Inspiration and Lucky Finds

Today is one of those bright blue sky winter days that look oh so cheerful from inside but are bitterly cold outside. The perfect day I thought to take some photographs of the colourful and inspiring buildings to be found in Riga, and share them with you. However, it was so cold that even with two pairs of gloves on my fingertips were freezing so the photography trip only covered the Art Nouveau District and even then included two coffee stops along the way! Still, hopefully these will give you a flavour of the city, which is definitely seen at its best against a bright blue sky!

These photos are all from one street, although the modern looking building is on the opposite side to the rest. It is currently the World Trade Centre, but was formerly the Headquarters of the Communist Party, when Latvia was part of the Soviet Union.

As you can see there are some beautiful and colourful buildings around, and I haven't even taken any photographs of the buildings in the most well-known street for its Art Nouveau architecture, as by the end of my walk I feared my fingertips were going to get frostbite if I didn't get out of the cold soon!

As I have mentioned before quilting cotton is not easy to come by here, there are plenty of shops catering to sewers but mostly for curtains/home furnishings or clothes, so when I see some I immediately snap it up, and yesterday I was in the right place at the right time. Next to our local supermarket there is a fabric superstore, which as well as selling fabric from the roll also sells offcuts by weight. The store is a Baltic off-shoot of a Welsh company called Abakhan, quite why they have branches out here I have no idea, but I am certainly not complaining. Naturally a trip to the supermarket frequently (nearly always!) includes a quick tour of Abakhan too, and yesterday I was delighted to spy this in the Cottons bin.

Needless to say I snapped it up! As I pay by weight I had to wait until I got home to find that I had purchased just under 2 metres of fabric for approx £5.50/$8.5 and no postage to pay! I am working on the basis that if I buy quilting cotton often enough it will encourage them to stock more, I am not too sure that my husband is too happy with this strategy :) Still, Christmas fabric will never go to waste (well that is what I tell myself anyway!)

Being new to blogging, I was delighted to find Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet here to help new bloggers meet other bloggers and get to know them so I am off to sign up there now, perhaps I'll meet you there!