Bristol and Bath

I'm back from my and S's little trip down to the West Country over the weekend! We left from Paddington on Thursday morning and came back this morning (Sunday). As you can see from the shot of Bath's Royal Crescent the weather wasn't great every day, but given what this summer has been like it could have been worse!

We managed a trip to Bath on Friday (including a walk along the Crescent in the rain!), and then to Bristol on Saturday. Of course I managed to work in a little craftiness to the trip, despite the main purpose being to visit S's family.

I had time to visit a little quilting supplies shop, Country Threads in Bath. I discovered this shop when we visited the City earlier in the year. It's an Aladin's Cave of fabric, with so may fat quarters, charm packs and jelly rolls for sale! There are baskets of various makes and colours of fabric arranged in rainbox order just inside the door, and I had fun picking out a big bundle of fabric fat quarters for myself!

I'll try and show you the colours and patterns I went for - a theme of pale blue, pink, green and white, with roses and more geometric patterns to break it up a little. Some of them are Tilda fabrics - so pretty!

I'm afraid the colours haven't come out brilliantly in these pictures. I'm planning to use these for some more patchwork cushion covers - still trying to improve my skills! I'm thining it will complement some crochet cushion covers I am working on at the moment too - more soon!

If you're in the area of Bath, definately try and visit this store, Country Threads - their website has the address.

Our Saturday visit to Bristol also took in a stroll down the Crescent - I think its a little more impressive than the famous Bath Crescent actually!

Back in October last year when we visited Bristol, I went to a little independent yarn shop in the Clifton area of the City, called Woolly Thinking - I even blogged about it. Unfortunately when we went back over the weekend, I discovered that the shop has closed. I also checked their website and discovered that they have also ceased online trading. I think it's a real shame - it must be such a struggle for these independent stores to survive. I'm in the sad position that I don't actually have a local yarn shop in the form of an independent retailer - the nearest and most convenient physical stores for me are John Lewis and Liberty's on Oxford Street. I often wish I did have a store close to home, so that I could support it rather than shopping at chains (not that Liberty's and JLs aren't great for range and colours).

Well, thats all for now - I'm off to squeeze in some work on that ripple throw.....