Tuesday 5 February 2013

Our New Sewing Venue

In the New Year we, the good ladies of Apple County Quilters changed our venue from the cold, dark and dreary hall that we had been using to the beautiful light and airy Orangery at Nynehead Court in Somerset. Nynehead Court is a private nursing home in a Grade II listed building and the Orangery is part of the set up and hired out to anyone who would like it at a reasonable cost. There is underfloor heating and it stays cosy, when the sun came out the windows high in the roof suddenly opened to let a breeze in.


Opposite the Orangery is a very pretty sandstone church that is part of Nynehead Village.


This is the walkway to the church. Those branches made some interesting shapes and in Summer I imagine it will look very different and provide welcome shade.


The grounds are simply amazing with beautiful manicured gardens and woodland walks. The sun was trying to break through the snow threatened clouds. Notice that there is a little bit of blue sky. It does so much to make you feel better.




Showing you the activity inside.

To my right  Sue was busy cutting up quite a collection of batik fabrics. The observant of you will notice that the rotary cutter is lefthanded.


Sarah is busy making a quilt from the new Jelly Roll book by Pam and Nicky Lintott.


Marie loves all things pretty and is making a Valentine's cushion, her work is always beautifully stitched. Bernina's seem to be the order of the day .


This is Janet Kittow who loves hand stitching and who refused to look up at me.  For the past two exhibitions Janet has won the Viewers Choice Rosette and they were well deserved. Here she is finishing off a past challenge quilt. Better late than never and far better than mine as mine still is not even sewn up.


You can see how nice and light it is in this room and how busy everyone is.


At the other end of the room are nice comfy chairs where we decamp when we eat our lunch and sit and chatter and discuss various proceedings. I adore and wish I had somewhere to put that magnificent painting. It is a giant but looks almost real it is so beautifully painted.

 
We are all so happy to be there in the delightful surroundings and know that it was a good move. Now we sew ther all day rather than the half day that we used to have. Dotty Dolly also use it for their workshops.


It has been a while coming but today I finally finished sewing on the binding for Daisy's quilt. It has taken me  far too long and as this is the smaller one of the two quilts  the bigger one most definitely will be machine quilted, simply. Attaching binding is for me one of those tasks that sometimes is a pain but this time it went on like a dream with no unpicking and with the corners all neatly filled. I used perle thread no.8 in a deep lavender for the daisies and a rose for the other quilting. I am not over keen on the big stitches as  the tightly woven fabrics were not easy to stitch through. However, it is now done and can be crossed of the list. I shall be able to hold my head up high when I next visit the Worn and Washed stand and say that I have at last used up one of her bundles. Yay!


Hope you enjoyed the visit to our new venue.
 
Happy Stitching.
 
Shirley.

23 comments:

  1. What a beautiful venue Shirley. It really must make stitching a pleasure and how lovely to see why people were working on. The valentine cushion looks gorgeous. Daisy's quilt is wonderful. Am I unusual in that I love attaching binding to quilts?

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  2. Looks like a fabulous place to sew--I envy all that light and the very pretty surroundings too!

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  3. How exciting it would be to join all the Apple Valley Quilters and spend time together in this lovely building. So many industrious ladies, enjoying the new, warm, inviting locale. I note that Janet also kept her head down in the 2nd photo, in front of that lovely painting. She's very consistent :)
    Will you share a photo of the walkway to the church in the summer? I'd love to see it then.

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  4. Heck... for a minute there I thought you'd moved house!! ;o) Fabulous venue for group meetings and lovely that you get to stitch all day. Love the quilt you made for Daisy. The faded pinks look so cozy. Which reminds me... I have Worn and Washed to use up too.

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  5. Superb location Shirley! I too love doing bindings, I've volunteer but...... Lol

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  6. You are so lucky to meet in such a beautiful place! How often do you and the other talented ladies meet? Congrats on the finish. I just finished a quilt for my baby grand niece and I, too, was very happy to cross it off a very long list! ; c )

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  7. I meant to say this about the blue sky. I'm really feeling the cloudy weather we've had this winter. I have so much more energy on a sunny day! Time to have my vitamin D levels checked!

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  8. What a wonderful place to sew - I am very jealous - and those gardens will be glorious in spring! Congratulations on finishing Daisy's quilt - yay!
    Hilda

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  9. Cute quilt for Daisy and I love your new meeting venue! Wow, is't amazing; so much space and light. And it was nice to "meet" some of your friends. How often do you meet? Every week?

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  10. What an inspiring place to quilt with friends! Looks like you have a very active group to have so many attend! What fun!

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  11. What an idyllic setting for a quilt group! The grounds are like something out of a storybook. I enjoyed seeing what all the ladies were up to. They're one talented group!




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  12. I love your new space Shirley, so much room and fabulous light. Everyone looks very settled.
    Congratulations on the little finish. Those fabrics look gorgeous all sewn together.

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  13. What a beautiful sewing venue and the views are fabulous, thanks for the tour.
    The wee pink quilt looks great, I love it.

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  14. I like your new venue......gorgeous building.
    And Daisy's quilt is beautiful.

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  15. wow what a magnificent venue for your craft group. such beautiful grounds.
    well done on your finish.

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  16. What a beautiful place to sew! I am very jealous. The light looks amazing and the scenery looks just like "Midsummer". Your quilt looks so pretty, love the quilting.

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  17. Absolutely fabulous venue for a creative group of stitchers and I can't wait to see how beautiful it looks in Summer. Love your quilt and another to cross off the list. Take care.

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  18. How wonderful to see so many faces I recognise in that fantastic new venue. So much better than the old place. I hope you will all be very happy and warm there. Love the quilt

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  19. Your new venue is so nice I am not sure I would get much sewing down. I would want to sit and gaze and walk with my camera.

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  20. Great to see all the ladies creating there.
    Looks like a lovely place Shirley, under floor heating would win me over for sure..
    Have lots of fun there.
    Julia ♥

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  21. What an amazing new venue you have for your meetings, it will be a pleasure to stitch there. Daisy's quilt is so pretty & of course PINK! lol Love the quilted daisies :)

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  22. What a lovely place to stitch and spend the day! Nice to see what everyone is making. Daisy's Quilt is lovely - those fabrics look beautiful together, too..the quilting is suitably fresh and fun for it :-)

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  23. I can see why you are thrilled with the move to a new location. What a beautiful space to sit and sew...I'm so jealous ;o)

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