Castles and Halls

Last Saturday David and I were out and about again, trolling off down the M1 to Hardwick Hall, near Chesterfied, Derbyshire.  This was once the home of Bess of Hardwick, quite a character in Elizabethan times.  She was married 4 times, had 8 children, though 6 survived and amassed quite a wealth.  She had one Hall built but it was too small, then had another built near the first one just 3 years later.  Over the years the old hall was dismantled so only the remains are standing, but it does make the building more interesting.  We then went and explored the new hall and there was quite a bit to see.

We think that she saw herself a bit like royalty as the Great Hall has two throne like chairs at the end so she could receive visitors!  There are numerous woven tapestries that are in need of renovation, some of which were a collection which she purchased from the son of a gentleman that died to pay his debts.  When she found it had his coat of arms, she bargained for a discount.  So here are a few pics of Hardwick Hall, most of them will be on my facebook page.

Top is an actress depicting Bess of Hardwick, telling her story.  Second is the old Hall.  Third is the new Hall looking from ruins of the old.  The bottom photo there are 3 ladies dressed in Elizabethan dress which they made themselves from authentic patterns.

And castles?
When I was in Christchurch, the nearby village of Highcliffe has a castle which I went to visit one afternoon.  Having been built by the 3rd Earl of Bute it had a chequered history and once was resided by Gordon Selfridge, founder to Selfridges department store.  There was fire damage in the 80s and this was in a sorry state, but in recent years it has and continues to be restored.  I went there to see a textile exhibition, a few pics of which are on Maggie Grey's blog, as she is one of the exhibitors but unfortunately it didn't allow photography.  However I can share some photos of the Castle itself and it's view to the Isle of Wight.

Top is the stained glass window in the great hall. Next is a view out of the window ( I loved the design of that window and couldn't resist taking a photo. Thirdly the main entrance to the castle.  Bottom shows a very misty view between the trees out to the Isle of Wight, you can just see the Needles.

Just about catching up with my blog posts and I am sewing.  Will have something to show soon, promise.

Still catching up....

Since I returned from Christchurch, I've made one postcard which I should have done before I went down there but just plain run out of time.  It is sometimes difficult to fit things in when I work full time, but do my best.  So here is a photo of a birthday postcard for another Sue in the BQL Postcard Group. I hope that she received this ok as I haven't heard anything from her.

My Mum is doing very well after her operation and just less than four weeks she has now progressed to a walking stick from a zimmer frame so good progress indeed.  So well and truly on the mend.

On my way back to Hemsworth about halfway into my journey is The Bramble Patch, in Weedon, near Northampton, where I just had to buy some fabric (well you can't go to a quilt shop and not buy!).  I could not resist their Union Jack cushion kit, and Union Jack cushions are all the rage at present.


On my first day back in Yorkshire David and I went to the RHS garden in Harlow Carr, near Harrogate. Just a lovely place to wander.  It had a lovely display of tulips and a wonderful Alpine plant house, which I had to go and see twice.  I think I may go back again during the summer to see how the gardens are doing as the year progresses.  There are more photos on my facebook page, so go over and have a look, but here are just a few of the photos that I took.

The delightful show of tulips in one of the gardens.

 Some of the alpine plants, varieties of Sempervivum in the Alpine House.

This lovely angel sculpture was one of a number of metal sculptures around the garden.

There were some lovely potted displays around the Gardens Through the Ages display.

 

And this was also in the 1970's garden in the Gardens Through the Ages.


Today we went out again to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire which was where Bess of Hardwick lived.  Fascinating history and will show pictures of that soon.

It's been a while...

...since I last posted anything on my blog.  On 24 April I had news from my sister that our Mum had a fall and was taken to hospital in Poole.  My sister whizzed down south from Slough and stayed down in Christchurch with our dad whilst Mum had an emergency hip operation and recovered in hospital.  She was bought home on 1st May.  Wendy stayed that first week, then I took 2 weeks off work and went down to stay with them.  Now this week I'm back up North and back to work whilst Wendy sees to things in Christchurch for a fourth week.   Fortunately Mum is recovering very well and at this point can do a lot for herself now and we're pleased with how things are going.

So here are some pics of what I've been up to before going down south.  When I got the call about Mum, David and I went to Sheffield for the day forgetting about the World Snooker tournament that was taking place at the Crucible Theatre.  When getting to the square where the Crucible is there were loads of people standing and staring at the match taking place on the giant screen outside the theatre.  I was the match with Steve Davis versus John Higgins.  I was more fascinated by the topiaries either side of the entrance of snooker player and table!

Opposite the theatre, in the Winter Gardens where there were snooker related events taking place, I saw a couple of small sculptures amongst the greenery there.  This colourful rhinoceros  and also a small waterfall created by the steel flower with petals that drooped when full of water.

I did managed some postcards before I went away and posted them off to the Teenage Cancer Trust (see my last post) in all I've sent 10 postcards to them and they'll be sold before the end of the month.

Visiting and a Visitor

Perhaps should be the other way around, but doesn't sound quite right.  Weekend before last we had a visit from my daughter Sarah, who was taking a break from her studies (she took an exam yesterday) to stay with us.  We went on a shopping trip to Leeds.  Not much shopping done, but nice to have time to browse around the shops and a lovely sunny day too.  On Sunday David, Sarah and I visited the National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield and had the chance to have a tour in the mine itself which was really brilliant.  On the surface there was a lot more to see and think we may go there again sometime soon to see the bits we missed.  Anyway before going underground we had our photo taken just to prove we've been there, taken by museum's photographer.

As for the visiting, we went to stay at my brother-in-law's in Surrey last weekend as David, Peter, my son Alex and a few friends went to Farnham for Beerex on the Friday.  David and I also visited my sister, other brother-in-law and nephew on Saturday in Burnham, near Slough.  The skies were very quiet due to planes being grounded, really unusual.  We enjoyed a barbeque in the warm late afternoon sun, which was lovely.

Before heading back up north again on Sunday we all got together for Sunday lunch in Chandlers Ford to have a late celebration of my son Jamie's birthday (which was on the 16th).  Here's a pic of Jamie with his wife Carly, not liking having her photo taken as she's usually the other side of her camera. 

It was a lovely weekend but work beckoned (shame :o(( ) so had to go back. 

As for sewing, there hasn't been none of late, so must get back into practice.

A day of sewing

It's great to have a decent slice of time to sew and today, weatherwise was not supposed to be a nice day, but although cloudy it stayed dry (I was hoping for rain!).  I set to with a quilt for Freddie as the other 3 grandchildren have got quilts and I saw February's Popular Patchwork which had a quilt called "Woof", named after the Makower fabrics that the quilt was made of and here's a photo of the magazine article.

Having mislaid the magazine a while I then phoned the supplier who made up the kits and it was no surprise that they had sold out.  To buy the quantities of fabrics to make it cost so much more - so I bought the panel fabric from Hobbycraft when I went to the branch in Leeds and chose fabrics from mine and my Mum's fabric stashes that would go.  To my surprise I managed to get 12 blocks done and are now arranged on the bed before choosing the final arrangement. I'm quite pleased how they turned out so the magazine was the starting point for making my own version of this than following the actual kit.

I also made some postcards for a charity that is raising funds for a Teenage Cancer Unit in Norfolk.  Another BQL Postcard group member asked for some postcards a little while ago so here are some more to go, mostly made from the scrap bag pieces. (Not that it's made a dent in it!).

Yesterday being a better of these past two days, David and I ventured to a steam railway in Leeds, Middleton Railway in Hunslet.  There was a short line with a small terminus, just a platform, in Middleton Park a large wooded parkland.  So really it was a case it just went there and back again.  There was quite a good little museum with locally made engines, including one made in the year we were born, nice to know we're old enough to be museum pieces, even at our age!!

We then went on to Temple Newsam in Leeds, a large hall with vast grounds and a farm.  We visited the house but not allowed to take photos so here's a link to find out about it.  The house itself took over an hour and half to get round and that wasn't all of it and we didn't get to see the farm either, but that can wait for another time.

So that was it for our Easter weekend, back to the grind tomorrow.

This and that

Last weekend we went down to Dorset to stay with my parents while we caught up with friends and family.  It was great to go down south and after so long (since Christmas!).  David and I visited our sons and their families and went to a soft play centre near Chandlers Ford and 3 of the little ones enjoyed it and the youngest, Freddie slept through most of it!  We gave Isobel (who recently celebrated her 1st birthday her present which included a little rabbit with a quilt and pillow.

Above is a photo of the birthday girl with her Dad, Alex.

Carly gave me a photo frame with a collection of photos for Mothers Day.

Back home again things have been busy back at work and now that it's Easter Weekend I ought to get busy on some stuff, including a quilt for Freddie.  Got fabric now must start to get it sewn.  It seems that half this long weekend has been taken up with working :o((.  But never mind, the weather is set to be windy and rainy so I could get down to some sewing.

The past couple of weeks I've received postcards from the other four swappers in the quick mosaic theme.  A lovely colourful selection of postcards and here's a photo of them here.  I won't be taking part in another swap until June.

And finally, the chicken pincushion that I made a the recent Regional Day, but hadn't photographed until now.  Doesn't it look sweet?

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.