Threlkeld in stitches

Today was day one of a three day show of quilts, embroidery and knitting at Threlkeld, a small village which nestles under the mighty hill Blencathra. As I arrived this morning the rain was falling but the forecast was good so I quickly attached my banner to the wall and made a dash for the dry hall.

 

The place is a typical village hall and the exhibition was organised to raise funds to keep it from falling into disrepair.  Like so many public buildings in Cumbria the local people have to do a lot of work to raise money if they want to keep their facilities going.  Threlkeld village hall is no exception to this rule and a lot of hard work and enthusiasm from a few had gone into organising and staging the exhibits.  Whilst I am on the subject, that means that the ladies have to ask their husbands to hang the quilts and to help with the lifting and carrying and in this case even taking the money on the door.  So before I forget, well done chaps! We could not do it without you.

Once inside it was not long before I too was given a few jobs to do, but it was all for a worthy cause so I was happy to oblige. There was a good atmosphere even though in the early stages we had to wait for the customers to appear. But by lunchtime the place was buzzing. One of the events organised by the ladies was to help make a Linus quilt and in the photo below you can just see the quilt pieces on the left pinned up prior to assembly.  Members of the public were invited to sew a square (quick cathedral window) and this was where they were placed ready for making into the finished quilt.





I was stewarding all morning and I am back again on Monday, if you are in the area, why don't you call into the exhibition, it is well staged and the exhibits are lovely.  I will show you some of them in my next posting hopefully tomorrow.

Day 6 Advent Challenge ''Visions of Yesterday"

That was the title of a book I bought when I was at Lancaster University reading history. The author was Jeffrey Richards and it was all about the history of film, as his course was the only one at the time doing the history of the cinema in the UK. Since those days it has become more popular.  Anyway, I digress because this posting is to show you some of the wonderful photos I took yesterday when we took Bella up Latrigg which is over to the left of this first photo. It is a small mountain not as big as the one you see in the middle distance which is Blencathra.  Anyway, the route goes via the old single track railway which was closed in 1971 by Beeching.  I actually must have been one of the last few people to make that journey that year because our DD had been born in the Spring and I took her in her carry cot on the train to stay with my DH's family. He took the car loaded with stuff and I had to get the train as there was no room left for us.  It has to be one of the most beautiful sections of line ever engineered and the railway ran from Penrith through to Keswick and beyond to Cockermouth. This is one of the bridges which crossed the River Greta and it is now just a lovely narrow footpath. There is a society who hope to restore it all as a railway track again and they raise some money, but I think it is a forlorn hope as it would cost millions to re open as the M6 motorway goes right through it......Best to keep it as a super walk for the folks in Keswick.

The day was very cold but the sun did manage to come out for a couple of hours and created lovely long shadows on the ground because it was so low in the sky. We passed a few folks on the way to the top and then we stopped to put on our crampons because we intended to come down a very steep section and knew it would be icy.

I was busy taking some photos of Bella because she had some ice on her chin and when I looked at them later discovered she was doing the very famous 'Border Terrier Nose Lick' on one of them. Did you know there is a site on the internet which is dedicated to the BT nose lick?  People are invited to submit photos of their terriers performing it.... Well done Bella, it's a good one.......

After this DH picked her up for another couple of photos and then decided to drop her back onto the snow. I was still snapping away and I found this photo when I got home, it's Bella about to get that sinking feeling..... I could not have taken this shot if I had tried to set it up, what superb colours and action.......



After this we walked back down into town because it was the Keswick Christmas Fair and we wanted to mooch about the stalls and take in the atmosphere.  But before we ended up in town we took a short cut across the park near the cricket pavilion and the mist had come down over the pitch. It was really pretty with this lovely white cloud of mist hugging the ground. DH took this shot of our local Museum in the background with Clough Head right behind it snug in it's snowy glory.



Well it is hard to believe that this is day 6, until tomorrow then.............

From the sublime to the ridiculous?

I am still having problems with blogger turning my photos ninety degrees, this one was taken as a landscape not a portrait and look what happened when I uploaded it.  I know that I am not the only person who is suffering from this problem coz Sally http://quiltfeather.blogspot.com/ reported it too.  Anyway, I don't have time tonight to mess about and delete it.  So I hope you like it anyway as it was shown to me by a friend at our EG meeting on Thursday and is a supreme example of crazy quilting. So thank you Marilyn. I have a sneaking feeling that she is going to make some more blocks like this one and if she does will try and show them to you. As you know I bought a book on the subject recently but have not had time yet to make much progress on anything to do with crazy quilting, although I can say that it has been a crazy week so far.......

This next shot is the inside of a carpet bag I am trying to complete. I know it looks really bright but I thought hey why not? Again I took this shot as a landscape and its come out as turned around by blogger  grrrrrrr.

But you can see the little black tape with the clasp? on the end for my keys and also the large black pockets edged with bright pink velvet  yumm. On the other side is another deep pocket edged in silvery black for my purse.  The base of the inside is pink velvet and the sides are this really lovely flower print. I have not finished the bag yet and when I do I will post it up. I hope I can fit it in this week as Wednesday is Cumbria Patchworkers and we are making a Christmas Stocking .... seems every year I get to make one. Actually, my lovely DD in California has received 2 so far so I can think of a home for this one too........

Next up is the Viking... yes I know it's another terrible photo but what can I do? He was standing straight when I took him and when I UPLOADED  it went down hill from there.... I won't show him so large as he might frighten you!  Actually his appearance was not frightening at all it was supposed to be but no I felt quite at home, must have been the grey beard and beer belly.

He did give a very good talk about the Vikings to the ladies at Keswick Embroiderers Guild on Thursday and if you want to see some photos I took of some of the textiles he brought along I sent them onto Lesley to post on the blog which is http://keswickembroiderers.blogspot.com/ or you can find a link to it in my favourite blogs. He was a nice chap ex Royal Marines and he seemed to enjoy showing off in the gear...If you want him to come and visit you then go check him out http://www.vikingasaga.co.uk/

Lastly, I was up Helvellyn on Saturday in very wintry conditions with Bella and so no photos, anyway, you would not want to see us both sitting there on the top trying to keep warm whilst waiting for the others coming up Striding Edge. We waited and waited... with figures lurking out of the mist but no DH and his mates until at last they came. Bella and I had eaten our lunch by then and were nearly about to set off back down the way we came to Swirls carpark. As usual the top was swarming with people who all came up in odd assorted groups, some even in jeans the idiots.....they would not have been able to wait on the top for over an hour like Bella and I. So it is quite a relief to be sat here at my laptop with Bella asleep by the door because the wood burning stove is too warm for her......Pile more on I say as it has gone quite chilly in Cumbria.

Wonderful bloggies & Birthday doggies

I wanted to draw your attention to one of the blogs on my list run by Gina. http://ginaferrari.blogspot.com/ Her blog is called Fan My Flame and she is making a book using lace and people's memories for a final project for her "Fine Art Embroidery" module. Go take a look at her latest posting for a lovely idea being turned into something very special.

I can't really let today pass without posting another photo of Bella because she is 3 today and the weather has been so bad in the Lakes all day so we actually went up Latrigg yesterday to take her special day photos. She has spent most of today lying in front of the wood burner and dreaming. She really is cute when she dreams because she utters little tiny woofs inside her which can just be heard and they never seem to wake her up. I think she is a bit of a ventriloquist because when we leave the house for walkies she always grabs at the lead and drags us to the gate then as we set off down the street she barks like mad still with the lead firmly clenched in her little teeth. Our neighbours think she is so funny as they often see her taking us for a walk.....

You can see that Blencathra has already got a dusting of snow on the top and when we were in Scotland last week climbing another Munro the snow was well down and it was blowing a gale at the summit trig point. So it looks like the winter won't be long in coming but yesterday the sun beamed on us and we had soup and sandwiches on the top of the hill for lunch.
I have not been doing any sewing lately because I have been catching up with a few household chores since the Keswick Rambles guided walks finished at the end of October, but I hope to be back in action on the sewing machine very soon because I am missing it not to mention all the other ufo's I have. Tomorrow though, I am expecting a new fridge so that I can put the old one in the garden shed (overflow area for his beer and fruit juice etc) as we often find we just don't have enough room for all our fresh food. We are both keen cooks but we do like to do everything from scratch if we possibly can so that means we need lots of fresh produce, so hopefully that problem will now be sorted, so onto the next one.....now where did I put my unfinished quilt?

Recipe for Cumberland Sausage Rolls Plus...

I have not put a recipe on this blog for so long that I am feeling guilty, so I decided to have a change and put on a special.

Well actually its one of our chefs from Keswick, Cumbria where I live. His name is Peter Sidwell and he has just been given a tv series called  'The Lakes on a Plate'.  This is the link to the proggy.  http://www.channel4.com/programmes/lakes-on-a-plate/4od#3120253

But be aware that this is about 25 minutes long because the proggy is not just recipes for sausage rolls, soup, and calzone but a little bit of history about The Lakes too and stunning photography.  You will see Peter go up one of the guided walks which I do as a Mountain Leader and its called Haystacks. It was a favourite of Alfred Wainwright who is one of my heroes.

As it is broadcast on channel4 it does contain some adverts but that is a small intrusion on an otherwise good programme. I hope you enjoy it. One other thing it is only available to view for about another 24 days so if you want to see it don't hang about.

If you just want the sausage rolls recipe try here http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/chefs/peter-sidwell/sausage-rolls-recipe_p_1.html