Today we decided to drive to York and see the Minster - Cathedral, and the Quilters Guild of the British Isles Museum.
We haven't seen much in the way of crafts apart from some sampler embroideries at the Old Post Office at Tintagel, and tapestries at a couple of the old houses we have visited. I knew before I left Australia that I wanted to see the Guild Museum which is housed in an old guild hall. Unfortunately, you couldn't take any photos of the inside, but I did take one of the outside.
Peter from whom we are renting our cottage, suggested we use the park and drive, and after previous experiences we decided we would. Just as well, as it turned out, as York is having a 10 day food and wine festival! There were people everywhere and half the streets in the old City were closed off. The place was very busy.
I'm not sure why, but my north/south compass has stopped working! I wasn't having any trouble until the last few days, so when we got the map out to go to the Quilt Museum, I got very confused!!! It was lunch time, so we stopped and had something to eat a an almost empty cafe the Jorvik. I wasn't sure what it would be like, we both had a hot potato with chilli con carne, cheese and corn, and it was very tasty! I didn't realise that we were at the Jorvik Centre which is a reconstruction of Viking York...
Then we went on to the museum, which is housed in a 16th century hall that housed 6 guilds. There was an exhibition on which had some of the guilds own quilts and some from other collections. My favourite was a green cotton sateen whole cloth which had the most lovely design quilted on it and may have had some trapunto. I would have liked a photo so it, and they didn't have a postcard, even though it was in their own collection. I wasn't able to see the back of it... Damn, as it was very interestingly quilted, across the feathers and other designs, most of the stitching went vertically down the quilt, hardly any followed the shape of the designs. I shall have to have a better look at wholecloth quilting next time I see it, but I thought they normally followed the design. It meant that there were some big gaps if you followed a line of quilting down the quilt, so I am assuming the stitching on the back was zigzagged? It has a new back on it, so looking on the back probably wouldn't tell me, and the attendants didn't seem to understand what I was asking!!!! I have never done a whole cloth, hand quilted or otherwise, so perhaps this is how they are all done?
The other quilt I loved was a simple alternate nine patch block with a plain cream block quilt. The colours were lovely, but what I loved was it was hand quilted with two oak leaves and an acorn motif on each of the plain blocks.
The Guild has quite a nice shop attached to the museum. There was a catalogue of the exhibition, but the book I did buy was one about their historical quilts and included some quilting designs - "Quilt Treasures - the Quilters' Guild Heritage Search".
After we had finished there, we walked up to York Minster following the little lanes and an alley way... Which was quite fortuitous as it took us past what is called the Treasurer's House. The house was updated in the very late 1800s and early 1900s so is a interesting mishmash of things. But the site of the house used to have the York Minster Treasurer's residence there but I think parts of the property were from the 1500s. It is another National Trust property.
The front gardens are quite nice! Down in the cellars there is a tea rooms, which is a bit different, and apparently there is part of a Roman road there. It was a bit claustrophobic and had no tables available, so we went on to the Cathedral.
York Minster is one of the main cathedrals in England and rather old and the largest in Northern Europe? We had a look thru. They are doing renovations at the moment, including the East window behind the altar. You can do a tour, which we probably should have, but I was starting to feel very grotty with the beginnings of a cold....
It is another large and beautiful cathedral. We were there later in the afternoon, it was sunny outside, and there was an eveningsong service at 5.15, so the organist was practicing while we were there, and then at about 4.45, the choir was practicing as well. It made our visit seem even more special.
After we finished looking around we went across the road to a tea rooms for a drink.
The streets of old York are very interesting! Lots of little streets and old buildings, very nice for a wander.
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