Book town

 We were away for a three night/four day weekend with the caravan, staying near Hereford so that we could spend a day in Book Town - otherwise known as Hay on Wye.  This smallish little town  has over 20 secondhand bookstores and some of them are vast, one is in an old cinema which has had multiple floors inserted.  My car caddy had its first outing and worked very well - it's perhaps a little taller than it needs to be but otherwise kept me very organised on the journey and no longer was my water bottle crashing over onto its side (with subsequent potential leaking).

We took our new-to-us porch awning with us for this shorter trip (found on ebay), which is quicker to put up than our big awning but still gives us somewhere to stash the table and chairs, spare clothes etc.

We stayed on a medium-sized campsite which normally we aren't too fond of as we don't like the lack of privacy but this one was very well kept and situated on one side of a very pretty man-made fishing lake which we strolled around every evening. 

We had an enjoyable day in Hay on Wye pottering around the various bookstores and antique stores.  I had taken a list of urban fantasy authors I was hoping to find but the sci fi/fantasy sections of the various stores seemed pretty focused on older titles and vintage series.  I did find a few random craft book bargains and on a charity stall some sewing magazines.

This bookshop (above) had a miniature version of itself on display in its window - a bit dilapidated but still well done.

I got my craft fix with a trip to the Doughtys Fabric Warehouse on the outskirts of Hereford, which by UK standards was really huge - racks and racks of fabric bolts.  The prices are what passes for reasonable these days (£6-£16 per metre) but as an old fogey stuck in the past it still seems expensive to me.  I did pick up a selection of green solids to use in my Tilda Flower Wreath quilt, some white jersey with red hearts on it for a t-shirt, a fat quarter of sumo wrestlers, two excellent value scrap packs of solid fabric, and some lovely fabric with Victorian letterwriting printed on it (I would have bought a bigger piece but it was one of the more expensive fabrics).  Quite fun to look around and a well stocked haberdashery section where I got two quilts-worth of polyester lining, some thread and some more machine needles.  They have three smaller shops actually in Hereford but not open on Sunday so they will have to wait for another trip.

We also went to two model shops in Hereford for DH, one of which had a surprisingly large dollhouse section  - mostly all Dollshouse Emporium stuff so not the best quality, but still a lot to look at.  Then we stopped in at the Pedlars Tray, a somewhat chaotic dollshouse and craft shop inside a garden centre but they had some better quality stock such as McQueenie's, Warwick miniatures etc.  I picked up a few little things at both places: a patchwork sign and some 'rug wool' for my haberdashery, a bow maker, a British flag teapot, a resin hat, a fishing net for my seaside vignette and a cute casserole dish for one of my modern scenes.  I have to say it did make me feel a bit of a fraud since I haven't paid much attention to my own dollshouses for some time.

In the evenings I was knitting a bit on my Lenten Rose sock - I've turned the heel and concluded the patterned underheel gusset, so now I'm just working towards the toes.  I'm not convinced about the underheel gusset - I think if you were actually planning to wear these socks in a shoe, the decreases might be uncomfortable underfoot.  But I only use my handknit socks as bedsocks so I'll be fine and it does look nice - like a little surprise underfoot.

The patterned underheel gusset (above)

After the shopping, we drove over to a very pretty 'black and white' village called Weobley.  There is a town walking trail which takes you around some of the notable historic buildings and the old castle so we passed an enjoyable afternoon there. I can remember when I first came to the UK, how staggering it was that just normal people were living in medieval buildings, as opposed to the buildings being under glass in a museum somewhere.

This one has a bit of a 'lean' going on.

Most of my craft time this week was working away on Block one of the Australian BOM, trying to catch up.  I'm enjoying learning how to embroider but it is very labour intensive.  This is the finished embroidery before making up:

And this is the finished block featuring stem stitch, bullion roses, french knots, laisy daisy leaves and a blanket stitch flower.  The instructions have you fuse backing shapes cut from Matilda's Own Polyfuse stabiliser, then wrap the seam allowances around to the back before appliqueing to the background fabric.  It gives the hearts a bit of a 3-D effect. I think the finished quilt might be better as a wallhanging than actually in use on a bed (and then needing to be washed) due to all the embellishments, but it will be very pretty.

One lesson I learned is that the comprehensive instructions with each kit are too confusing for me in terms of their layout and ordering, jumping all over the place for process and what colours/how many strands of embroidery floss.  So before starting Month Two, I spent about an hour re-typing out all the instructions as numbered bullet points, and grouping all the points applying to each component together.  It is now much easier to complete one step at a time then cross off that bullet point, so I think I will keep doing that in future.  Less haste more speed.