Thursday 10 October 2013

Once upon a time in a quilt room....And a visit to Narborough Hall

Hello everyone.
I thought I would update you on what I have been up to these last couple of weeks.

As I have finished the Christmas Quilt, I was about to start a new project, when I found a half completed seaside themed quilt lurking in a drawer.

I had sewn about half the top together, but then never got round to finishing it. I decided that I really should finish it before starting any more projects, so I set to & have now finished the top.
It would have been finished today, except that I discovered I haven't any suitable backing fabric wide enough for it. (An excuse to go fabric shopping tomorrow then!)
You can see it being completed in the pic below:
It is a pinwheel design using a mixture of nautical & beach inspired fabrics. Will post a pic of it when I finish it.

So then I decided to give the quilt room a bit of a tidy.
I took some pics of my quilt room /study/ office etc to show you:
 
My cutting table & sewing machine workspace.

I love the enamel picture, bought for me by my sister last Christmas.
This is a close up of it:


The heart shaped plaque was bought by my friends at work when I retired last year.

Here are some of my other pictures:
My daughter Beckie bought this one (above), and my quilting teacher Jill, bought me the one below for my birthday:

You sense the theme then!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to acquire this wonderful Singer hand sewing machine. It has not been used for years, but I was able to sew a few rows with it, as if it had been used yesterday. I have taken it out of the case & got it on display on the window sill.
It is a lovely thing to look at.
I have posted a picture of my machine below it. Mine has 100 stitch combinations, all sorts of wizzy gadgets, and yet the Singer sews a beautiful straight line.


I don't think I can manage to wind handle & feed fabric at the same time though!
My quilting machine.

I find that storage is always a problem, so when my sister was throwing her old spice wheel out, I decided to use it to put buttons etc in.
It is so useful, and you can see what is in the jars:
And last pic for today is my collection of old cotton reels. I think they look attractive in the jar. I only put in those made of wood, and try to find ones with interesting makers paper on the end.
I never actually use them though!

 Well that's the story of my quilt room, and the things in it.
(I haven't shown you the loads & loads of drawers filled with fabric, or my bookshelves of quilt books, but I will spare you that!)

The weather here is a lot colder today. At the weekend we spent a few days in Suffolk, and the weather was glorious. We walked along the beach in tee shirts, but certainly wouldn't do that now! I suppose we have been spoilt by the lovely summer we have had, but now it is on with the fleeces and jeans again.

Last night I spent a lovely evening with my Mum & Sister at a place called Narborough Hall (Which is surprisingly in Narborough, Leicestershire!)
They have been holding preview evenings of their new Christmas shop all this week.

It is an amazing place & we bought some gorgeous Christmas decorations, & I got a necklace for my sisters birthday in December. She chose it, and I was more than happy to get it, as it is always difficult to find unChristmassy things in December.

As it was a preview evening it was VERY busy, but the bubbly & amazing chocolate truffles made up for the queues to pay! (They were very efficient, and wrapped everything up beautifully).

They gave us a "spend & save" voucher, so we will definitely be back to spend our gift voucher soon.

I have enclosed a link, so if you are ever in Leicestershire, this place is well worth a visit.

http://www.narboroughhall.co.uk/

So that's all for now.
As usual, feel free to leave comments. I love reading them & they mean a lot. x







2 comments:

  1. Fantastic as always, Sally I really enjoy reading your blog
    Please more pics of your beautiful sewing room I'm intrigued :)
    Lisette x

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  2. Aww thanks Lisette! I will have to take some pics for the next blog. I have so many drawers full of fabric, yet I never seem to have the ones I need! My sewing room doesn't always look this tidy though I have to confess! x

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