Quilt Shop: BJ's Fabrics & Quilts, Cloverdale, Oregon

As I mentioned in a previous post, it was quite a surprise to find this little shop in tiny Cloverdale, Oregon, when we visited the Neskowin Ghost Forest last week. I've been promising you a review of this shop, and I'm finally getting to it. Ordinarily, I'm kind of a homebody, but I've been out on the town 10 out of the past 14 days, and so my blog posts have been written on the fly. Finally, I have some time to spend on it this morning. 

So, I might have taken a more head-long shot of the front of this store, but it shares its building with a grocery store. The building is located right on the main drag through town. In order to take the picture head-on, I'd have needed to stand in the middle of the street...and it was raining...and my hair wasn't nearly as wet as it was going to be. It was important to maintain the delusion that I did not look like something the cat just dragged in.

Ordinarily, I like to take a picture just as I come through the door so that you can see what I first saw. In this case, there were some women making a purchase, and I felt a little shy about it. Instead, I hid behind a rack of fabrics in the corner and took this shot where I'm sure nobody could see me...unless they turned around...which they did not.

If I had to use one word to describe this shop, that one word would be "cluttered." It had that "just-moved-in" feel to it. Standing in the same spot, I looked across the room to see that guitar quilt.

If you've been reading for a long time, you might remember my version of the same quilt. I called it "Perfect Harmony." It was a gift for Matthew, the musician of the family.

But let's just take a look at some of the fabric I saw there. I'm beginning a quest to find some patriotic fabrics. A dear friend from high school asked me if I could make a quilt featuring the Marine Corps emblem. He's a Marine Corps veteran, as my father is, and so I have a special place in my heart for my Marine veteran friend. I know just what to do, but I'm still looking to locate certain fabrics. Any I might have purchased here were not available in the quantity I would need, but it's still good to look and see what's currently on the shelves. I kind of like that blue and red star in the middle.

These next fabrics reminded me that I'd once visited a shop near New Orleans when I was looking for backing fabrics for the Solstice quilt. I love the metallic on black fabrics. They are so eye-catching.

Also, I was working on the zebra quilt at the time, and so those zebra fabrics below caught my eye.

Here were some bright springy colors, and some yummy stripes that might make a fun binding.

Also, I love these fairy frost fabrics. I have a few in my stash. I haven't found the right thing to do with them yet, but I'll be ready when the proper quilt comes along. It's the quilter's motto, isn't it? "Be prepared." Seems like I've heard that somewhere.

Any precuts I found in this store were all cut in one-yard increments. I looked for some fat quarters, but I saw none.

They had a nice supply of patterns.

Some of them were super cute...like this little wall hanging of Proposal Rock.

We got up close and a little too personal with Proposal Rock when we headed out to the beach just after visiting the shop.

Here's a cute Santa with yo-yo's. I thought Happy Hollow Designs might be a local artist, but she's actually from Kansas.

There were a number of kits made up if you wanted to rifle through here.

I was on the hunt for a regional print. Since we were visiting the ghost forest on this trip, I chose this one.

I found it on the bolt and looked for the name of it.

Also, there were quite a few of these redwork patterns. It appeared to be a block of the month grouping. The one I wanted was this one:

I found a little information about the designer, Cathy Parker, right here. If you click on that link, you can see a photo of this pattern stitched up and made into a little wall hanging. Here's a close-up of the design.

So this little shop was a surprise in such a small town, and a nice diversion from the pouring rain outside. If you're visiting Cloverdale and looking for something to do, definitely stop in and have a look.

On the home front, I received these fabrics in yesterday's mail. Like I said, I'm gathering fabrics for a quilt featuring the Marine Corps emblem. I won a $25 gift certificate in last month's OMG challenge, and I used it to purchase these three. The stripe on the left will be going into the quilt. (I'll say more about it eventually.) Also, the middle one looks like a good candidate for a binding. I might use the one on the right as well, but I was mostly just trying to spend my gift certificate. I don't have anything like it in my stash, and it might find a place in the quilt too.

Also, I had time yesterday to finish off the zebra quilt. I think I'll call this "Z is for Zebra." My friend's granddaughter (and my friend) have last names beginning with "Z". I don't know if that's her reason for liking zebras, but it seems like a good enough reason to me.

This morning I'm walking with Sue. It rained most of the day yesterday, and while the rain was welcome, I'm hoping it has moved on at least for the morning. I still owe you a post about the quilt show in Newport, Oregon, but that will need to wait until tomorrow. Honestly, I will get to it.