Doors I have known

I  love taking pictures of buildings , particularly of doors and there are many, many beautiful examples in Spain. The children think I am a little mad for this love of doors so I am always telling them that one day I will publish a book called’  ‘Doors I have known’,  which will be much appreciated by students of architecture and the finer things in life!

I have put some of the lovely things I found on my recent trip to Elche in Spain below. Elche is a very famous town, founded by the Romans and it has the largest amount of palm trees in one place in Spain. There is a wonderful old cathedral and castle and the Palmeral which are palm gardens. Well worth a visit.

The pics show some of the cathedral and other pretty buildings in the town.

Spain Oct 2011 Elche door 1

Spain Oct 2011 Elche door 2

Spain Oct 2011 House 1

Spain Oct 2011 Elche door 3

Spain Oct 2011 Elche window 1

Spain Oct 2011 Elche door 4

Spain Oct 2011 Elche flats

Hope you like them. Thanks for visiting.

Photo Scavenger Hunt October

photo-scavenger-hunt

Well here we are again but I am only just making this posting at the end of the month – I have been in Spain again (lucky me) and only got back this evening so I have hastily sorted out the last of my pics for the hunt this month.

Witches’ Hat

witches hat

Spotted in my local pound shop this very lovely hat!

Sunset

sunset

One of so many beautiful ones in Spain – this pic was taken this week from outside my Mum’s house.

Something eerie

eerie

Though the weather is usually great in Spain they do have terrific thunderstorms sometimes and here are the very black clouds on the way back from my bike ride one day.

A black cat

black cat

You will have to trust me on this one as I could not find a cat to stay still long enough but up on the roof of this very ugly house near mine in Spain is  a little black cat – you can just see the ears above the tiled  wall.

Crunchy leaves

crunchy leaves

Taken on the canal bridge near my office

Golden

golden

The canal side lights taken on my home from work one evening

Pumpkin

Pumpkin

A couple in fact , these lovely gifts were sent last year from the USA as part of my Autumn stitching exchange.

Heritage

Heritage

The lovely Marsden Mechanics’ Institute – centre of the village where I spent the weekend selling tickets for the Jazz festival.

River

River

Another pic from Marsden , the River Colne on a sunny Friday morning

Fog/mist

mist

The view from my bus stop one grey October morning

Graffiti

graffiti

From Spain – a colourful piece on an electricity substation

Candlelit

candlelight 2

 In Spain I like to sit on my terrace and read in the evenings and this is a lovely candle holder my Mum bought me that I use there.

Photo Scavenger Hunt September

photo-scavenger-hunt

Hello there

As last month click on the pic above to go and see all the pics at Kathy’s blog.

This is a bit last-minute to say the least! I have been so busy this week I nearly didn’t get chance to take the last couple of pics I needed for this but have just made it.

Relaxation

This was taken at our last WI Saturday craft get together – coffee and a bit of knitting! Just what you need after a hard week at work. Check out those super sized needles in the background.

relaxation 1

View from above

My lovely little teapot and cup.

view from above

Road sign

Where I catch my bus to work – next to a lovely ivy hedge.

Road sign

Something taller than you

As he reminds me often, my little baby Jake is taller than me now – he is also taller than the fridge!

taller than me

Back to School

Well college anyway – I don’t have the joy of buying new uniform and pencil cases anymore but here is Jake’s new timetable for his last year before University.

back to school

Football Season

I’m afraid this is as close as I get (inspiration for this taken from someone last month) – the football listing in the TV mag.

football

What’s in your bag?

Pinkness!

inside bag

Harvest

Every year we pick the blackberries from the lane at the back of our house.

harvest

A pile of things

Donated knitted squares at my lovely friend Lydia’s yarn shop Spun.

pile of things

Workspace

The best bit of my desk at work – thank you cards from past students.

workspace

Public phone box

Apologies as it was a bit dark – this is the phone in the lobby at work – love the fact that there are 3 phones in a row here!

public phone

Apples

My friend Rebecca from knitting group has this lovely bag made from apple drink pouches.

apples

Photo Scavenger Hunt – August

photo-scavenger-hunt-2010

I have managed to work out how every else links straight to the blog with all the rest of the pics on by ‘borrowing’ this pic above from Kathy’s blog and putting a link on it so here we go with my pics for August – click the above logo for everyone else’s.

Most of these pics were taken in one week in Spain and luckily there were some very easy words this month for me to be able to get – hope that you like them all!

A boat

Boat
Obviously there are loads of boats in Spain in all the marinas but this poor old thing has been stuck on a plot by the local supermarket for years – I bet it dreams of better days sailing away!

A festival or funfair

This was a very easy one to do in Spain as the local La Marina fiesta was on so here you have a pic of the fireworks at the end of the night.

Festival
However we had a very festive month so here is a pic from the Tribute Band Music Festival we went to this month as well! We also visited the International Festival of Quilts which I have already posted about.

Music Festival

A fountain

The Spanish love public fountains so I was spoilt for choice for this one – however my aunt is a bit of a fan as well and I knew she had a couple in her garden so went to take some pics – turns out she now has 7!  This is a Moorish style one in a corner of her back terrace.

Fountain
A picnic

On the lovely sunny La Marina beach – a very Spanish picnic lunch of tuna empanada, chicken pinchos, olives and tortilla.

picnic
A sport

One of my favourites – not that this is at all competitive! If it is too hot for mountain biking then we swim in the local pool.

Sport
Bread

Served with allioli – garlic mayonnaise – this is one of the best things about Spain, I could live on this! Oh and red wine!

Bread
Fabric

The Spanish have the most beautiful textiles, especially table linen – I have bought quite a few table cloths and runners and here are some more gorgeous ones at the local market.

textiles
Market

At the same market you can get your flamenco dresses (children’s size only unfortunately) with matching shoes.

market 2

market

Mountains

We had really clear skies all the way back so I was able to get some fab shots of mountains – this is the Pyrenees with added snow!

Mountains
Something ancient

This could easily have been used for the next category of something bizarre as well – not original but a copy of ancient Roman architecture.

Ancient 1
The bizarre bit is in the fact that people here re-model their houses in all sorts of styles, this is the next door neighbour showing what the house would have originally looked like when it was built.

Ancient 2

And here is a close up of the lovely gates and portico.

Ancient 3

 Something bizarre

I always thought these little postcards were a bit bizarre when my grandparents used to bring them back from Spain in the 70s – I was surprised to see them still around. The skirt of the dancer is fabric sewn on to the card and her bodice is also hand stitched.

Bizarre

Street food

Churros from the market – a long sugary donut that the Spanish also like to dunk in thick melted chocolate!

Street food

I hope you have enjoyed these pics – I can’t wait to see all the other contributions for this month.

Thanks for visiting.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – July

Apologies for lack of weekly post – have family staying so have been out and about and very busy so normal service will resume soon!

The pics for this month’s Scavenger Hunt were all taken in a week on our recent holiday to London. I had set myself a goal of trying to get the whole list in one week – some of it was ridiculously easy while other words took a bit of searching but here they are and I hope that you like them!

A flag

Being the capital city there were a fair few Union flags around – it is only called the Union Jack when it is on a ship – but this is one of my fave flag pics – taken at Hampton Court.

flag

A kite

Had to be a bit creative with this one as did not see any but did come across this quote from Mary Poppins in the Disney Store on Oxford Road ….

kite

We are very big Disney fans in our house!

Celebration

Being the capital city there are loads that take place here but thought I would share with you some of the memorabilia available for our latest one – the marriage of Prince William and the gorgeous Catherine Middleton on April 29th. This pic was taken in a little gift shop round the corner from the British Museum on a very rainy day. I did buy a fridge magnet to take a pic of but thought this was a lovely pic as you can just see the reflection of tourists in the rain under an umbrella opposite the shop.

Celebration

Fields

Again I had to be creative here as there aren’t that many in central London but we were in the theatre district and I saw this poster advertising the musical from one of my favourite films – how many Christmases did I watch this! Do you remember the bit where they fall asleep in the poppy fields?

Fields

 Flip flops

For when you are feeling particularly patriotic!

flip flops

Ice cream

This is not actually ice cream but a little selection of takeaway desserts from Marks and Spencer where we bought our in train picnic for on the way back – how cute!

ice cream

Red, white and blue

Well I really was spoilt for choice here but I came across some fab shoes in a shop in trendy Carnaby Street – here is the patriotic UK version…

rwb

and the patriotic US version !

rwb 1

Seashells

Again this took some thinking about but then Ellie pointed out that Ariel the Little Mermaid has a bra made of seashells in the Disney film. When Ellie was little she had a dress like this with a long fish tail which she loved.She is most upset that the Disney Store don’t do adult sizes!

Seashells

Something that makes you happy (not a person or an animal!)

Well apart from my family and textiles the thing that makes me most happy is travel (if I get to travel with my family and there are textiles I am super happy!). I really love travelling by train especially as I think it is very exciting and though I use the train a lot I never get bored, I love just sitting looking out of the window watching everything go by. I am sure I would be a terrible driver as I am so used to being able to look all around when I am going anywhere and see all the pretty things. So here is a pic of one of the Docklands Light Railway trains that we used, the views from these of the skyscrapers at Canary Wharf were great – you can just see them in the background here.

Happy

Stars

There was the most amazing ceiling in the chapel at Hampton Court decorated with stars – I couldn’t take a photo inside but here is a pic from the front of the guide-book.

Stars 1

and then when we bought things from the gift shop the bag had this design on.

Stars 2

Strawberries

Here is Ellie enjoying strawberries and creme fraiche as part of our picnic at Hampton Court.

Strawberry

Stripes

And some lovely pots lined up in the Hampton Court gardens.

Stripes

 I do hope that you have enjoyed my pics – very much looking forward to seeing what other people come up with this month. To see the other Scavenger Hunt pics or to join go to the blog.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – June

Hello everyone – here are my latest pics.

I have mainly themed these round two locations – one is the place where I work as that enabled me to get a lot of the target words covered and the other is our recent trip to Tatton Hall in Cheshire as I was looking for some interesting ways of covering some of the other words.There are also some random ones so I will start with those first.

Farm Animal

My lovely LYS Woolly Minded and Beady Eyed has a new addition , this very cute sheep now resides outside the shop wearing a fetching fancy yarn scarf. He is looking a bit over exposed in this pic as he has nice woolly curls on his back that you can’t really see here.

Sheep

Elephant

Luckily Ellie brought this home just after we got the words for this month – it is a pressie for one of her friends so I snapped it straight away!

elephant

Childhood Memory

childhood memories

This is the first of the pics from Tatton Hall and was part of the displays of vintage toys in the gamekeeper’s cottage. My grandmother was probably the one who taught me to sew as a child as she was very good seamstress and I do remember having a machine when I was young , though not a miniature one like these.

My grandmother used to make most of mine and my sister’s clothes and we were always dressed in matching outfits – I remember one particularly fetching one of tartan kilts and ponchos (luckily I don’t know where the photo evidence for that has gone so you will be spared!) She did used to take me fabric shopping a lot , to the local markets and to a marvellous shop called Gordon Thoday’s which was a huge shop with bolts of material everywhere. Therefore I suspect she is responsible for my fabric addiction – thanks Nana!

Cutlery

Again from Tatton – this box was in the Victorian Kitchen.

cutlery

Cheese

And this was in the Victorian Parlour laid for high tea with the china cheese server on the table – in the days when cheese all came in the same shape!

cheese

Night

This is my little friend Paddy on the right of the pic from our medieval group with a fellow fire juggler. This is part of what we do to entertain ourselves of an evening at an event – along with the campfire and ale (or in my case cider!) Paddy is 11 so he is doing really well at it and was able to produce some great fire circles himself.

night

Something with your town’s name

This was an easy one as this is where I work , this sign is on the outside of my office wall!

town name

The view right outside your door

And this is the view outside the door of my office, the section of the campus where I work is all the old converted textile mills and this is the old mill chimney in the car park. You can still smell the lanolin in some of the buildings and the canal runs at the back of them.

view outside door

Architectural Detail

This is my building, the old mills were five or six stories high and made from beautiful Yorkshire stone.

architectural detail

Tree Branches

The canal behind the buildings is lined with trees with seating areas along the canal path and ducks and squirrels which makes it a lovely campus.The building I work in is called Lockside as it is next to the working lock and in the summer lots of canal boats go past.The canal was restored and re-opened about 10 years ago.

tree branches

Something beginning with Z

I studied at the University as an undergraduate and then this building was called Z Block, I had my Geography lectures in here. I really like the detail on the roof and I am pleased with the reflections of clouds in this pic.

something beginning with z

Wheel trim

Another of the set of pics taken at work – lots of cars park on our campus and this one had a very pretty wheel! I think it looks a bit like a quilt pattern.

wheel trim

I do hope you like the pics and look forward to seeing everyone else’s, I will be popping over to Kathy’s blog  to do that later and to get the list for next month. We are off to London next week to do some sightseeing so I am hoping to get some of them then.

Thanks as always for visiting.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – May

Before I leave for Spain next week I though that I would post my pics for this month.A lot of these were taken on the way to or from work, on my visits to see my students – I hope that you enjoy them!

Emergency Vehicle

This along with a couple of police cars was outside Birmingham New Street railway station last week when Ellie and I were travelling back.

ambulance 2

Black and White Portrait

Taken in the window of the place where I had my photos developed, what a cute baby!

b and w portrait

Butterflies

Spotted this fabric at the last Quilt Day that fitted this category very well.

butterflies

Bicycle

Taken outside Accrington railway station one sunny day (I do spend a lot of my life at railway stations!)

bike 2

Blue

This pic was taken that same day – like the contrast between the in and out of focus flowers.

blue

Sign of the Zodiac

I was trying to be  bit creative with this – here is the Bull pub in Nelson, Lancashire.

Bull

Texture

So many pics to choose from for this – I eventually went with one taken last weekend at the Tudor House where Ellen works, Greyfriars in Worcester, this is part of the garden.

texture

Think Vintage

Was not sure what to snap for this then saw this very cute dress in a shop window, I love retro fashions!

think vintage

Interesting Local Building

This is a very significant building to Huddersfield and to me. It is the oldest building on the University campus where I work – dating from the late 1800s. It is called the Ramsden Building and is where I studied as an undergraduate 28 years ago.

Ramsden building

Streetlight

Back to the railway station again for this – a rainy day in Yorkshire ( as opposed to a rainy night in Georgia!).

streetlight

Red  Door

The thing I really like about the Scavenger Hunt is the way it makes you really look at things around you. I was thinking ‘where can I get a pic of a red door’ – well turns out next door neighbour but one has a red front door and here it is!

red front door

Cartoon Character

I am a huge Disney fan – the kids and I have been to Disneyland 5 times (4 trips to Euro Disney and 1 trip to Florida and loved every visit) – this is one of my souvenir soaps with the original cartoon character – the mouse that started it all – Mickey (who I have met on several occasions!)

cartoon

Hope that you have had a good week – if you want to look at all of the other Scavenger pics then go to Kathy’s blog.

See you all when I return!

Thanks for visiting.

It’s not just for me you understand……

By that I mean  the large amount of fabric I am about to show you which was purchased at the Malvern Quilt Festival is destined to be used for lots of different gifts and sales items for my Xmas craft fairs so I do not in any way consider that I spent too much money, bought too much fabric or overindulged at all 🙂 I actually think I was very restrained as there was so much more I could have bought had I gone wild and just bought fabric with gay abandon rather than for the specific purposes I had on my list. In fact there was virtually no impulse buying at all apart from some very good bargains.

I am planning to make quilts as presents for the youngest family members this summer, play/cuddle quilts are what I had in mind made with two really lovely ranges from Makower. Firstly the very cute farm animals prints.

Makower farm fabric

Then the Makower pirate range – and I found some fab pirate and sea creature buttons to go on the quilt as well!

pirate fabric

pirate buttons

Both of these fabric sets were on my shopping list and we had already been round all the traders once without seeing them as I was looking for bolts of the fabric when we went round again and found them at the very helpful Cookes Quilting Supplies stall. I have looked on their website before but wanted to actually see the fabric and they were very good at searching out missing coordinating fabrics for me.

I also got some really nice new Xmas patterns for making ornies – look at all these lovelies – all from Goose Chase Quilting who I had not come across before.

Xmas fabric 3Xmas fabric 2

Xmas fabric 4

Along with some very cute Xmas buttons – there are little cookie cutters and gingerbread men in these packs! All these and previous pirate buttons are from Out of Africa suppliers.

Xmas buttons

Ellie also bought some lovely things – some flannel to make a lap quilt and jelly roll to make a duvet cover so she is going to have a busy summer sewing!

As well as the planned stuff there were a couple of impulse bargains –

These cute dinosaur labels £1 for 10 which I thought would make a lovely charity quilt for the hospice so I bought 3 packs.

dinosaur fabric

And a lovely Robert Kaufman fat quarter – I think this is called Holiday Flourish with some more of the fabric I have just used up in my throw.

Xmas fabric 1

I finished the border on the throw last weekend and made the spare panel and another set I cut out into  cushions covers, you can see them in the pictures below – now I have the batting I can put these together and I have also bought a darning foot for my machine so I will be trying out some free motion quilting on these!

Stained glass quilt with border

stained glass cushions

I took lots of pics of the wonderful quilts at the show so will have to sort out some of my favourite to post here later. I thought I would just leave you with a few shots of Malvern railway station – again like Hebden Bridge last week a lovely old station with some fantastic ironwork.

Malvern Station 1

Malvern Station 2

Malvern Station 3

Malvern Station 4

I will try to post again mid-week as we will be away all next weekend – we have a Bank Holiday re-enactment show at Ashby de La Zouche Castle  in Leicestershire so if you are in the area on Sunday or Monday do come along,  it would be lovely to see you.

I hope you all have a lovely week ahead and thanks as always for visiting.

Never too early for Xmas crafting!

Hope everyone has had a nice week. I have been getting on well with my Xmas ornie targets for this year – I am aiming to make one new ornie for me a month as well as the usual present ornies and stock for at least one Xmas craft fair. So I will be starting that stock as soon as term finishes at the end of May and I have a bit more time.

So far for me I have finished three JBW stockings (plus a blue one to hang on the conservatory door) and this week completed the JBW Xmas pudding ornie and another one which is taken from a bigger design using blackwork of ivy leaves from one of my old New Stitches magazines. I have made the ivy leaf ornie before for my Project Nepal fundraising but want to re-make a lot of past ornies just for me and this was my demo piece at last week’s WI craft bee. They are both backed with some nice holly fabric from my stash and the pudding one has a great stocking ribbon that I got at the Harrogate show last year.

Xmas ivy ornie

                        Xmas ivy ornie 2

Xmas pud ornie

Xmas pud ornie 2

Xmas pud ornie ribbon

I am now working on a JBW tree ornie for me. I have put together all of the blocks for my stained glass window Xmas fabric throw with the sashing and this afternoon will do the border which is pieced from all the Xmas fabric used and the backing. Hopefully that will be finished this afternoon as I have been very good and got up early to do the housework and spring clean the cellar!

stained glass window quilt top

I am very pleased with the way that it has turned out – I did have a bit of a challenge with the outer sashing as I discovered that the bottom row of blocks were quite a bit smaller than the top row (my inaccurate cutting!) so I had to stretch that row to make it fit but it turned out ok. With the left over block I am going to make a cushion in the same style and have cut out single pieces for a matching cushion. I have also got lots of odd rectangles from cutting the border so thought I would make a small runner for the coffee table so that my room can be very co-ordinated this Xmas.

We had a bit of a show and tell of all the different blocks on Monday at Quilt Group. This is a pic of Davina’s blocks that I took at the workshop which just shows how different the choice of fabric and sashing colour can make the quilt look.

May - Davina's quilt blocks

If you go and visit Davina’s blog  you can see the pic she took of the original stained glass pattern with solids and black sashing.

I have had a very nice week, very busy at work but I have had a few trips out to visit my students which is always lovely. On Monday I went ‘over the border’ to Nelson in Lancashire. It was a  lovely train journey through very beautiful countryside, this is a very historic area  full of beautiful hills and moors and lots of industrial heritage – mainly dating from the Victorian era when all the mills were built.  Here are a few pics to share with you – the first two are taken at  Hebden Bridge station, then there is a view of the hills from the train and the flower was near the college I was visiting.

Hebden station

Hebden clock

Hebden view

Hebden flower

I hope you have all a nice week ahead. I am very much looking forward to next week as I am going down to visit Ellie in Worcester and we are going to the Malvern Quilt Show ! There may well be some additions to the stash (it would be a shame if there weren’t!) and then I am helping Ellie bring all her stuff back up as she is coming here for the summer this year which is lovely as we can do lots of crafting together.

Thanks for visiting.