Monday, August 09, 2010

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.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for visiting my blog... Your quilts and pics are beautiful!!

Mandy said...

Thanks for your comments. I enjoyed coming to visit your Blog.

Margaret said...

Wonderful quilt, as usual. I love the colours. And your photos of Shrewsbury make me long for another visit to England.

Mandy said...

Thanks Margaret. I hope you do come back to the UK one day.

Joan said...

Thanks for visiting the Church Stretton Arts Festival and linking to our site. It was a great concert - you would have enjoyed Baroquenroll too!

Keep coming back to the site to find out what we have up our sleeves for next year. I'm pretty sure there's a recorder consort on the way.

Cheers ... Joan (webmaster)

Mandy said...

Thanks Joan. Yes, you are quite right I would have loved to come to that concert too. I must keep coming to your site and plan my next visit a bit more carefully. There is so much to see and do during your Arts Festival. I'm looking forward to seeing what is coming up for next year.