As I mentioned yesterday, today I went to Chipping Norton with my Mum & one of our friends from Needles & Natter, Jacqui. Another of our friends, Elaine was supposed to be coming too but due to unforeseen circumstances she couldn't make it, hey ho maybe next time!
Chipping Norton is a tiny little village/market town thats not too far away from where I live, it takes a little while to get there but it's so worth it :) The reason for our trip today was a visit to the Antiques Centre and the Fibreworks wool shop.
We started at the Antiques Centre just outside the town and decided to have coffee & cake in the tearoom before having a look round. 'Coffee & Cake' became 'hot chocolate with the works & cake' but looks at how yummy!!
I'd almost finished my hot chocolate when I took this photo but the coffee & walnut cake was to die for!! Jacqui & Mum thought so too!!
(Jacqui on the left & Mum on the right)
The antiques centre had some wonderful items, I found a couple of antique needlework samplers I would have loved to have bought home but at £191 for the pair there was no way I could afford them, really wish I'd remembered to snap a photo though, I could have 'reproduced' them for myself...
A few things did make their way home with me, a couple of industrial wooden bobbins, they had several and I'd of liked a few more to store my ribbons/laces on but they were £8.50 each.
We also found this workbox/table upstairs in the centre, the dealer it belonged to informed us that he'd only just put it out this morning.
The box/table came with everything you see in the second picture, all manner of sewing patterns for toys & fabric transfers for hand embroidery (so excited, its something I've been wanting to try for a while now!) knitting patterns & even some embroidery thread! Most of the patterns are dated from the early 50's and there was a letter from a transfer company postmarked 21st June 1951 which had the unused transfers inside, it was literally like stepping back in time and it only cost £38!!
The lining is sadly shot to pieces so we've ripped it all out, one weekend soon we'll spend some time relinning it, maybe in some nice liberty fabric or something cath kidson-like. Either way it's going to look fab when it's finished!
Obviously you can't visit a town with a craft shop without popping in to have a browse....I bought more wool for my anything goes blanket & some different sized DPN's; as my cast on is too tight generally I've brought some 3.5's, the next size up to what I'm currently working on and some 2.5's the next size down as a lot of the sock patterns I have from magazines call for a 2.5 needle.
I plan on using these as project baskets and whipping up some linings for them ala Lucy @Attic24
Then I found David Tennant's Biography in Helen & Douglas House!! After that we decided it was time to call it a day and decided to head for home when who should we spot on the other side of the road but one of Mum's best friends, Margaret! She'd spent the day in Stratford and had just got off the bus to catch the second bus home but would have to wait till 4 for the bus to arrive. She lives two doors down from us so we gave her a lift home instead :)
Got home to find that my brother had come down for the weekend as he's covering the Oxford branch of his workplace for the weekend & spent the evening catching up with him & also working out just how big I need to make my anything goes blanket & how many squares I'll need to complete it...I have my work cut out for me.... I need 49 squares that are 10 rounds big and 288(!) squares that are 5 rounds big to complete a blanket that will be just a bit bigger than a double duvet before adding a border. Makes me very glad that I'm joining-as-I-go, can't even think about sewing together all those squares at the end!!
So thats the end of my very fun day, tomorrow is the final day of my holiday before I go back to work, I am planning to return some wool to hobbycraft, I bought in 4ply instead of DK. Then I'll be carrying on with my blanket inbetween doing laundry loads and possibly continuing with my dress pattern....maybe! I might even get some stitching done!
Hope your weekends are warm and sunny where you are
Happy Stitching
xX Fiona Xx
1 comment:
Sound like a great day.
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