As many of you know, I am often traveling.  Most of the time, I head to CA to visit with those precious little ones that I call grandbabies.  However, this spring I had a rare opportunity to travel twice to Europe.  The first trip was on a Craft Cruise riverboat cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium.  For those of you not familiar with Craft Cruises, they are a company that specialize in putting together cruises (both regular and riverboat) that specialize in one’s favorite craft.  This was my second time traveling with them.  Right now, most of their offerings are knitting related.  Since this is a needlepoint blog, for any of you more interested in that trip, PM me and I’m happy to gush and share my experiences.

My second trip was with my 90 year old mother-in-law (whose energy level makes me look pretty much dead), my two sisters-in-law and a female cousin.  This trip was a regular cruise through the British Isles.  Loved the countries.  I did bug my traveling companions a bit to stop at knitting stores.  However, I was also determined this time to find something stitching related.  Although I did not have time to visit the Royal School of Needlework, I did find the time to visit a charming needlepoint shop in London, thanks to the heads up of Cathryn C.  She directed me to a charming shop call Tapisserie.  I got there about a half hour before closing, but the store clerk was charming and did not make me feel rushed at all.  Although they had some canvases, their specialty was hand painted canvases that turn into beautiful and breathtaking evening bags.  There was a whole case of samples.  What they didn’t have in stock, they were most happy to have painted up and sent to you.  Of course, they also do a finishing service of making the purse for you.  Most of the designs were executed in tent stitch with beads put on top of the stitching.  However, for those of you adept at making a stitch guide, one could easily do a more embellished piece.  I’m including some photos for you of their interior.  Please enjoy the eye candy.  The one close up of a canvas is the one that had to come back to NJ.

It is a shop well worth the visit.  The neighborhood is just charming, so the visit is a win-win.  Please let me know about any other good traveling finds.  However, after those two trips, the only place I will be going for a while is to CA to visit those grandbabies.  Of course, that does mean an afternoon of stitching at Luv2Stitch in San Mateo.  More about that another time.