Nagging wives beware!

Visiting Kent for the first time recently for our son's wedding, we took the opportunity to spend a couple of extra days there to explore a part of the UK that was mostly unknown to us.

A short and very pleasant stroll from our base in Penshurst brought us to the lovely village of Chiddingstone.

The village, which is one of the prettiest in Kent, was bought in it's entirety by the National Trust in 1939. Most of the buildings in the village date back to the 16th and 17th Centuries, but the building housing the Post Office, which you can just see the red sign for in the photo below is mentioned as far back as 1453.

These ancient buildings are not Chiddingstone's only claim to fame though!

This magnificent stone is reputed to be the "Chiding Stone" for which the village is named. Local legend has it that nagging wives and other wrong-doers (!) were brought to the stone to be told off or "chided" by the (presumably mostly male!) villagers. Needless to say my husband thought that this was definitely a practice worth reinstating :)

New to Me in October

Welcome to another New to Me link party

Most of my new experiences this month are happening now as we are currently sailing from not only a New to Me city, but a New to Me country

 

to another New to Me city with a few more New to Me stops in between!

Before we left I did manage to fit in a sewing New to Me when I used this recently purchased book

to make my (late!) Bee block for the Fat Stash Brit Bee

 

So that's my New to Me this month, now it is your turn to share all the fascinating things that you have been up to in October. As ever please help to spread the word by linking back to this post in your post and/or adding the blog button to your sidebar.

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Check out the other links and leave a comment along the way. The emphasis of this link party is to celebrate the trying of something new, whether it works out exactly as planned or not, so a little encouragement here and there would not go amiss! 

The link will remain open until 23.59GMT on October 31st, so you have plenty of time to try something new and link up and join the party :)

An InLinkz Link-up

The heavens aligned!

Isn't it great when you are pressed for time to discover that the Bee blocks that really need to be made and sent before you head off on holiday are both blocks that you have made before? Maybe that is just me!

I was delighted to find that this month's blocks for the Fat Stash Brit Bee were paper-pieced Square in a Square blocks, which were one of the first ever paper-pieced blocks that I attempted thanks to Katy's FPPFTT tutorials many moons ago.

So these were whipped up in no time.

Then even more joyful was the discovery that the October blocks for the Siblings Together Quilting Bee were Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks, and hadn't I taken part in 5 rounds of a STAW Bee! So, not only had I made the blocks several times before but I even had strips pre-cut! Somebody was definitely on my side :)

So these were whipped up in no time too!

We were given complete freedom as regards colours and fabrics for these blocks so as you can see I took full advantage. In one of the STAW bee rounds I was asked for a black and white block with a single colour through the middle and I really liked the resulting block, so I decided to take the opportunity to make another similar block when I had the chance :)

Next month I will hopefully have more time for making Bee blocks so will be happy to have new blocks to try, but this month the heavens definitely aligned in my favour!

Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew October

Well we really are in the swing of Christmas crafting now, the shops are beginning to fill up with Christmas gifts and apparently the last posting dates for surface mail to Australia and New Zealand have already passed!

So, the time is definitely right for another Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew link party.

This month's link party is hosted by the very talented and imaginative Janine at Rainbow Hare Quilts. If you haven't already come across Janine's blog, you must check it out you will be inspired! Janine has designed the loveliest sewing machine cover I have ever seen :)

If you are new to the party, let me fill you in on the details. Paula and I decided at the end of last year that Christmas 2014 was going to be different, this time round there would be no late-night sewing sessions or frantic last-minute dashes to the Post Office. This time we were going to work on Christmas and Holiday projects throughout the year so come December we would be so organised we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves :)

We decided to share our plans with our blogging friends and invite them to be organised too, with a monthly Link Party to provide a gentle nudge. As ever we have a lovely incentive for you to get crafting and linking and this time we have not one but two giveaway prizes. Head on over to Rainbow Hare Quilts to find out what you might be in with a chance of winning.

The winner of last month's Christmas ribbon giveaway was Deborah at Sunshine through the Rain


My own Christmas crafting has been very minimal this month so I will really need to up my game in November :)

 

Some coasters to go with the wine glass charms and that's it!

I did get in the Christmas mood with one of my Bee blocks though

Jane from the Fat Stash Brit Bee sent out some Christmas Fabric for her blocks so I thought that I would have a go at a Christmas Dresden. I think this would make a lovely cushion so might revisit this pattern before the end of the year.

So now it is over to you to link up your Christmas and Holiday makes for October at Rainbow Hare Quilts.


As ever we are grateful to our lovely and generous sponsors who have provided us with such great prizes for the Link Party.

A wonderful day

Thanks for all your good wishes for our son's wedding, it was a wonderful day. Despite the weather forecast that morning the sun shone from dawn till dusk, which probably says something about the accuracy of the BBC weather forecasts!

I survived tottering about in these all day and even managed a couple of dances in them before giving in and slipping on the flats :)

The groomsmen managed to retain their dignity all evening despite wearing these for the first time in some cases :)

In case you are wondering they are Northumberland Tartan kilts and were definitely a hit with the bemused citizens of Kent when the groom and his party walked through the town to the church!

It was probably the first time that they had been seen at the reception venue too.

Penshurst Place, Kent

Spectacular on the outside

Barons Hall

and the inside. Those Tudors definitely know how to build a castle!

Now you can see why the bridesmaid bags had purple initials :)








We sloped off to France for a couple of weeks after the wedding, which seemed very mundane compared to the sights enjoyed by the happy couple on their honeymoon Down Under!