Treasures from Asheville (and a sneak peek of the "Yellow Bird Nest" Quilt)

The simple things in life cheer my heart the most. And when I travel, my souvenirs are nearly always books, tea cups and/or tea pots. As you read in my last post, we visited several bookstores in Asheville, NC. Today, I am going to share what I bought.

Our favorite bookstore was The Captain’s Bookshelf. The shop was charming and quaint with friendly staff, “twinkle lights,” the warmth of glossy pine bookshelves, dried hydrangea held by twigs suspended from the ceiling. I could have spent hours in there. Sadly, this post card which the clerk slipped into the book that I purchased informs that the storefront is closing. The business will still operate with an online presence at their website: captainsbookshelf.com, but the reality is that nothing can replace the ambiance of a shop like that. Will our future generations even know what it is like to spend time browsing through books in a brick and mortar store? I hope so—it’s one of my favorite things to do!

When I walked into each of the used bookshops that we visited, I went to the literature sections, looking specifically for The Pickwick Papers by Dickens. Watching the BBC production of the The Pickwick Papers piqued my interest in reading the book. I have thoroughly enjoyed how Dickens develops characters in his other novels that I have read or listened to, and I wanted to add his first book to my collection. Two other Dicken’s novels on my list were Little Dorritt and Bleak House, which a friend had recently recommended to me as two of her favorite Dicken’s novels. Although I never found a copy of The Pickwick Papers in good enough condition to bring home, I was delighted to find this copy of Little Dorrit. The bookstore also had a matching copy of Bleak House that I wanted so badly to buy, too, but I made myself stick to this one. If the store hadn’t been offering a 40% sale (because of their closing), I probably wouldn’t have even purchased this one because it was priced higher than what I usually spend for used books. I am thrilled that it is now part of my collection, and I can’t wait to read it…and I regret not purchasing Bleak House.

The bookmark was placed between pages 196 and 197, and I wonder whether that is as far as the previous owner read…

We went to another bookshop that felt like a supermarket, but I did find a few more books at really good prices. This classic Silas Marner caught my eye because of the beauty of the cover. Silas Marner first captured my sympathy when I read the book in high school, and I have recently enjoyed listening to it again. I am glad to have such an attractive copy. My dream is to have a library filled with books that look like this, but I doubt that it’s a dream that will ever be fulfilled. I am nearly 41 years old and have only one leather-bound collector’s edition book and now this one that isn’t leather bound, but is still beautiful.

At the supermarket-like bookstore, I also found two quilting books to add to my collection. The Art of Classic Quiltmaking caught my eye, not only because of the beauty of the quilts pictured, but because of the helpful information included inside. The two-color Quilts was interesting to me because I had designed a quilt the night before that I was planning to make as a two-color quilt! It affirmed my choice of design.

I started reading The Art of Classic Quiltmaking a few days ago, and this was the first paragraph:

Excerpt from The Art of Classic Quilt Making by Harriet Hargrave and Sharyn Craig

On reading that paragraph, I instantly knew that the authors were kindred spirits and that I had made a good purchase.

Our B&B offered hand-thrown stoneware mugs just like one that I had used frequently at a friend’s house nearly a decade ago! I sent a text showing the front of the mug to my friend to ask if it was indeed the same. The logo of the B&B where we stayed in Asheville is imprinted on the front of the mug, and she said that it was the same type of mug from the same establishment. Even though she and her husband had never stayed at that B&B, friends had done so and brought them back a mug because the name of the B&B was the same as their last name. I bought the mug not to remind myself of the B&B because we didn’t really enjoy our stay there, but because of the fond memories of using the similar mug at my friends’ house.

I will enjoy reading and using these items for years to come—they will remind me of the time that our plans changed, and Ryan and I had a much-needed time of getting away together to fulfill an item on our bucket list.

This week has been really busy with working on a huge project (literally, it’s a king-size knotted quilt that I restored for friends) that I now just need to bind once I purchase the right color of thread, and yesterday, I took a class on how to use a long-arm quilter so that I can rent it to finish my quilts more easily. Today, I hope to spend more time on the quilt that I designed while staying at Chapman Knoll while on our trip, but I will give you sneak peek of the quilt…

I will be sharing more about all of the things I worked on this week in upcoming posts…stay tuned!