Shops to Thrill Fabric Lovers in the UK

In case you missed it, Jane commented to last week’s post concerning the question about patterns in the UK. Here is her response:

“I am in the UK, and patterns for quilts are usually in inches.  I teach patchwork and quilting in inches, however, we have to buy fabric in metres.  Inches don’t convert very well when it comes to making quilt blocks”.

Thanks so much Jane! I’m so grateful to know the answer 😊.

After our time at the Festival of Quilts our tour took us to Wales. Kristi put together such a wonderful tour, and she never wanted our bus rides to get too long without a fun stop to break up the drive. Thus she found many wonderful fabric stores for us to visit ~ like Barry’s Fabrics in Birmingham, England; where we got to shop before we even attended the Festival of Quilts:

If you were looking for variety ~ this was the place! They even had Liberty and William Morris fabrics!

And here’s a mid-post smile 😁: The morning after the show, as we left Birmingham and began our drive into Wales, the hedgerows became too tall to see over and I decided to check my emails. A friend had shared something I wanted to show my husband, and I decided to text it to him. He responded quickly and we did a bit of texting back and forth. A few hours later I realized I had sent those messages at 3am Watertown time. My husband is not a good sleeper, so I knew I had awakened him. And he didn’t mention it at all (what a sweet man). Later, I texted him with an apology. His response? “That’s okay. I realize you are not of sound mind. You’ve been thinking/living quilts for the last few days” 🤣. Then he sent me the emoji formula at the top of this post. Translation ~ “Wales time minus 6 equals Watertown time”. He’s quite a funny guy!

Now back to our fabric stops! The first one in Wales was Calico Kate’s in Lampeter.

It was filled with room after room of beautiful fabrics, and rivaled many of the shops we have here in the States! And meeting Kate was a delight.

What a great first quilt shop, and it was nextdoor to one of my favorite places, but I’m saving that story for next week’s post. On our way back to London we spent some time at Lady Sew and Sew’s in the lovely town of Henley on Thames. Their selection and helpful staff was wonderful.

And lunch along the Thames was lovely!

Shepherd’s Bush Market in London was one of our last stops before we packed up for home. It was an entire street of fabric shops – on both sides of the street!

So many wonderful opportunities to add to our stashes! And then there was the wool!

The day after the show we made our way to Wales. What a beautiful ride. We were told by our guide that Wales has about 1 million people and over 3 million sheep ~ and they were everywhere.

I loved the stone walls and hedgerows, and was so grateful to be in a tall tour bus so that we could see over the walls and rows, and take in the beauty all along the way! I was also grateful for our amazing driver Anthony, who navigated the very narrow roads all through northern Wales. On this day we visited Caernarfon Castle, among other stops. My favorite stop that day was the Trefriw Woolen Mill.

They weave traditional Welsh blankets on the original looms the old fashioned way.

And the patterns are lovely.

The history, buildings and garden were all so very fascinating. The next day the scenery changed a bit as we drove along the Irish Sea.

One of our stops on this day was the National Wool Museum in Llanybydder

Don’t you just love the spelling of Welsh words and place names! The museum was large and very interesting.

Beautiful woolen items have been made there for centuries also, but their machines were mechanized,

so the demonstration there was a bit noisier. We also got to see socks being made,

more looms and spinning wheels,

and the garden filled with the flowers used for dyes.

With these tools one man could sheer up to 40 sheep a day.

The first mechanical clippers were patented in 1868. They were the forerunners of today’s electric shears. I learned all this from the following display that ended with the fact that today, an experienced shearer can shear 250 sheep a day using electric shears. Amazing!

The last portion of our self guided tour took us to a room filled with woolen items made at the mill, along with vintage signage and stories. My favorite piece was this large wool hexagon quilt. More hexies. Wow!

At this point you may be thinking “What an amazing fiber adventure”! But I haven’t yet shared with you my favorite stops. So ~ you guessed it ~ stay tuned for my next post 😁.