Quilt Shop: Center Diamond Fabrics

The second quilt shop we visited on our beach weekend was Center Diamond Fabrics in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

It's housed in a historical site. Here's the sign at the front door about Van Vleet Logging Company, responsible for logging most of the Tillamook Burn.

When I walked through the front door, I walked left to the far corner of the shop and took a picture. The structure appears small on the outside, but is deceptively large on the inside. There was a ton of fabric to browse here with something for everyone's tastes.

There was a good supply of regional fabric in the form of the beach scenes. When I'm visiting quilt shops in different parts of the country, this is what I'm looking for...something I can't get locally.

They had some adorable patterns for sale and hanging on the walls of the shop. This one was called "Male Bonding". 

Cannon Beach is situated next to haystack rock, an iconic sea stack along the Oregon coast.

(image credit)

There be puffins living on haystack rock and the shop had a cute little puffin quilt. 

I love the details in the puffin.

These sand fabrics were very tempting. I'm gearing up to start on a quilt from some of our "shadow self" pictures, and these would have worked well as backgrounds. I passed them by however.

Being a sucker for sock monkeys, this one made me smile.

So I'm going to stop here, but I have something else to say about this shop below. I'm sort of saving it because I don't know the whole story, and I haven't taken the time to ask. This is a great shop...lots of great fabrics and absolutely worth stopping in. It had a small parking lot in front of the store, and there was plenty of parking to be had within walking distance. As a quilt shop, I give it my highest rating of five rotary cutters.

Here's the thing that bothered me about this shop. Toward the rear of the store, high on a wall, I spied these quilts:

If that carrot quilt looks familiar to you, it's because it's a free pattern available online from allpeoplequilt.com. The quilt shown here is identical to the free pattern online except that it uses fabric for the stem of the carrot instead of felt as the online pattern does. Nevertheless, the pattern is available for sale for $9 here, and if you're so inclined, you can buy a kit for $28.95. 

According to the allpeoplequilt.com website, the quilt was designed by Shelley Robson of The Quilted Forest, an Iowa quilt shop. It was featured in the Spring, 2006 issue of Quilts and More. Since I didn't take the time to inquire further about this of the busy employee, and since I haven't taken the time to contact the shop owner, I won't draw any conclusions here about it. I'll leave that up to you. I'll just say I left the store after seeing this and leave it at that.

*Disclaimer:  Cat Patches accepts no advertising, nor any sponsorships.  The opinions expressed on this blog are based on the personal impressions and perceptions of the author. They are formed  on the basis of one short visit, on one day, and may or may not reflect the experience of others visiting on a different day.  They are no more descriptive than a single snapshot image can be, and nothing written in a review of a quilt shop should be construed as objective fact.  The reviews are strictly the author's subjective opinion and should not be interpreted as anything more.

Quilt Shop: Creative Fabrics

While visiting the Oregon coast this past weekend, we stumbled upon this quilt shop in Wheeler, Oregon, called Creative Fabrics. We drove by the place on the previous day, and while it's obvious, I didn't notice it.

It wasn't until the next day when I was paying more attention to the building it shares space with...the Old Wheeler Hotel...that I saw the quilt shop.

The hotel itself has an interesting history, and some folks even claim that it's haunted. There's also an antique store. Even if you're not a quilter, it's worth a stop here. 

With so many quilt blocks on the Tillamook County Quilt Trail, it would be disappointing if the quilt shop didn't have it's own block:

Surprisingly, they were open even though it was Memorial Day. When you walk in the front door, you can walk left, where the room is full of quilt fabrics...something for everybody, for sure.

To the right is kind of the "business end" of the store, where there was one employee sitting behind the cutting table and cash register. They had a nice collection and display of these One of a Kind hand made buttons. You'll often see these for sale at quilt shows, and I've been known to purchase them myself a time or two. Very cute stuff.

This side of the store had a great collection of notions, books, and patterns.

And take a look at these adorable knitted finger puppets.

I didn't take a lot of pictures inside this store. Sometimes taking pictures makes me feel self-conscious, and that was the case on this day. Still, this is a great store, well worth a stop to see the shop and the interesting building it calls home. I didn't end up purchasing anything here...mainly because I didn't need a danged thing, and it was easy to sneak out unnoticed. Often when I visit a quilt shop, I'm only making a purchase to be polite.

There was plenty of on-street parking despite its being a national holiday and a busy beach weekend. I give this shop my highest rating of five rotary cutters.

*Disclaimer:  Cat Patches accepts no advertising, nor any sponsorships.  The opinions expressed on this blog are based on the personal impressions and perceptions of the author. They are formed  on the basis of one short visit, on one day, and may or may not reflect the experience of others visiting on a different day.  They are no more descriptive than a single snapshot image can be, and nothing written in a review of a quilt shop should be construed as objective fact.  The reviews are strictly the author's subjective opinion and should not be interpreted as anything more.

Very Veggie

As suspected, I had no time for sewing yesterday. It was a day to get my hair permed. As I'm sitting here, I'm sitting under my stinky new perm. I almost think the smell of it keeps me awake at night. My perms are just for body in my fine, straight hair, and so it's not as if I have a lot of curl to show for it. On a positive note, I have nowhere to go today. I'll be spending the morning repotting tomatoes, and I doubt the tomatoes will mind the smell. They have their own smell to contend with. For today, I'm stuck with the smell of myself, but others will be spared. Unless you happen to be one of my tomatoes.

After I left the hairdresser, I picked up groceries for the week. As you know, on Tuesday, I picked up my 2nd CSA share. So far, I'm having fun with it, but it is quite a challenge to figure out what to do with all that green goodness. I gave another try to the bok choy recipe I tried last week, and came up with a pretty tasty concoction.

The stems of bok choy are flavorless and spongy. The only other change I would make to this recipe now is to cut the stems in smaller pieces. I cut mine about an inch wide, but I think I'd go smaller yet. The leaves were cut into one-inch ribbons, and that worked out pretty well. I've added a healthy 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, but the dish did not seem overly spicy to me. The bok choy really needs as much flavor as you can give it, and so I wouldn't skimp there. If you're up for a little spice, you can even add more.

Mike calls this kind of a dish "gunk over rice". Here's the recipe I came up with to make the bok choy palatable:

                      

Shrimp Stir Fry With Bok Choy and Green Onions

adapted from cookwithwhatyouhave.com

1 Tablespoon Extra-virgin Olive Oil

4 Cloves  Garlic -- minced

1 Tablespoon Minced or Grated Fresh Ginger

1/2 Teaspoon  Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 Teaspoon  Anise (or fennel) Seeds

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce

1/4 Cup Chicken Broth or Water

2 1/2 Tablespoons Rice Wine (mirin) or Dry Sherry

1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil

1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar

1 Large Head Bok Choy -- stalks separated, stems cut into 1/2-inch pieces, leaves cut into 1-inch             ribbons 

3 Green Onions (white and green parts) -- sliced into 1/2-inch pieces

1 Pound  Medium Shrimp -- peeled and deveined

Steamed Jasmine Rice

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Heat extra-virgin olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and add the garlic, ginger, anise, and red pepper flakes. Saute for a minute or so until very fragrant, stirring constantly. Add soy sauce, broth, rice wine, sesame oil and brown sugar and simmer for about 4-5 minutes. Pour sauce into a wok or large skillet.

Meanwhile drop the bok choy into the boiling water and cook for about 4 minutes until crisp tender. Drain and add with the green onion and shrimp to the sauce in the skillet. Cook over high heat until the shrimp are cooked through and the ingredients are well combined. Serve hot over cooked rice.

Also in this week's share were a bunch of radishes and a head of romaine lettuce along with a little sandwich bag of mixed herbs, including fresh basil. I made up a salad from the romaine that included the romaine, the radishes and basil and some added green onion and mint. It had a peanut dressing and some chopped peanuts over the top. The combination of the salad and the stir fry together made for a tasty meal.

Still, I'm not claiming bok choy as one of my favorite vegetables...at least not in any way I've seen it prepared. It is edible, however, and so no whining. This is a culinary adventure we're on here.

The only other thing to tell you about yesterday is that I'm gearing up to start on the Hocuspocusville quilt. I'm finishing up the last of the Vintage Tin blocks right now, and I have only one more quilting snow lady to finish. There's no time to waste getting ready for at least one new project, right? So this is the Hocuspocusville quilt from Crabapple Hill Studios (love their stuff):

I actually have a picture with an alternative setting for this that I might try...or not...I'll see when I get that far. For now, I'm collecting my floss and my fabrics. This is done all in black floss, but I'm going to add some orange accents to mine. The nine patches are done with scraps, but I spent some time choosing the fabrics for back, border, and embroidery backgrounds a few weeks ago. They arrived yesterday, and I'm pretty happy with these. I'll use those spiderwebs on the quilt back:

As I said, today I'm going to repot my tomatoes, and I need to water the annuals. The weather has been cool and wet the past couple of weeks, but it's about to get warmer. I'll have to resume my watering ritual. Also, I imagine the birds will need feeding...and the cats...always the cats. There are a few housekeeping chores to do, and I'm going to continue on with my quest to use up my CSA veggies. Today I'm making a meatloaf that includes the bundle of chard. I might saute up my spinach as a side dish as well. That would knock two more veggies out of the pile. It's a bit like a competition. Who will emerge the victor? The veggies or me?

Before I stop today I wanted to show you the picture my friend Deb texted to me of little Baby Zevee with her Rubber Duckies quilt. 

She's looking pretty comfy isn't she? It's always good to see your quilts put to use by expert snugglers.

When I wrap up this post, I'm going to tell you about the quilt shops I visited over the weekend, but I'll do those in separate posts. Have a happy Thursday!