A visit to Dyrham Park and house.

Last week was busy at work and by the time I got home I was tired so very little sewing, embroidery, knitting or other craft activities happened. I did do a little work on the embroidered tablecloth and I also created a couple of 'flowers' for the Grandmothers garden quilt. I re-read the instructions for the goldwork seahorse ready to start stitching and then put it away again as I started yawning and had to head to bed.

On Tuesday I had a cardiology appointment. When I saw the cardiologist last December he said I either had heart failure or heart arrythmia and he also ordered various tests. My appointment was to find out the results. The MRI of my heart showed it is fit and healthy and no blocked or partially blocked vessels. The other tests showed my heart was now performing really well.

On Friday John and I set out for our weekend away in Somerset. We had decided to visit Dyrham Park before going to our hotel. Dyrham Park is a National Trust Property a little outside Bath. The drive down the motorway was good but it did keep on raining. However the rain stopped as we neared our destination. We walked down the hill from the car park and this was our view of the house.

If you want ot find out information about the house and park please click Here  As we walked down to the house I took a couple of photos. I liked this dead tree and if you look carefully you will be able to make out a deer a little to the right of the bottom of the trubk.

This dry stone wall had been recently repaired.

and this cute wooden rabbit.

We had decided to visit Dyrham Park because it currently has the Journey's exhibition of Asafo flags. The National Trust has teamed up with Karun Thakar, a renown collector and has three parts to the exhibition in three different National Trust properties. We had already visited Osterley House and seen the wedding shawls. At Dyrham Park it was Asafo flags which are vibrant hand appliqued textiles created by the Fante people of coastal Ghana. Originally these flags served as regimental war flags for local military companies.  The flags are folk-art pieces that bring together Akan proverbs, historic allegories, and European heraldic traditions.

It was fun tracking the flags down. There was also time to look at rooms in the house. I was fascinated by this wall paper in one of the rooms. In fact it is leather with gold patterns covering the walls. It made the room rather dark and while the concept of leather wall paper is interesting I think sticking with fabric or paper may have been a better option.

In another room there were two tapestries which were made in Mortlake,London.

I liked the Japanese tea table.

This huge flag was hanging in the stairwell.

Near the staircase there was a door into a hallway and this scene met our eyes. In fact it is a painting and it tells the story of love or lack of love.

Beyond the stairs in the picture you can see a man wearing a hat and across from him a women. He is the suitor wanting to marry the women but she has a different suitor in mind. You can't see it in the photo but through the window on the right you can see a man's face. He is the ladies preferred suitor. You can also see a cat with an arched back and this is used to show the women as very upset or angry. The caged bird is also ready to fly away as the door is open and again this is said to depict the woman. The volenteer in this room was very excited to tell us the story of the painting..

Here are some more of the flags.

This small double bed was on view in a room with beautiful Flemish tapestries.

Here is some information about the tapestries.

A few more flags. I didn't take photos of all of them.

We also visited the kitchens and the diary.

The diary had decorative tiles.

This view of the house was from the other side and this is the side where the famiy rooms were.

The tour of the house was interesting but not the most exciting stately home I've visited. We visited the shop but didn't buy anything and then we had an uphill walk to take us back to the car park.

We made it back to the car before the rain started and we headed to our hotel.

On Saturday we visited the American Museum in Bath. I'll tell you about that visit tomorrow.

Take care

Lyndsey

Sewing blocks

Having taken Missy and Twiglet out for their morning walk, and I'd tidied the kitchen after breakfast it was time to do a little sewing. Yesterday I cut out another block for the frog quilt, appropriately nammed Hopping block.

Before I started to sew these blocks together I decided to cut out another pair of blocks. That way I would have the pair of blocks ready to sew in the week in case I had time. This time the block has a lot of triangles in the mix. These blocks involved 4 shades of green and by the time I finished the cutting out I was feeling a little weary. This block is named Leap Frog block.

Having cut out the next two blocks I got on with making the hopping block. I tend to chain piece starting with the larger blcok and then the pieces for the smaller block. I know I was tired when I cut the pieces for this block but I was a little annoyed with myself when I realised I'd cut two pieces incorrectly. Fortunately I had enough fabric to recut the pieces. Having made up the block I am very happy with how they turned out. These are really pretty blocks.

I decided to put the pieces for the Leap frog block away to make up another day. I still have two more blocks, one of each size to cut and then I can sew the quilt together.

Having finished sewing for the day I went out to the garden. I had some seedlings I needed to pot into larger pots, hollyhocks and foxgloves. The seedlings just need to be a bit bigger before they are planted into the graden. John and I also did some tidying, starting with cutting back some ivy that had come through the fence from next door. I don't want the ivy to take over areas of the garden so it needed cutting back. There were also roses needing dead heading and we found a few strawberries already ripe and juicy on the strawberry plants. We quickly shared the strawberries, mmm delicious.

This evening I had intended to do some goldwork but I was feeling quite tired so I put it to one side. I'd done a little embroidery on the tablecloth this morning and didn't feel like picking it up again so instead I read a couple of chapters of the book I'm reading. I need to check the authors name and the title before II add it to the post. It's by an author I've never read before. I like the style its written in andI'm enjoying it.

Tomorrow Is a work day but I have no meetings to worry about, so I can catch up with my preparations for the new intake due to start in September. This coming week is busy with student assessments and I have a cardiology appointment. I'm hoping that will be fine. 

Take care

Lyndsey

 

Friday Fun

If you have been visiting for a while you'll know that I work four days a week, Monday to Thursday and that Friday is my fun day, my catch up on projects day. I had a few household chores to do, change the beds, feeding the washing machine, ironing etc, but once they were completed the day was mine to play with.

I set my machine up and pulled out some of my scrap fabrics. I had decided to sew scraps together into 8 inch squares. I wasn't going to spend a lot of time playing with the scraps but I wanted to get a few blocks made. I ended up with 4 completed blocks and several in various states of completion.

I actually found sewing the scraps together much more stressful than I thought. My brain had told me 'don't worry about being too careful of what you use, just get scraps sewn together.' I was using some of my larger scraps rather than tiny bits. I enjoyed making the red block as I loved putting pieces that had been cut at an angle into the mix. I'm happy with these finished blocks and as I said I have several in varying stages of completion. I'll do some sewing on these blocks whenever I set my machine up.

I took some time to cut the next blocks for the frog quilt. This was quite straight forward. There are two blocks of each pattern, one large and one small. This block needs tan and two different greens. I'll get these sewn together today or tomorrow.

Once these are sewn together I'll have 2 more blocks to make both with a large block and a small one. The two remaining blocks need tan and 4 different greens.These will be cut out by the end of today.

Yesterday evening I spent some time sewing on the tablecloth. John was doing some model making at the table and I joined him. It was very companiable. We were both busy with our own hobby and we hardly spoke but it was that peaceful calm. No interruptions from our two dogs or the phone.

This morning I decided I needed to do a little more work on the dollhouse. The house has a basement and I needed to add the steps from street level to the garden. I had been putting this off as I needed to cut out some wood to make it all fit properly. In the end it didn't take long to do and I'm hoping the glue is now all dry and I have a firm join.

Having sort out the steps I decided I needed to make a start on the goldwork embroidery since this is my June Chookshed challenge. Inside the pack the company have put in a sheet with some others of their designs. If I enjoy making the seahorse I'm planning on makinig one or two of the designs in my goldwork book rather than buying another kit.

There are clear instruction for making the seahorse goldwork, starting with a list of kit contents and what isn't provided. 

Before I could start I had to identify a small embroidery hoop. The instructions said to wrap the ring with masking tape to ensure the fabric doesn't slip. Tick job done. Before putting the fabric in the hoop I needed to iron the it and the lining fabric.

 

I needed to trace the seahorse outline and then stitch round the tracing to transfer it to the fabric.  This was tedious and getting the tracing paper off the stitching was even worse. I know from the only time I've done gold work before, probably about 40 plus years ago, we used the window technique to transfer the pattern to the fabric using 2H or 4H pencils.

Anyway the hoop is all ready to start stitching and I may do that later this evening. It all depends on what we decide to do, watch a film, do a jigsaw puzzle or maybe go to the pub to meet up with our friends. I hope you are having a good day and the weather is being kind to you. At present it's raining here in London so staying home and watching a film tonight sounds the best option.

Take care

Lyndsey.

Welcome to June.

Welcome to June and a little later in the month we'll be celebrating the first day of summer. Last week was very hot here in London but today was a lot cooler but still warm. Unfortunately it wasn't that warm in the office. I asked for the air con in our office to be turned down a little but it took about an hour before it felt a comfortable temperature. I dislike the first day back at work after a holiday as it seems to take a while to get back into the swing of things. Being back at work meant I had to get up earlier so I could fit walking Missy and Twiglet into the morning routine. Having walked them a little later in the morning whilst on holiday they weren't impressed with the earlier start to the day.

I was interested to find out what number was called for the chookshed challenge this month. It is number 7 and my number 7 is to try some gold work. As part of my Christmas present John bought me a gold work kit.

I did some gold work many years ago, too many to remember, and I really enjoyed learning how to do it. However that is the only time in my life I have done any and I now need to get my head back into how to work it. Fortunately I have a good book that goes through the whole process so I'll let you know how I get on.

Before I can start I need to find the right size embroidery hoop and also trace out the pattern. I'll do that tomorrow evening, tonight I just want to chill out.

I uploaded a photo of Little Moreton Hall to my last post. This is a National Trust property in Cheshire. not only is it a tudor half timbered manor house, that has a moat and a knot garden but it is deliciously wonky.

The main reason for the hall to be so wonky is said to be due to the weight of the Long Gallery on the top floor. Causes such as being built on marshy ground have been shown to be wrong. Another culpret could be the settlement of the building following the addition of the Long gallery. Wonky or not it has stood for more than 500 years.

The house was owned by the Moretons, who were a wealthy family. The family bought up significant amounts of land following the black death. The building was started by William Moreton in 1504 and was built in stages and completed a hundred years later. 

The house is built around the courtyard. One of the guides, dressed in character was happy to pose in front of the house.

The Great Hall of the building, was used for entertaining.

The bay windows had beautiful patterns created by the lead work and some of the panes had coloured glass.

The next room is the Parlour, known as the Little Parlour in surviving 17th-century documents. The Great Hall, the Parlour and  Withdrawing Room are structurally part of the original building. The wooden panelling is a later addition to the rooms and behind them the original painted panelling was discovered in 1976. The decoration consists of painted imitations of marble and inlay but also Biblical scenes, some of which were painted directly onto the plaster and others on paper that was then pasted to the wall. The paintings tell the story of Susanna and the Elders from the Apocrypha.

The chimney piece was rather fanciful with the arms of Elizabeth 1

In places in the house there was evidence of marks made by burning to ward off evil spirits. These were made with a candle or tapers. 

There is a small chapel for the family.

We climbed the spiral staircase up to the long gallery. This would have provided space to exercise on wet or bad weather days. As you can see the floor is very uneven. The far end of the long gallery had a large window,

and at the other end there was this pretty plaster work.

Just off the long gallery there was a small quiet room to one side with another large chimney piece.

We made our way down one floor to the bedroom. This had a reconstruction bed and cradle. To one side there was an indoor privy which dropped straight into the moat.

I was quite relieved when we finally made our way back downstairs. The spiral staircase and wonky steps in places were a little too precarious for my liking.

Having investigated the house, we made our way to the tea room to have coffee and cake before our drive back to London. We would have liked to have walked around the moat and garden but we needed to be home within a time frame, so this house and garden will be on our list to revisit the next time we are in the area.

The journey home was good and we didn't get too held up by the major road works as we drove around Birmingham. 

I think May has been our best month so far this year for visits and activities. We haven't got a lot booked for June but we are away one of the weekends. 

I now have half an hour before I need to head to bed so I'm going to do a little stitching on my tablecloth.

Take care

Lyndsey