Over the Easter weekend Jim, Bella, my Mom and I all drove to Birmingham (a few hours away) to visit my Nana. We don't get down there to see her very often and I wish that we did. She's not a typical grandmother. She's not all soft and sweet, full of hugs and kisses. She doesn't wear old people clothes and smell of lavender and she doesn't sit around doing cross stitch or knitting clothes for her great grandchildren. When I was growing up she was actually pretty remote. She never really got the generation gap between us and I think she just thought I was cheeky (she was right). And for the longest time I really didn't have much to do with her. Until a few years ago when my grandfather died and I looked at my Nana and realised that one day she would go too and I wouldn't even know who she was.
Since then we've got to know eachother a lot better and although we're still don't know eachother as well as I think we would both like, we do at least know how much we love eachother. And that's quite a big deal with my Nana, because she's not so hot on sharing her emotions.
However, the one thing she does share is just how much she loves Bella. She just adores her and Bella adores her right back. And that makes me very, very happy.
So we went for the day and had a lovely time. Especially me. And here's were I have a confession to make. Because as much as I love my Nana and wanted to see her and want Bella to get to see her as much as possible I also knew that a well known, well stocked (for this country - we seriously, seriously suck!) quilt shop just happened to be around the corner from where Nana lives!
And just to illustrate how truely dreadful the UK is when it comes to quilt shops, let me tell you that we have probably no more than 30 quilt shops in the whole of the UK. The. Whole. Of. The.UK!!!
So when you're going somewhere that has a quilt shop, it's a big deal. And when that quilt shop stocks more than 20 (20!!!) bolts of fabric in total (as my local quilt shop does! Aargghhh) and infact stocks almost all of Kaffe Fasset's fabrics it's pretty damn exciting.
In fact it was a little too exciting. I ended up being a little overwhelmed at the choice. Oh and a little depressed at how much more expensive fabric is over here - even for fabrics that are produced by this country, like Kaffes. It is actually still much, much cheaper to buy fabric online from the US and pay for international postage, than it is to buy fabric from a shop here. And that's what I normally do - but I miss being able to actually see the fabric and touch it before I buy it.
Anyway, after discovering that the two credit cards that I brought with me were both no longer valid!!! I was sensible and only bought a few metres of fabric.
Oh and these.
But believe me, I wanted to buy so much more (and if I'd taken the right credit cards, I would have! So close call there!)
So, as I said, it was a lovely day! And actually after saying that Nana doesn't cross stitch etc, she did do this (a few years ago I think), which I think is wonderful.
She also gave me a fantastic hand embroidered blouse from when she was 14 years old! Which I think makes it from 1936! And it's in perfect condition apart from missing two wooden buttons. I haven't had a chance to photograph it yet, but I will soon.
As well as buying the new fabrics I've also found some interesting vintage fabrics recently.
This is actually a pair of full length vintage curtains that are wonderful. This picture doesn't quite show the colours off. The fabric is actually a light creamy yellow. The problem is, do I cut them up or not? I often wonder this when I find full lengths of fabric. I wonder if I should preserve them as they are. Actually, thinking about it I might use these in our bedroom.
I also found this fabric, which is quite amazing in it's depth of colour.
Again it's a pair of curtains.And I got those and the one below for 50p because an old guy was using them to wrap up the junk that he was trying to sell at the car boot sale.
Honestly, the old guy that I bought them from thought I was a nut for actually paying money for these old pieces of rags!
And then I also found these!
For 20p! Happy, happy, joy, joy.