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I always say buy from your "local" needlework shop if you have one. They are precious, and offer more than just fabric and thread. Generally, a few pence more won't break the bank, will it.

Yes.
It could be, if taken to the logical limit of buying your whole project from your local shop.

Priced up from my local stitch shop, my Gryff project would have been £205. From the interwebs, it was £51. That is bank breaking.

Regards,

Richard

Sure, I can see that, but forgive me if I say that's short-term thinking. How long do you think internet prices will stay low when there's no real-world competition?

Lovely colours, Nicola! I've just been playing with wools and silks for my Tree of Life - it's so satisfying

When you're up at your friends house and bring your cross stitch with you and sit down to start and get everything around you, project in its frame, threads, chart, scissors, highlighter pen and then you realise you don't have a needle to stitch with! Ooooopsies! How the heck did I manage that?

No bargain on the internet could compete with buying threads or fabric or other stash at my favourite local shop, both the ladies in which were passionate cross stitchers. Now the shop is gone, and so is the other one, and yes, the threads bought on the internet were cheaper and delivered in time and all that, but it was just buying more threads, not a usual ritual of travelling to the other end(and a picturesque place at that) of the city, catching up with the latest news in who was stitching what, discussing the project for which the threads were needed, showing it "live", looking "live" at the ladies' projects which they would produce from somewhere behind the stall, looking through some new goods like scissors or needles.

I am missing that special shop very much.

I completely understand there's nothing like going into a shop (whichever kind of shop it is!) and seeing items, browsing, picking up and looking at stuff and chatting away to staff and other customers! It's such ashame that a lot of shops are closing down, especially in rural areas which rely on these sorts of places. So sad

It's a sad day when that happens, I still miss the lovely needlework shop run by two sister that I used to get all my stuff from when I first set out on my embroidery journey

Two dry days in a row -- nearly a record -- so the winter waterproofs are being washed, re-waterproofed and hung outside to dry. Lots to repot in the garden -- oh, and the weeding, of course. I think I'm going to get my vitamin D quotient today, one way or another.

Just catching up with things & just now thought I was seeing things. I bent down to pick up a piece of thread off the carpet & as I straightened saw the whole of a turquoise car reversing past the window. The window sill is 3 feet from floor so I had a shock as I could see wheels & tyres, turned out it was on a lorry trailer & the cab appeared just after I saw the car reversing past. Had to laugh - as I could see the wheels & tyres it had looked like car was elevated. One of my neighbours in next block must have had a breakdown & I never saw low backed lorry arrive

Enjoy the rest of the day.

Izzi! We've been busy in the garden too, Serinde. I think it's meant to rain tomorrow though. I have a blue Surfinia in a lovely blue pot and the flowers on it are huge! Must take a picture and post it in this thread.

For the past two hours or so I've been battling to finish the white on my Mallard cross stitch so that I only have the natural white to do tomorrow morning and he'll be finished! After missing out a stitch and wondering why things weren't matching up I had to a whole lot back to sort it out so it's taken me a whole lot longer to do than planned! Ignored one of the key rules of cross stitching 'Don't stitch when tired or distracted' and I hate stitching the colour white! Anyway, that'll do for tonight and then (hopefully) he'll be finished tomorrow

Good morning all! I never made it up to Banchory two weeks ago (my friend was too busy working) so we have planned to go up tomorrow. Have made a list of things I need to get at Meg's Attic and I'm looking forward to just having a good browse around a craft shop! Also have two book tokens I got from my sister for my birthday that I've not used yet which I will take with me (also good bookshop called Yeadons in Banchory) and I also collect Charlie Bears and there are a couple of stockists up that way. All in all tomorrow will hopefully be a good day for me! Not for my bank balance though!

Take care everyone! xxx

Enjoy browsing and (dare I say the other b-word?) buying both books and 'broidery bits & bobs

I'm getting small travel projects together as we're off to a wedding on the south coast followed by a week in the New Forest ; as part of our travelling will be done in an open 1928 two-seater my stitching kit will have to be of the minimalist variety (not to mention weather-proof)

Hope you have a fabulous time Mabel!

Mabel.what make of car is the '28 two seater?My first husband and I had Vintage cars-1928 Pontiac Tourer fully restored and several others awaiting .restoration.They ware all sold when he became ill.Nothing quite like bowling along the highways and byways with the wind in your hair.

Well I have to say I'm very disappointed I had planned on buying lots of cross stitch goodies at Meg's Attic today but I didn't buy anything at all! They were asking £1.08 per skein for DMC (I knew that they would be more expensive than online but not by about twice as much!) and their kits and aida were far too expensive too! Very unhappy and I would love to support local shops but not when they're asking that much

Sorry to hear you didn't get anything. Shops do tend to charge a bit more. Maybe you will have to treat yourself to something online.

Have just bought the 25 DMC threads I needed on the website I use called Stitcher for 65p each. I feel really bad as I wanted to buy from there but what can you do when it's cheaper online?

Thought I'd pop in since this is a totally unrelated stitching post. I just picked my daughter up from the airport; she just got done running a marathon in a game reserve in South Africa. Her goal is to run one on each continent. She's already done Asia (Great Wall of China marathon), South America (Chile) and Antarctica- both done in the same trip/week, as a two for one, and North America (Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota). She has Australia and Europe left. I will go with her on those ones to cheer her on. We don't know where it will be on each of those continents yet. We'll take suggestions on places to go and places to avoid.
She's leaning towards one around London for the European one. I was there for a one day tour a couple years ago when I made a trip to Germany. I found it all totally fascinating and so historic. Castles and old churches, so cool. For the most part, 'historic' here means dating back to the 1800's.

Nicola,here in Aus the needlework stores,and there are precious few of them.charge $1.30AU-76p for DMC.I would love to patronise my LNS but there aren't any near me.