September - a busy month!

September has been a very busy month on all fronts - work (yes, not near retirement yet!), quilting and bellringing. I am really looking forward to our BQSG seminar in York this year - and seeing "our" exhibition, It's All in the Making at the Quilt Museum. Only ten days until I go off to York....and the following week is a Guild Training Day in Wakefield. I am handing over the BQSG Treasurers Post and just doing the website updates. 

I was pleased to see a picture of my Piilani Hawaiian quilt in this month's Patchwork and Quilting magazine, which had a report on some of the Malvern winners....

 Two of my quilts are also going to Canada next year for the Ailsa Crag Exhibition in Ontario Canada. When I was a child, we spent several summer holidays in Ontario so I have fond memories. This is my Amish Cake Stand quilt, one of the quilts that went to Olympia with the Traditional Quilts group exhibition. Named after my Mennonite great grandmother Maria Dalke. This photo actually shows the original quilt, which I sold  (what a mistake..) ... something very unpleasant happened to it, so I made a second one for me to keep...

I am also sending the pink Allendale quilt, this is the one that I think is really British and better represents what our quilting history is all about.

On Saturday, Mike and I went on the Hollesley outing to the Ely area...we pulled off the road so that we could take a photo of Ely Cathedral...no bells there, but St Marys does have eight bells....

 Earlier in the day, we rang at Swaffham Prior (yes, the same village that had the quilt study day). This village is unusual in that it has two churches sharing a churchyard. One church became dilapidated, so another was built...it is the older one that has the bells, they were on plain bearings and a really oldfashioned ring...

 Here in Suffolk, near Felixstowe, we have a similar situation with the Trimleys....Trimley St Martin and Trimley St. Mary. The two villages each had their own church, which shared a churchyard. Two sisters built the churches, each vying with the other to have the better church. As at Swaffham, today one is used and the other is redundant (the nearer one is the used one and the farther one is the empty one....)

...but Reepham in Norfolk beats these villages, it had three churches sharing a churchyard. Apparently it was a major site of pilgrimage in the Mediaeval times. You can see St Marys and St Michaels here - St Michaels is the one with a ring of eight bells. The third church is little more than a ruined tower now, but can still be seen....

The day ended with a bang! as the car picked up a nail and there was a very flat tyre. We had to pull over, I handed Mike all the things he needed and made suggestions....while he changed the tyre. Luckily the light was still good....the same thing happened on our previous outing to this area some years ago, so watch out for nails if you ever visit this area!