Muv

Here are the pine cones and acorns, all blanket stitched in Poland.

The trip to the Czech Republic was very brief. No it wasn't a quilt shop - I doubt they exist there. It was a bargain basement clothes, shoes and general cheap tat shop, cheap even by Polish standards, hence the trip across the border. A unique experience. The shop is run by a family of Koreans. Just imagine the fun of being with a husband and brother in law who bash along in bad Polish. Fortunately the languages are close enough for Poles and Czechs to understand each other, even if their first languages are English and Korean. Then there was the maths of it all. The prices were in Czech korunas, but they accepted Polish zlotys at the exchange rate. So I found a really nice cardigan in a mixture of cotton and cashmere with a bit of elastane at 150 korunas, and fainted at the price. The boys told me to get a grip, and told me what it was in zlotys. It still didn't mean anything to me, but we grubbed around and found another cardy for my daughter. After we had paid for everything it began to sink in that we had got them for about £5 each.

And then I didn't let us leave the car park until I had done a few blanket stitches on one of the oak leaves.