This n That!

 Well the big excitement around here is that we finally have a nice, shiny new kitchen! What started out like this

now looks like this!

No wasted space and the ugly boiler all boxed in - I am very happy.

We took a day out last week to visit Montacute House. When I first moved to Somerset many years ago I lived nearby and visited regularly but had not visited for nearly 30 years, so it was a real pleasure to spend some time wandering round again.

There is a very impressive drive approaching the house from the main road - visitors arrive now via the village! The house is built from Ham stone from a local quarry at Stoke sub Hamdon. It is a lovely warm yellow.

There is a lot of topiary in the garden and I especially love the wibbly wobbly hedges

This side of the house had the sun on it so you can see it's lovely colour.

Two sides of the same wall

Inside the house is furnished and there is plenty for the embroidery enthusiast. A couple of the beds have bedspreads covered in embroidered slips. There is a beautiful stumpwork box. Not easy to see because it is inside a box in a darkened room! But you can see enough to appreciate all the beautiful stitchery.

Another bedroom is given over to a splendid exhibition of samplers from the Goodhart Collection. Click on the link for photographs if you love samplers. I could have spent all day in there!

Then up to the top floor for the piece de resistance - The Long Gallery.

The gallery is the longest in England. Some of the rooms leading off of the gallery contain a selection of Tudor and Jacobean portraits from the National Portrait Gallery which are fascinating for their attention to detail on the costumes.

Two final views - thank you for making it this far!

Now for some sewing. I have been wanting to do some clamshell patchwork for a while and having decided to make another Sew Together Bag to hold my EPP templates and papers I thought it would be nice to make the outside of the bag from clamshells.

It is many a year since I did any - these examples are from my Super Scrappy Quilt and were probably done for City and Guilds but whether that was embroidery or patchwork I have no recollection!

Those fabrics are certainly from 'a long time ago'

Anyway, having checked my Avril Colby and dismissed her method of making the patches instantly, I turned to Google for help and also received some very helpful advice from Michelle . Working with some of the offcuts from my lovely Tilda stash, this is as far as I have got.

I am loving them and am a little bit obsessed so have nothing else to show although I have done a few more inches of knitting.

I think that is enough from me for now, thank you for staying with me.