Saturday, 20 June 2009

Ramsey and Cregneash



















The Grove is a historic home in Ramsey. It was gifted to the Manx Heritage after the two spinster sister owners died aged in their 90s in the 1970s and the furnishings go back to the mid 1800s. There are some beautiful items on display. I was particularly interested in the old sewing items.
























These dolls look just too good to play with.



















Ramsey is at the north of the island and has a picturesque harbour (Except at low tide when it is empty. It is strange seeing ships sitting in the mud.)

Cregneash is a crofting village folk museum. Some of the houses are still lived in.



















The village is post card pretty.

















Here I learnt about the Manx Roof Pattern Patchwork and picked up a brochure on how to do it. I haven’t been able to find a decent web site link. It is log cabin with no batting. Each foundation square is the span of your hand. The centre is the length of your middle finger tip to knuckle. The strips are base of your thumb to the base of your thumbnail wide and the seam allowance is the width of your little finger nail.

The strips are sewn onto the foundation with a running stitch and then folded over two thirds of the width of the fabric strips to create a pleat covering the stitching and creating extra thickness and therefore warmth. The blocks are joined together on the top layer with back stitch and then the base layer is overlapped and whip stitched together. Therefore, if required a square can be replaced.
I’ve got to have a go.


















There was also a peg loom in use. Mum has used weaving sticks, which are very similar.

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