September Happenings

 Last week was an eventful one for the country as we said goodbye to The Queen and hello (in the unfortunate circumstances) to a new King.  May she rest in peace.

The picture above is of a pendant that I had to celebrate the Silver Jubilee in 1977 (I was 22 years old then).  Who knew then there would be further jubilee celebrations for the 50th, 60th and 70th years of her reign. 

It was also my sister’s 60th birthday on the 8th September too and we enjoyed an afternoon tea to celebrate, little knowing the sad news we were to hear later.  By coincidence, her husband was born on Coronation Day in 1953. 

I have started working on a Christmas project, it doesn’t look much at the moment. After some years since making a clown I found myself making another. The main body bit is done, but there are lots of bits yet to make.  I’ve given myself a deadline for the end of September. The clown pattern is from a leaflet designed by Jean Greenhowe.

I’ve gone back to making ATC’s and the theme for September is All the Fun of the Fair, and I made a Ferris Wheel one. Usually I make two at a time, one to keep and one to swap, but this time made just the one and I did remember to take a photo. I tried the sign writing, not sure if that worked or not.

So still keeping busy.

Other Explorations in the West Midlands

We stayed in Bromsgrove - to the south west of Birmingham, which gave us easy access to the M42 motorway and other attractions around the area.  On our way to Bromsgrove we visited the Forge Needle Museum in nearby Redditch.  The area was once important for making needles and  there were a lot of companies based in the area.  The museum is on the site of the last mill and is based in what is now a country park.

There are two buildings next to each other - this main one is now used for the displays of needles, pins and fishing flies (because of the same processes as needle production). There were elaborate displays of needles of various sizes and uses, from really tiny ones for cornea grafts to the largest one used for sewing mattresses.  A lot were is display frames like the ones below (and there were a lot of these) which company representatives would use to show to customers

And I really liked the displays of knitting and crochet needle gauges.  Although I didn't take any photos of them, there was a temporary display of Royal Enfield motorbikes, which were made in the Enfield area of the town.  The motorbikes are now made in India.

The next day we visited Gayden, home of Jaguar cars, Land Rovers and the British Motor Museum. so here are a few photos from there.  As we get older there are a lot of cars that we remember from childhood. Others are before then and there was even a life sized Lego Mini!

While I was at the Festival of Quilts David explored another couple of places.  A motor museum in Coventry city centre and also the Birmingham Bus Museum.

Before we left Bromsgrove and moved onto our next destination, Dudley, we visited the Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings.  This is a volunteer run museum open at weekends and is outdoors and they house local buildings that would have disappeared due to development.  Its also home to the national collection of telephone boxes, who knew there was such a thing.  They also had a small old telephone exchange, which a volunteer was explaining how that worked.  So a quirky but interesting place to visit.

Old Tudor chimney pots

A post mill 

There was knitting and crochet interest in the toll house.

The old tin hut chapel

Public phone signs
 

And a Police Phone Box and no, its not like the Tardis inside!

We moved onto a National Trust property, Hanbury Hall, house and walled garden and despite the cloudy weather it didn't rain! 

These small buildings at each corner of the wall had these lovely glass panels in (below)

The gardens were a bit sparse, due to the recent very hot, dry weather.

 

When in Dudley we stayed at a business park, which had nearby restaurants and cinema and came across this sculpture dedicated to James Whale, a film director from the area, who produced Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, amongst other films.

Our last stop before heading home was to visit another NT site, Wightwick (pronounced Wittick) Manor near Wolverhampton, which was the home Sir Geoffrey Mander (of Manders Brothers Paints) an industrialist, MP and art collector.  There is a collection of pre-Raphaelite art and the design of the house itself is very eclectic. A volunteer conducted an architectural tour around the outside of the house which was interesting.  I only took one photo (I think David kept taking pics!) of the outside 

And I took some of the collection in another building.  But it is worth a visit if you are in the area.

So that was our trip to the Midlands.  At the end of this month we are visiting North Yorkshire and will be staying in Knaresborough.  I'm looking forward to visit Skipton and Yarndale wool festival but will be seeing other places that we haven't yet explored.

September and more FoQ Quilts

 

I liked my little quilt so much that it’s my monthly marker.  The weather has suddenly cooled as though it’s decided to become autumnal.  The bout of Covid is easing and yesterday (Saturday) the lateral flow test came back negative so I’m not infectious and go out into the world.

For this post I’m looking back to the competition quilts at the Fesitval of Quilts (gosh, that was two weeks ago now!).  I enjoy walking amongst these and the aisles weren’t so busy that I could photograph easily.

The photo below shows just how quiet things were Friday lunchtime as I walked back into the hall

On Friday I explored the competition quilts until I discovered where the winning quilts for each category were (even though I had the guidebook!).  

This quilt made me laugh

This was made by Janet Bottomley when we were encouraged to have a third Covid jab before Christmas and she used Christmas fabrics with this bold red lettering. Another of her quilts was this one in the Modern section of Improv Triangles ( a method designed by Nicholas Ball) called The Wrong Trousers. This used recycled fabrics and looked really effective.

In the Traditional section there were 3 quilts made with the same pattern, Green Tea and Sweet Beans by Jen Kingwell, though one was in the modern section.  Confusing?  Anyway I photographed two of them.

This one was sewn by Belinda Jeffries. The one below was in the Traditional section and by Sharon Appleton.  I'm wondering if there may have been a sew a long, or challenge to make these quilts for quite a few to appear at once?

There were two more of this design by other quilters, so this is a popular pattern and I think the two photos show how different fabric choices can change the look of a quilt design.

I loved this art quilt by Marianne Mohandes called just being and looking at the photo there an outline of the Isle of Wight.  Different dye techniques and prints along with the swallows in this lovely quilt.

And this one of texture called Sculting with Scraps, by Sue Kibbler

A Contemporary quilt and first in its class was this lovely blue quilt by Sheena Norquay

The second photo is a close up and also I take a photo of the quilt number as I forget who's made what!

Here's another close up of this quilt, fabulous, isn't it.

Another winning quilt in the art section was this MiLioner, by Sylaquiltartist. I'm guessing from the hexagons that the Pasacaglia technique was used as a background for this gorgeous quilt.

And then there was this exquisite traditional quilt.  Sorry, I didn't take a photo of the label next to it, so I can't credit the maker.

I loved how this the contemporary quilt winner worked out the shapes for these blocks to give perspective.  This was made by Helen Butcher and called New Perspectives.

And myself and some ladies were intrigued by this quilt - was this a mosaic quilt or not? It was difficult to tell, but very clever. By Maria Ragusini, showing the two Muses, Tragedy and Comedy.

And I liked this patriotic group quilt organised by Suzanne Campion, called Jubilee Medallion Quilt which features 115 Liberty fabric blocks from several countries.

And this was another patriotic quilt, which I think was in the Novice Quilt category, but I didn't take a photo of the label 

This quilt, below, is a sentiment shared by quilters that just because one can sew, it doesn't mean you have to sew everything.  A line has to be drawn somewhere...  This quilt was made by Mary Mayne and called Don't Ask!

Another funny one was this by The Quilt Goddesses, called Britannia.  I love the naughty one who's only there for the cake!!

Of course theres the displays of the quilted creations, like this replica of a Kenwood Chef mixer and yes, there is a beater inside, though it can't be seen from the photo.

Quilted vessels

And this lovely doll with quilt, called the Crazed Quilter

So this was my first overview.  I'll update with another post and then of our other explorations in the West Midlands.