BRPS

Finn and I are just back from a trip to the Bath Road Piscatorial Society's lake down in Stanwell Moor, which sounds terribly grand, but is just the lake half a mile from Andy's caravan!  In the end, we only spent one night undercover of a tent, with the other two nights in Andy's caravan, which I'm very glad about because the weather was awful.  (I've had this week off from work and it's been a total washout - just horrible.)

To be fair, it didn't rain much while we were camping until day 2 - so we just stayed in the bivvy anyway - but it certainly didn't feel like June weather.  My cardi, fleece and coat were on and off all day as I really couldn't get acclimatised to the all-over-the-place temperatures.

Don't know what the boys are looking at, but it's keeping them very engrossed!

We had some excitement at 5.15 am on the Wednesday, when the buzzers sent us scurrying for rod (Andy) and net (me), although the net and I weren't needed immediately as the line had got caught on a tree, which necessitated Andy having a very refreshing (for that time of the morning!) wade in his undies to try and release it.

There he goes!

And here he is coming back!  (What a sunrise!)

This did make me chuckle, so I wasn't very helpful - I was too intent on taking photographs!

Here is Andy with his fifteen pound common carp - the source of all our entertainment.

A very good couple of days - I got plenty of crochet done and we had a barbecue too - so the weather didn't spoil anything at all.

Bure Valley Way

A couple of weeks ago (finally caught up with writing these posts!), Amanda and I - without the boys - walked the nine miles of the Bure Valley Way on a very unsettled day - we had a lot of rain, but quite a lot of sun, which meant we were either really wet or really steaming.  Every time it rained, we didn't even bother putting the coats on. 

We parked my car at Wroxham and then drove to Aylsham to start - we used quite a lot of delaying tactics - as usual - before starting to finally walk. 

Our original plan had been to take one car, walk to Wroxham and then get the train back, but it's quite an expensive ride - £8.50 each way for an adult - which is what decided us to have two cars.  And as it turned out, it was a good job we did, as Amanda rubbed the most horrendous blisters in her new boots, so she stopped a mile short of Wroxham, while I hightailed it to go and get the car.  Although I had to walk along the roads to work out how to drive back to her - when you're walking footpaths without a map, it's quite difficult to work out where you are!

Still a very good day and hopefully Amanda's feet will be hardened up enough soon that we can have another go.

Maths Migraine (National Quilting Show)

At the beginning of June, Mum and I went on a coach trip to Spalding in Lincolnshire for a Quilting Show - I had no idea how dangerous this could be!   Not only did we see some beautiful quilts, but there were dozens of quilting supplies companies selling their wares - uhoh!  The fabrics were beautiful and of course I succumbed - however, the fabric was so much cheaper than that at the Knitting and Stitching Show earlier in the year.  And although that show was much bigger, I would go as far as to say that I much preferred the Quilting show as it was just more inspiring generally. 

The migraine referred to in the title of this post was brought on by me trying to work out how the quilters had produced such intricate works - Mum pointed out that I needed to ignore the maths and the construction, and just enjoy them for their beauty.  Wise words indeed and migraine averted!

I loved the autumn colours of this leaf design.

I would never use black fabric in a quilt but I can appreciate that it brings out all the other colours beautifully.  We think that the hexagons are 1.5 to 2 inches in size - and the buttons take up a fair proportion of the hexagons. Very striking.

This one inspired a lot of debate - as we couldn't work out if it had been sewn by hand and machine - it was just so intricate.  A more experienced quilter than us explained that it's been machine sewn with a pre-programmed swirl design.  Clever stuff.

I don't usually like the picture quilts but I was very taken with this one.

And also this one which was inspired by David Hockney's Bigger Picture exhibition at the Royal Academy, which I went to see with Mary, Jim and Amanda a few years back.  (Mary said it would have been better if there had been less pictures - philistine!) 

The hexagon quilts were incredibly effective.

This is my absolute favourite - the colours are very Moroccan and my sort of colours - I'm going to have a go at this one, one day.

This was very striking, but not my favourite colours - there should be some green in there!

This made me laugh.  "David" has been entirely quilted.  Mum is real.  Look at that face!

This was stunning and used lots of different textures also for the grasses and waves.  I want this on my wall!

This one started another headache.  Mum thinks it was all sewn together, then chopped in vertical lines to get the split diamond effect.   Made in lovely satin fabrics so very shiny and shimmery.

While I appreciate how clever this one is, it's too pink for my liking.

I liked this one a lot - all those floral fabrics.

This is made up of the quilter's Dad's old pyjamas and flannel sheets which I think is a lovely idea and has a real history to it.  (Likewise, the quilt I'm making - and have been for 28 years so far - is made up of Nan's old dresses and nighties.)

And this one is beautiful and I would like to have a go at this one as well one day.   (Possibly in another 28 years!)

A fab day out - very inspiring.  Although I really don't have time to take up a brand new hobby!