International Quilting Day

About 6 years ago my friend, Brenda, and myself started an event in Sturminster Marshall, Dorset, to celebrate International Quilting Day, which we were made aware of by visiting a quilting day in Hartley Wintney, near Basingstoke.   This was run by Doris Dove and Diana Baker who used the IQD as an event to bring quilters together and raise funds for charity.  There are now 4 similar quilting days taking place at the same time around the Basingstoke area.

The four years that Brenda and I ran this from 2004 to 2008 we'd raised money for Julia's House (a respite centre for local children in Poole), Macmillan Dorset, CLIC children's cancer charity and the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.  Little did I know with the last one we organised that I would be in Yorkshire by the end of 2008! We both found this too much to organise although other quilters found the day a lot of fun it did take up a lot of time.  However Pauline and Sarah of Pauline's Patchworks of Weymouth took over in 2009 and this year in 2010 they have raised money for Help for Heroes - an organisation that assists our wounded servicepeople from the Afghanistan conflict.  You can read about the day here. Here are the posts about our events in 2007 and 2008

For my part the day for me consisted of going alone as it was a miserable day outside and making a present for my granddaughter who was 1 year old on Tuesday 16th.  I can't show my efforts for now but will share a photo of this in my next post.  (I will, honest.).  That took the morning.

In the afternoon I also made some postcards for the quick mosaic theme in BQLPC postcard group.  I was swapping with 4 others and have received 2 postcards so far.  There is a link to the method that I used on my December Calendar Challenge here but of course the scale is a bit smaller.  It was good that odds and ends with some selvedges that I had could be used, though it didn't make any attempt to dent my scrap bag. Here's a pic on the left of the completed cards, on the right is the reverse of the work in progress. So a great use of the day. No organising anything, just myself.

On Sunday the weather dried up so David and I headed to Keighley and to East Riddlesden Hall, a National Trust site, then just a short drive from there to a model railway exhibition at a community hall in the local park.  After then we headed over towards Hebden Bridge and to Hardcastle Crags, with a mile long walk down to Gibson Mill, which at one time was a cotton mill.  A very popular place with walkers we took a gravel path to the mill then walked back by the river, which with wet weather became a sort of obstacle course, but an adventure nonetheless.

 

 Above is the outside of East Riddlesden Hall and below that is a photo taken from the inside of the house looking out. You can see that window in the top picture above the arch.

This weekend will see us going down south and staying with my parents and catching up with family and friends.  Really looking forward to going "back home".

Before I go though, here's a photo of how our spring bulbs are doing. The previous weekend there were just a few crocuses, this last weekend there were more and joined by a few dwarf daffodils.  During this week the dwarf tulips have made an appearance.  I just love these first signs of spring.

 

A bit of catching up to do.

I've not posted anything recently which means I'm waaayyyy behind in updating my blog.

Last weekend on Saturday I went with Janet to the Quilters Guild Regional Day in Clifford, near Leeds.  The speaker in the morning was Maggie Relph from The African Fabric Shop, describing her journey and the types of fabrics made in West Africa.  It was amazing how much fabric came out of the suitcase on the table beside her.  In the afternoon we had a choice of 3 mini workshops and made a felt pincushion with a chicken appliqued on it.  (Sorry, didn't take a photo). We had a very enjoyable day.

On Sunday David and I went to Brodsworth House and Conisborough Castle, both run by English Heritage, of which we are members.  Both are around Doncaster, so not that far to get to.  A lovely sunny, if cold day and I think a lot of people were taking advantage of the nice weather to out and about as it was quite busy at Brodsworth.

Because of the prolonged winter the snowdrops were still in flower so had a chance to take some photos like the two above surrounding the statues and after some lunch we went on to Consiborough.  After wandering around the ruined castle a chance to go up to the keep, which was recently renovated.

 So as you can see David and I had to take photos of each other just as proof we've been there!  There's a view of the town in the background.

Not quite sure what Blogger is doing to my photos, they're not quite appearing where I want them to! 

Visit to Llangollen

It has been a long time since I last posted and so much to catch up on, where the time goes I don't know.  The weekend before last David and I went for a weekend to Llangollen and Chester as a chance to escape work/weather/whatever and go somewhere different - well not exactly different as we visited the area a few years ago.  Although snowy and cold we found the Llangollen very busy as it was the last weekend of half term and a Thomas the Tank Engine weekend on the railway there.  So here are a few photos of trains.

One is of Thomas (of course)

 In the middle is the lovely scene of the River Dee running alongside the railway.  The last photo is of a tender engine just coming into the station.


We'd also visited the Quiltfest there, which took place at the local museum and at Plas Newydd, just a short walk out of the town.  I managed to take a few pics of the quilts shown at Plas Newydd, which housed quilts of the Contemporary group of the Quilters Guild.    Here are some photos of a few of the quilts that I took.

 

The metamorphosis of a frog by Joanna O'Neil - David liked this one and wanted me to take the photo.

This one I liked by Gillian Travis of her studio (I remembered taking photos of her shoes and the flowers in the Festival of Quilts which are to the right of this photo).

 

And this quilt made us laugh.  Its in 3 layers with holes in it made by Irene McWilliam, inspired by "Hole in the Ground" by Bernard Cribbins, and trying to remember how the song goes.  After getting home David downloaded the song. Next to the quilt is a stained glass window placed over a hollow in the wall.

As we made our way towards Wrexham and the hotel we could not resist stopping at Thomas Telfords Pontcysyllte Aquaduct, where you are so high in the valley over the River Dee with just a narrow path alongside the canal and things look so small, like the football players in the field below, they look like Subbuteo footballers!

And there's a barge along the canal. (See there's still some snow in the distance)

So that was our day in Llangollen, we went onto Chester on Sunday before going home.

Last week was my last week at Wakefield Council and also received cards from the latest postcard swap which I'll post very soon.