Well, I've been hitting the jackpot with some great quilt shops on this trip, and two in surprisingly small places. Obviously, Idaho caters to quilters.
On this day, the object of my desire was the Sun Valley Fabric Granary in Hailey, Idaho, which is just south of Ketchum and Sun Valley. It was a little difficult to find from the road since the store is located in one of those kind of mini malls where you enter through a main door and then there are several businesses inside. Here's what you see street side. The glare makes it hard to see anything at all.
Hailey is a fun little town with wide streets and a historically significant past. I'll say more about that in a separate post.
Once you're inside the "mall", this is what greets you at the front door. As the quilt shop owner, wouldn't this be fun to make ?
Walking through the front door, look to your left, and this is what you see. It's a long narrow shop, packed to the gills with stuff to make any quilter sing out loud. I didn't, however...just to be clear.
Directly across from the front door is this beauty. It was huge...maybe even king size.
Just below were all these gorgeous fabrics. This is when I started resisting the urge to sing.
There were so many pretty fabrics, although this store seems to cater more to the calico and civil war print side of quilting.
In the rear of the store was a classroom/office/work area.
That's also where the quilt shop dog hangs out.
I was kind of working my way from back to front as I gazed at and fondled the fabrics.
Plenty of notions and quilting supplies.
And a nice supply of flannels,
pretty batiks,
and warm wools.
They didn't have a huge supply of books, but what they had was interesting and unique from what I've seen in other quilt shops. I picked up a few of these and browsed.
Here's the Vintage Tin quilt. It's always kind of fun to see a quilt I've made and to see how differently the maker put it together and quilted it.
This was a cute technique. This was a baby quilt...or maybe a doll quilt...It had a solid background and then the patches had been cut and left raw. In a kind of quilt as you go technique, the quilting held the patches in place with the edges raw. Then it was washed so that the edges ragged. What a great way to use scraps, and it was very pretty. I'd like to try this. It might work better to leave an extra bit of seam allowance and then trim the edges after washing it.
I just love a shop that includes a skinny bolt sale. These are the ends of bolts. Usually, one has to buy whatever is left on the bolt to get the discount.
I was drawn to this one, which was two yards. She would have cut it for me, but I took the whole piece. I think it might make a nice backing for a winter table runner or wall hanging.
For my regional 365 circle quilt, I chose a fat quarter of this one, Sun Valley being a ski resort and all.
So what a fun and unique little shop! I loved it! It's been fun finding these shops thriving in small communities. I give it my highest rating of five rotary cutters.
It would be worth a special trip to Hailey just to see the interesting community and the beauty of the surrounding area. With this quilt shop to boot, you can't lose.
*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.
4 comments:
I like their baby-quilt variation on rag quilting, and I always appreciate a good supply of flannels. Winter is coming. :)
I'm just going to say I've turned green with envy at your quilt shop experiences these last few days. I loved the red fabrics in this shop and that baby quilt is adorable. Oh and I love the elephants. Now I've got completely over excited and I'm going to lie down before I plan a quilt shop trip of my own.
I like that raw-edge quilt! I imagine you could make the patches any shape you wanted to as well. More beautiful fabric. I admire your restraint!!
My daughter-in-law wants to make a rag quilt. I may show her this one for next years Christmas gifts for little ones in her family!
Post a Comment