As snappy titles go for blog posts this is certainly a dud but they do all link….

My daughter has taken up photography partly as a school subject but she’s had a bent towards it and a good eye from an early age. This has spurred me on and it’s been fun sharing an interest even if sadly that shared interest isn’t going to be quilting….

She even asked me to make this sweet little pouch to hold her memory stick and card reader. With the run of my stash she chose this Alison Glass batik. I think it’s a good choice and a very easy quick make based on a miniature version of  Noodlehead’s wide open pouch to fit her school blazer pocket. 

Now we’ve upgraded to a DSLR I can see a need for more containers for all the filters and general gubbins that go with this of camera. I’ve already managed to lose the plate of our tripod….

We want to have a go at night photography so I’ve been looking into the location of  our nearest ‘dark skies’ where in theory you can see the milky way with the naked eye In fact our nearest is a stone circle in the Cotswolds called Rollright Stones.

How did I not know, living where we have for over 35 years, that we have a complete stone circle dating back to the early Neolithic times within 45 minutes drive! I have visited the Cotswolds many, many times and always loved the honey coloured limestone buildings that make up the pretty villages and towns of this area.  Well it seems our ancestors, c 4,500 years ago, also liked the look of it and created this stone circle.

OK it’s not on the scale of Stonehenge but it’s more intimate and certainly less crowded. My pictures here  don’t  do the site justice at all. I’m playing with our new camera and very slowly getting to grips with manual adjustments and not the automatic setting. This is  hampered, I’m afraid, by not having a particularily good eye for composition. My father reading this is nodding at this sad fact!

The day I visited was overcast with that unrelenting grey montone cloud that photographers so dislike however I had a go….. But it dawned on me that in this very atmospheric and mystical place we are not going to be photographing the stars  in the pitch black and dead of night on our own … This is where searching for a spare husband comes in. Sadly I was widowed many years ago but even if Nigel was around today he hated the dark so I’d still be after a borrowed husband!

My daughter and I are also nervous of the dark and even the dark skies website says it better to photograph in groups for safety. Well we needed to find someone to go with.  A couple of friends have kindly offered up their husbands who are either keen photographers and/or astronomers so we shall have both brawn and brain with us when we go! Now we just need to wait for the full moon to wane and that missing tripod plate to be replaced and spare husbands geared up! Oh and then we need clear skies…. a lot of stars have to align which of course is what we will be aiming to shoot!

How does this connect to quilts? Well I did toy with the idea of taking a quilt with me to drape over a stone but the place had such a mystical atmosphere it didn’t  feel right…. and also they are very protective of their lichen which itself dates back 400-800 years.

However enroute I’d taken the opportunity to visit the quilt show of the Hathaway Quilters, Stratford upon Avon. My quilty friend Abigail Sheridan de Graaf is a member and a number of her quilts were on show.

This is Churned to a T.  Abigail designed the central block and clearly had great fun with all that quilting on her long arm. It’s one of those quilts that needs close inspection where the thread seems to shine and the detail of the quilting is exquisite.

 

This quilt, Where to next?, was a special exhibition quilt Abigail was asked to make, along with a select group of U.K. quilters, on the theme of home at last year’s Festival of Quilts.  She chose a map of her local town. I joked as she shared its construction on IG that she needed to include the notorious  one way system and she did!

This one by also caught my eye. More an art quilt but an unusual choice of colours. This was made by Kathy Unwin.  I liked the inclusion of the simple people.

It was a friendly quilt group and I enjoyed a cup of tea and obviously couldn’t turn down a slice of cake.  Such a pretty table arrangement. One I may have to copy for our Easter table.

Linking up with Amanda Jean Crazy Mom Quilts