May Bank Holiday weekend

Another bank holiday weekend, so brace yourself for lots of scenic photos. Jenny is swotting for her A levels so DH and I have been out and about by ourselves for a couple of days.
Yesterday we had a picnic at Tynemouth overlooking the mouth of the river, it was very windy but a lovely sunny day.
The historic priory was silhouetted against a beautiful blue sky.
The sand in the bay looked lovely but the sea was very cold - no swimmers today.
Today we have been out into the North Pennines in search of family history at the Nenthead Mines Heritage centre
Another image from the family history album shows miners coming out of the lead mine at the end of their shift. As my dad's great grandfather lived nearby in the 1870s, I was hoping they would be able to identify my photograph.
As you can see the buildings look very similar and there were photos of the same sort of trucks in the museum but unfortunately no one was able to identify the mine on my photograph. It was quite interesting however, I thought lead mines just produced lead but no they produced other things such as silver, zinc, flurspar and quartz. Worth a visit and good scones in the tea shop.
And scenic too!!!


A little bit of sewing over the weekend - I made Snickerdoodles - a rabbit for a baby from a pattern by Bunny Hill Designs. Spot the real rabbit.She obviously felt threatened with another lady rabbit in her territory and attacked!
And I have done a bit more knitting too. Square no 2 of my Debbie Abrahams design blanket. This one is called GRID. Only 115 to go!!

Thanks to Mandy for the Happy Quilter Label in the post. Wish my machine could do that!!

Thank you all for visiting my blog - Today I reached my goal of 1000 hits in a month- hope you all enjoy it.

Happy Quilting xx

Precious memories

Precious memories was the title of the class I enjoyed at MAKE recycled craft workshop last weekend. We spent a wonderful day with textile artist Mandy Pattullo creating a personal piece of textile art. It was an ideal opportunity to use one of the family photos I had taken from my family history book and transferred onto fabric. Here you can see my piece of work just laid out ready to be assembled. The picture shows my grandparents on their wedding day in 1932. The surrounding text is just a passage from the bible to show how important her religion was in her life. As was music - she enjoyed playing the piano. I could tell you the pieces of lace and trimmings came from her wedding dress but actually they came from an antique shop and some from Katie's stash but the overall effect is good. I have got some embroidery to put on then I will show you the finished work.
Mandy showed us a quick and easy way of transferring an image onto fabric using household emulsion paint. She showed us some wonderful examples of her work to which you can see if you visit her at The Hearth at Horsley on The Art Tour.An added bonus of the classes at MAKE is the wonderful lunch and afternoon tea provided by The Allendale bakery next door. My afternoon tea was brought to the table so I didn't even have to stop work to enjoy it. The fruit scone with butter jam and cream was absolutely fabulous - probably in my top 3 of all time best scones I have eaten - and I have sampled a lot.
And more treats were in store when my DH celebrated a big birthday too.

Happy Quilting xx