OH! WHAT A LOVELY DAY.





I have had such a lovely time today, this morning I popped down to Leasingham village hall for the st. Barnabas hospice grand sale, fill a bag with fabric for a quid! wow   -had to be there.
There was stufff ,  lovely stuff   everywhere I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.....



I found a bag of sparkly, glittery brocade offcuts, I feel a bag coming on........



assorted embroidered lace doilies, God I do so love old stuff, it has a history, a life, character and wear  and tear, I get such a buzz just from handling old textiles.



I found a gorgeous hand knitted jumper body but the arms were missing, its a lovely shade of cornflower blue, if I sew up the edges it will make a lovely pram blanket for our youngest pipsqueak-- who actually rides about the village in a pram!
And does this round doillie say yellow to you? yes, definitely yellow....



and look at these lovely square shell sequin like things, a whole bag.yayy!



how about this marvelous olden days baby bib, the stitching is so tiny and it was spotlessly clean, clearly made in the days before spaghetti hoops..

Look how tiny this rolled edge is...cant actually see the tiny stitches in the linen.
And I found some lovely crewelwork fabric[ book cover, or bag?]And some old linen and two tablecloths and two boxes of buttons, one of which I managed to drop all over the floor and everyone helped me pick up[ and well done leasing ham, that was a very clean floor].
.

I missed out on a big Euphoria in a pot, shame, as mine died this winter, and then I had tea and cake, with tablecloth and  small vase of flowers, and then Frankie walked in, so I went back to the fabric stalls and we found some offcuts of wool men's suiting's, which is perfect as Frankie has gone all Sue Spargot and we are going to do something from her book soon.

Then we had more tea and cake, and Frankie, who has just returned from Malvern, brought me  a lovely unbirthday present of some gorgeous threads from the African lady, such a kind friend, then I bought some homemade cake for Mr, shed man, who has finished the decking and is now mending my car, he is a good lad, and sadly for him. he isn't married to a woman who bakes[it would cut into my sewing time and create unrealistic expectations]



After dashing home to drop off my purchases and pick up the sprogs we shot over to spalding to the unique farm studios for their wool day,



look at the baby Alpaca, isn't he lovely, ooooooh  I  want one



 Angela was dyeing wool  in a microwave, sadly she couldn't boil up her daffodil heads for dyeing as it was way too windy to light the gas burners, hand painting wool really is great fun..



there was GIANT knitting..



Nigel was doing big french knitting .there was weaving and spinning and felt making and fleece dyeing and some  really gorgeous handmade  honey soap- also made by Angela 



and of course, sheep shearing, some very agile Australians were divesting the Jacobs of their warm winter coats.




not very dignified, but effective.




Before
and after...



the alpacas were napping as we left tired but happy.
I had a really nice day, it felt like a weeks holiday rolled into one day, lovely

And if you want to see what happens to the lace doillie--go here.