May at Barrington Court gardens

Another beautiful sunny day, but with north winds, which is a shame.

The house at Barrington Court is closed for repairs, but it is a pleasure to take a walk through the grounds.

Information office thatched roof being repaired: 

Back at home - flowers of different kind;

production line of hexie flowers for the next border of Butterfly's Ball quilt

 and all 36 flowers needed for Crojo blanket.

And now something completely different:

The two most important men in my life, at the start of this year's Mendip Vintage &Classic Tour, driving 47 years old Holden Kingswood (some of our Australian friends might remember Holden cars - apparently it was the "car which got Australia moving")

My son bought the car many years ago in Perth, Australia, at the start of his year long trip around the country, eventually finishing in Melbourne. When it was time for him to come home, the car came too, loaded onto a container ship for a long journey to England. 

It is has been restored to its full glory, now taking part in the Tour every year. The Tour finishes on the green, in front of the Wells Cathedral, so the public can stroll around and have a good look at the various cars.

There is a YouTube video from this year, which you can see here:

 

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

this and that, and teddy bears too

At last, after a month of rain, we might have some dry days.

We cleared all the roses from the middle bed in the front garden.

They were never really happy there, so we are replacing them with a mixture of perennials.

Freshly dug soil, with some addition of new compost - and now all the cats around think this is their new public convenience! A sprinkling of bin powder on the soil usually helps, but this has been washed away by the rain every night since I planted it out........😠

Hopefully, now the dry weather has been promised, we will be able to start tidying the back garden next week.

We took an advantage of being stuck indoors for so long, and sorted out lots of our books. 

Both DH and I are big book hoarders, and every few years we just have to "take the bull by it horns" and do something about it. Some books went to a local charity shop. But we took most of them, four big bagfuls, to the Barrington Court's  "Book Barn". It's a very large second hand book shop, very well run by National Trust volunteers, with comfy chairs, where you can relax while choosing your next read.

The money raised helps towards the upkeep of the Barrington Court; one of the ladies working there told us that last year they raised nearly £30,000.

While there, we took the advantage of a reasonably dry day and had a walk around the gardens.

Despite the rain, or because of it, and because we haven't had a cold snap yet, there are still lots of flowers around.

The pumpkins are ready,

and at last some autumn colour too, 

in the form of a magnificent, very old birch tree.

 

On Thursday I popped down to the Bath and West Showground.

The Craft4Crafters show is a regular, twice a year affair.

No "big names" exhibiting; a bit more textile stuff than usual, which was nice to see; also a chance to stock up with few things.

I was very "self controlled" and made only very small purchases -

I am sure these nice batik fabrics will come useful.

The creative spirit has somehow left me in the last few weeks.

I am still hand quilting St Germain quilt (a long process), and it is nice to have it on my lap, now it is chilly in the evenings.

A small nod to Christmas - I am working on the next cross stitch picture in the Santa Village series of 12 pictures; this is a long ongoing project.

This one is no 7.

May be another 2 years?.....

The 6 done so far.

So, what is is this about teddy bears?

This morning a new issue of Landscape magazine popped through the letter box; always a pleasure to read and I look forward to go through the whole magazine. But one article got my attention immediately, 

the one about The Teddy Hospital in Lyme Regis in Dorset.

Alice's Bear Shop, Teddy Bear and Doll Hospital was opened by Rikey Austin some 20 years ago and they are more busy then ever. 

There are some lovely stories in this article; about how the Hospital has grown, and about "patients" from near and far; a man who could not part with his teddy, so he had flown in with him from Bulgaria, and stayed in Lyme Regis while his bear was being mended!

This is just one of the patients waiting,

Ted Wilson having a rest before his "operation".

Why was I so exited about reading all this? Because this is where my Mary-Jane came from; I bought her during one of our visits to Lyme Regis (not long after out move to Somerset), when Alice's Shop was mainly just that.

So, meet my "gang"; they all have names (of course). 

Some were rescued from charity shops, some bought new, a couple of them I made myself.

This is George, he is rather special - a present from my son.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019

the last picnic and little about quilting

Yes, on Friday we had the last picnic of the summer with the grandchildren; 

it will be back to school for them on Wednesday. 

It was a perfect day for it and yet again we chose to drive to Barrington Court (NT), because it is just such a nice place for it; there is a large grass picnic area near the car park and the shop, and of course there is the large space in the front of the main house, opened to picnicking and great for children to play too. 

This Tudor manor house is empty of any furniture, and so it is safe to children to explore by themselves.

When NT got the house back from whoever was temporarily leasing it a while back, they decided not to furnish it, so the full beauty of the building could be appreciated. It also lend itself from time to time to various fairs and exhibitions, and as a set for various film and TV productions.

Walking around one probably notices things which otherwise could be missed, like these beautiful wood carvings.

In the "Long Gallery" on the top floor is a ghostly moving projection on a glass, a beautiful white owl; you feel that he is flying straight at you.

 Every time I come here I try to take pictures, but it is very difficult with a normal camera.

  

I enjoy walking through the Arts and Crafts Garden, originally designed by Gertrude Jekyll, to see the changes from my last visit.

It has been a good summer for the kitchen garden,

and seasonal changes of flower borders.

The old stables are now occupied by various crafts people, and of course I can't miss a quick visit to the Barrington Patchwork shop, be it just to buy more pearl cotton threads no 16, 

to add to my stash of no's 12 & 16 for hand quilting.

Which brings me to the subject of quilting.

It seems that more hand quilters are now using various threads instead of the traditional quilting thread to finish their quilts with.

I was an embroiderer before I was a quilter, so it was an inspiration when I met (years ago!) Nikki Tinkler at one of the shows. She was the first person I came across who was using various threads and embroidery stitches for quilting, and I immediately bought her book.

Of course this might be viewed as unorthodox by some traditionalists, so it is interesting to read Nikki's introduction to her book.

I have since used various threads and embroidery stitches on my quilts, and it works for me,

although I have now settled for pearl cottons, which I use most often, hence my stash.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019