Silver Wedding Anniversary

This week my DH and I have been celebrating our silver wedding anniversary. I don't know where the years have gone. I can't believe we have been married for 25 years, we are not old enough. A friend suggested I must have been a child bride and was given the day off school to get married, now that's more like it.

Thank you all for the cards and gifts.

We had a quiet celebration with a family pub lunch. The plan was to then have champagne and cake in the garden. The bunting was up and ready to go when the heavens opened and it poured.

We all took shelter in the conservatory and my sewing table was pressed into service to hold the cake. We had a lovely day.

To commemorate the event I have made a little quilt with 25 hearts. The label still needs to be completed with the dates on.
But a weekend wouldn't be complete without a little bit of sewing and my gift to myself was Gift, Rosie Quinlan's new book. It is lovely, beautifully photographed and the designs are lovely too. What will I make first?

The Art Tour

Despite the rain today we set out to visit some of the venues on The Art Tour. For five summer Sundays and a summer weekend the Network Artists welcome you into their studios, workshops and homes across Northumberland. Having discovered What Katie Did on her blog I decided to go and visit her as she is an exhibitor on the Art Tour. Heading on up to Langley into the rain clouds we were first given a warm welcome by Geoff in Langley Furniture workshops. The quality of the beautiful woodwork was fantastic and it was interesting to see the pieces they had made for an exhibition about Toad of Toad Hall at Seven Stories, the centre for children's books, in Newcastle.

Geoff pointed us in the direction of Kate in her pink shed. WOW! What a place! All of us sewing ladies should have a pink shed like that. What a lovely warm welcome and what inspiration. Kate's motto is recycle, reuse and reduce and what fantastic things she had produced. I feel quite guilty buying new fabric to make my projects when I see what she has done with second hand fabric. I bought these vintage buttons and some picture envelopes made from recycled books, it all came in a handmade Morsbag made from an old duvet cover, No plastic carrier bags here. She was ably assisted by the lovely Gloria another blogger.
Here is Katie in her shed

And my loot.

As you all know I can't go anywhere without a cup of tea so the next stop on the tour was The Garden Station. A restored Victorian railway station in a woodland garden was also exhibiting local artists. We must go back again in better weather and walk in the gardens but we were able to see a rabbit in the garden through the window.

More art across the road in Langley Village hall, where we met Mike Mcfarlane landscape photographer. His work was good too, showing off at its best the fantastic scenery in the beautiful north east of England. Mandy Pattullo's textile art was interesting too.

If you are at a loose end next Sunday set out, Explore the Northumberland countryside and be inspired by the local artists.

Oh and I have been doing some sewing too. A throw for my DS, made from this bright fabric Nantucket by Moda. The fabric is quite busy, so the pattern is simple just 5" squares stitched together to give a random pattern.