Cottage Shop in Llanybydder nr Lampeter

I am back from Wales where I had a very enjoyable weekend. My little car did a total of 675 miles; she got up the steep hills even if she was surprised to have to drop down to second gear (not usual in flat Suffolk!!)

I left Woodbridge about 10 am and did not arrive in Lampeter until 6.00. I headed off to the approximate area of the B & B I had booked - got out the instructions that I had carefully printed off - but was shocked to find that I had printed off the wrong ones (it turns out that there is a similarly named and addressed B & B in North Wales). I had to get the telephone number from Mike in Suffolk - made contact with the owners - then managed to take the wrong road! By this time I was very tired and was glad when the owner met me in his car at the now very-familiar crossroads. Two and a half miles up a small track!! Very pretty, but too dark now to see the scenery...

I had intended to have a walk down the lane the next morning, but it was showery so after breakfast and a play with a very cute British shorthair ginger kitten I set off for Jen Jones' quilt shop in Llanybydder. Thank goodness for mobile phones - I had to be (again) talked in by Hazel at the shop - and even then, ended up at the local cattle market, having taken the wrong left hand turn.

Finally! the Cottage shop, which is a listed building. Jen lives nearby. All the photography of the quilts is done outside here - I was interested to see "the gate".

The better quilts are kept upstairs - a very narrow flight of stairs has to be negotiated- there are several beds with layers of quilts on them.

Beds with quilts. The ceiling was low, a good impression of how houses may have been in former times...

Here is a nice patchwork quilt with some good quilting designs, Hazel says this will probably sell quickly once she has time to put it up on the website...I had not realised the fact that frills are not liked by buyers - the frills look a bit silly and stick out, apparently, if the quilt is not the right size for the bed. Thus the frills are often removed from the quilts to make them more saleable.

Some stacks of red and paisley quilts....

Stacks of quilts...

The more rustic quilts and the blankets are kept downstairs. Blankets are selling very well at the moment. They used to be sourced very cheaply, and resold at a reasonable price - however, supplies are fewer these days and prices are rising steeply. The older blankets are especially collectable now. I was interested to see a moth trap - pheromones lure in any male moths that are present, to alert of any moth infestation.

More blankets in the downstairs room.

The window downstairs, with its Staffordshire dogs....

A quick visit here - then it was off to Jen's Quilt Museum in Lampeter.