitched by their own staff.

As we came out of the chapel the facilities team was just returning an altar front to the storage box. What I could see of it was beautiful but I couldn't get much of a photo. I had a very interesting chat with the two men doing the job and they spoke with great respect about the embroidery and the team involved.

I found two banners, one for the Mother's union,

and one for the cathedral.

In the choir stalls I spotted these needlepoint cushions. 

Behind the high Altar there is this amazing screen.

The floor tiles are also very beautiful. It gave me lots of ideas for quilts and quilt blocks

It wasn't just the floor tiles that were decorated, the ceilings were very interesting as well.

The cathedral has an exhibition called Kings and Scribes. This YouTube video gives you an introduction to the exhibition

.

One part of the exhibition looked at how the Winchester bible was written. It is believed that only one person scribed the bible, since all the lettering is in the same style and size. You are not allowed to take photo of the bible, even without flash, in order to protect it.

These are the items the scribe would have used and below is some information about each item.

The bible is beautifully illustrated and the information below tells you about the colours used and where they came from.

As we headed back to the main doors of the cathedral we passed an art project completed by children who would be leaving year 6 at Church of England primary schools in the diocese of Winchester

This was a very interesting and imaginative project. The children certainly demonstrated their artistic and creative talents.

Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral. She died in Winchester in 1817 and was buried in the north aisle of the cathedral's nave. Her grave is marked by a memorial stone, and visitors can leave flowers and letters near the plaque. If you like Jane Austen's writing you can't walk past without stopping to read the inscription.

By this time both John and I needed a rest and we were also hungry since we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now 3 p.m. We decided to eat at the cathedral cafe and the food was very tasty and well presented. We wanted to take a walk to St Catherine's Hill after lunch but we knew our parking was only paid for until 4:30 so we changed out itinerary and decided to visit the ruins of Wolvesey castle. I'll tell you about that in my next post. Today is Saturday and I have a date with my sewing machine!

Take care

Lyndsey

stitching and a quilt top.

This morning I dropped my daughter at work and once home I settled down with a coffee by my side to finish the second piece of sashiko. The house was quiet as John was still asleep and the two dogs had also decided they needed more sleep. It is very pleasant to be stitching , sipping coffee and planning in my head. I identified the projects I want to finish as soon as possible, and made plans for projects I want to start. The time past slowly, which is unusual, the house was peaceful and quiet and I completed my stitching. Some of my stitches could have been smaller and more even but I'm happy with it.

Later I'll prep some more stitching on this piece. Next I did some reading. I'd nearly finished the book I've been reading so I decided this was a perfect time to just chill out and read. Most enjoyable.

I then went back to the trip around the world blocks. I had several blocks I needed to make. So I set about turning this pile of strips into finished blocks.

Over the afternoon I joined the 12 blocks together and by the end I had a completed top.

When I look at this photo the pattern looks wrong but three people have checked it for me and it is right. It was fun making scrappy trip around the world blocks. Tomorrow I'll look for a backing for the top and make the quilt sandwich.

I was going to use my light box and draw out the first bird pattern but I've run out of energy and time. I'll get that done tomorrow and I'll make a start on the stitching. For now I'm off to bed, I might read a chapter of my book but I think I'm too tired to read, 

Take care

Lyndsey

Some scrap management

Today we were going to visit Winchester but we had a change of plan. Never mind, that will happen in the near future. First I had an appointment that took a couple of hours but once home again the day was mine to play with my sewing machine. I love it when a change of plan means I get to do some sewing. I have some projects in my sewing cupboard that have been started but really haven't got very far. Earlier in the year I pulled out some churn blocks I'd made as part of the rainbow scrap challenge, not sure what year, but I needed to move them along to give me space for my current projects. They turned into a donation quilt and I was pleased with the result.

Another foray into the cupboard turned up these blocks which I made into the happy quilt. Most of the blocked had been pieced but some needed to be finished. This quilt is waiting to be quilted, I've just got to finish the quilting on the dinosaur quilt before this one gets its turn. 

So today my search turned up three trip around the world blocks. Not sure why I started them but they are fun. I decided to make another donation quilt which would use some left over pieces from a jelly roll and other scraps. These are the blocks from the cupboard. I need to fix the block on the right as the pink needs to be across the middle.

I made three more blocks.

and have 6 more blocks to finish.

I'm having another sewing day tomorrow so I hope to get these blocks finished and sewn together. If it is a little cooler I'll also do some quilting on the dinosaur quilt. It's rather too big and heavy to play with in hot weather.

I stitched the small sashiko pattern on the Japanese inspired quilt. This pattern was really quick to do. I've started the box pattern but it will take me a little longer.

I have to be up early tomorrow as I promised to drop younger daughter at work, so I'm heading off to bed, although I may read a few pages of my book. I got a little behind with my reading challenge and I'm desperately trying to catch up. Unfortunately there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Take care

Lyndsey