We had to drive down towards Bristol on Thursday night so we could set up World Textile Day on Friday afternoon, so when I saw that the Welsh Quilt Centre's 2014 exhibition ' Early to Bed' was closing on Saturday 1st November, we changed our plans and drove all the way down to Swansea so we could go over to Lampeter on Friday morning. Leaving Perth at exactly 4.30p.m. it took us ten hours... On Friday morning, the drive through Carmarthenshire was full of autumn colours. It isn't a quick drive at the end of the journey after Carmarthen (Caerfyrddin) but the road winds through some beautiful villages. It was a bright, warm day too - hard to believe it was the end of October. It was like summer.
The approach to Lampeter town.
It is a lovely town, with many interesting shops that we didn't have time to explore on this visit, and some with very colourful fronts - unfortunately the camera didn't focus in time for this one, with bright red and yellow.
The Welsh Quilt Centre is very easy to find - go over the roundabout -
- and look for the clock! It is the old town hall.
There is free on road parking in Lampeter, but the waiting time immediately outside the shops is a bit too short for an exhibition visit, so we parked further up the road.
The one detail I hadn't checked was the opening time - 11 a.m. - and we were too early. So we had to check out Calico Kate, which is practically next door. I'd heard it was good, but I didn't know just HOW good. There is room after room of fabrics, all themed so it is easy to find what you want, with lots of really good quality fabrics including Moda, Bali Batiks and Kona Bay. As well as a fantastic selection of quilt fabrics, they had an excellent choice of 140cm wide linen at just £10 per metre - perfect for sashiko. I bought a large piece for my next big project.
Glyn spotted the Welsh wools and flannels in the same room, so he got a red and black check for one of his kilts - did I mention that we have both joined a kilt making course? I'll post photos of our projects once we get started with them. He's holding the purplish grey linen I bought. The room to his right had some of the Moda ranges.
It was difficult to choose just a few things and Kate had some very unusual fabrics, trims and wools that were just the thing for some new projects we have planned (I'm doing all the knitting!) This room had the Kaffe Fassett/Rowan prints and weaves.
An hour later... Glyn with our goodies!
This is the front of the Welsh Quilt Centre. Photos of the exhibition will be in my next post - there's so many of them.
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