Quilt Shop: Homespun Quilts & Yarn; Astoria, Oregon

It's good that I have a quilt shop to share with you today since yesterday was a boring day of laundry and grocery shopping. It was a nice little shop, and I enjoyed my time there. My Quilt Shop app failed me this time because I was certain there was at least one quilt shop in Astoria. The Quilt Shop app identified none. Undeterred I went onto the internet and found Homespun Quilts & Yarn, just a few blocks down from the tall scary bridge.

Before I go on, I want to say just a bit about Astoria. It's named for the Astor family. John Jacob Astor (the first) was a trader who was hired in 1810 by Thomas Jefferson to establish a Jamestown-like colony on the Pacific Coast. Using information from the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Astor set out on an expedition beset by hardship, starvation, and tragedy that was ultimately unsuccessful. As it turns out, there is an entire book written about this, entitled (unsurprisingly), Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival. I always thought Astoria was named for the man's great grandson, John Jacob Astor IV, who went down with the Titanic. Here's my take on this whole story: Never travel with the Astor Family.

History aside, let's get back to the quilt shop, shall we? It's located on a very narrow street. There's on-street parking that was all occupied on the day we visited. Fortunately, we found a spot one block over. Also, there is a public lot just across the street. The shop appears small, judging by the storefront.

Step inside the front door, and you see a store that reaches far back into the interior of the building. It didn't have a huge inventory of fabric, but what they had was very nice. There was probably something for everybody here. This was a pretty wall full of batiks.

In this corner were some very fun novelty prints.

Look at these sewing fabrics. The one with the spools of thread was so yummy, and I was very tempted.

Yarn people, I need to apologize to you here. There was a whole room of yarn, but since I'm not a yarn person, I didn't even step inside. Later, I realized that I'd missed an opportunity for you guys. Mea culpa. I won't let it happen again.

They had so many cute patterns available from artists I've not seen before. This guy made me smile.

The pattern is by Chicken Soup Designs. Cute, huh?

This was a nice long wall of solids, polka dots, and stripes.

So many pretty colors. This is why I love to visit quilt shops. It's a feast for the eyes...like walking into Oz.

In this old wringer washer, you could grab handfuls of scraps and stuff them into a bag for $8. I like seeing these kinds of deals in a quilt shop.

They had a good selection of florals and patterns for bags.

The fabrics on these shelves were all flannels.

This was a cute little bag. I looked around for a pattern, but didn't see one. Possibly, it was just for display.

Nothing to see here...I just liked this quilting motif.

There was an interesting shelf of books. I picked up this one, but then set it down again when the templates on the pages within nearly burned my fingers. I just say "No" to templates.

This adult coloring book caught my eye.

The first page I flipped to was this one:

Makes you wonder if it was some kind of trap, doesn't it?

Look at these pretty metallic threads. I might have bought the entire basket just so I could set it in my own sewing room to gaze upon.

This bothered me a little bit. There was a sign above that said "kits available". I looked around, but didn't see any kits. This pattern is available for free on the internet. Since I didn't see any kits nor any associated prices, I decided to let it go and didn't inquire further.

Besides...just to the left were these little samples, and they distracted me. This was a larger one.

There was a smaller one, nearly identical, right beside it.

It was so cute, and I was thinking one could make a whole quilt from these. Wouldn't it make a good Rainbow Scrap project? I decided to purchase the pattern. This one is from Patch Abilities.

Of course, I needed that beach ball button, didn't I? And so I picked that up too.

Also, I picked up a fat quarter of this regional print for the Quilty 365 in my future:

Since the scrub jay quilt was on my mind, I picked up these three fat quarters. Possibly they can be used when I make the bird.

The women working in the store were so friendly and polite, it made the whole experience that much more enjoyable. One of them actually encouraged me to photograph the samples hanging on the walls, something that rarely happens. As I was checking out with my purchases, I resisted these impulse items located next to the cash register.

And look at these pretty seam rippers hand made by a local artist.

They were very tempting, but I resisted, realizing I really had no use for something like that. (Ha!) The woman who took my money observed that, even if one doesn't need a seam ripper, they'd still look good next to the sewing machine. Hard to argue with that.

So, I thoroughly enjoyed this quilt shop. It's definitely worth stopping in if you find yourself in Astoria, Oregon. Here are the particulars:

And here's a screenshot of their website:

I rate them 5 out of 5 rotary cutters:

Today I have a stay-at-home day, and I'm hoping to get well along on the Snips and Snails quilt. I had about an hour to sew yesterday, and so I was able to finish sewing the right side arm and hand together. 

Now the larger section is nearly finished, and I expect to sew it together today. From there I'll continue making my way down the legs. The fingers and hands were the most complicated part of this quilt, but the shoes will be a close second. Also, I'm now officially a week behind on the Solstice Challenge, but I'm afraid it'll have to wait until Richard's quilt is finished. He has all of my attention just now. There are just a few housekeeping chores to do. Aside from that, it's going to be a NBS day (nothing but sewing).