1/27/18

Quilt Shop: Quilted Owl; New Orleans, LA

It was a rainy day in New Orleans yesterday, as it is today. We're expecting rain most of the day today. It just might turn into a sewing day. We have a short trip to the grocery store planned, but then nothing else...just a day to chill before moving on tomorrow.

Since there wasn't anything else on yesterday's agenda, we headed over about 10 miles from the RV park to the Quilted Owl quilt shop.


It's in what was formerly a private residence (apparently). Behind the sign is this metal owl sculpture.


There is ample parking to the left of the store. There, she's hung some pretty quilt blocks.


A few of you have mentioned this place to me, and so it seemed like it was worth checking it out. They have an online presence, and the owner has designed quite a few patterns for hand embroidery. Click right here, and scroll down to see her hand embroidered "Crescent City Charm," which honors iconic scenes from New Orleans. Walking in the front door, it looks like this:


The store owner met me here at the door to give me some information. When I'm confronted by a store employee as I enter the store, I always ask if I can take pictures. The store owner here seemed to say something on the order of "no, um, yes, but I won't like it", and so I limited my picture taking to the areas where I didn't feel watched. When she walked away, I took a picture of her quilted owl quilt.


Above it and to its right are some of her other hand embroidery designs. The one at the top also uses crayon.

I know some of y'all are interested in the antique sewing machines, and so I grabbed a couple of pictures of those.



Also, I've seen these little rulers (below) from Creative Grids all across the country. I was gifted one when I took my first class from Ann Shaw, and it's such a great little ruler. It's 2-1/2 inches by 6-1/2 inches. They're especially useful for drawing patterns for the Ruth McDowell style of quilts, but I use mine all the time for all sorts of things. It seems quilt shops can get them custom made with their name printed on the ruler. I only bring this up to encourage you to snag one of these from your LQS if you ever get a chance.

 
They also had another nice supply of Creative Grids rulers.


On the left side of the door in this foyer is a good sampling of the kinds of fabrics you'll find at this store. She features mainly civil war reproduction and traditional quilting fabrics.


Passing through the foyer into what might have been the living room at one time, one passes a door leading to a hall on the right. Entering the hall, there are three ways to go. To the left leads to the room below.


Straight ahead leads to this small, but bright room...possibly a laundry room, at one time.


To the right leads to this next room.


So, let's start there. As I said, it's mainly darker civil war style prints.


In this room, she had a nice supply of batiks as well.



In a moment of insanity, I fell in love with this little pillow and decided to purchase the pattern. It includes 60 of those little paper-piecing templates. The blocks are about 2 inches square. If I ever make anything from this (a big "if"), I'd use it for quilt blocks. Can you see a rainbow scrap quilt from blocks like this? Yes, I could probably have figured this out on my own, but with insanity also comes laziness, so yeah. I bought the pattern.


Also in this room, a nice supply of these indigo blue fabrics. Sometimes it's hard to find this shade of blue.


She also had remnant bins stationed all around the store. I drew liberally from these as you'll see in just a minute.


In the middle room were some nice bright calicoes and children's fabrics.


I love that criss-cross stripe there. It was tempting, but I passed on it.



When I turned around, I noticed these nice light neutrals shelved below the cutting table. These are great embroidery background fabrics, and they too are sometimes hard to find. I looked very carefully at these.


And since I'm often asking to have a fat quarter cut,  signs like this one are always a welcome sight.


In the room to the left were more civil war style prints. They were rich in their depth of color. I love those reds.


And these beautiful browns.


The store catered to hand stitchers, and so there was a nice supply of needles and thimbles.


On one wall were a quite a few patterns, mainly, traditional quilts.


This here, now. This looks suspiciously like paper piecing to me, and you know how I feel about paper-piecing.


In the back room were threads. Here there was also a full kitchen and a large room with large tables. It probably served as a classroom. There were several women in this room, and with the owner being I-can't-decide-how-I-feel-about-you-taking-pictures there, I curbed my picture taking for the remainder of my visit.


Except for these New Orleans and Mardi Gras fabrics. I was on the hunt for more of these.


For my regional fabric from this store, I picked up this fat quarter.


From the batiks, I asked for a yard of each of the next two. I just liked them.



There was a large remnant bin next to the cutting table, and so I rifled through that while she cut my two yards of fabric. I came out with this one...


and this one...both batiks...


Also, this white on white polka dot. This one makes a great embroidery background for winter or Christmas quilts.


Also, this natural muslin. Another good choice for an embroidery background. All the remnants were 25% off.


So there you go. That was our day. But let us paws a moment here for equal time on kitty feet.


Like I said...it's probably a sewing day. I'll tell you what I get accomplished in tomorrow's post.

14 comments:

Dorothy said...

For a "walk a bout" kitty, Smitty sure has clean feet :-)

Kate said...

Lots of pretty fabrics went back to the RV. I love those batiks. The yellow and pink one especially. Hope you get a chance to do some stitching today.

DeeDee said...

My sweet little Olive is sitting with me as I read your post. I think she was especially fascinated by Smitty's toe beans. Great find on the regional fabric. It was perfect!

gpc said...

I love the itty bitty hearts and was thinking I should find the shop website and order it . . . until you said it was paper piecing. Just not gonna happen. But I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Quilting Babcia said...

Definitely my kind of quilt shop - love all those reds and browns! You found a perfect regional print and the batiks complement it perfectly. Your 'quilty 365' is going to be one fabulous memory quilt for you two.

Frog Quilter said...

Only a cat lover could appreciate the paw. So cute!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

A lovely quilt shop with great variety. You chose some super things. Oh, tickle those kitty toes! I can understand the owner being anxious if a number of her own designs were on display. But you did ask and most polite in your viewing of the shop.

piecefulwendy said...

Well, what a lovely little shop. I enjoy your little tours of the shops you visit, you give a good review of what's offered in each one. I like those Itty Bitty Hearts too, and they're paper pieced, which makes it even more fun! The mardi gras fabric is a perfect choice, I think. And that kitty paw is just too cute!

Paula said...

I had the chance to visit the Quilted Owl 3 years ago. What a fabulous shop! I was met at the door by employee Rob. He was awesome. I have to say this was the most friendly shop I was ever in. everyone I met was so nice. Although, I didn't ask to take pictures. I would go back there in an instant. Glad you got to go there.

kc said...

What an adorable little shop, architecturally speaking. I can understand the shop owner's attitude, if she had a lot of stuff that she designed that she's afraid you'll take pictures of to copy, instead of purchasing her patterns. But, seems to me that wasn't (and isn't ever) your purpose, so she should have been pleased to get favorable publicity instead. Two sides, same coin, as usual. But, yeah, I personally might have been a little put off by it. You were tremendously restrained and respectful.

That being said, I do love that Mardi Gras fabric you found. We have a theme dance coming up, and that would make me a perfect skirt! The hearts are sweet, I can see how come you like 'em. But I *love* paper piecing, as it's about the only way I can get PURRfect points of my geese!!

How does Smitty keep his feeties so dainty and clean? My own feet aren't nearly so purrty!!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Nice shop. Did you tell her that you wanted to blog about her shop???

Rbishop83 said...

Hi, thank you for your lovely comments about our shop. My name is Rachel and I am in charge of all the social media at the shop. I am sorry you felt like you could not take pictures. I assure you if we would have known the reason, we would have been happy to allow it. We do have several quilts which are our original patterns hanging whcich may have been the reason for the hesitation when asked. Again, thank you for visiting our shop and the lovely review.

Brown Family said...

I have had shops post on the front door, NO photos. I would rather they tell me up front. I love the bright batiks you purchased! The hearts are sweet. I think I have a paper pieced pattern for some like them!

Smitty, you have sweet kissable toes!

quiltzyx said...

Oooh, I do like those little hearts! I think you will be able to do those without much cursing & argh-ing. :)
Lovely batiks and love the Mardi Gras mask fabric! Good job Barbara!