{"id":320,"date":"2012-08-23T08:16:53","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T14:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/50.87.217.193\/blog\/creative-nudge-letter-from-an-english-garden"},"modified":"2021-04-03T23:40:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T05:40:30","slug":"creative-nudge-letter-from-an-english-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/creative-nudge-letter-from-an-english-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Nudge – Letter from an English Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"SudelyKnot1_550\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am writing this just
\nbefore flying home<\/a> from Birmingham
\nEngland<\/a>, after attending the Festival of Quilts here. Bonnie and I filmed
\nseveral videos and I took tons of photos. I scoured the show looking for the
\nmost unique European art quilts, the British
\nand Celtic<\/a> themed quilts, and the amazing 3-D fiber arts seen at this show
\nyearly. <\/p>\n

Yesterday I fulfilled a dream by visiting Stratford-Upon-Avon:
\nvisiting some of the " Shakespeare
\nProperties<\/a>" including his
\nbirthplace<\/a>, going on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Royal Shakespeare
\nCompany<\/a>, and then seeing the Bollywood version of Much Ado About
\nNothing<\/a>. What a day!<\/p>\n

Today I took a tour through the Cotswolds countryside<\/a>, with
\nthe charming cottages made out of the distinctive honey-color limestone. Many
\nhave thatched roofs, and the old wisteria vines or hollyhocks next to the carved
\nor painted wooden doors, adding to the visual charm of the villages.<\/p>\n

Then
\nI stood on a hilltop with rows of
\nlavender all around<\/a>, listening to the huge yellow and black bumblebees
\nbuzzing among the purple sprigs, and breathing in the head-clearing aromatherapy
\nof lavender acreage.<\/p>\n

My visit to Sudely Castle<\/a> included a tour of the
\nhistoric textile exhibition, handmade lacemaking demonstration, and
\nreproductions of the gowns and jewelry worn by Henry VIII's six wives. (taken
\nfrom their portrait paintings) Henry's last wife (and the only one who survived
\nhim) was Katherine Parr, and she lived on this estate. It is the 500th
\nanniversary of her birth, so there are special exhibits about her life at the
\ncastle. <\/p>\n

Above you see the knot garden, made from 1200 boxwood plants,
\ngrown in a formal celtic knot design. This was originally planted here for Queen
\nElizabeth's royal visit to Sudely
\nCastle<\/a>. Now this crisp knot garden grows in the shadow of the Banquet Hall
\nruins, and the original plans for the knot garden design are displayed in the
\ncastle museum. Clematis, honeysuckle and climbing roses engulf the ruins.
\nMassive yew hedges have small openings that lead to the formal rose garden and
\nfountain. <\/p>\n

My last stop of the day was in Chipping Campden<\/a>, where I stopped
\nin the Court Barn Museum<\/a> to see the
\nArts and Crafts local history, and then St James Church to see the oldest
\nmedieval alter hangings… with silver and gold metallic embroidery thread on
\nivory silk damask… from the late 1400's. <\/p>\n

We tried to visit William
\nMorris<\/a>' house, but it is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays!
\nRats!<\/p>\n

I'll be sharing more photos as soon as possible. I fly home in a
\nfew hours, and this Sunday Sophie and I fly to Ohio for Quilting Arts TV. It may
\ntake me a week or two to catch up!<\/p>\nShare Post:<\/strong>
\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I am writing this just before flying home from Birmingham England, after attending the Festival of Quilts here. Bonnie and I filmed several videos and I took tons of photos. I scoured the show looking for the most unique … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1423,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/1423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}