Quilt Shop: The Quilted Skein; La Grange, TX

Could it have been a better day yesterday? Right next door to the Texas Quilt Museum was a quilt shop. It was almost as good as winning the Power Ball jackpot. (And think of all the fabric I could buy with that!) Out the door and to the left...there it was.

Walking through the front door...it was what I love most about a quilt shop...so much color. It's like I imagine Dorothy felt when she walked through the doors into the Land of Oz.

This is more than a fabric store...it's also a place for yarn. On the right side of the store was an entire wall of yarn. Sometimes I think I should take up some kind of yarn craft just because the yarn is so beautiful. And, when you think about it, what I really need is more scraps.

On the left side of the store was quilting fabric. Also, through the archway to the back was more fabric and more yarn.

They had a big supply of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I love all the color and the design on these. They're good fabrics for the Ruth McDowell kind of quilts. The colors and shapes lend texture to those quilts, and there are lots of good "eye" fabrics for doing animals.

Walking down the wall, there were some pretty tone-on-tones.

Above them...solids.

And, oh...be still, my beating heart.

Next to those colorful polka dots were these more understated ones.

And lookie here! I have this pattern, but I've never seen the quilt made up. I actually have this one with me. It's a wool applique kit. I've never worked with wool in quilting before. This was almost selected for my February OMG goal. Maybe next month...

Here's another pattern by the same designer. My friend Sue loves pigs and chickens, and this was very tempting. It made sense to pass it by until I'd made the one above. Wisdom says I should probably see whether I like working with wool doing hand applique before I purchase another one. (This is why I almost never listen to Wisdom. It's such a drag.)

Continuing on down the wall there were some beautiful batiks.

Turning around were neutrals. These make good fabrics for doing pawtraits.

On the back wall was a good supply of notions.

Turning directly around, I saw these mugs. Cute.

Oh my...yummy stripes!

Standing out from the wall were more shelves of fabrics, and more Kaffe Fassett. I like the ones there on the top left. They're prints of rows of houses. I looked those over for quite a while before putting them back on the shelf.

Heading into the back of the store there was another long wall of fabrics.

On the wall opposite those was a wall of fabrics that were marked down and embroidery floss...it was Finca Mouline...a brand I've never heard of.

They had a nice supply of landscape prints.

Also, lots of regional prints. I chose this one for my Quilty 365.

It's going to be so much fun to get home, assess all the regional fabrics I've collected, and get a start on that quilt. It'll be like taking the trip all over again!

Oh, and you didn't think I was leaving without this, did you?

It's a little quilt pattern, and there were a number of these designed by Mouse Blankets...another designer I've never seen before. The quilts are little wall quilts (mouse blankets), suitable for scraps. What made them so cute and irresistible was the packet of buttons included with the pattern.

There was another one of a house with quilts hanging on the line that was very tempting. You can see more patterns right here, but they can only be purchased in retail stores. The website also provides a list of stores where they are available. I noticed there are a couple of stores back home that sell them, and there are links to online resources. Very handy...and smart of the designer to make it so easy to purchase them.

Instead, I purchased two yards of this fabric. It isn't the kind of thing I usually buy, but I have something in mind for it. It came in other colors as well.

While I was waiting for the store employee to cut my fabric, I noticed this basket of buttons.

Who can relate?

This was a really nice store and with the quilt museum right next door, how can you go wrong paying them a visit? Also, La Grange was a cute little town. The museum and quilt shop are on the extreme left in the image below, and across the street, historic buildings. It was easy to imagine horses tied up to hitching posts.

Kitty-cornered from the museum was this structure. I'd think it was a church except for the absence of any religious symbols. It might be a courthouse.

The train passes right through the middle of town, and it went by blowing its horn and scaring the bejesus out of us. It would have been fun to stay longer and explore, but we still had miles to go.

We're at McKinney Falls State Park today. Having arrived a day early, we tacked an extra day on the front of our reservation via a telephone call to the park yesterday morning. For some mysterious reason, we aren't able to access the deposit we've already paid that way, and so we have to return to the park office and re-register this morning. It was one of the more frustrating telephone calls of my life since the woman on the other end seemed to be making everything intentionally difficult. Methinks it was an issue of not understanding their own computer software, but it started seeming easier to do what she said than to question the necessity for it. In any case, we're hopeful they'll have a map of hiking trails, and we assume there are actual "falls" associated with McKinney Falls. More about that later. We have some business to take care of in Austin today as well, and so I won't meet up with my cousin until tomorrow.