Stitching tour of England!

Well, I'm back from my stitch tour!!! It was great fun and I was very well behaved, considering the temptation...LOL!
We started off on Monday morning by driving up to Voirrey in the Wirral. Thank goodness we had a sat nav because it was a bit hidden away. I'd never been here before and it was a lovely shop. Quite big, with lots of stitching around to drool over. I was very well behaved here and only bought a daylight bulb (mine blew about a week before). My friend, Sue found some nice bits. Nothing stitchy, but a gorgeous card and some other little odds n ends for christmas pressies.
Then we drove to Culcheth to visit the Black Sheep. We spent ages trying to find it. First off we discovered another needlecraft shop within the same shopping centre. They sold lots of wool and some other craft bits, so I bought a bag of black sead beads for £1.99. Much bigger pack than the Mill Hill ones, so I was pleased with that. The Black Sheep was right by where we came in-tucked away next to a sweet shop, so we probably missed it because we were too busy looking at the sweets. All the kits I liked in there, I had already bought from the website or shows. No new bargains to be had.
That was day one of the holiday. On day two, we went to Fleetwood market and there was a stall there which had a Country Companions cricket kit reduced down to £6, so hubby bought that for me to stitch for him. Sue got some scrapbook bits from there too. The next few days were spent in Blackpool-going to the zoo and tower, and looking at the lights. On Friday we left the caravan park and popped into Marsh Mill before heading to our next shop. This was a lovely place and I wish we could've spent more time here, but we'd left DH guarding a very full car, so we didn't stay long. Bought some little mouseloft kits and Sue drooled over the doll houses in another shop. Next was Embsay. It wasn't as good as last time I went, although they had a few kits reduced and all the DMC and Anchor kits had some money off. So we headed to our hotel ready for our last shop on saturday. This was Wye needlecraft in Bakewell. I think this one was my fave on this journey. They had their christmas room done up and it looked amazing! So many kits look much better when they're stitched. Most of the ones I wanted were out of stock, though. I did get a tiny christmas kit of a present, which is stitched in gold and red 'blackwork'. Thought I could change the colours and stitch it a few times for cards and tree decorations. Also bought some wooden bell pulls for the Dolly Mamas kits. Sue got several charts for band samplers and we had a great chat with the lovely girls who work there.
It really was a great week and we're already looking forward to doing another stitchy holiday.

Love Heart wedding sampler

My friend, Emma, got married in July and I have stitched her and her husband a little wedding picture. He proposed with a love heart, so when I saw this chart, it was ideal! I added the names and date and framed it in a simple silver frame. They were both really pleased when I gave it to them last week (I know it's very late!)