Acorns and birds

Well, I finally finished the little birds quilt which was my 2nd blogiversary giveaway and, as it's now arrived safely with Louise, I'm able to reveal all.

The design is by Elizabeth Wall and I've made two versions of the quilt before which you can see here and here. This time inspiration came from Louise herself who asked if the design could contain nuts. I knew immediately that I wanted to do an oak tree in autumn colours complete with acorn buttons. It wasn't until my visit to the Harrogate quilt show though that I was able to find the fabrics and buttons. The animal fabric has been in my stash a number of years and was perfect for the backing, with just a little mouse sneaking onto the front :0)

It's the first quilt I've ever made for someone else though I've given away quilts to Project Linus. Nerve-wracking but I also enjoyed the challenge of working to 'commission'. Now though, I need to concentrate on finishing my large quilt which has been on the go for about a year!

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Yesterday I met up with some friends in Liverpool and, among other things,we visited the new Central Library: an amazing space. The text is a poem, 'Liverpool', by Levi Tafari. I can't show you any more as I might be using some of the photos for the Scavenger Hunt!

Today the wind has really picked up as the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo heads our way. Of all weather conditions, strong wind is the one I like the least :(

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay safe wherever you are . xx

Giveaway winner! and a walk

The names went into a bowl.

And the lucky winner was....

Louise of Ramblings of a Roachling!

Congratulations to Louise and a big thank you to everyone who entered - it meant a lot to me that someone actually wanted to win one of my little quilts :) I'm just sorry I can't make one for all of you.

Water mint

It's been a quiet at home weekend. Yesterday was housework and this afternoon Chickpea and I went for a walk, testing out a possible route for my yoga group. Some lovely paths and views but there were a few too many stiles for the less able of the group. Back to the drawing board.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. x

Blogiversary giveaway!

Two years ago today this little blog was born. The time has flown by and I've loved being part of the blogging community. As I've also recently passed my 200th post, I wanted to mark the occasion by holding my first ever giveaway!

I've thought long and hard about what I could offer. When I've seen giveaways on other blogs, the ones I'm most attracted to are those which are handmade. Quilting is my first love and those of you who've been reading my blog a while will know that I've attended a couple of workshops by Elizabeth Wall and love her work: you can read about them here and here.

Well, I've decided to do something special and my giveaway is to make you your very own little birds quilt!

         

These two are destined for my quilt group's next exhibition but show you some options. You can choose the tree style (curly or spiky), flowers or no flowers, and even the colours of your birds - any colours at all.

In time-honoured fashion, if you'd like the chance to win:

• Follow this blog by your preferred method
• Leave me a comment with your tree style, flowers/no flowers and bird colours

Closing date is midnight 25 July after which I'll pick out a name at random. The giveaway is also open to non-UK readers.

Good luck and thank you for all your support over the last two years. xxx

Jollies, Day 4: Castle Howard

For our final day we headed to Castle Howard. It's somewhere I've always wanted to visit after seeing it in Brideshead Revisited. However, I only really made the decision to come here the day before we left. Originally I'd just booked the two days in Whitby but, the closer the holiday got, the more it didn't feel like enough time to be away. It's really not like me at all to book something on the last minute but I'm so glad I did.

I think I've said before that visiting historic houses is one of our favourite things to do. Usually we prefer smaller, older properties but it's always interesting to visit the grander ones once in a while.

Building work began on the house in c.1700 and took over 100 years to complete. After 300 years it is still lived in and owned by the Howard family

While we were there, some of the rooms were out of bounds or were in the process of being dismantled as the BBC is filming a new 3-part drama to be shown at Christmas. It's an adaptation of Death comes to Pemberley by PD James and continues the story of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy six years into their marriage. The crew were still setting up the rooms though so we didn't see any of the actors.

This is the Antique Passage which is lined with busts and statues.

Is this one of the original Flower Pot Men :) (There's a YouTube clip here if you've never heard of them or just want to reminisce).

And this is the Great Hall. 'Wow' is really the only word to describe it.

Amazingly this is a replica dome as the original was destroyed in a fire in 1940. A Canadian artist, Scott Medd, was commissioned to recreate the original.

Thankfully, the other 18th century murals by Antonio Pellegrini were saved. This one is Air.

These are the Music Room and the Turquoise Drawing Room. The latter has been redecorated fairly recently and I absolutely loved the colour.

The stained glass windows in the chapel were all designed by Burne-Jones and made by William Morris' company. Really beautiful.

Back outside and after a walk down to the boat house cafe for a toastie, we headed to the Temple of the Four Winds. Apparently it was used as a place for refreshment and reading - don't you just wish? There are lovely views over the Howardian Hills.

To the right you can also see the Mausoleum which was built in the 1700s and is still used as the burial place of the Howard family.

I loved this view of the Castle with the Atlas Fountain in the foreground.

One of these zodiac signs is mine.

Last but not least we made our way into the rose garden.

Lovely old-fashioned roses scenting the air.

As we turned to leave, the first drops of rain of our whole holiday started to fall. The skies had been kind to us - not the glorious sunshine we're having at the moment but the best you can usually hope for in an English summer.

And that concludes the four days of our summer holiday. Thank you to those who stayed with me and posted some lovely comments. For the second week of my break we stayed close to home, pottering about in the garden, crafting, baking and occasionally venturing out. I'll be telling you about our day trip another time but I have a couple of other things to share with you first.

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This post also sees me reach another milestone as it's the one year anniversary of my blog today. For a while I'd kept gardening and holiday journals, scrapbooks of theatre/cinema tickets and leaflets, logs of my quilting and crafty makes. I'd also started a 'happiness' book to post photos, newspaper clippings and anything else which made me smile. Starting a blog seemed like a natural extension of all these things. My target was to keep the blog going for at least 12 months to record a year in our life with all of its seasonal cycles.

Having achieved that, will I continue? To be honest, if I'd known how time-consuming it can be, I'm not sure I would have started. Time can still be a real problem but I know that if I hadn't started blogging, I wouldn't have discovered how much I enjoy the photography side and I probably wouldn't have done quite so much crafting, baking, making, and visiting: it's been a real motivating factor. I also love being part of this community and sharing your highs and lows. So, yes, roll on another year! I hope you'll continue to visit and share it with me. x

Photo scavenger hunt: April

It's obviously the month for challenges as this is my second in as many weeks. This time I'm joining in with the Photo Scavenger Hunt organised by Greenthumb at Made with Love. The idea is that every month you're given a list of 12 words and have to use a photograph (new or old) to illustrate the word.

Of everything about blogging, it's surprised me how much I've enjoyed the photography element. Well, maybe except the bit where you take 30 almost identical photos of a piece of cake and then agonise over which to choose! Anyway, here's my entry.

Pink : My gorgeous Kipling bag.

Six : a size too small for me!

Your town/city : Winter Hill. A bit of a cheat this one as Winter Hill isn't in my town. However, I've lived within view of it most of my life and, wherever you go in my town, you catch sight of it.

Sport : Ten pin bowling.

Night light : A tealight holder.

Collection : Fridge magnets from our travels.

Big : Dolly, the British Giant rabbit.

Dinner : At Jamie's Italian in Liverpool. Chicken liver tagliatelle with pancetta, chilli, vin santo and pecorino.

Texture : Pineapple

Curl : An easy one this as my head is covered in them.

Take Off : Rocket on a fairground ride.

Plastic : Laundry basket.

If you'd like to see the other entries or the list of words for next month's challenge, you can see them here. x