Trains, cars and graffiti on Father's Day

Last Sunday was Father's day in the UK and we were invited to lunch by older daughter and family. It was decided that we would meet at Hampton Kempton Waterworks Railway as they were having an open day and there would be model railways on display. As John and our son are currently building an N gauge model railway, they could pick up tips that could be helpful. The parking for the event was underneath the flyover that takes the A316 into London. Parking was a little tight because of the number of visitors but we enjoyed the graffiti world that had been painted. Obviously not all graffiti is created equal, some areas were an awful mess and obviously done by someone learning the skills while others were amazing. It certainly brightened up the area. My favourite is the second picture.

Once in the railway we had to have a ride or two in the trains including on the miniature train.

There were also stationary trains you could climb on.

In the engine shed there were several train layouts set up and running. Some OO gauge, some N gauge and some where the person had created their own trains to suit what they wanted.

and the other end of the same display.

On our way back to the car we checked out the old cars on display.

The MG roadster bought back memories of my father. At one point he owned a roadster painted in British racing green. He later changed it for an MGBGT which he was still driving right up till he died. His car was his pride and joy.

We all enjoyed our outing and lunch was delicious. Both John and our son in law enjoyed their father's day. 

Today John and I are going to an art exhibition and then travelling to Somerset for a weekend away. I need to check my camera battery is fully recharged.

Take care

Lyndsey

Wednesday Progress and an outing

Midweek already and projects are slowly moving forward. The week so far has been busy so I've looked forward to my evenings with some slow stitching. I have finished another block for the frog quilt. At the weekend we went on a coach trip to Lakenheath Fen nature reserve and I completed the stitchery on the journey home.

I also made a start on the next stitchery.

These little frogs are a lot of fun to stitch. I decided to try and stitch one a month. I'm making this quilt because I liked the pattern but it doesn't have an identified home to go to when it's finished. Here's a reminder of what it should look like when it's finished. In the pattern all stitcheries are completed in green but I like to use additional colours.

Yesterday evening I completed the first of the sashiko panels on the Japanese quilt. In the end I had to use the white ink pen for marking the pattern as it gave the clearest image. My pattern source book told me the order for the stitching, first stitch the vertical lines and then the horizontal. You don't stop and start for each line but move across to the lines you need to stitch by passing the thread behind the work. The stitching is also done with double thread. I managed to keep my stitch length fairly even but there are a few 'dodgy' stitches.

Meanwhile the front band of my knitting is growing slowly. The 364 stitches are knitted in knit 2 purl 2 rib so I'm finding that knitting this part is very slow. The front band has to be 14 cm wide and I've completed 4cm, so I've a long way to go still. However I want this cardigan finished this month.

On Saturday John and I went on a bird watching trip to Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk. Lakenheath itself is home to a large RAF (Royal Air Force) station. Although it's an RAF base it currently only hosts United States Air Force (USAF) units and military personnel. If you want more information about the base Click Here . RAF Mildenhall, which is in the same area also hosts USAF.

On Saturday the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze. The reserve itself is long and thin in shape and this meant there was a fair amount of walking involved. Over the day we walked 7 miles. We particularly wanted to get a sighting of a hobby and we were delighted to see 5 of them. 

Credit: FLPA / Alamy Stock Photo

Hobby's are part of the falcon family and are native to the UK. Their preferred habitat is open woodland, farmland, grassland and wetland. The reserve filled all of these requirements and had plenty of food for them. Their preferred dinner is small birds, dragonflies and other flying insect. There was a profusion of dragonflies and damsel flies around, particularly over the water. The adult hobby has no known predators, maybe because they are very quick and acrobatic birds. We enjoyed watching their ariel display.

We saw a lot of birds but I was enjoying taking photos of the flowers. The water lilies were close to opening.

The Egyptian geese were trying to find crumbs that had been dropped from peoples sandwiches, as this was a favourite refuelling spot for humans.

There were quite a few clumps of rape with their bright yellow flowers.

Creeping thistle was also fairly prevalent.

This one is cow parsley which is very common along the roadside and woodland areas. I also found out over the weekend that it's a member of the carrot family.

The tufted vetch was pretty.

 This one I knew as  'Grandmother pop out of bed' when I was a young child. The real name is hedge bindweed. Other names for this plant are bellbind and Rutland beauty. I like the bee in the lower flower, it was very busy collecting pollen. Being me I had to find a flower that I could make the petals pop out of bed.

The Elder was in flower. Mmm I like elderflower or elderberry wine! Way back in my younger lifetime I used to make wine from a wide range of berries and fruits.

The last photo is of common mallow. They are such pretty flowers 

This evening I'm going to do some work on the crocheted blanket if it doesn't overheat me since today was very hot and is only now cooling down. I hope it cools enough to enjoy a good night's sleep!

Take care 

Lyndsey

Kempton Park Quilt show

Last week wasn't great for getting on and finishing things. My son has been having very bad headaches for quite some time and has also had a painful shoulder. Both problems escalated and ended with a trip to the emergency unit. He has several appointments set up to try and sort the problems out.  On top of that work got a little out of hand, leaving me very tired. All that to say that not much sewing or knitting happened. On the upside I had booked tickets to the Kempton Park quilt show, so on Friday morning I put the roof of my little sports car down, carefully applied sun screen and enjoyed the breeze through my hair as John and I headed to the venue. The show was taking place at Kempton Park racecourse in the exhibition halls. Upstairs there were quilts on display and downstairs a good range of vendors and of course tea, coffee and snacks. I think I've mentioned that I'm trying to use what I have this year, so I wasn't planning on buying anything but we still walked round all the stalls.  Here are our purchases from the day.

The two on the right were my fabrics and I have a use for them. The others, John bought and he has a plan but he won't tell me what it is for. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

There were a good number of quilts to see and because the show was relatively small, with less people milling around, you were able to take more time to enjoy them. They also generated a lot of chatter. It was fun spending time discussing colour, fabric choices and quilting with folks I've never met before. There were several bright quilts and people said how much they loved the colour choices but they wouldn't use them as they don't know how to put bright colours together. I suggested to one lady that she played with her scraps and a few bright fat quarters to create a quilt for a young child. I met her a little later and she showed me the beautiful colourful fat quarter bundle she had bought and her plans for using more colour in her quilts. 

So onto the quilts. This first quilt was one of my favourites. For all of them I have included the information about the process and the makers.

I only chose one area to show a close up as there was so much to look at on this quilt. It was difficult to make a decision about the area to show.

The meerkats appeared on several quilts.

I really liked this next quilt. Such a easy design but it had a huge impact especially from a distance

There were several quilts with stitch painting and I have three to show you.  They are both by the same person. This first one was such a fun theme that certainly resonates with me.

I took a close up of one of the faces.

A close up for detail of one of the dancers.

The third quilt by this maker is later  in this post. Following the stitch painting I came across this quilt. The colours pleased me a lot and the quilting was pretty.

The next quilt is on a theme that affects all women to varying degrees. It certainly got a lot of attention.

There was a series of mariner's compass quilts made by the same couple.  Here is the information related to them.

The next quilt reminded me I needed to book a trip to the seaside.

In the quilt below the meerkats are back but enjoying Shakespeare.

This quilt caused a lot of conversation. This was mainly about the difficulties of getting the stripes lined up above and below the stars. Everyone was commenting on how hard it was to do and how perfect this was. 

I have a love of batiks so I had to include this quilt.

This cute tiger caught my eye. Strangely this quilt worked better close up. Standing back from it, the tiger merged into the background.

This was another fun selection.

I particularly liked this next quilt and I like the idea of making a quilt in a day, on boxing day. The day is about coming down from the Christmas festivities and what better way to do that.

Having spent time looking at the quilts we went outside to the stands to look at the race track and cool off. It was so hot in the exhibition room! Outside we started taking to a couple of women and had a fun time sharing information about our favourite quilt shops and classes we had taken.

We sat and ate sandwiches by the winners paddock. We had fun watching the small birds busy taking food to their young in the hedges.

From the quilt show we drove to older daughter's house to spend some time with her and our grandson and to have dinner. The day was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed the quilt photos. The next show I'm going to is the Festival of Quilts at the NEC on 1st August. My tickets and parking are all booked and I can't wait.

Take care

Lyndsey