On the trail.....

 Seeing as we were (at last!!) allowed out of Wales yesterday...

...and it's been months and months since I had a "colour-fix"...

...we took off across the Severn Bridge into Somerset and Wiltshire...

...to do a bit of background history trailing...

...and some serious retail therapy!!

As you know...

...I am working on Selena's sampler...

...and I've been looking into the family history.

Her parents - Samuel & Mary Watts came to Blaenavon from Somerset/Wiltshire about 1840.

I say "about" because their son Thomas was born in Westbury Wiltshire in 1839...

...and Selena was born in Blaenavon 2 years later.

Samuel and Mary were married in Mary's local parish church in Nunney, Somerset in 1838.

This was our first stop yesterday.

A lovely old church dating back  400-500 years...

...and, no doubt, on a foundation much earlier than that because of the castle right opposite!

The interior is delightful...

...although I felt a bit sorry for the monuments shoved into a corner...

...and especially so for the poor guy put onto a windowsill!!

They have uncovered some rather early wall paintings too.

I left a lengthy note in their visitors book...

...and my copy of the marriage entry...just for their interest.

After Nunney we drove over to The Patchwork Rabbit at Bromham...

...where I had a SUBSTANTIAL dose of retail therapy!!!!! :-D

This bagful will keep me stitching for QUITE some time.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Back at Ty Mabon...

...I've done a few more bits with my Selena samplings...

This was the piece I showed last week...

...now mounted onto a patchwork of William Morris fabrics...

...and finished off with mother-of-pearl buttons.

Another piece was charted and stitched...

...the strawberry border and a few "doodles".

When I looked closely at one of Selena's trees...

...I noticed that they were stitched in blocks of four cross-stitches...

...but also had a larger cross - corner to corner- over the top.

It raises the surface and has a different look from the "normal" crosses around it.

I enjoyed playing with this one!

I am now charting trees and getting ready to stitch another couple of sample pieces.

Oh Happy Days!

I have such an amount of stuff that I want to get done over the next couple-or-so weeks...

...so I'm taking a bit of a blog-break until early May...

...when I should have quite a bit more to show.

Meanwhile...

Take care lovely folks...

See you in May

X C