Skenfrith embroidered cope Part 2

For some reason Blogger wouldn't let me add all the photos. So here are the rest. They were preparing the church (St Brigits, 800 years old the same as the castle just a few feet away), for a the wedding of a local girl. I wish I could put the heavenly perfume of the sweetpeas and honeysuckle on the blog.

There was an interesting tomb in the church as well.

We had lunch in glorious sunshine in the Bell's garden over the road. And Pimms of course.

Even the bridge is delightful.

On just the other side of the bridge, a mother with her two boys and their dog were playing in the river. How lovely to do this during the school holidays on a hot summer day?

On the way home we stumbled across this castle. It is a private residence and therefore not opened to the public. I asked on a local group about it and one of the members had been a postman who just would walk in and lay the post on the kitchen table or find them in the walled garden if the castle was locked. It is an 800 year old castle heavily refurbished in the 20th century. Pembridge Castle if you wish to Google it. It appears there is scaffolding on one of the towers where a Catholic Bishop was hanged for his faith. I don't think I would like to spend the night there.

Skenfrith embroidered cope (photo heavy) part 1

We went back a few weeks ago with my camera rather than the Iphone I used last time to get some more photos, and lunch. I think this cope is amazing and even though it has had some expert restoration it is amazing to think it is over 500 years old. I took photos of the explantion charts as well, so click on each photo to enlarge and read the information.

Festival of Quilts 2015 Part 3

Some of the quilts

I found this one absolutely wonderful.

And then there was Kay Bell's one..... heavenly machine quilting.

Click on these photos to enlarge, they are amazing and the detail needs to be seen.

Festival of Quilts 2015 Part 2 (update)

Another quilt which took my eye in the two person section was this one of cotton squares called Kisses For My Daughter by Donna Cumming and Carol Fearson of NZ.
Silk dupion revealed by fabric manipulation of black cotton. The bright silks just sing in the black cotton.

A lovely double wedding ring quilt done purely in machine quilting.  I was told this was not computer driven but freehand.  Loved it. (which makes me even more miserable for not having a photo of the label. Many thanks Sue Watters and to  Lyn Armstrong of QGBI who not only sent me the name of the quilter, Sandy Chandler and the name of the quilt, Juno but also I couple of more photos.
 

A version of Sue Garman's Ladies of the Sea, made by Jackie Field. This is a lovely quilt design, it is a shame when the show organisers do not credit the designer. Not even in the catalogue.

This one by Annelize Littlefair clearly gives credit to the designer.

And sometimes the back is as good if not better than the front......

Festival of Quilts 2015 Birmingham NEC (updated)

I am on my phone so this will be mostly photos.

A Stonefields Quilt  made by Corienne de Hass and quilted by Kay Bell. (Stonefields has been issued as a block of the month by different quilt shops)

These next three lose ups are from Claudia Pfiel's quilt. So many people were gathered round, I didn't get a photo of the whole quilt as there were always people in shot. The detail is intense.

 

 And this is the winner of the miniature quilts made by Kumiko Frydl, as always, amazing work. The miniature quilts at the FoQ have different rules than those of other shows. Miniature by definition at this show is doll's house scale with a maximum size of 30cm (just under 12") which is odd that they use cm when this scale is 1:12.