Old Wardour Castle.

This weekend John and I had a weekend away, staying at our favourite hotel in Somerset. We like to visit somewhere or something on our journey to the hotel and on Friday we went to Old Wardour Castle. To get to the castle we went along a very narrow lane with few passing place. I met a learner driver coming the other way and had to reverse quite a distance to get to a gateway so they could pass. The learner driver looked very nervous as did the qualified driver with him. Old Wardour is a ruined 14th century castle at Wardour in Wiltshire about 15 miles west of Salisbury. In the 1300's the land was owned by the St Martin family until the last family member died in 1385. The land was sold John, the 5th Baron Lovell and he was given permission by King Richard II to build a castle. The castle is based on the hexagonal castle of the time found in France, a design unique in Britain.

During the war of the roses the Lovell family supported the Lancastrian side and as a result their castle was confiscated. It had several owners before it was bought by Sir Thomas Arundell in 1544. This view is from the car park.

This view shows the main entrance to the castle.

Unfortunately Thomas Arundell was executed for treason in 1552 but his son Matthew Arundell bought the castle back in 1570. He remodelled much of the castle and made it more comfortable. Unfortunately during the civil war much of the castle was destroyed and it wasn't  habitable. Henry Arundell eventually acquired sufficient money to build New Wardour Castle which isn't a castle but a Palladian House. New Wardour Castle is in private ownership.

There was still a lot of the castle to visit and it gave beautiful views from the high windows. The castle is built round a central courtyard with a well in the middle.

 

The castle has two grottos in the grounds. This grotto was built in 1792 using stones from the castle ruins.

The trees were starting to take on autumnal hues. This photo was taken looking down from the castle towards the grotto.

Down by the lake there was a Banqueting House that was built in 1773 and 1774 after the castle was ruined

When I looked in the Banqueting House I found some nice stained glass windows.

I loved the bright colours on the windows and we enjoyed our visit. As we drove away from the castle to continue our journey we found there was a one way system to get back to the main road. The learner driver had gone the wrong way.

The rest of the journey to our destination was uneventful. I had take some sewing with me to work on in the evening and that's what I did until dinner time. It's so lovely to go away, not have to cook and to be able to just sit and sew and chat.

Yesterday we went bird watching and I didn't take any photos. We saw 28 different species of birds which was good and we also had a good walk around the reserve. We visited my favourite quilting shop today and I'll show you what I bought tomorrow.

Take care

Lyndsey

A coffee morning and stitching.

Yesterday, 22 September was the Autumn equinox and so in astrological terms we are now in Autumn, which will last until 21 December. In our travels on Saturday there was evidence of autumn starting to show. Leaves are turning orange and in some cases red and leaves are starting to fall. Under the horse chestnut trees there are lots of conkers waiting to be collected up by children. I have happy memories of playing conkers in the school playground but I don't think schools allow it any more in case of injuries. I love all the seasons but I start to get excited as the cooler weather begins. I love thick tasty soups served with fresh homemade bread. Yummy stews and casseroles are especially delicious after a day out walking. Closing the curtains on the dark outside and curling up to watch a film, read a book or get on with knitting and stitching. I always knit more as the weather cools, it's difficult to knit in the heat of summer.

Yesterday we went on an outing to a Macmillan coffee morning. It was organised by Ash Creative Stitchers but they refer to themselves as Soup Dragons. The members do anything involving needles and thread of any type. There was some beautiful embroidery on display. The only piece where I know who stitched it is this beautiful rhino. He was stitched by my sister in law Hazel and currently she is working on an elephant. You should be able to click on the photo to enlarge it to see the stitching better.

Here are some of the other pieces on display.

We enjoyed a cup of coffee and a delicious slice of cake and I bought some fat quarters of African fabric.

The fabric has to be washed before use to remove the potato starch. I'll do that before I go trawling through my quilting magazines for the pattern I want. I've been meaning to pull the patterns I want to keep as I have too many magazines taking up valuable space. My son has offered to scan any patterns for me and catalogue them on the computer. I also want to make the last block of the Christmas quilt and finish the half square triangles. If I have time I want to run through my various projects and check how far along they are. That way I can prioritise those close to completion so I have more time to spend on the rest. It's a shame I only have one week annual leave, two would be much better.

Take care

Lyndsey

An odd week

Last week was a bit up and down, some good, some not so good. During the week I had a minor procedure under local anaesthetic following on from my breast reconstruction. I have a follow up appointment tomorrow. John and I went to the theatre on Tuesday to see a stage version of Inspector Morse. I loved the Morse series on TV and John Thaw in the lead role was very good. The stage version was very well done but no one plays Morse like John Thaw. Wednesday we went to a wine tasting which was good but later in the evening I became unwell. I felt really rough all day on Thursday and didn't do very much. On Friday I had to take my car for its annual service which was tiring as I still wasn't fully fit. However on the up side I did manage to sew all the ends in on the crocheted blanket and on Sunday I did a row of crochet all round the edge to finish it off. It is such a bright and cheerful blanket. This blanket is made up of 100 crocheted squares which have been joined together by crocheting.

On Saturday John and I had arranged to go to Lewes with older daughter and grandson. There was an art exhibition that older daughter wanted to see and Saturday was the last day. The drive there was quick and uneventful but driving through the crowded narrow streets of Lewes was an interesting experience. We parked at the railway station much to grandson's delight and he insisted on stopping to watch two trains go through.  The exhibition was Vanessa Bell and was interesting. It is fun to keep a 3 year old happy whilst the adults enjoy the art. Can you find a painting with .... in it, kept him amused for the time we needed and then we went to the children's activity area to do some colouring. 

We passed the Levitating Lady 1973 by Quentin Bell as we made our way upstairs to the gallery. He was fascinated with optical illusions.  My grandson was also fascinated and wanted to know how the lady was being held up so we explained it to him.

I only took a few photos. The Kitchen by Vanessa Bell 1943. This is a painting of the kitchen at Vanessa Bell's house Charleston. It shows Grace Higgins preparing food from scratch for the family in the middle of the 2nd World War. Grace Higgins joined the family as a nursey nurse for Vanessa Bell's daughter and later became housekeeper until she retired in 1970. We have yet to visit Charleston.

The next painting is of Chattie Salaman 1940. She was a friend of Vanessa Bell's daughter, having met at drama school and she was a frequent visitor to Charleston in the early years of WW2.

Bell took photographs of her model for reference.

I also really liked this painting, The garden Room by Vanessa Bell 1951. However there seem to be other paintings called the garden room.

I enjoyed the exhibition but I didn't take many photos. Instead I was spending time finding out what my grandson thought of the paintings. He knew which ones he liked and why and others he wasn't interested in at all. I love getting a child's view as they are very honest. After the exhibition we walked around Lewes and found there was a castle and lots of history as well as Charleston to visit. We made plans to visit again as we had to get back into London as older daughter had an appointment in the late afternoon. However wee stopped and enjoyed a delicious lunch. After all no outing is complete with lunch. Grandson snoozed all the way home and excitedly told his dad about the outing. Having done that he settled down to play with his trains which is what he was doing when we had arrived that morning.

On Sunday morning I set up my sewing machine and completed some more blocks for the Christmas quilt so that now I just need to make one more block. I still need to make some half square triangles for the stars in the sashing but that won't take too long. I hope to have a quilt top by the end of the week.

Although I'm on holiday I have some work I need to get done. I'm spending a little time each day to clear it. Once I've finished this blog post I'm going searching for a quilt pattern. My brother asked me to make him a new quilt. I know I have a pattern that he will love but I've just got to find it! 

Take care

Lyndsey

A train, blanket and scraps

Today was very windy and I was teaching in Reading so had a drive along the M4. Most of the journey was OK but there are a few places where the land on either side of the motorway is flat and open. No trees to block the wind. As a result there were a few places where the car felt heavy to hold in the lane but it wasn't strong enough to cause any problems. The wind was one issue and at times it was made worse by heavy rain. This is not how the start of the working week is supposed to be. 

I thought you might like to see what folks here have been making or repairing. When my son was young, about 3 if I remember, my father made him a wooden train. It was one of his favourite toys and as he got older he was determined to keep the train. Fast forward to this year and my son renovated the train and gave it to his nephew. Aubrey is 3 and very into his trains. He was very happy to be given the train but he said it needed a wagon so my son made him one to match the train. 

We took the train and wagon with us yesterday to give to Aubrey. He spent ages playing with them and later in the day, when it was time to tidy away his toys and books he used the train to collect up his belonging and take them to the toy box. He had a great time making the train pull the wagon and then used the engine to shunt the wagon. One happy nephew and one happy uncle. It is lovely to see the train my father made for my son about 38 years ago being enjoyed all over again by the next generation. My father also made my son a wooden fort but he has no intention of parting with that at present.

My younger daughter Lucy recently finished a crocheted blanket for her brother. Lucy took up crochet during the covid lockdowns and has since made some toys and this blanket. It is a good size and very warm. The colour hasn't come out very true to life as the brown crochet around each block is really a lovely pale grey!

In November Lucy and I have a craft weekend booked, learning some advanced crochet techniques. We are also looking forward to the swimming pool and spa available at the hotel. 

On Sunday morning I sewed another two blocks together for the Christmas quilt. I have now made 5 of the 9 blocks. I still need to make some half square triangles for the stars in the sashing and border. This is a photo of one of the blocks.

My older daughter and son in law are expecting their second child in January, so still a way to go but I have been asked to knit a baby blanket. They know they are having another boy. I will be using the same pattern I knitted for Aubrey.

Aubrey also asked me to knit him a rainbow striped scarf for the winter, I will start on that first as the weather is definitely getting colder. I should have all the yarn I need in my stash. Recently I had started knitting a long cardigan for myself but I haven't got very far. That will get done in between knitting the scarf and the baby blanket.

I'm still sewing ends in on the crocheted blanket. Why didn't I sew them in as I went along? Although there are still a lot to sew in, the end is in sight. Once done I will crochet two rows around the edge to finish the blanket off.
 

I am also sewing hexies for the Grandmothers garden quilt. It is moving along slowly. I really want this quilt finished. I also have an idea for a scrappy quilt to use up my 3 inch squares but I won't start that this week.

Oops I've just seen the time and I must go to bed.

Take care

Lyndsey

An exhibition, cooking and sewing

This week has been a bit of a pain with lots to do at work, a heap of things I'd have liked to do at home and feeling less than 100%. No I haven't been ill but I hadn't got a lot of energy and everything I did seemed to drain more energy. I didn't even write a post about our visit to an exhibition. Fortunately yesterday was a me day and slowly over the day I did some cooking, some sewing and watched a film. Doing things at home always makes me happy and I sleep better. Over the week I've been slowly preparing hexies for the grandmother's garden quilt. These don't take any brain power so are perfect at the end of a long day whilst chatting or watching TV. 

Winding back to last Sunday, John and I went to the Jenny Saville exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. We had tickets for 4p.m. but arrived early so we had a walk around Trafalgar square since the weather was so nice. That's when I noticed the buildings on the road opposite. When you live somewhere you don't always see thing around you. I've visited Trafalgar Square numerous times over the years but I've never fully noticed the architecture of the building opposite. I love the different styles and sizes.

The Jenny Saville exhibition was amazing with 50 works on display. Here are some photos of my favourites.

Most of the paintings on display were huge so it was good that there was room to stand back and study them. After the exhibition we visited the cafe for tea and cake. The cake was delicious.

Once home I'd promised I'd make some chocolate brownies. I've never made them before but have loved eating them. Like many things they are quick and easy to make and totally moreish. I forgot to take a picture when I left them to cool but when I came back some time later I found only 7 of the 16 brownies left. I quickly took a photo and then took a piece to make sure I got some.

Fast forward to yesterday and I needed to make some bread. 

Whilst the bread was cooking I made a lemon drizzle cake, my favourite. I had also planned to make some Moroccan style lamb balls. When I roasted the cumin and coriander seeds the smell was delightful. The roasted seeds were crushed and added to the lamb along with an egg, mint and salt and pepper. I can't wait for dinner.

Yesterday evening I decided to work on my embroidered table cloth. It was very relaxing to be concentrating on my stitching and I listened to an audio book whilst I worked. I don't get on with my embroidery very quickly if I watch TV so listening to a book or podcast is perfect. Here is how much I got done. I finished off the yellow flowers and all other flowers in the hoop except the blue flower on the left

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I've moved the hoop ready for the next time I stitch on this piece.

Tomorrow afternoon we are going to visit older daughter and family. I can't decide whether to take my knitting or this embroidery with me to work on while we chat.

Today has been a slow day, walking the dogs, catching up on housework and some time to baste some more hexies. We had planned to go for a long walk but the weather is very unsettled, one minute sunny and the next pouring with rain. Much better to stay home and get on with some jobs.

Take care

Lyndsey

A Saturday sewing day.

Last week at work was super busy and so very little sewing got done. I have made several flowers for the Grandmother's Garden quilt and I also sewed on three flowers. I'm planning on working on this quilt tomorrow but there won't be a lot of time as we're going to an art exhibition with Katy, our older daughter. I've been carrying a small bag with templates, fabric needle, cotton and scissors with me so I could work on basting a few hexies while I had lunch, or waiting to pick up Lucy, younger daughter, from work. This is my Chookshed challenge for this month and I want to get as much done as possible.  

I changed the quilt I was starting for my August Chookshed challenge, from the garden quilt to a Christmas quilt. Everything was cut out but I had some half square triangles to make before I could start sewing it together. I'm not sure what was going on in my brain today but I kept on sewing pieces together incorrectly. In fact one part got sewn on the wrong way three times. The pattern is for 6 blocks but I wanted a larger quilt so I'm making 9 blocks. The quilt is being made using up fabric I already have. I had quite a bit of Christmas fabric but not enough to have all the blocks the same. The pattern is called Scrappy Friends and my quilt is certainly scrappy. I spent some time dividing the fabrics up between the 9 blocks. This way I knew there was a good spread of the fabrics across all blocks. I put the fabric for each block into a separate bag.

The quilt is going to be very bright and Christmassy. In spite of all my errors I got one block completed before I packed up to move on to some embroidery. Here's the first block

When I've made all 9 blocks there is white sashing and a star as each corner stone. I'm making this quilt as a gift. Having made one block I decided to quit while I was ahead. I was annoyed that I'd kept making the same mistake so this quilt was packed away for my next sewing day.

I decided to mark up the last of the sashiko stitcheries on the Japanese quilt. I'll show you a photo when I've got the last pattern done. I'll stitch it this evening and then I need to think about the next round on this quilt.

Finally, I'm slowly sewing all the ends in on the crocheted blanket. There are so many ends! I really should have sewn them in as I went along.

Take care

Lyndsey

How many Hexies?

Today was a long and tiring day, so this evening I needed something soothing to do. I knew just the thing and so picked up the Grandmother's Garden quilt I've been making forever.... well almost forever and I checked just how far I'd got with the orange round. Back a couple of months ago I made some flowers and started to add them to the quilt. I got three flowers added.

I also had  four more flowers made and groups of 6 hexies made ready to sew into flowers.

I'd already pulled quite a lot of orange fabric from my stash but I did another trawl through incase I'd missed some. I also needed some suitable fabric to make the middle hexie of the flowers. It turns out that I have quite a lot of orange fabric. Some of the fabrics appear rather red but I assure you they are orange.

My task over the evening was to baste more hexies ready for sewing into flowers. I realised that if I prep them in an evening I can take them to work to sew together in my lunch break. In total I  need 48 flowers. There are 3 attached to the quilt and four more ready to attach, seven in all, That leaves 41 flowers to make over the month. Tomorrow is the 4th September and there are 30 days in the month so I have 27 days to make them. That's slightly less than one and a half flowers a days, which should be doable. I doubt I will get them all made but I'm going to try. This paragraph reads a little like a maths lesson, so I had to work out how many hexies I needed to make. I have 7 sets of hexies to make into flowers which means 42 hexies. Add these 7 sets to the 3 on the quilt and 4 waiting to be sewn on leaves 28 more flowers needed. 28 x 6 = 168. I know I have enough templates and I certainly have enough orange fabric. The big question is 'do I have the stamina to get them all basted and how many can I attach to the quilt. Watch this space. Since this is the penultimate chookshed challenge of the year I really want to try and get them made and added to the quilt.

I also finished listening to an audible book whilst prepping hexies. I enjoyed Marble Hill Murder by Anthony Horowitz and I didn't guess who had  done it until the end but I did guess the perpetrator of one of the sub plots.

This is just a quick post to identify the starting point of this months challenge. It will give me a realistic timeframe for completing the quilt. Now I need to sleep as I have a long and very busy day tomorrow at work. This week, I will be very pleased when we get to the weekend.

Take care

Lyndsey

Welcome to September

Happy September to you all. According to the meteorological system, today is the first day of Autumn here in the UK. I have to admit the nights are drawing in as the daylight hours get shorter but we are still getting approximately 14 hours of daylight. I'm often awake at 5 or 5:30 and it is fully light then and nice and quiet to take the dogs for a walk. The leaves of some trees are starting to change colour but currently it doesn't feel very autumnal. That could be because of the temperature. Even on my early morning dog walks I find it's too warm to wear a cardigan or fleece. I think I'll stick with the Autumn equinox which is September 22nd. The equinox is the moment the sun is directly above the Earth's equator which gives roughly equal amounts of daylight and night across the globe.

August was a good sewing month and I had two finishes. The first was the dinosaur quilt. This was a large quilt and the quilting took quite a while because of the weight of the quilt. It was heavy to manoeuvre to move between the individual dinosaurs. I enjoyed making this quilt as it is so bright and cheerful, plus the dinosaurs are such cute characters. This quilt has gone to its new home.

My second finish was the Good Hope Quilter's Guild mystery quilt from 2024. This was my first go at hand quilting and I really enjoyed the process. I think there may be some more hand quilting in my future.

I nearly had a third finish with this crocheted blanket. I just ran out of steam towards the end of the month. I need to finish sewing all the ends in and then crochet round the outside to finish the blanket off.

The Chookshed Challenge in August was number 7, the Garden Quilt. The person I was making it for chose this design but then changed their mind.

So I changed my challenge to Scrappy Friends quilt. I'm adding three extra blocks to the pattern and I'm making it as a Christmas quilt for a member of the family.

I got all the cutting done and made all the half square triangles that then turned into a star, well lots of stars to be precise. There are 34 stars in the quilt. I used two different fabrics for the stars.

This will be a scrappy quilt so I now need to sort the various fabric pieces into 9 blocks. I want a good spread of fabrics across the quilt. Having finished all the stars, the rest will go together easily. I should have a completed top at some point this month. I will make the garden quilt at some time in the future

This month there will be some secret sewing because I'm joining in with a blog hop taking place in October and the Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange in December. I'm looking forward to these two hops.

There are now only two months left of the Chookshed challenge for 2025. The number chosen this month is number 3. My number 3 is my Grandmother's Garden quilt.

This is my oldest unfinished project. I'm not sure when I started it but I always knew it would be a long term project. When it was small it was a lovely portable project but now the only portable part is making the individual flowers. I am currently making orange flowers and once this next round is complete I will square up the quilt. This quilt is being made for my younger daughter and I would like this finished either for her birthday next April or for Christmas next year 2026. I have been making some flowers and some are already attached to the quilt. Others are still just individual hexies. I'm interested to see how far I can get with this project this month.
What else will I be working on in September. Apart from the Christmas quilt and my project for the October blog hop everything I'm working on this month is hand work. I still have the Happy Quilt to quilt and bind but that can be finished next year. I want to complete the sashiko for the Japanese quilt so I can move onto the next round in October. I have started knitting a cardigan as I always enjoy a knitting project in the cooler weather but more about that another day. I want to spend an evening a week working on the embroidered tablecloth, finish 1 frog block, do some more work on the Star Trek cross stitch and finish the crocheted blanket.  It will be interesting to see how far I get with everything.
I think I need a cup of tea to sort out my diary. We have a weekend away booked this month but I always take some embroidery or knitting with me for quiet moments. We also have two outings with older daughter and family so I need to plan carefully to make the best use of my available sewing time. September is International sewing month so maybe I can squeeze some extra sewing time in.  I'm just going to enjoy anything I do or achieve. Enjoy the sewing month.
Take CareLyndsey