Quilt Shop: The Quilter's Faire, Palm Desert, California

There was no plan to visit a quilt shop in yesterday's wanderings, but with the rain, it seemed like a good idea...to me. While I was in the quilt shop, Mike scoped out YouTube videos looking for the perfect RV toilet paper. The one we're using is not dissolving as it should, and so he was on the hunt for something a little less sturdy. As it turns out Charmin Ultra Soft is the winner in that category. Who knew? And all this focus on toilet paper to tell you that when we went looking for it, we found the shelves bare in every single store. Oy. Honestly. Has everyone had the sh*t scared out of them from Coronavirus? What is the focus on TP, pray tell? (Rhetorical...not looking for an answer.) So anyway...with that little diatribe out of the way, please allow me to tell you about the quilt shop.

It was located in one of those industrial parks. Fortunately, it was seen from the road, and so we had no problem locating it once we drove into the parking lot.

Walking through the front door, it looked like this. It was a busy place with lots of color.

Looking left, I saw this:

Looking right, I saw this:

Walking left, there were some very pretty fabrics. These below all had metallic gold. They were tempting as all get-out. It was early in my meanderings, however, and so I moved on.

Oooooh...look at those stripes! They will be mine. Oh yes. They will be mine.

To the right of those was this cute snail quilt. I kind of think I saw someone making this one on a blog.

This is the pattern...no note of the designer, but I imagine it can be found online. The store has a web presence right here.

Turning the corner, there were some pretty prints. The fabrics in this store didn't seem organized in a way that could be easily categorized. Possibly they were grouped by manufacturer? I'm not really sure.

Turning around I found these pretty florals...some Kaffe Fassett there.

In a back room were some juvenile prints.

Hanging above those fabrics was this quilt.

But here's an example of what I'm talking about. These fabrics were shelved with the juvenile prints, and I wouldn't classify them that way. Whatever the case, I took these pictures for my friend Kate. Kate, they made me think of you.

The store was stuffed to the gills with fabric, with lots of cute displays everywhere I looked.

These were some of the cat prints. I still love them, but I'm avoiding them these days. I have a whole big box at home, still waiting for their turn to be used in a quilt.

Shelved above them were these pretties.

Fabric, fabric, everywhere. It was a shop crowded with fabric.

I kind of liked this one...laundry instruction labels.

There was a nice supply of solids and tone-on-tones.

Pretty Christmas fabrics.

Turning around there were some Halloween fabrics. Neither of those holidays is on my mind right now.

There was a nice corner of patterns and notions. This store had a big focus on bags too, so there were patterns and hardware for bags.

Moving to the room to the right of the front door where I came in were all the batiks.

Also, some nice neutrals. I like these for embroidery backgrounds.

This one is for Molly and Buddy.

Here was another pretty display of color.

I made my selections and then waited longer than I'd hoped to have it cut. There was only one person doing the cutting and three people ahead of me. As I waited, I noticed a classroom/work area toward the back of the store.

Also, these yo-yo owls hanging overhead.

And this big box of breed specific patterns for little dog quilts.

I'll say something more about these dog patterns in just a minute, but I once had an online conversation with Patrick Lose about his pattern, A Cat for All Seasons, which I'd just finished. It might have been my very first cat quilt. Sorry it isn't a better picture.

This was pre-blogging days, but the quilt was very popular with the Quilting Board where I'd posted a picture. I told him he should do something like this for dogs. He told me that cat patterns sold better, and that dog owners tended to want something breed specific. And so I can only think this effort to cover so many different breeds was the designer's attempt to fill a gap in pattern availability. Anyway...cute patterns. They have a web presence, and you can see all the dogs right here. Or...if you're like me and cats are your thing, you can find all the cats right here.

So I chose this one as my regional print. I was only going to purchase it if they would cut a fat quarter for me, and they would.

If they hadn't been willing to cut a fat quarter, I was going to use this one as my regional print. It reminded me of all the wildflowers we've seen. The cutter was very careful cutting a yard of it for me. She used scissors and cut on each side of the fold individually so that the little squares of flowers were all usable. I can imagine these flowers fussy cut to make cornerstones. I haven't yet sewn together Friendship's Garden, and so this might go well with those quilt blocks.

And, like I said...it will be mine...and now it is. This would make a great binding for the Paintbox Pizzazz quilt waiting at home for finishing.

So this was a fun shop and a great resource for quilters in the area. Located in Palm Desert, check it out if you find yourself in the area.