A slow week and a visit.

The last week was a disaster area as far as working on any of my projects. Even my carry in my handbag cross stitch project didn't get touched. It's still as it was two weeks ago.

 
Having enjoyed a quiet campus over the summer, once again it is vibrant and busy. It's more fun with all the students around but until it settles into the term time rountine it is tiring.

This month is the final month of the Chockshed challenge for 2026. I hope it's going to happen in 2027 as it really does help focus my mind to work on a project each month. My final project this year is the red manor house quilt. I haven't worked on this quilt since the early part of the year. This is an older photo showing the centre of the quilt.

This is the last round I added to the quilt. 

I also made 4 butterfly blocks for the next round but I think these blocks need to be altered as I don't think there is enough definition between the colours. There are some more appliqued blocks to make and the fabric for these has already been pulled from my stash. All I need to do is get sewing.

Tomorrow is a working day and on Friday I'm going to the Knit and Stitch exhibition at Alexandra Palace so there will be no sewing on this project until Saturday.  The Knit and Stitch exhibition is somehing I go to most years. I must check what I need by way of supplies but I don't think I need very much of anything.

Last Friday, John and I visited Blickling Hall in Norfolk to see the last part of the textile exhibition. This part of the exhibition is titled 'Journeys' and has global textiles from Karun Thakar's extensive textile collection. The textiles were in different parts of the house. As we walked up the path to the house we met Shaun the sheep. This is for their Christmas children's activity.

 

In the hallway of the house there were several lengths of fabric hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately the hallway was quite dark to protect the fabrics and it was difficult to get a good photo.

The different rooms played host to fabric from different areas of the world. I liked this piece. There was a neat booklet telling you about the different fabrics but I can't remember where I put it so unfortunately I can't give you any more information.

I really liked these embroidered pieces, they must have taken hours and hours to complete.

The box held a piece of yellow silk that had been embroidered

Beautifully embroidered flowers and birds.

There were items of clothing in the different rooms. I loved this piece

This second dress had some information next to it.

In this room there were also some pieces of jewellry with information about it.

There were several kimonos 

It was fun seeing the fabrics and I particularly liked the embroidery. Unfortunately many of the textiles were difficult to get a good picture especially as there was low light level inside the house.

Having visited the exhibition we enjoyed a cup of tea and a cake in the cafe and I looked in the gift shop and found a book that will be perfect for my older grandson. We were going to stay with John's brother and his wife so we turned on the sat nav as we weren't sure of the best route. We enjoyed our visit with them and caught up on a lot of family chat. On Saturday afternoon we headed home to London.

I'm sad I don't have any sewing or stitching to share but I'm hoping to get back to my various projects as the new academic year settles down. Over the last week my daughter Lucy, who lives with us, has done a major sort out of all her belongings and is getting ready to redecorate her room before starting her new job. We are also redecorating and renovating some areas of the house so I shall be using my projects as a calming mechanism. Now I need to find the instructions for the red manor house quilt and make sure I know exactly where I've got to with this quilt. The sewing starts on Saturday.

Take care

Lyndsey