Another Road Trip with Jen1

On Saturday, Jen1 and I hit the road. Our destination for that night was London ON where we spent the night before our class on Sunday with Lucy Neatby at The Little Red Mitten yarn shop in St. Thomas ON.

We had both been researching stitchery and yarn shops en route. Our first stop was Stitch-It Central in downtown Ingersoll. We barely got in the door before we were enthralled with the mere volume of fabrics and stitchery supplies.

The proprietor, Maria Santos, cleverly displayed a line of fabric on the theme of sheep and knitting in one bin. It is the 'Knit Happy' line by Stitches of Love for Henry Glass & Co. Of course I selected 7 patterns and took a half metre of each.

She gave me a great tip. The selvage has all the colours of the fabric. Rather than lug a bunch of fabrics to find ones to coordinate with them, just take the selvage edge strip with you. I loved how this line had sheep as the colour register.

How could I resist these knitting sheep?

And these happy ovine creatures with flower 'leis'?

I also picked up a sampler chart that was on sale which will be a quick stitch. It's the 'Friendship Sampler' from Little Dove Designs.

I will definitely be shopping there again on trips to southwestern Ontario.

Our next stop was at Thread n Eye in London - a very nice stitchery and framing shop. I took a few photos and bought several cross-stitch patterns. The two hummingbird charts were on sale.

I'm not sure I'd use as dark a background fabric but they should be fun to stitch.

We actually see Buff-bellied hummingbirds when we are in Texas.

I couldn't pass up more sheep-themed samplers. This one is 'Jump for Joy' from Country Cottage Needleworks, Chart 119. The lettering and flowers are coral shades so I'd probably use a different colour as coral is not my fave.

There were also laser-cut wooden sheep buttons 'Collection p'tits moutons' from The Bee Company and were made in France.

From Nathalie Cichon at  Jardin Privé,  I purchased "L'Arbre aux Oiseux"

and one of the charts from the "Histoire de Moutons" series. This one is #3. There are 4 in the series that can be stitched on one big piece of fabric.

I decided not to purchase all four so selected this one because the elements were my favourites that  could be stitched individually.

Our next stop was at a very cute, boutique yarn and fabric shop, Knit Stitch on Wharncliffe Road S at Elmwood just north of the Hyland Theatre in London. This was a shop that Jen sleuthed out and what a find! I didn't take any photos. If you like modern fabrics and patterns, you'll love this place. It's bright and airy and she carries lovely high-end fabrics for quilting and sewing and luxury yarns.

Our last shopping stop was at Len's Mill Store on Exeter Road in south London. All the Len's Mill Stores I've been to are crowded, messy warehouses filled with discount goods. They have a lot of commercial yarns but I really like the fabric selection. Jen found some Star Trek fabric and some other fabric for me to make her some pillowcases. (I'm going to teach her how to do it herself - heh, heh, heh).

I had 2 particular fabrics in mind. Unfortunately, I only found one. It's "Draw Near - Art Supplies - Cream" by J Wecher Frisch for Quilting Treasures.

The other one I wanted was 'Watercolour Paints' an all over print with the cream background.

I will keep looking for it.

I made some cosmetic bags and luggage tags for my friend, Marion, a few years back with it as the outer fabric and another set with it as the inner fabric.

After checking into our hotel, we met friends of Jen's for dinner at a nearby restaurant and then settled in for the night.

The next morning we got up and headed directly to St. Thomas for breakfast before our all-day 'Various Variegations' class with Lucy Neatby at the Little Red Mitten. And that will be the subject of my next post.