I know I said we had finished our summer trips and that it was back to normal, but I was wrong! We decided we would go away over the long weekend for one final summer get away. I took the pansy, but not a lot got done. However I wanted to share with you some of the purchases I made.
We went to Hay-on-Wye, a lovely little village in Wales that is renowned for all of its bookshops. I’m not sure if you remember me mentioning my husband’s love of books, but that combined with nice places to walk the dog in the Brecon Beacons (funny story on this), meant it seemed like the perfect place to go!
The first book I stumbled across (well hubby found it actually – I was being pulled to greet other dogs!), was Mary Thomas’s Embroidery Book. I also subsequently found a colour version so I now have two versions of the same book! I was quite excited about seeing this as I have heard good things about it from a stitch reference perspective.
I also picked up Embroidered Alphabets by Gail Lather, Canvas Embroidery by Hebe Cox, The Embroidered Garden by Lois Vickers, Stitch, Cloth, Paper and Paint by Angie Hughes and Sewing Vintage Style by Mary Jo Hiney. And before you say anything, this is nothing compared to what hubby bought!
There were also a few antique shops. I was first enticed in by this pretty tea cup set. Whilst wandering around, I also found this whitework tablecloth. To my untrained eye it looks beautiful!
It is also quite a ‘crafty’ town. No embroidery as such, but I do like meeting with the artists and creators. One little shop, the Hay Markers, is a collaboration of artists, with several artists contributing to the shop. When I visited I was welcomed and greeted by a local Potter, Pauline Paterson. I was quite taken with her work and came away with this small jug. Now I’m wishing I had also bought some new coffee cups!
And that funny story whilst out walking the dog? Maybe not so funny now, although at the time I couldn’t stop laughing! We were enjoying a lovely walk and on a muddy slope I slipped and landed with quite the thud! I was covered in mud and needed to clean up in a pub bathroom since we had already checked out (classy I know!). I also landed very heavily on my left hand which is still sore, as is my whole arm. Thankfully I’m right handed but holding the needle in my left hand to thread it isn’t much fun at the moment!
I hope you don’t mind the non-embroidery related post. I’ll be back with a finished pansy in the not too distant future!
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8 thoughts on “Books and books – One last summer weekend away”
I love Hay on Wye. We ended up there on our honeymoon as that volcano in iceland meant we couldn’t fly to vietnam as planned. I wasn’t embroidering back then so i’d love to go and have a look at the craft books. I’ll have to give them time to restock now that you’ve plundered them though!
Not quite the honeymoon you imagined! It would have been lovely and peaceful though. Definitely give them time to restock- sorry!
Oh, Catherine, I hope your hand gets back to normal soon!
Thanks Jessica – slowly but surely! Should be fine in another week. I just can’t believe how silly I was! I hope you enjoyed your summer break.
Our first trip to Hay-on-Wye resulted in a higher-than-knee-high pile of books. We’ve had to say we won’t go back until we’ve given some away!
I’m glad it’s not just us that is like that! I thought the dog was going to be tied to the roof at one point! I’m going to spend some time culling books now – we’ve run out of bookshelf space and don’t have room for another one! Unless I decide to go for the pile of books as a coffee table look???
We’re long past run out of bookshelf space. We’ll have to move house!
I’m not sure that is option for us – we’ll never have enough space. It gets filled far too quickly!