Holiday to Cornwall in May

During May this year we took a holiday in Bude in Cornwall.  The weather was kind to us and we were able to do quite a lot of sight seeing.
One of our favourite places is Boscastle and we had a lovely day there, warm enough not to need our coats and no raincoats either!

A few years ago they had a terrible flood that devastated the village, washing away a lot of the houses and many cars and caravans that were parked in the car park further up the hill.


                                                                                   Since then  a lot of rebuilding has taken place and the pub at the bottom of the hill has had to have a lot of work done on it.  This building is the National Trust information area and they tell the story of the flood and the rebuilding of Boscastle, 
 some of the buildings were many centuries old and one in particular was almost destroyed and was rebuilt using the stone from the old building and is now a lovely little cafe. Other buildings were  wshed away altogether!

 We discovered these RHS gardens about 15miles from where we were staying, Rosemore is in a sheltered vally with wooded sides, and is the most amazing new garden with lots to interest everyone. Lots of formal 'room' gardens as well as large well manicured lawns and specimen trees and a lake , lots of shade and seating for a hot days viewing!  If we go back to this area I will certainly visit it again.

This is part of the beach at Bude - it is very large and the sea goes out a long way leaving pools for the little ones to play in - this day was very hot and as you can see those that were on the beach at lunchtime put up shelters for some shade. A very safe beach for small children to play and explore, but just round the headland there is a sea water bathing pool for those who want to swim when the tide is out.

Some finished UFO's

 Before I took on the whole cloth quilt that my friend Margaret had startd I had started a couple of quilts - one to hand applique and quilt and one to do by machine.  The red/pink one here was started as an alternative design for my daughter Sarah - she chose the pink quilt show you before - the one with all the applique flowers round the borders!

 This is the quilt I started for myself and I have done the centre and corners and all the little circles in applique an the rest was machined.  This quilt was had quilted as I have to have something to do when I am at group meetings and when I 'watch' tv.  It was from an Australian
magazine and was on the front cover - I had never made the clamshell pattern before and was just going to make that but I got carried away! The quilt was originally in lavender and yellows and as it was going to my quilt I made it colours I like .


This corner shows some of the quilting before I had finished the quilt and given it a wash to get rid of the blue marking lines.

Someone challenged me to make a quilt top using only the scraps from my other quilts! So here we have a Pandora's box quilt made from the left over binding strips of other quilts! I always use two and a half inch bindings  so this was quick and easy to make.  A jelly roll would make it too........

These cushions are from a kit I bought at Festival of Quilts last year from 'The Bramble Patch' and finished in April.

I also bought this bag pattern from The Bramble Patch - but the year before and finally made this in April too.  So quite a month for finishing things.