A Jaunt, an Anniversary and a Quilt

Well, we took our germy selves off to the east coast last week for a few days with the flimsy excuse that it was our wedding anniversary and we thought some sea air would help chase the grotty cold and cough germs away.  You know what thought did?  It thought wrong but at least we did have a lovely week and the weather was kind to us.  

We stayed at a little place called Kessingland in Suffolk in a compact and bijou bungalow on a small private site.  The owner lived just around the corner and let us in and made us feel so at home from the get-go.  The bungalow was metres away from a footpath to the beach and the everchanging skies were beautiful.

DH took a photo of our anniversary cards - 8 years wed and never a cross word!  Well, hardly ever ;-)

There was lots of inspiration in the patterns in the dunes and the edge of the sea.

We didn't go very far as energy was decidedly lacking but we did take the bus to Lowestoft (why drive if you don't have to?).  Here again there was plenty of inspiration in the sand and groynes.

On our last day and our wedding anniversary day we took another bus into Southwold.  The bus driver spotted hubby's camera and told us to go to the harbour instead of the pier end of town as he thought we would get better photo opportunites.  He wasn't wrong, although we had to play dodge the very heavy showers and had to shelter in the pub, twice!  It's a hard life!

I hadn't exected to see this style of shed here.  You get similar black boarded buildings in Hasting but they are twice the height to dry the fishing nets.

This little shed on its raised up blocks really appealed to me and made me think of  Scandinavia.  The little windows are draped in nets.

I'm sure I can use this text somewhere.

Since we've been back we've both got worse with our coughs and 2 trips have been made to the doctor's, returning with antibiotics of the strongest order.  I think today, finally, I can sense a bit of a turnaround and I can actually speak without collapsing into coughing.  DH is still making a fair amount of cough-y noise but he is improving.  We have to be better for tomorrow as it's Mothering Sunday and we want to fetch Mum from her care home.

I havn't been completely idle this week while I've been stuck at home.  I've been working on the back for the Take 20 quilt top that I have been making with mum's pinnies etc.  I decided to carry on using the vintage fabric for the back so that the quilt will effectively be reversible.  So, I have made 30 blocks, some of which have had to be pieced as I didn't have big enough pieces of fabric left.

Above are 2 squares 15" x 20" which the whole back will be made up of.  I am pondering whether to cut the blocks through and rejoin them combining different colourways to break the big chunks of colour up, but that may be a step too far.  The beautiful hand dye is by Maggi Birchenough.

This is the pile of blocks waiting to be ironed and then designed into a quilt back.  I think I may have to use a room at Stitchcraft Studio to sort out the arrangement as our bed isn't big enough and I don't have any floor space that size either.  I can hire a room there for just £5 for 3 hours so well worth it.  Once I have everything ready I am going to get Trudi Wood to do the quilting as it is way too big for me to cope with.  The quilting will break up the solid blocks of colour so maybe I won't fiddle about with it.

I think my fat quarter drawer is a bit revealing:

Liking blues?  Moi?  I think I need to have a dyeing session and get some reds, oranges and yellows in there!  Obviously this is not the only fabric I have, larger pieces are stored elsewhere.

As I said earlier, it's Mothering Sunday here in the UK tomorrow so if you are lucky enough to be spending time with your mum have a lovely day.  If you cannot be with your mum I hope you can enjoy happy memories of good times past.