Nov 25: Belper, Derbyshire

Angela, Carol, Carole, Chris, Janice, Jeanette, Linda, Sue, Trisha, Wendy

Friday 21 November 

Everyone began to arrive at the accommodation from mid afternoon.  Despite comprehensive (and misleading) directions from the host and further instructions from Janice, Turpin's coach house cottage - a converted stables and barn - proved to be quite elusive even though it was hidden in plain sight at the side of a fairly busy road! Note to self.. leave feedback saying that signage onto the property from either of the two entrances is an absolute necessity.. 😁

But we all eventually assembled, got our bearings and settled down to start our weekend.

The house had 9 bedrooms - one downstairs in the old stable and 8 more upstairs over two floors. There was a large lounge with large separate dining area and even a billiards (or snooker?) table upstairs. Everything was a bit tired and faded and not like the pristine photos on the internet 🙄 - though it was very clean and tidy and perfectly suitable for our crafting needs. 

But it was cold.. 🥶 there was so much exposed brickwork and stone everywhere and the previous few days had seen some of the coldest weather of the winter with temperatures below freezing and large parts of the country covered in swathes of snow. 

Lots of grounds with a decking area which would be lovely to sit at in summer - but steep steps back to the house from this lower parking spot. 

Even though the heating had been turned on a couple of hours before our arrival it hadn't been operating for long enough to warm through the thick stone layers. So we whacked it up high (30⁰ 🤣) and kept hitting the 'Boost' button. 

There was another parking/unloading area at the house entrance - accessed from a different road. Neither of them were sign posted.. 🙄

The lower parking area. 

The vaulted stable bedroom.

Everyone chose their rooms (no need for allocation there were enough for everyone to have their own) and unpacked their bags. 

Evening meal was mac and cheese for the veggies and a lamb moussaka for the rest (though of course most of us had to try everything - such bad FOMO.. 🤣) followed by an apple crumble - all delicious 😋 Thank you chefs.  

Then we settled down in the lounge where the evening passed by in a flash with the usual cacophony of two, three or four loud conversations all happening at once as we caught up with what had been happening in each others lives. 

Saturday 22 November 

Chris arrived early (mid shoe box appeal) in time for a fairly late and leisurely breakfast after we compared our various sleeping experiences as the house started to (very slowly!) warm up through the thick stone. Jeanette worked out how to put the heating on 'Constant' and the problem was solved!

Carol was the PPE monitor (that's Perfect Poached Eggs 😁🥚) with wingman Sue on Operation Toast.. 

.. whilst Trisha perfected her avocado crushing technique. 

'I don't like runny egg white' declared one of our party. So the offending albumen was removed before the lonesome little yolk was passed across.. 🤣

'Ooh I only like the white' declared another. So we had two perfectly compatible egg eaters. Your quiz question for the day.. who were they?.. 😁🤣

But breakfast was delicious - a great start to the day. 

Then it was time to start our art class led by Linda. She prepared black ink for everyone..

.. and we set up the table with their supplies of paints, palettes, paper, brushes and water pots.

Our task was to prepare and paint three strips of landscapes with the ultimate goal of cutting out three vignettes from each section to mount and display.

Linda showed examples. People had already said that no way would they be able to do this, too daunting, no talent, nope, no way, yadda, yadda.. 😁

But once again they surprised themselves with their wonderful end results.

Linda broke the task down into small parts. Firstly we prepared our paper by marking out three long, thin sections. 

Then we used wooden spills dipped in the ink to draw rough landscapes across each of the sections.

Linda explained that using what amounted to an ink quill meant that we couldn't try to be detailed as we drew - which was a Good Thing 😁 There were reference pictures for those who felt a bit unsure but everyone produced fabulous work. 

Next was the colour mixing. Linda instructed that we were to choose and mix five colours which would be the only ones used across the three pieces of work. 

After that we had a short break to eat delightful raspberry and cream cake (delicious Janice.. 😋) and sing Happy Birthday to Carol for next week. As it's our academic year of 70ths there is always someone just pre or post birthday.. 😁

This was the first pic - usual pose.. eyes closed.. 🙈

Then it was back to work. Linda explained how to apply the colours and mix them together to make further shades and showed us how to apply a wash and how to create cloud scapes. 

Everyone took pictures of their work at different stages so that they could see their progress. 

Some had created more than five colours but had only used five declaring the unused one as sludge.. 🤣

The room was a hive of industry with everyone totally engrossed in what they were doing. 

Sample artwork on the left and schoolie artist original on the right. 

We used the mount to decide which areas we liked best from our paintings. 

Then we cut out three areas from each (so 9 vignettes in total) and placed them onto the frame. 

As the same colour palette had been used across all the work they all looked very cohesive and once we were happy with the arrangement we glued them down. 

Finished!

It was lovely to see the completed artworks - each one so different but every one of them equally fabulous!

We were all so pleased with our work - so we all had our photos taken in the Proud Picture corner.. 😁 

So interesting to see the progress from start to finish. 

We wanted a group photo but it took a few goes before we were able to work out how to get all of us and our artwork in the same place at the same time.. 🤣

You can see the vaulted lounge ceiling more clearly in this pic..

After a quick wash and brush up we adjourned to the pub for another delicious meal.

Then it was back to the house for a little drink and then a fairly early night. It had been a long day of crafting but a very enjoyable painting master class. 

Sunday 23 November

Another delicious breakfast of scrambled egg and smoked salmon (where were you Sally? 😁). 

Sue and I were just washing up and not cooking 🤣 we left that to the breakfast monitors.. 😁

Unfortunately Chris had to get back to her charity shoe boxes so she wasn't able to join us for the second day. 

Soon it was time to start our second crafting class with Sue leading a session on how to make a quilted box. 

She prepared the room with the sewing machines that people had brought with them. We also had cutting and ironing areas. 

Most of the fabrics we were working with had been Siobhan's.. 🥰 donated by Belinda and Rosemary who ran the quilting club which Siobhan belonged to. 

Sue explained that, like yesterday we would work in stages. 

She had precut the wadding pieces to size and explained that we would need to make an area of quilting slightly bigger to cover the wadding shapes.

We also needed to cut another set of the same shapes which would be used without wadding for the lining. 

So fabrics were selected and sewing began. Some favoured improv quilting and others more traditional styles. 

Everyone concentrated hard whilst trying to sew straight lines. 

When the quilted pieces were big enough it was time for the next stage - attaching them to the wadding. Once again there were different ways of doing this. 

The room was alive with the sound of all the sewing machines clicking and clacking as they stitched. 

'It's like working in the Meritina' said Jeanette.. 🤣 but I'm sure the machinists there would have been far more calm, ladylike and proficient than we were.. 😁👍

  

In the Turpin Cottage sweat shop we cursed and muttered as threads broke, spools ran out, fabric was cut to incorrect sizes and wrong sides were stitched together.. 🤣 Poor Sue had her work cut out with us all.. 🙄

The next stage was to cut the larger piece into four equal parts to form the sides of the box. We looked at the instructions, looked at Sue and someone said 'Is it too early for a gin?'.. 😬

So Sue jumped in to cut up the pieces for some of us and others prepared the G and Ts. Calm was restored. 

The box sides were sewn together and the base was added. Then we did it all again for the lining. 

Final stage was attaching the lining to the padded outer then with a touch of jiggery and smidge of pokery the fabric was bagged out and hey presto as if by magic we had a padded box!

A few final bits of sewing, a quick iron and it was complete. 

Once again we stared at our creations in absolute awe. We'd done it! Just like yesterday it had all come together in the final stages.

Thank you Linda and Sue for passing on your expertise.

Over the course of the day Angela and Janice went home so we hope to see their projects when they are finished. 

For those who remained once again it was back to the Proud Picture corner for another photo.. 😊

Alternative use.. 🙄🤣

Group pic with our very patient instructor.

We had decided not to use the further two meals we had with us. Instead we enjoyed a 'picky' mixture of hot soup and mac and cheese - along with crisps, cheese, patés and dips all left over from previous meals. 

We opened a couple of bottles and Carole was drinks monitor. 

The fridge contents just never seemed to go down and we made the usual observations of 'must bring less next time'.. 🙄

But for the first time ever we'd forgotten tea bags! We had various coffees (mostly decaff) so that was ok we could manage there but we had no tea bags!

Luckily Jeanette had her emergency bag of tea/coffee/exotic drink sachets that she'd picked up/purloined from various hotel and cruise stays so we managed until Chris arrived with a box of Yorkshire tea bags on the Saturday morning. Another crisis averted.. 🤣

Monday 24 November

For some reason this pic popped up in the middle of all my photos for the weekend. We didn't see much of that blue sky in Belper!

So we were all up and about early to tidy up and clear out ready for home. 

With the absence of any instructions we didn't strip beds or take out the rubbish but we left the place as we found it - as we always do. 

Then it was time to load and then shuffle the cars so that people didn't have to carry things down the steps. 

A quick car ride later and we were in Belper for breakfast. At this point Carol realised that she'd left her jewellery in her room in the house so Trisha ran her back to get it. 

After breakfast we all started to disperse and make our way homewards. It had been a very busy but enjoyable weekend and I'm sure we all felt refreshed and recharged - and we were already talking about what we could do next.. 👍

Biggest thanks go to Linda and Sue for patiently leading us through the painting and quilting sessions - but thanks also to everyone for the camaraderie, hugs and laughter throughout the weekend. 

Until next time.. 😘

Btw...

Egg yolk eater was Sue and the egg white eater was Linda.. 😁👍 perfect eggy compatibility as well as great craft session leaders..🥚👌