Cardiff and Dr Who

We had a great day out on Wednesday when we went to Cardiff Bay to see the Dr Who Experience!

Cardiff Bay, once known as Tiger Bay was Cardiff's dockland area. It had a multi-ethnic population of sailors and dockworkers from around the world. Until the Cardiff Barrage was completed in 1999 the harbour had a tidal range of up to 14 meters but now is a freshwater lake and the 8 miles of waterfront have been transformed into a tourist and leisure area. It is also home to the Welsh Assembly and the Wales Millenium Centre.
The BBC have studios nearby where Dr Who and Casualty are currently filmed. Torchwood and Upstairs Downstairs have also been filmed there.

The first half of the Dr Who Experience includes a ride in the Tardis, extermination by Daleks and a stunning 3d presentation. This is followed by a display of costumes, monsters including of course Daleks, and information about the filming and history of the show.

This Dalek in the Foyer is my height - about 5'6" and made entirely from Lego!

 The Pierhead and Bay

Norwegian Church and cultural centre

Wales Millenium Centre

The Water Tower outside the Wales Millenium Centre, also known as The Torchwood Tower!

When we drove past the tower the water was switched on and the tower looked stunning with a constant stream of water running down it's stainless steel sides. However by the time we had parked and walked back to it the water had been turned off as the wind was too strong. However, I think the tower looked just as stunning with the reflections of the other buildings around.

A great day out and I can recommend Cardiff Bay for a visit - hopefully you will have better weather!

Lin

Beer

We are in UK again and today we have visited one of my favourite places - Beer! For those who do not know, Beer is a small fishing village on the South Devon coast in the SW of England.

Beer cove is home to lots of brightly coloured fishing boats,

and their paraphernalia!

Beer is also a very popular tourist spot as you can see by the rows of deckchairs placed ready.

Sadly, the weather was just not quite good enough!
But on a fine day, the small cafe huts in amongst the beach huts do a roaring trade - pots of tea on trays to take back to your deckchair and plates of locally caught crab sandwiches are traditional fare.
No sand on this beach only pebbles which is why you can see the rubber walkways to make life easier.

I have always loved this row of cottages which look out to sea.

I imagine being warm and cosy inside one of these pebble fronted cottages watching a raging storm through the window.

We have an exciting trip planned for tomorrow and you will never guess what it is! I am afraid you will have to wait for my next post to find out.

Meanwhile I am going to settle down for an evening of sewing 2" four patch squares - more later.

Happy sewing until next time

Lin

It Started With a Square

Anthea very kindly commented on the canvas work that I am using as my background at the moment. (And I am still trying to find out how to remove that tile effect!)

So I thought I would show you what it went on to be!

Several years ago Christine at Reticule issued 'The Reticule Challenge', a competition in aid of Cancer care. The theme of the competition was 'It Started With a Square' and entries were invited in any shape, size or technique. In exchange for my entry fee I received a Texere Variety Bag which I was to use in my project.

Adding a few threads of my own I first produced the canvas work square.

Then using similar colours from a pack of sari silk ribbon I machined the ribbons onto a backing fabric through the middle of each strip. This gave me a chennille type fabric which I machined down in opposite directions and then covered with a fine net fabric. I then machined over the surface of the fabric using various embroidery stitches and also couching down the remaining threads from my variety pack.

I then cut a square in the fabric and set in my canvas work before lining and turning into a foldover clutch bag.

The pocket at the back goes the full length of the bag which keeps anything inside secure when the bag is folded over. A simple way to make a clutch bag.

Thank you for stopping by.

Lin

Another Bookwrap....

....for the Quilters Guild  tombola at Festival of Quilts!

This one ia a la Kim Thittichai!

Layers of painted and torn newspaper with painted and torn bondaweb on a newspaper background. This paper was printed with a 'Hundertwasser' spiral, covered with a sheer fabric and bondawebbed to evolon. It was then free machine embroidered.

This fabric was trimmed to size, backed with felt and turned into a book wrap adding a cord made from a thick wool twisted with a gold lurex thread and zig zagged with the same thread used for completing the bookwrap.

I shall be posting my two bookwraps off next week when I am in UK.

Thank you for stopping by.

Lin

Another win!

A few weeks ago Michelle at Quilting Gallery hosted a blog hop and for several evenings I enjoyed wandering round the internet looking at lots of lovely blogs. Of course I also entered for some of the gorgeous give aways that were on offer and I was surprised and delighted to win one of them!

Sherry, whose blog Adventures in Life is very colourful and well worth a visit - was giving away these two pretty fat quarters and a pack of wonder clips.

These little clips - which are 1" long - are fascinating and I am looking forward to trying them out. The uses seem endless!

Thank you very much Sherry - I have plans for the fabric which you will read about over the summer.

Lin

Dear Jane update

First of all I must welcome my new followers - thank you for signing up!

I spent last weekend in snowy UK - while temperatures here in the Dordogne were soaring again! I was only away for four days but I noticed a huge difference in the garden on my return. The grass seemed to have grown by inches, there is masses of blossom on the trees especially the blackthorn which was buzzing with bees when I passed by this morning. The daffodils are nearly over and the tulips are starting to flower. Everywhere is looking a lot greener, bright and fresh.
I cut the freezer paper templates for five Dear Jane blocks and ironed them on to fabric before I left. Managed to get them all sewn while I was away, so here they are.

Spent a lovely afternoon today with friends who I have been teaching for a couple of years. One completed a very pretty table runner and the other was embarking on a flying geese quilt. It is so lovely to have been able to pass on skills that I have learnt to two enthusiastic patchworkers!

Lots to tell you so I hope to post again tomorrow.

Lin

A Finish - at last!!

In 1985 I was living in Rome and had been there for two years. I had started quilting in 1979 and completed my City & Guilds in Embroidery in 1983 as I left for Rome. Italy, I found, had not advanced as far as the UK in it's needlecrafts and finding materials was very difficult. Beautiful haberdashery shops but everything was hidden away in drawers so unless you knew what you were looking for and then what it was called in Italian you had no chance!
My lifelines to the world of P&Q were The Quilters Guilds newsletter from the UK and Quilters Newsletter Magazine from the US. In June 1985 the latest copy of QNM arrived just as I was looking for a new project. This page caught my eye.

I had some fabrics left over from my previous project and I thought this would be a good way to use them up. Of course, I had to order some more and so  I sent off an order to Strawberry Fayre who even then were providing an excellent service for expats.

A year later I returned to the UK and the completed flower blocks were packed away and forgotten about as I returned to my C&G studies.

Fast forward now to France and around 2001/2 when I decided it was about time I did some more work on this quilt. I machined the blocks together and added a plain border and then, as I had planned a larger quilt than the one in the original design I started piecing an outer border. Again it all got stored away when I started work on a P&Q C&G course.

Two years ago I decided that it was time this quilt was finished so out it came again, the pieced border was added and it was layered up ready for quilting which I decided was a good way to ocupy my winter evenings.

Now here we are with the finished quilt, 28 years later!

I wanted a quilt that covered a double bed with plenty of overhang so I made it square rather than the rectangle shown in the original pattern and also added a pieced border.

The quilting design I used is the one suggested with the pattern although I had to adapt it for the border which is smaller than the one in the original pattern.

The quilt is hand pieced with machine construction. Hand quilting with machine ditch quilting between the blocks and around the border.

Looking through my machine threads when it came to adding the binding I found this reel of Sylko which was a perfect match.

On a wooden reel, I am not sure how old it is but the sheen on the thread is still beautiful. I am trying to find out when Sylko was last sold on wooden reels.

And I love the names given to all the colours - so evocative.

Thank you for stopping by.

Lin