Travels, pages and a completed quilt.

I just loved the patterns forming on the thread reel as I quilted the last pieces of Rosie's quilt. Hence the first photos. This reel had the threads turning into little wiggly shapes. This is YLI Machine Quilting Thread, in the shade V80 Danube Blues. I do love using this for machine quilting.



Well, here is the completed quilt hanging on my washing line.



A closer look at the front.



And now, the back. The plaid fleece was a remnant from a winter coat I made myself a few years ago - really cosy! The pale blue had been left over from an autumn jacket, but I forget what I had used the off-white fleece to make. I found it deep in my stash. All three fleece are of the same weight.

Hopefully, Rosie will be happy with her new quilt. She has seen the pieces, but not the completed quilt. I have sent her some photos........... I plan to make a bag to hold the quilt.

And now a journey. I went to Shrewsbury on Saturday with a couple of friends from the Recorder Group. Elizabeth plays Treble recorder with me, and Kathryn leads the Vale Royal Recorder Consort. It is such fun playing music together. We went to Shrewsbury to spend time in each others company before setting off to a concert.



What a special building. It is a shop selling chocolate!

Another lovely building.

This is one of the bridges crossing the River Severn.

I had never been to Shrewsbury before, but had loved reading about it in the novels about Brother Cadfael written by Ellis Peters. Funnily enough, we didn't have time to visit the Abbey, but did go to see the Castle. Well, there is so much to see in Shrewsbury, that I can see myself coming back again.

On our wanders around Shrewsbury we happened upon an excellent Calligraphy exhibition by the Shropshire Scribes. The exhibition was called "Words in Action" and I see from their programme that this same exhibition will be movingto the Oswestry Heritage and Exhibition Centre from the 1st to the 15th September. We found the exhibition in the wonderful St Mary's Church.

Well, after a really happy day, getting wet in the rain, but really enjoying being able to explore somewhere new together, we went on to the concert. We went to see the wonderful Red Priest. Such a marvellous concert - great fun! It was the closing concert for the Church Stretton Arts Festival. I had never seen Red Priest in concert before, and I certainly was not disappointed. They are wonderful in concert, not taking themselves too seriously and playing superbly at the same time. A truly wonderful day.

I almost forgot! To continue the theme of traveling, my page for Elizabeth has arrived in the USA. You can see it here. I have also heard that my page for Carmen, which I had feared had been lost in the post has also arrived safely. I must post some photos of that too on the Traveling Pages site.

It has been a busy time.

Season's Greetings!

Now where did December go? Its been rather hectic here - a number of concerts in a number of venues.

The first of these was a performance of "Zadoc the Priest" by Georg Handel and Vivaldi's "Gloria". Such wonderful music to sing. These were performed by the Hartford Choral Society on November 28th alongsideside instrumentalists from the Grange School, in the Grange Theatre. This was in aid of Action Aid and their work with African Aids/HIV sufferers.


This was then followed by a short concert performed by my class at the Old Friends Christmas Concert in the village. This is a group of the retired villagers who get toether each Tuesday afternoon. My class have been invited along to sing at their Christmas party for the past few years. The children love getting to meet the elderly at the party. Each year they are enchanted by being fussed over and chatted to. The Old Friends are such a wonderful audience and enjoy the singalong we do after the children have sung their songs. We share christmas carols and fun christmas songs like "Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer". As we walked along back to school afterwards, one little boy came up to me and said "I didn't think I'd like that. But it was fun wasn't it."


For two successive Saturdays, I joined the Vale Royal Recorder Players to perform in Tatton Hall as part of the Christmas Celebrations there. We performed a number of recorder arrangements of Christmas Carols both old and new. This is the Recorder group I regularly rehearse with. Such a lovely group, so friendl.y. We have a lot of fun together.


Then, last Saturday, the last of the concerts I have been involved with. It was the wedding of one of our past members. She left the Recorder group last year to move away for work. She returned to the church she used to belong to for her wedding. Such a lovely event to be a small part of.


Amidst all this, and teaching too, I managed to complete my aran cardigan.





You'll notice that I have forgotten the buttons on this one. I just did not fancy buttons and buttonholes. It will be interesting to see if I can live with a cardigan fastened by a brooch. The brooch is made up of three different buttons fastened together. I did not make this, but it is an idea I may copy myself at some stage.

A lovely time of year, even when the weather is not so good.


Season's Greetings to you all!

Recorders, knitting and stuff.

I finally completed my Notre Dame de Grace pullover this week. I decided in the end not to add a button, but to use my collection of brooches instead.



This second photos shows one of my home-made brooches. This was made some years ago, but the colours really seem to suit this jumper.



Today, I started work on my recorder case. I bought the fabric a few weeks ago from a charity shop. So now it begins. This first photo shows my Treble (Alto) recorder resting on the fabric. This is the true colour.



I've now got to the stage of binding the bag which will be rolled around the instrument to protect it as I carry it to rehearsals and performances. I'm a member of a local recorder group, playing mostly Treble.



This is the lining of the roll-up bag - the recorder pieces are in place. There are inner pockets to stop the smaller pieces falling to the bottom. The next photo look a bit washed-out in colour, but shows the bag rolled up with the recorder cocooned inside. I shall add a ribbon to keep the roll firmly together.



The CD case belongs to the music I was listening to as I sewed this together - Kathryn Tickell's Band. A rather nice folk music CD. Kathryn plays the Northumbrian small pipes superbly.
I had hoped to get more than one section of the binding done, but Coco decided to fall asleep on my fabric!



I hadn't the heart to move her.
The following pictures show a quick and essential repair I did to a pair of jeans. The dragonfly and flower motifs hold a piece of fabric in place on the reverse of the jeans. It all holds together a section that was going into rather a large hole.




Finally, I have started the November project for Elizabeth's Year. These will become the Moccasin socks. This time I am using the instructions printed in "Knitting Around" since this allows me to use up the remaining yarn from the open-collar pullover I finished recently.

The next photos show the completed open-collar pullover. The first shows the original buttons, the second shows the buttons it now has. These were chosen by my eldest daughter who had come to visit and rather liked the jumper. It is now hers. Well, it was her birthday! She left the house wearing it.....