Search This Blog

I am a quilter living in Woodbridge, Suffolk who has made quilts since I was a teenager. I also ring bells! Both are great British traditions....I will try to feature some of my antique Welsh and Durham quilts, the quilts I make myself, my quilting activities and also some of my bellringing achievements. Plus as many photos as I can manage. NB: Double click on the photos to see greater detail, then use back button to return to the main page.













Tuesday 15 February 2011

Planning a Ringing Outing

Last spring, our "Ring and Walk" Pettistree outing between Fressingfield and Wingfield was a big success, so Mike and I are planning another for April. The formula is a bit demanding - there have to be two towers with bells - linked by a short but picturesque walk -suitable parking for the cars- with a pub at either end, one of which is suitable for lunch for 20 to 30 people.

On Saturday, we tried to walk from Yaxley to Eye. The footpath was overgrown and a bit of a scramble - worse, there was no pub in Eye! The Queens Head was closed for repairs.....and the bells at Eye seemed too heavy for our ringers.

On Sunday, our walk met with more success...


We started at Stoke Ash, a small village next to the Ipswich to Norwich Road (an old Roman Road). It seems that excavations in 2004 have shown that there was a Roman staging post here, and it was much larger then...there was a very pleasant 30 minute walk to...

Thornham church. The paths were broad and well maintained and passed some lovely old cottages.

This is the Waterhouses area, with its ford - imagine driving through this every morning on your way to work...

The ford was too deep for our boots, so to get over the footbridge we had to "run the gauntlet " past loud geese -


And there are two good pubs at either end, the White Horse and the popular Four Horseshoes at Thornham (above). The next stage will be to make the bookings - entry to the churches and arranging the food - if only we could order up the good weather.


This week, I have done something I thought I would never do again - some dressmaking. It brings back unpleasant memories of "home ec" at jr. high school...however, I have found it difficult to buy cotton trousers with nice fabric - so frustrating when there is great fabric in the quilt stores. So I bought this pattern - have modified it to match a favorite pair of trousers -I bought 2 metres of fabric from Quilters Haven - it is Habitat by Michele D'Amore - hope it turns out well....it is does, I'll make some more - I want a pair of red paisley trousers...LOL..

4 comments:

  1. Oh the "Ring and Walk" sounds so peaceful and nice. We have nothing like that here. It is such a big place that we would have to walk on pavement not dirt paths and we would be dodging traffic instead of geese. I hope you take a lot of pictures. We did have a steeple chase last year. It was for runners(not me) and they ran from the Jordan River Temple to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple (both of which have steeples/spires. It wasn't terrible scenic, just a novelty.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful area you live in Pippa. The pub is just perfect!

    Oh Lord, I remember paper patterns in sewing classes at school and the catastrophies that I usually produced at the end. I made a Maxi skirt once with an apple patterned fabric and only at the end realised that in one panel the fabric was upside down.

    And it had a frill......soooo 1972 even in 1978!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful photos Pippa, what glorious scenery - your outing sounds like it will be wonderful. Hope the weather is kind when you go.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Home Ec - Ahhh, I remember being told off for basting by machine - it had to be done by hand -- and having to rip out a zipper because I hadn't done it "her " way - I had already done a lot of sewing by this point, and mother was a very experienced dressmaker...

    ReplyDelete