My Kinda Day - Part 2

When I left you last post I was off to get my patchwork fix with Brenda. The Quilt Museum and Gallery was only a short walk from York Minister so with map in hand we left the men to find something else to do.

On display at the gallery was an exhibition of quilts by Kaffe Fassett (well known textile designer) with the antique quilts which he had used for inspiration for each quilt. It was interesting to see his interpretation and how he broke the more intricate antique designs down to simpler but still effective quilt designs.

We were particularly taken by the intricacy of this little number. It is only cot size but you can see by my pinkie how small the little squares are. It was all paper priced by hand and the stitches were so close together, fascinating.

We met up with the men again, walk back to the car and headed for our next destination. As I've mentioned previously, we joined the National Trust before we came away so we could take advantage of getting into their sites for free. Everywhere you go in the UK there are signs for National Trust sites so on our way to Birmingham we had a enough time to stop at Clumber Park (yeah, I hadn't heard of it either). As the name suggests it is a big parkland which surrounds an enormous walled kitchen garden. The house that the garden used to service longer exists but garden still provides for a cafe/restaurant that's there.

Of interest, the longest glass I've ever seen, the second largest rhubarb collection in Britain, over 100 varieties (who knew), beautiful flower garden and lots of bumble bees.

No, Ross isn't admiring this flower, it's a wonder I didn't have to restrain him from pulling the flowers off. It is Orange Hawkfeed, a noxious weed at home in Australia, that he has been battling with for years in the National Parks. 

Anyway we enjoyed our impromptu stop off and it capped off a near perfect day for me, an old cathedral, a patchwork exhibition and a garden, what else could I ask for. 

TOODLES