A Stitching Odyssey: If ever you're Yorkshire-bound, visit Skipton!

A couple of weekends ago, I headed up to Yorkshire to visit a dear friend of mine. As a special treat we got to spend the Saturday in the town she comes from - the idyllic Skipton. I cannot tell you how absolutely lovely it is, you really must go visit it yourself!

Anyway, we browsed the independent shops and boutiques, snacked on the most delicious pork pies known to man from the world renowned Stanforth Butchers, took in the fresh air and friendly people and had lunch at the new Russian Tearoom.

As we were leaving, my friend casually mentioned stopping by a fabric shop to pick up some curtain material for her new house. I was moderately excited until I saw its unassuming entrance!

Oh yes! This was none other than The Fent Shop that I so vividly remembered reading about over at Karen's blog almost a year ago! At this point my palms got sweaty and my heart started racing. I knew then that I was in for a treat and boy, I was not disappointed!

There were rolls upon rolls of all kinds of fabrics...too many to take in truth be told!

And pre-cut lengths of beautiful upholstery-weight fabric!

Oh, and a 'little' something for the dressmaker - just look at those neatly hung cotton lawns!

I don't know how I managed to be so restrained amongst all that temptation - probably because I was too busy flapping around trying to photograph it all for you lot ;o) - but I did walk away with 2 metres of a lovely linen for just £3!!! Maybe a nifty little wiggle dress maybe for summer?

No trip is ever complete without trying on Russian 'Ushanka' style hats and posing like wannabe KGB agents!

Seriously though, visit Skipton as soon as you can! The Fent Shop, as awesome as it is, is just one of many good reasons to do so.