Flosstube 30

I've now managed to get enough stitching in that I have some progress to share on Sunflower Bellpull.

Sunflower Bellpull - The Drawn Thread
I'm stitching this one using the recommended fabric and threads.

Last week I got a short break from my daily round of baby and toddler wrangling when my Mum came over to babysit while I went into Leeds to start the Christmas shopping. It was a pretty full on charge round the shops to get what I needed without much time for some personal browsing but I did have time to nip into the Oxfam shop. It generally has the best selection of second hand books in town and I got to indulge one of my other expensive hobbies - book collecting.

I got lucky and found a lovely vintage hardback by Elizabeth Bowen and an original green cover Virago Modern Classic Vita Sackville-West. I'm sure it's a generational thing but I much prefer the older green VMC covers to the new ones (for more on VMC covers see this post by Lyn).

Also in the photo is my diary for 2011, it was an easy choice once Persephone Books announced that they where producing 'The Persephone 90'diary. The diary includes pictures of all the wonderful textiles they use as end papers and I am enjoying browsing through them. Particular favourites are these:

From Fidelity by Susan Glaspell - 19th Century log cabin quilt by Mary E Sexton Mann, Aurora, Illinois (The American Museum in Britain)

And From Round about a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves - Sampler by 'DAR' 1912 (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester)

I hope that all my American readers have had a great Thanksgiving.