A trip to St Albans

Last week John and I decided to visit St Albans, a cathedral city in Hertfordshire. If I have time I like to discover how a place got its name and the story is that its from Britain's first saint, Alban.  The story says that he lived sometime in the 3rd or 4th century in Verulamium. One day he met a Christian priest who was trying to get away from persecutors and he offered him shelter in his home. As a result of the meeting Alban converted to Christianity. Later his house was searched and Alban dressed in the priest clothes and gave himself up to the authorities. They punished him to try and get him to renounce Christianity but he refused and as a result he was executed.  Alban was canonised and became St Alban and gave his name to the area. Our plan for our outing was to visit the cathedral and Verulamium. Verulamium was a Roman city, the second largest in Roman Britain after Londinium, and was developed from a pre existing Iron Age settlement. I had visited St Albans several times as a child, as we had lived in a small village fairly near to it, however John had never been there.

We decided to start our visit at the cathedral as it was nearest to where we parked the car. This is the front of the cathedral. While we were visiting there was a wedding in the Lady Chapel.

Here is another view which shows the different eras of some of the cathedral. The day was perfect for a visit, and for a wedding.

We entered the cathedral by the west door and looked down the nave. The nave of St Albans is said to be the longest in Britain at 85 metres. When I took the photo I wasn't standing at the west end of the nave, so I'm sorry but you aren't getting the full effect of the length of the nave.

Looking back towards the main entrance I took a photo of the stained glass window. If you click on the image it will go full size. The detail in the window is beautiful.

Behind the altar on photo of the nave there was a screen with the saints in colour. Unfortunately I forgot to go back and take a picture. Behind that screen there was a storage area and we were able to enter the choir and the High Altar. This is the screen at the High Altar.

Turning to face the other way I was looking at the choir. 

To the left side of the choir as I was facing it, there was the bishop's chair It's called a cathedra from the Latin word for chair and it is the presence of the bishop's cathedra in a church that makes it a cathedral.

Standing in between the area to the High Altar and the choir I was at the transept of the nave.  Looking up towards the High Altar this is what I saw.

 Turning to my right from the choir I was looking at the north transept rose window.

Turning to face the other way the south transept led to the cafe but it also housed the old main doors of the cathedral. I took a photo of one and also the information board.

The Dean's cope was on display. This ceremonial cope was designed by Jacquie Binns in 1989 for the Dean of St Albans. This is an important piece of church vestment, made from beautiful fabric and heavily embroidered, depicting the story of St Alban. 

A close up of part of the embroidery.

We left the south transept and walked to the east end of the cathedral. We went to see the shrine of St Alban. The shrine is to Britain's first saint and is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain

Beyond the shrine at the east end of the cathedral is the Lady Chapel. This is where the wedding had been held.

This was the altar front in the Lady Chapel. I'm not sure I liked it but the embroidery was good.

This was one of the kneelers at the alter rail.

I liked the seat pads with the different flowers. There are 6 and all are different

One of the cathedral staff told me that during the building of the Lady Chapel women had been asked to bring their favourite flowers from their garden and these were used as a pattern for the carved masonry between the arches. I don't know if it's true but it's certainly a nice story.

I took photos of some of the kneelers in the lady chapel. I love that sewing accessories made it into some of the designs.

Other textile objects around the cathedral

I also like to consider the patterns on the floor as they often provide inspiration for quilts.

Along the wall of the north side aisle there was a beautiful collage to show the history of the cathedral and local school children were involved in the making of it. This was made in 1992 and 1998. There is an information board after this photo

We had planned to visit Verulamium once we had looked round the cathedra but instead we decided to take a walk around the city centre. We spotted this building and loved its quirkiness.

By the time we had walked round the city centre we were both beginning to flag and so we headed back to the car and made our way home. In the evening we had a reservation at our favourite restaurant near home to belatedly celebrate our 42 wedding anniversary which was back on July 2nd. Despite heavy traffic and being delayed by an accident on the motorway we made it home in time for a cup of tea and a short rest before we headed out for dinner. The evening was delightful and the food excellent as always. We both thoroughly enjoyed our day and we are now planning for some more day trips. Having finished writing this post I'm going to set up my machine and enjoy an afternoon of sewing.

Take care

Lyndsey

The second finished quilt in August 25.

This afternoon I finished the quilt that started life in February 2024. Somewhere, I'm not sure where, but probably on the side bar of a blog post I was reading i saw this button.

I'd never got involved with a mystery quilt, mainly I think, because I must be a bit of a control freak. I like to make my own decisions about what I make and how I do it. Many of the mystery quilts I had looked at seem to be bigger in size and the making spread over a longer period of time. This one was released in 4 parts in quite a short time. 

Part 1 was released in January. This quilt is made from 9 fat quarters. Having cut all the FQ into squares they had to be laid out in this pattern and with the right number of pieces to ensure the pattern would work to give 9 blocks.

By March I was sewing the blocks together.

and I decided to add sashing and a border to complete the quilt top.

 

I wasn't sure I really liked the top but I knew I would finish it ......eventually.  At some point in the autumn of 2024 I decided I would hand quilt it. I started using a quilting hoop but I couldn't get on with it, so the quilt got put away again. Earlier this year I picked it up and slowly got into hand quilting. I alternated it with other projects so it has been slow. Yesterday I finished the quilting and this morning I made and added the binding. Over the day I have worked on stitching the binding down in between other jobs.

I'm not sure if I will ever make another mystery quilt but I'm pleased I've had the experience of taking part with one. Going back a few months I decided I would never hand quilt again but as I've got more into the process I've really enjoyed it and I know I will be doing some hand quilting in the future. With practice the process has become enjoyable and very relaxing. I've paired the activity with listening to an audio book, the current one being Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz. It's so good when you can combine two of your favourite activities, sewing and reading.

This quilt will be going to it's new home on Sunday. I took it with me when I was on grandson minding duties two weeks ago and my daughter claimed it.

I'm linking this post with Alycia Quilts for her Friday finished or not This is my second finish this month so I'm very happy. Pop over to see what folks have finished this week or if not a finish what have they been working on. I love seeing what everyone is busy making.

Now I need to go help John cook dinner. 

Take care

Lyndsey

Challenge number 7

Over the last few days I've been working on my hand quilting. I'm enjoying the stitching but my stitches aren't always as even as I would like. I decided to hand quilt so I could try the  experience of the quilting process as it was before the invention of sewing machines. I chose the quilt I made last year as a mystery quilt. A mystery quilt was also a new experience for me and although I enjoyed making the quilt I don't think I will do another one. I like to have a good idea of what I'm making and how it will look before I start the quilt. Okay, so you are right I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to things I'm making. It's my hobby and I do it for pleasure so I like to have control over what I'm making. Anyway back to the hand quilting. Here is a photo of the quilt blocks. I can't find the photo of the complete quilt top..

There are 9 blocks and when I started the quilting I started on the middle block. I thought the middle would be the most difficult to do so start there. I also started using a quilting hoop but I found this quite difficult to use. It is easier to quilt on the table. The fabric is now all scrunched and creased where I've held it but so far I haven't caught in any fabric in the stitching by accident. The creased back looks like this.

I pleased with how it looks on the front. I'm using a variegated thread that picks up the colours in the quilt. Here it is from the front but it is difficult to see the stitching on the photo.

 

So this quilt will be a work in progress for a little longer. Meanwhile I needed to get on with the August Chookshed challenge. On my challenge list this was to start the Garden quilt. The person who wanted this quilt had changed their mind and asked for a smaller garden quilt for a child. Now they want the garden quilt again! Friends are really difficult when they ask 'can you make me a quilt' as they seem to change their minds a lot. I will start the quilt and it will probably be this month but as far as the challenge is concerned I have started the Christmas quilt that I am making as a gift. When I posted about this on 17 August I had cut quite a bit of the fabric but I needed to work out the fabric required for the stars. 

This morning I cut all the remaining fabric and started to sew the half square triangles for the stars. I have a lot of the HST's done but they need to be pressed and trimmed. Tomorrow after work I'll finish making the rest of them. Once the stars are made this pattern goes together very quickly. 

I'm enjoying this week. Today in the England we had a bank holiday, tomorrow and Wednesday I'm working, on Thursday I'm on annual leave and I don't work on Friday. A two day working week sounds amazing. Next week I'm busy at work but I've moved my none working day from Friday to Monday. That means that when I finish work on Wednesday evening I have 5 days off. Lots of sewing time and time to work on the next phase of the dolls house. The weather is due to become wet and miserable later in the week, so perfect for getting on with various projects.

Take care

Lyndsey