Quilt Shop: Creations; Kerrville, TX

The weather was gray, cold, and foggy yesterday. We started our journey heading up to the Enchanted Rock north of Fredericksburg, but realized fairly quickly that it was too foggy for us to see much. We once made a journey to the Devil's Tower in Wyoming in similar weather.

(Image Source)

We couldn't see a danged thing, and that danged thing happens to be huge. So...in a "fool-me-once" kind of reckoning, we decided to turn around and head to Creations in Kerrville. It turned out to be a good decision.

So many people have told me about this shop that I've completely lost count. It is no exaggeration to say that dozens of you have encouraged me to visit.

After taking that picture, I turned directly around and snapped this picture of the "Main House" directly across from the shop. The Main House is a retreat center and sewing studio. It even has accommodations for out-of-towners.

But let's get back to the fabric, shall we? Here's the front door...or maybe it's the back door. I'm not sure. It's where I went in. The quilt shop is inside a historic residence. When I told one of the store employees how many folks had told me about their shop, she took me on a tour of the rooms pointing out which room had been used for what. It was very nice...in fact, all the women working in the store were very personable and friendly.

Stepping through the front door, it looks like this...warm and inviting.

To my left was a large room with sewing machines and tables...potentially a classroom, but I got the feeling it was used more for demonstrations.

This was a huge fabric shop with all the usual characters: Batiks in all colors stretching off to the right side of the image below.

Look at how pretty these are. I loved that one on the far left.

The rooms were divided up by the kind of fabric. They had a nice supply of these graphic prints.

And shelves of landscape prints.

As an embroiderer, I always appreciate a nice supply of neutrals and whites. And this store caters to garment sewers as well as quilters, so there was plenty there for the non-quilter who makes clothing.

The whole room was filled with wools.

The employee who gave me the tour drew my attention to these bolts.

They're called "Firesides" and they have a shorter nap than minky or fleece.

She wanted me to see how nicely it looked with the quilting when used on a quilt back.

Here were patriotic and regional prints.

I selected a fat quarter of this one for my regional print from this shop.

Also, Kaffe Fasset...love all that color.

This whole room was filled with children's fabrics.

They had a nice supply of black and whites.

And aboriginal prints. Believe me, I looked at these for a long time.

There was a large supply of toweling.

Now here's something I haven't seen before. These were fancy threads for thread painting.

The ones toward the bottom were rick racks with sequins, and the threads were all sparkly and very pretty.

If you do a Google search for "Painters Threads," you'll find several sources where they can be purchased.

This next room was full of notions, buttons, etc. In the foreground were shelves of fabric marked on sale. There were scads of fat quarters, and one yard, and three yard bundles.

They also had a nice supply of Creative Grids rulers. I've seen these in every shop I've visited, and so apparently I'm not the only one who loves them.

There were some cute kits too. I liked this one, but kits are expensive...and really, I need to use my own fabrics.

Remember the quilt I'm working on at home? Mine is a BOM called "Tuxedo Tales," but this one was similar and called "Tuxedo Tunes."

And squee! These are Minky Monsters. The pattern was right beside them. I've looked online and only been able to find it on Ebay and some machine embroidery sites.

There was a whole wall of patterns. I loved these desert ones, and don't think I didn't pick up that cat pattern on the top left. I put it down again too. The armadillo and the longhorn were tempting, but I passed.

They had an amazing selection of books. I rarely purchase a book in a quilt shop, but it's a good place to thumb through them.

Okay, so here are the spoils: I couldn't leave without this little embroidery pattern. There is one for each month of the year, and I spent way too much money on this. I knew if I left it behind I'd regret it.

Also, I liked this wood grain print. I figure I'll use it if and when I ever start my Barns of America quilt.

And this one...I just liked it.

But that wasn't the only quilt shop we visited yesterday. Also, we went to One Quilt Place in Fredericksburg, but I'll save that for a separate post.

As for things on the RV front, I've filled the hoop on the latest of the Heart and Home blocks.

Now I've moved the hoop to the north, and I'll start there next time.

We're still hoping to get up to the Enchanted Rock, but the weather doesn't look a whole lot better today. The forecast calls for "partly cloudy" around noon, and so we're hoping it'll make sense to head out then. As for the morning, we'll just hang around the RV and whine about the cold and gray. We could have stayed home for this.