Welsh quilts and Fair Isle sweaters for Shetland ponies

I returned to Ottawa just three days ago, and am now baking up a storm to go to a cottage with my children and grandchildren for the long weekend. Thus, blogs about our trip to Wales will have to wait until next week. Suffice to say, it was a memorable experience, both during the tour and then travelling in rural Wales with a friend, and special visits with Welsh cousins. Thanks to the congenial, interesting tour members. All in all, it was a wonderful time!

Today I also received a newsletter from Jen Jones of the Welsh Quilt Centre. Earlier this month, we visited Jen at the Quilt Centre in Lampeter and then at her shop in nearby Pontbrendu. It was a treat to hear the background of the exhibition of Kaffe Fasset's quilts, hung at the same time as the traditional Welsh whole-cloth quilts, plus Jen telling us how she came to be so interested in the Welsh quilts and her commitment to making sure they were treasured and appreciated. http://www.welshquilts.com/index.php?option 

I've been working on the day-by-day itinerary for our Scottish Skeins trip in July. I learned that Doreen Brown of the Shetland Collection, www.shetland-knitwear.co.uk, was asked to march in the Tartan Day Parade down Six Avenue, NYC, to promote Scotland Homecoming Year in 2014. Doreen is the designer and knitter of the famous Fair Isle sweaters which the two Shetland ponies are wearing in many photos. Doreen told me that the ponies in the parade were American, but the sweaters they wore were the ones she'd knit. Doreen's studio is one of the favourite stops for our groups to Scotland, and we'll be there again in July.

Greetings from Wales!

In addition to being the Land of Song and Castles, Wales is also the Land of Sunshine. We've been told by many people that the growing season is at least five weeks behind what it usually is but that has worked to the benefit of our tour, as everywhere we travel there is a profusion of daffodils growing naturally by the roadside, plus primula and trees getting ready to bud.

We've seem so many wonderful sights and met friendly people, that I'll have to review our itinerary to organize for future blogs. In the meantime, I had an email that the May issue of Viait Shetland has been posted. As always, it's a good read. www.visitshetland.org/may-2013-newsletter.