Found Objects

It was a public holiday on Monday and that afternoon was spent making postcards for the Found Objects swap.  I described how I made the first postcard in my posting here


So after the prototype that I made in my last post, here are the results of the 6 to send

The washers made the reverse of the cards a bit of a problem for fusing fabric on the back so I took a paper bag (one of those fancy printed bags) that had some fabric that I bought which was big enough to provide backs for all 6 postcards and is another found item.

I liked working in this sort of liberated way and I may be making some more.

Catch Up Blog Post

I've got 2 weeks of catching up on the blog and it wasn't until I uploaded my photos onto the Mac that I realised I ought to update this.

A couple of weeks ago David and I took ourselves to Lulworth Cove in the Purbecks.  Would you believe that all the years we've lived in Dorset we'd never been there?  So here are some pics, the day was a mixed bag- some cloud, some sunshine - but a relaxing day.

 These rock formations are the Stairwell Caves, where the see has worn away the rock and left this standing out at sea

 This is the Cove and we sat on the hill to have our lunch

We did try to get to Durdle Door which is a very steep climb, which beat David so we gave up on that one.  The area is so lovely I think we'll be back in there again perhaps on the Durdle Door side.

Last Saturday my friend Penny and I went to the Joseph Weld Hospice day centre in Dorchester for a small quilt exhibition, which was organised by one of the staff who works there.  She belongs to a small group of quilters in Eype, just the other side of Bridport, who made some lovely quilts.  I only took a few pics (only two, that is so unlike me!) but Penny took loads.  I did like the look of the crazy star quilts and was working out how they were made.  A few days later in the post Penny sent me some instructions, looks like I may have to have a go at them.

But I did buy some fabrics, a couple of batik quarters that took my fancy

Afterwards there was a short visit to Pauline's Patchworks at Poundbury where I bought a couple of scrapbags and a small piece of Osnaburg fabric.  I've got plenty of scraps of my own, but other peoples scraps are different, besides it would be rude not too!

 Last Sunday the family were over for barbeque and it was lovely to be outside in the sun.  The grandchildren enjoying a paddling pool, while the grown ups were playing a train trivia game.  I think a good day was had by all, albeit a bit hectic at times.


Last week I've been working on the Jelly Roll quilt which I will be able to show soon, not just yet.  Suffice to say that it is basically quilted and the binding is put on.  Just a few finishing touches and a label, so almost there.

Another thing I've been working on has been a postcard swap on the theme of "Found Object" and trying to do something a little quirky. Here's the first postcard (which I may keep as a sample)

My found objects are a pack of metal washers that were lurking in my sewing box, which are the round items on the flower petals.  I covered with perle thread using buttonhole stitch, sewed the flowers (fabric ones that are used for papercrafts) and added a small sequin in the middle.  The stem and petals were made of a piece of wire.  The card (and the vase) is pelmet vilene of which I have plenty of scraps with years of postcard making.  The vilene takes transfer paint very well, so I had a lot of fun ironing on bits of paper with transfer paint on which some interesting effects. Even the lace on the "vase" had transfer paint on.

Here are some cards I've received this week from the swap

from Jacquie, Heather and Alice.  Jacquie's was was various finds trapped under a clear plastic top.  Heather's was made from scraps left over from a workshop and Alice's had buttons that were found on a church clean up.  One can imagine the congregation of her church clasping clothes that won't do up because they don't have buttons!

Tomorrow will see us with the grandsons (and their parents of course) for a Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine at the Watercress Line.  Really looking forward to that.  Have a lovely weekend.

Another Yorkshire Post

Part two of our trip to Yorkshire and this time we were heading for Leeds and Wakefield.  Whilst we were living in Yorkshire we often went to Wakefield and I had a couple of temp jobs there, so a return visit.

First stop in Leeds was at Roundhay Park, which we never got to when we were in Yorkshire.   A lovely great Victorian park to walk around with it's mansion house and nearby lake and fountain (there is another larger lake in the park) and going out of there and across the road by Butterfly World was an Italian style garden and a further rose garden.  But the gardens we wanted to see were the specialist gardens which had been shown in recent years at the Chelsea Flower Show, so back across the road and we found them

First was called Monet's garden, with archways to walk through to get to the other garden displays and the bottom photo shows just a part of the flower beds.

And just to prove we were here - there's David.  The weather was really drizzly, so that's why the photos don't look as bright.  I have found that Roundhay Park have 360 degree photos to look at here
though the gardens are more established now that when they were taken. They were fabulous gardens and pleased we took the time to visit them.

It was on to Wakefield and to see The Hepworth Wakefield gallery which opened May last year, by which time we'd moved back down South.  On our travels through we'd seen the construction of this curious looking building on the banks of the River Calder.  It seemed strange that some parts of the area were smartened up to revitilise the area, but some parts look neglected. 

A group of Barbara Hepworth's sculptures with the river behind.  There is a road bridge and you can see in the middle of that a building just sticks up above that.  More about that in a bit.

 Main entrance

An outside meeting area.

View from the road (sorry I tried to get the van out of the picture!)

Photography can be taken in some areas which answered my questioning about the sloping roofs on the building.  It was to direct the light in angles into the galleries.

These were casts for her sculptures, the one above being that for (I think) Peter Jones in Oxford Street.  I'm pleased we found time to visit this and spent quite a bit of time here.  It's was buzzing with people, not just a quiet gallery. 

Across the road from the Hepworth was a building that had us wondering for ages what it was.  The other side of the road bridge is an old bridge with what looked like a small church, which it turns out it is, called the Chantry built into the old bridge.  It was even painted by Turner (I'll try and search the link to that) more about it here.

Turner painted the chapel with the spire of Wakefield Cathedral in the background and you can just about see it next to the lamp post on the road bridge.  It is still used occasionally for services.

A nice day was rounded of by a fish and chip dinner at the Wetherby Whaler in Wakefield, one of our favourite places to eat.

A Yorkshire Post

With David's job he has to visit the company once a month in South Yorkshire and he would normally leave home very early one morning, stay overnight and return after working the next day.  This time we decided to do something different with his Yorkshire 'run' and stay for a weekend and take a day's holiday before he worked on Tuesday when we returned home in the evening.

We booked a hotel further north between York and Thirsk so travelled up stopping at Weedon (see my last post) which besides Bramble Patch, is also a convenient place to stop with pubs across the cross roads of 2 main roads and just a short distance from the M1.  The next day we decided to explore the Ryedale area and started with going to Thirsk, a very pretty market town, though for some reason never took photos.  Then our tour around old ruins Byland Abbey was not far.

I was fascinated by the way the plants have rooted themselves.  The middle photo shows some campanula (purple) flowers as well a yellow daisy like flowers which were quite a contrast to the stone walls.

And then I took photos of the tiled floors, looks very patchwork-y

Byland Abbey was built for a Cistercian order of monks who fled from Barrow in Cumbria in the 11th century. The abbey was destroyed after the reformation.  We then went onto the better known Rievaulx Abbey, where a different order of monks had set up their community. Again this is also a ruin, but nonetheless an impressive sight

After exploring and David taking more photos than I did we had lunch in the tea room there before going to Helmsley Castle.  Oh dear, more old ruins!  By this time we were trying to dodge some showers so some of these were taken while it was raining or afterwards

 These sculptures were outside the castle

 A ruined bailey tower

Most of the main building was intact, apart from the tower on the left.

 These keys were in a glass case (hence the reflection of the flash) but I liked the shapes on them

I rather liked the design above the fireplace in the great hall.

We had a wander around Helmsley town, enjoyed a lovely ice cream, locally made.  We then made our way back to the hotel and passed through a storm and really heavy rain but on our way we found a sign that said "Model Railway" through a village, Gilling.  David drove down this little lane until we came across what looked like an old school building or it could be the village hall.  The outdoor railway is run by the Rydale Society of Model Engineers and I found there website here.  There was a party in the hall and the children were offered rides and there was one driver with a goods train

What a find in the middle of the countryside!  Even the rain stopped when we got there.