Out and About

Debby is slowly getting better, but still can`t walk in a straight line, and is having to keep on the medication to stop her from feeling sick.  I was so concerned about her that I took the week off!  I did turn up for the Wednesday night class at West Buckland, and also took my usual class at Rockwell Green on Thursday morning,  but apart from that you couldn`t see me for dust.  I think I might have said that my daughter was coming down with the grandchildren on the Wednesday, and of course I started to come down with a cold, she was recovering from a horrible virus which came back to haunt her for a couple of days, so it served me right really.  Despite the fact that we felt a bit rough for a couple of days and it rained, we still managed to have a good time.  We went up to the Quantocks on Friday and had a lovely picnic which we had just finished when it started to rain again.  We decided to go over to Nether Stowey, I have lived in Taunton since the 1970`s and never been, and was very pleasantly surprised there are some beautiful old buildings, which is why I suppose it was made a conservation area.  We were really just killing time until our picnic had settled down so we could go over to The Stables at Triscombe for a cream tea.  If you have never been there, and get the chance you must go.  The sun was shining,  the views are great, we sat in the garden and stuffed ourselves with scones, clotted cream and jam - what more could you want!

On Sunday we took ourselves off for another picnic this time to Wimbleball Reservoir near Wiveliscombe.  Its a lovely place, there is a 9 mile walk around the reservoir which we obviously didn`t do, but which I have in the past, and to tell you the truth, I am amazed I lived to tell the tale!  There`s  lots of space to picnic and run around, sailing on the reservoir, a fantastic play area, lovely woodland walks, and of course toilets!  Georgia my grandaughter was in her element along with grandad, but Charlie at 3 months was rather more laid back about the whole affair. Their dad was in Amsterdam, and no he wasn`t on a stag `do` as everyone thought, but actually taking part in a world championship athletic meeting in which he was competing in a double decathlon - I mean how mad do you have to be to do that!  He got off to an amazing start by winning his first race, the 100 metres, but unfortunately he went downhill after that.  He went with a friend who has spent the last five years taking part in any world championship that he can.  He has been all around the country and had a great time and attended various championships such as crazy golf, nettle eating,and snail racing to name but a few.  I`ve no idea why he did it, but this weekend was the last one he is going to do.  I gather they were absolutely shattered at the end of the three days, but pleased that they completed all events.  I have yet to hear where they were placed.

As you can imagine I didn`t get much sewing done last week, so need to get down to some serious sewing this week.  I had made two dresses for Georgia, but needless to say forgot to take any photographs of them.  She was very pleased with them, and trust me, if she didn`t like them she would have told me.  I had also made Charlie a little quilt/mat which I was rather pleased with.  I used the new Moda Farmyard fabric which I showed you a few weeks ago.  I took this photograph about 7.00am this morning, and my only excuse is I had just got up, I hadn`t even had a cup of tea, and John my husband had kept me awake for most of the night because he was coming down with the lurgy. It actually looks a lot nicer and brighter than the photograph.  It has already been christened, and I can tell you it washes well!

Although Debby wasn`t on top form last week it didn`t stop her buying some more fabric, Alan our Moda rep paid a visit and she bought two rolls of rather nice coated cotton, it isn`t really oil cloth, but it looks like it is, its much softer and easier to stitch.  I had a go at making a bag this afternoon just to see what it stitched like and I was quite pleased with the results, especially as the machine we have in the shop is quite old and can be quite tempermental at times.

.Last week we had a visit from Anne Marie from Holland, I was so disappointed that I missed her, especially as she had brought over a little gift for us both.  It was so kind of her, and we just love the fabric, it`s so Dutch!  They are lined with a red check, and its just what I need to put my tissues in, in my handbag, so thank you Anne Marie, and I hope you had a great holiday.

We had a visit today from a lovely lady from Dorchester, who came over especially, and another from Nottingham who was a lace maker, both found us on the internet which is always great to hear.  Its always very exciting when people have come some distance, especially when they say they will be back!

Debby and I plan to finally send out our workshop list this week.  We have had to re-arrange it slightly because of Anne`s illness.  Apologies if you have been waiting for it, but it is on it`s way.

Hope you all have a good week.

Favourite Fabrics

Debby has had this week off work.  It was supposed to be time to make up for being so poorly when she was on leave, but although she is a bit better, she is still not right - ill I mean!  The doctor has given her some different medication which has taken away the sickness, but she still feels funny walking.  Hopefully it will go away soon.

I have decided this week to show you some fabric.  At times I worry that if we show you too much, you will all just think we are trying to sell it to you, which of course we are, but don`t want to put you off or bore you!  However, one of the blogs I follow called Freda`s Hive has a Fabric Friday every week.  She doesn`t sell fabric, but just shows you what she has, often with different themes.  She must have loads, because each week she shows lots and lots, and I love most of them.  I always enjoy is, so thought I would show you a couple of my favourite fabrics, but only a couple!

These are part of a collection of trees.  The collection is called Lovely Orchard and is designed by Suling Wang for Camelot Cottons.  When Debby and I ordered this we thought it would just fly out of the shop, but it doesn`t sell very well.  We have moved it around the shop, I have made things out of it, lots of people comment on it, but still it doesn`t sell!  However, I love it.

This collection is called Woodland by Lori Mason for RJR.  This is slightly more popular than Lovely Orchard, but again hasn`t sold as well as we thought it would.  I think it has quite a Japanese feel to it, and I love the colours.  Perhaps my taste isn`t as good as I thought it was!

We have had a new delivery from Makower this week, which  I think has a shabby chic feel to it.  We have some rather nice stripe fabric which looks like ticking, and some of these would look really good appliqued on to it.

We have also taken delivery of some apron panels ready to cut out which were featured in Sew Hip recently.

Enough about fabric or I will be in danger of sounding like an advertisement.  Last week we had another Beginner`s Workshop, and once again everyone produced a lovely piece of work.  I didn`t taken any photographs this week, but it amazes me how different the cushions can look in all the different fabrics.  This time we had bright, traditional and quirky.  Everyone coped with putting in a zip, something which scares a lot of people, but which I think makes such a difference to the finish.

We heard this week that Anne Baxter who teaches on quite a few of our classes had a stroke last week.  She is OK, but has to rest.  She is a lovely lady and very popular with everyone, so we hope she gets better soon.
We are re-jigging our workshop programme and changing a few dates and themes, while she is getting better, so will send the September - December list out as soon as we can.

Toni, one our regular customers, organises craft fairs.  She is very particular about only selling things that people have made themselves. I don`t know about you, but |I get fed up of going to fairs, and then find that half the items for sale have been  imported.  If anyone is interested in taking a stand at any of her fairs, if you would like to contact us then we will put you in touch with her.  She was telling me today that her partner has put up a large shed for her to use as a workroom.  She was going home today to start painting the inside and telling me all her plans for it - I am very envious, I have always fancied a shed to work in - very Country Living, except mine would end up looking like a pig sty in about a week, but at least I could close the door on it and leave all the mess at the bottom of the garden!

It`s interesting how other people work, Shirley from Stitcherydo has just completed a workroom in her spare room, which looked too tidy for my liking, but she tells me it won`t stay like that.  Another blogger that I follow, Comfort Stitching does her stitching in her sitting room quite often sitting on her sofa at the coffee table.  I really could not do that, but then I am lucky that I have a room to sew, and another room to put all my stuff in, but rest assured you will not be seeing any photographs of either of them.  I am deeply ashamed of both, but particularly the room where everything is stored.  If my mum was ever allowed to see it she would be very ashamed of me.  Debby tut tuts at me when she is in the shop, but I have to say she is just as bad as me, and I tut tut at her, we are both as bad as each other.  Once a year I have a really good sort out, and tell myself everything will go back exactly where it came from, and it will not get in a mess.  This lasts a few weeks, and then I revert to type.  Another of our customers Sandy told me this week that she has sorted out her spare room and has space for her sewing machine and a cutting table, but puts the ironing board up downstairs in the kitchen so that every time she wants to press anything she has to go downstairs, but tells me the exercise does her good!

Thats it for another week.  I have a few days off as my daughter is coming with the children,  although I will still be at our classes.  Hopefully Debby will be better, and we hope that Anne is on the mend.

A day out

Yet another week has gone by, where does the time go to?  Debby came back to work on Tuesday, not sure she should have done really, but she was adamant, if you could see her walk, you would understand my concern!

I had a day out on Tuesday.  Apple County Quilters had organised a visit to Launceston, and asked me if I would like to go, of course I said yes, I`m all for days out.  We went to Cowslip in the morning, which was inspirational, what a lovely place to visit.  After a very nice lunch, we then went into Launceston itself where there was an Exhibition by The Flowerpatch Quilters.  Unfortunately I didn`t take my camera, so can`t show you any of the lovely quilts.  Shirley from Stitcherydo took her camera, and I wouldn`t be surprised to find some photographs on her next blog, although I don`t know.  I was fascinated to see someone had made the same quilt I am making for Georgia my grandaughter, and it gave me a few ideas for the quilting.  I thought I was about half way through the quilting, but having seen this I would say I have a lot more to do.  I haven`t managed much quilting - it`s just been too warm.  I do most of my quilting by hand, and you don`t really want a quilt on your lap in this weather!   It was lovely to see lots of faces I knew, plus meet some new people. 

We started our new class last night at West Buckland.  Debby still wasn`t feeling great, and Anne McLaren (sorry if I have spelt your surname wrong Anne) offered to act as a runner for her, thank you Anne.  Debby was in one hall with the patchwork and quilting ladies, and I went in another room with the dressmakers.  Everything seemed to be going very well when suddenly the lights went out!  It turned out it wasn`t just the hall but the whole village.  Luckily it being August, it wasn`t  too dark, so we managed to soldier on, but of course there was no machining or tea or coffee.  A few people have contacted us since so say they enjoyed themselves, which was good to hear. 

Today we had a new rep visit us, and we have now ordered some Michael Miller fabrics which are bright and vibrant, some decent machine needles, and at last some templates which we have had quite a problem finding.
We have decided to stock Hobbs wadding as we are often asked for it.  Despite Debby feeling off colour she perked up considerably when we started to look at fabric, but when we had finished, it was like someone had deflated her - she really is very sad!

Finally I am going to show you one picture this week.  Sandra who comes to our class on a Thursday morning, completed this small sampler quilt a couple of weeks ago. This was her first attempt at patchwork and quilting, and as usual my photography does the work no justice at all, but it is lovely.  She is now working on a jelly roll quilt having done a workshop with Debby, and there is no stopping her!

Have a good week.

Wellington

Its been really busy in the shop this week, which is good because last week was very quiet.  Surprisingly we have had a lot of customers who are in the area on holiday.  Some have just come across us, and others knew we were here already.  Debby is still poorly, having had tonsillitos she now has a nasty ear infection which is giving her vertigo.  She has missed the arrival of the Christmas fabric, two big boxes.  I looked at them for about two hours because I just didn`t know where to put it all.  I finally pulled myself together and had a big sort out to make room for it.  I haven`t taken any photographs because the charge on my camera had run out, a bit like the charge in me by the time I had finished!  I am still amazed at how many people have been asking for it, and I`ve already sold quite a bit.  One husband today informed me how many weeks there were to Christmas, but I don`t want to think about it so have blanked it out, and will continue to do so until about half way through November, although of course I am happy to sell the fabric to anyone who wants to buy it!

I have decided this week to tell you all a little about Wellington and show you some photographs of our little town.  Apologies to anyone who lives here because you will know it all, and will certainly know what the town looks like, although I have to say my photographs do not do the town any justice at all.  We are amazed at how many people have found our blog from all over the UK, and this week, I had an email from Anne-Marie in Holland which caused great excitement, we are looking forward to meeting her when she comes over in August.

Wellington is a small market town.  Lots of the buildings are Georgian including our shop, which has a cellar that we don`t use.  Debby refuses to go down there, and I hate heights - if you saw the vertical steps down to it you would understand what I mean.  It has a beautiful 15th century church, and some rather substantial buildings some of  which are home to the four big banks.  Lloyds Bank used to be Foxes, and was the last private bank in England to issue their own bank notes - what a claim to fame.  There used to be several woollen mills in the town including Foxes which is still there albeit on a much smaller scale.  Foxes make wonderful woollen fabrics, and you can go to the factory shop to buy them.  A group of my friends have just completed a quilt made of the fabric, which has gone to the NEC for the quilt show, so look out for it.  Debby Meaden from Dragons Den has recently become involved with the factory which has in recent years had financial problems.  Our accountant has her offices in the old Counting House on the factory site, which I just love.  Relyon beds also have a factory in the town.

I am sure most of you have heard of the Duke of Wellington, and apparently he took his name from the town, but I have no idea why.  We have a small museum over the road from us, and one day I will hopefully find the time to go over and find out the answer. 

Wellington Musuem

Because it is a small market town, there are not lots of multi national`s on the High Street, apart from the usual W H Smiths, Boots, Superdrug, plus a small Co-op.  There is a small Waitrose in the town, which I know brings people into town.  Most of the shops however are small independents.  There are quite a few empty shops like most High Streets these days,  in fact we have one next to us, and just a couple of doors away there is a large unit which used to be Woolworths.  However, there is a new curtain shop opening next month, and there have been others since we have been there. 

This is our favourite coffee shop.  Unfortunately Martina who owns it is leaving to go and live in Monaco (have I spelt that right?)  She has been so kind to us since we opened the shop and we shall really miss her.  We have met Tracey who has bought the business from her and she intends to carry on the way it is now, so Debby will be able to have her coffee with soya milk, and I can still treat myself to Tiffin!

This shop is Paprika and is almost opposite us.  They sell lovely gifts, most of them Fair Trade.  There is another very good gift shop round the corner opposite the Chocolate Box called Frame of Mind, but the photograph I took was so terrible it could not go in this blog!  To the left is our bank, which is great, because we can see when the doors open in the morning and close in the afternoon.  We can also see what the queue is like inside, so can time our visits so we don`t have to queue

This is such a lovely building I couldn` leave it out.  To the left is the opticians, but the rest is a shop called Nurtered by Nature. which sells all sorts of things, lot of Fair Trade again, clothes cosmetics, world music, just to name a few.

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 I have included this picture because it is the Fishmongers.  Last year there was a programme on BBC3 called the Young Fishmonger of the year, and the man that owns the shop either came first of second, I can`t remember which, but people come from all over the place to shop there.

This building used to be the Town Offices (I think) but it is looking rather sad now, and although there are retail units in it, most of them are empty.  It`s a pity because its a nice building.

I have included this building just because I like it!  I`m not sure if it is still the Conservative Club.  Next to it on the left is The Garden Cafe.

This lovely brick building is to the right of the Conservative Club and again I think it is a beautiful building.  It is a hairdressers at the moment, and in the basement there is a bar, which I am told is very good, but I am never in Wellington in the evening, so I have yet to find out.

This isn`t a great photograph, and in fact it was bin day, so there is rubbish outside the bank, but this is Lloyds which I mentioned earlier.  A bit further on  the left is a fantastic ironmongers called Perrys which sells everything you can think of.  You don`t find many shops like it any more.  I asked the other day if they sharpened scissors, and they had someone that they send them to.

This road is a bit further along from Dotty Dolly and is the road out of town heading South.  the blue building on the left used to be a pub, but is now a Bed and Breakfast.

I could have taken lots more photographs, but lots of places were having deliveries and the lorries were in the way.  You may have noticed that there is very little traffic, this is rush hour in Wellington or 8.30am at any rate!   It is also the first week of the school holidays.   One shop I wanted to show you was the butchers.  I wanted to take a photograph of the sign above the shop - Tim Potter, son and daughter.  They really do all work in there, and I believe Mrs. Potter does the paperwork.  It`s a great butchers and there are always queues.  They know where all the meat has come from, and they have been known to deliver to me when they haven`t got it ready when I go in early in the morning.

There are three shoe shops none of which I have photographed, an artisan bakers and a fantastic cheese and wine shop - called you have guessed it The Cheese and Wine Shop.  There is also a good little Bookshop, and several excellent Charity Shops and Steptoes as everyone calls it.  Basically they do house clearances amongst other things, and we watch people all day with their purchases going past our shop,including sofas and beds.  Haberdashery Plus is another of our favourites, .Beryl who owns it sells practically anything you can think of in the Haberdashery line,  and very little of it is pre-packed.  She also sells flowers which are always outside the shop - her son has a nursery, but best of all free range eggs which are from her grandson`s hens.  He marks in pencil the day the eggs were laid, and they are delicious.  Oh and I nearly forgot to mention her homemade jam!

Finally I must mention our landlords Helen and Jim who own the newsagents next door.  They are getting quite a reputation for the large range of craft magazines they sell.  I try to stop Debby going in when the Austrialian magazines arrive, but it`s to no avail, I think she has built in radar

Thats it for another week.  It would be so nice if you left a comment.  I know lots of people read this, but sometimes we feel like we are writing it for ourselves.  It`s always lovely when people come into the shop and comment on something they have read on the blog, but it would be even better if they left a comment!

Have a good week.

More Fabric again!

Moda  Farm Yard

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I just think I have cracked this blogging lark, and then I go and make another stupid mistake.  This time I managed to post it without including the photographs, so here goes -

Moda French General Fa-la-la-la-la - you have to look really hard to see it`s a Christmas Fabric!

Borders now added, ready to put together to quilt.

More Fabric

Its been a busy few days, hence we didn`t get round to writing the blog last week.  Debby has been off galivanting again including a trip to Cardiff to see James Taylor - reliving her youth no doubt!  She said he was really good.  I think I mentioned that last week she went on a hen day to Dartmouth and had a champagne breakfast on the river.  When I asked her if she had had a good time she said she had, and she had now apologised to everyone.  She doesn`t drink, but I think it might have had something to do with all those lovely naval cadets down there and perhaps not being as grown up as expected.  Although she did point out that she was hardly going to jump in the water and swim after them!  That probably sounds worse than it was.  She also forgot to take her inhaler, and once on dry land had to spend some time looking for a doctor`s surgery that would give her a prescription to get another one.  I in the mean time was working away in the shop, and haven`t done anything exciting at all!  She is now laid low with tonsillitos (think I may have spelt that wrong, so apologies), and is really rather poorly.

We have had a couple more fabric deliveries this last week.  The first lot arrived, and I thought it must be the Christmas fabric, but it wasn`t.  Instead we received part of a Moda collection called `Farmyard`.  When I first saw it I couldn`t believed we had ordered it, and yes we did order it together, so I can`t blame Debby.  In actual fact I love the colours, and its really rather quirky.  It would make a lovely rug for outside, so I keep telling myself, when I will ever get round to making it is a different matter altogether.

Today another delivery arrived, and yes this time it was some Christmas fabric, it was another Moda fabric fro French General called Fa-la-la-la-la.  When I first looked at it I thought well this isn`t Christmas fabric, but on looking closer I discovered that one bolt which has text on it had little holly leaves, so I would say it`s a very grown up Christmas fabric, so we are still waiting for the bling.  I`m beginning to think Debby didn`t order as much as she thought she had, and we keep getting people in asking for Christmas fabric, if only I were organised enough to start thinking about Christmas.

I spent a large part of the weekend getting my grand daughters quilt ready to start quilting it took me ages, but I was very pleased with the final result.  Last night I started to lay it all out, and then discovered I didn`t have enought spray left in the can, so I had to put it away again, hopefully I will be able to do it tonight.

Well I think that`s it for this week, as I said it`s been busy, but not much to tell you all.

We have had quite a busy week here in Dotty Dolly world.  Debby met lots of South West Quilters last Saturday, and thoroughly enjoyed herself, she told me lots about it, but I can`t have been concentrating because I can`t remember anything she told me!  While she was there I was teaching on a Beginner`s Workshop over at Rockwell Green.  Although it was a beginner`s day there were lots of different levels.  Nina was most definately not a beginner, and produced a lovely cushion cover from her Japanese prints.  Jacquie was a stitcher, but had never attempted patchwork before.  Rachel is often in the shop and put together a really great blue and cream quilt top, I`m looking forward to seeing what the finished quilt looks like.  Francoise was a beginner and made a cushion cover. She brought along a couple of her books which were in French, one of which we have in the shop in English `Quilting In No Time` by Emma Hardy.  There are lots of really good simple projects in the book and several of the others took down the details.  Tip put together a quilt top in greys and reds, and Mandy who has never even used a sewing machine before just about put  a quilt top together for her little girl in pretty florals.   I expect she has finished it now.  They were a lovely bunch, and I think we all enjoyed ourselves, I hope so!

Jacquie`s spots

Nina`s Japanese theme

Rachel`s Blue

Tip`s soft greys, pinks and red

Mandy`s contemporary floral, she didn`t quite finish the sashing

Bright`s from Francoise

I look forward to seeing the the quilts when they are completed!

Debby went to Somerset County Quilters on Monday night where the guest speaker was Ferret.  If you haven`t come across her before she has a really good blog.  Debby said her work was amazing, so much so that she emailed her the next day to see if she might do a workshop for us at some time.  She will be coming back next year, so watch this space.

Robyn Pandolph`s Scarborough Fair

Blue Hill Fabrics.  There are some reds in the collection, but I couldn`t fit them all in

We have had a couple more fabric deliveries this week.  I particularly like the Scarborough Fair collection although having lived in Scarborough as a girl, I don`t think Robyn Pandolph can ever have been there, or felt a cold North East wind  even in summer, because if she had these would not be the colours she would work with!

We often get customers in the shop who make the comment that they don`t want their husbands to see what they have bought or how much they have spent, and usually other customers sympathise and agree, this tends to be the norm.  One day this week, we had a whole day of customers coming in with their husbands, who were all absolutely delightful, who waited patiently while their wives pondered over the fabric, and then put their hands in their pockets and paid for the fabrics, quite large amounts in a couple of cases, where did the rest of us go wrong?  My husband wouldn`t even come in a fabric shop, which is fine by me because I wouldn`t want him to see what I am spending either!

Met an interesting lady yesterday in the shop.  I think her name was Angela, she has just moved to Wellington from Torquay and was telling me about her blog theenglishromantic.blogspot.com.  I had a look last night and she makes some lovely things with a vintage feel.

Got a family day tomorrow, son and daughter-in-law are back having been to a wedding near Frome yesterday, and daughter and son-in-law are also coming with the grandchildren.  Really looking forward to seeing little Charlie who is now 5 weeks old, and of course Georgia his big sister. Off out for a meal tonight and in the kitchen tomorrow.  I feel chained to the kitchen this week.  I got carried away down our allotment picking beetroot to make chutney, but ended up with about 10 jars of beetroot chutney and 5 of pickled beetroot, I am going to be giving quite a bit away, and there is still loads down there.  Debby is gadding about, she went to see Jimmy Carr last night, and is out for dinner tonight.  We will both be back to the grind next week, although Debby is still gadding about on Tuesday on a hen day, I think down to Totnes, on the river - it`s alright for some.

On Monday our 10% off sale will be over.  Debby and I have decided we need to make some new cushion samples, so we will be getting rid of quite a few of our old ones - and we are hoping customers will adopt one for £10.00!