Quilt Shop: Quail's Nest Quilt Company, Sonora, California

When I found the quilt shop in Jamestown permanently closed, we drove to nearby Sonora where I found this one very much open for business.

Here's how it looks, approaching from the parking lot.

Walking through the front door, it looks like this:

To my left was a room where I laid eyes on this panel before seeing anything else. Oh...I think I'm going to like it here.

Below the cat panel was this cute little critter.

This was obviously the room for juvenile fabrics.

To my right was a nice waiting area for husbands. It wasn't specifically designated, but it would work. That quilt on the far wall is from a BOM called Quail Hollow. Very pretty. I googled briefly looking for a link to the pattern. The only one I found was on eBay. There may be others.

Below that, I knew you'd want to see this treadle sewing machine.

Walking into the main part of the store, there was the usual corner with patterns and notions. I always look at both, especially at the notions and rulers, to see if there's some newfangled thing that I don't already have. The longer I quilt, the harder it is to find something I don't already have.

On the wall behind me was this small quilt. I had to look closely at it to see how it was made. If you've ever quilted with a group, you've probably done one of these "ugly" fabric challenges.

It's sort of all woven together like a lattice pie crust. (Have you noticed how dessert is almost always on my mind?)

Moving on, there were lots of cut fat quarters...always appreciated.

In a back room, I found this sale cart. There was nothing here that particularly caught my eye.

Turning back though...look at this nice bright classroom. There were windows behind me so there was lots of natural light.

On the far wall was this quilt. It kept me entertained for at least five minutes.

It was like looking at a doll house, and many of the details were three dimensional. The quilt, clothesline, and clothespins were all three dimensional. Also, notice the little sewing box in the upper lefthand corner of the image below. I have one just like that!

Here, the items on the table were all three dimensional.

And here, the curtains and items on the counter and on the wall were all three dimensional.

Walking back into the main part of the store, it looks like this.

This was a small store, but with a great selection of fabrics.

She had some beautiful batiks.

Turning around and looking back the other way, it looked like this. I love all her display pieces. Notice the vintage milk can near the middle of the image below. My grandfather was a dairy farmer, and he had lots of milk cans like this. We had one for quite a while that we used as a planter for a houseplant. Somewhere along the way, we let it go.

I might have been in the market for some of the patriotic prints several months ago, but that project is finished now.

What made this store special was the collection of vintage miniature sewing machines on display. I first saw this one:

If you've been following this blog for a very long time, you might remember when I made the Vintage Miniature Sewing Machines quilt, and this machine was a part of that quilt.

Here's my embroidered version. Middle block second row in the quilt above.

Looking at the old blog post when I started the embroidery, I had a little paragraph about this machine. It said the information that came with the block tells me that the Singer 20 dates from 1910 and it was the first toy machine that Singer produced.  It is recognizable by the design of the handwheel, which is referred to as an "x-wheel" or "four spoke".  Later versions of this machine had various numbers of wheel spokes, thread route numbering systems, thread tension regulators, and differing grooves for the table clamp.

And there were so many more little vintage miniature machines here:

I'm not sure about this one below, but I think I may have had this same machine when I was a little girl. Being a military family, we were always on the move, and sometimes things disappeared from move to move. This sewing machine was one of those things that I had until I didn't. My mother probably got rid of it at some point. I wish I had it now.

This next one was actually a wooden replica, standing about five inches tall.

Below were her holiday fabrics.

There was something for everybody here.

As I was waiting for her to cut my fabric, I stood looking around and noticed this panel. I took these next two pictures as I walked out the door.

So I picked up a fat quarter of this one as my regional print. It kind of made me think of the things I'd seen in the local area.

And this one...it should make a fun binding. Those stripes are about the size of small rickrack.

It was a fun little shop. I chatted with the owner for just a few minutes about her concerns over coronavirus. She was supposed to have a class that day, but five of seven people had canceled, and so she canceled the whole thing. She was worried about the viability of her business should the virus hang around for too long. I can imagine small quilt shops like this one will be hard hit.

Just to cheer myself up, I took this selfie with my kitty when we got home. He was only too happy about this. You can tell by that happy expression on his face.

By the way...don't try this with Sadie. She'll rip your face off before you have a chance to react.

Okay, so we've been true to our word today. It has rained the whole live-long day...rain, rain, rain and more rain. Mike went out briefly to pick up a couple of things from a local hardware store and saw a sign that said there's a bridge out on one of the highways out of town. Now we need to check our route to make sure we don't go that way. We are here until Tuesday, so there's no rush, but we need to pay attention. Also, I watched a video from Alton Brown just a few minutes ago where he gives an entertaining talk about hand-washing. I learned some things, and got a chuckle out of it. You can see it right here.

Also, I watched Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert a few nights ago (sans studio audience). He reminded us not to forget to wash our thumbs. I have to admit, I paid attention the next time I washed my hands, and my thumbs definitely got short shrift. So, wash, wash, wash, if you don't mind hearing me sound like your mother. Those are words of love. Stay well, my friends.