More Shops

When I finished with yesterday's post, I looked across my desk to see this:

He was impatient for the door to be open so he could get out and have a morning meal of something small and furry. Yuck. To each his own, I guess. I had other things on my mind before I would be ready to go outside. Slow-stitching had to come first. I started on the 11th block for Appalachian Memories two days ago. Yesterday morning, I finished stitching the quilt block. This one is the "Buckeye Beauty."

There's still a long way to go on this piece, but I always feel as if I've made progress when the quilt block is finished.

There were some housekeeping chores to take care of, but then I got back to my quilting. This first shop is one of the shops Robin and I visited during our day in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We visited so many shops that day, I wrote only one blog post about all of them. I chose this fabric because we were staying in amongst some very large Amish farms. I'd seen some barn quilts, but mainly, I'd just seen huge barns. This store was kind of fun. It had a section in the back with racks of Amish garb. All the stores in this area had nice selections of solids, presumably for making Amish garb. You can find Zook's web presence right here.

Heading south, we stayed several days in the Outer Bank of North Carolina. We toured north and south while there. I'd seen a business card at a visitor center that advertised fabric at this antique store. Antique stores sometimes annoy me when I find "antiques" that are still in use in my own household and my own kitchen. Hmph. I mean, just what are they implying? Still, it was a fun store to snoop around. They had literally everything there. I'm pretty sure I saw the kitchen sink. Anyway...they also had a small supply of fabric, and I selected this one. There was a shell beach just beside where the RV was parked. They don't seem to have a web presence beyond their Facebook page, but you can see my blog post about this shop right here. 

Sometimes I have to reach a little to find a "regional" print, and that was the case for this next store. It was a small shop. We were staying in Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina, just south of Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach was known to be more expensive and more crowded, and so we took the advice of some travelers we'd met along the way and stayed farther south. This was also the place where we got seriously bitten by a bug to buy a new RV...the one we have now. We made a day of RV shopping, and then we stopped off at this little shop. They had some very cute fabrics, but this is the one I chose for its beachy, nautical theme. Now, I have a face mask from this same fabric. Who woulda' thought? Sometimes when I check for a shop's web presence, I find my own blog post. This one doesn't seem to have its own web presence, but you can read my blog post about it right here.

Okay, and now we're on to New Orleans. Yes, we did skip a few states. The quilt blocks aren't in any particular order, aside from the order they came out of the bin. We visited New Orleans just a few days before the 300th Mardi Gras celebration. We visited a few quilt shops in the area, but this was the first one. It was a store cluttered and crowded with merchandise, and hard to see anything since I couldn't back away from the fabrics more than a couple of feet. Still, the women working there were so friendly, and we chatted away while I shopped. It made sense to choose something representative of Mardi Gras, and so I chose this fabric. You can find their web presence right here. My blog post about this shop is right here.

While I was quilting that block, a cat got in my face. It happens. He needed treats in his treat bowl, and then he was happy. He has a very bad habit of standing in front of a bright window background. It makes it hard to get a very good picture of him.

Back home, and on a different trip, we visited this shop in Astoria, Oregon. There's a very good book about Astoria. It's named for John Jacob Astor, and it was the first settlement on the west coast of what was to become the United States. I was a terrible student of history. Mainly, I was a terrible student because of the boring way history was taught when I was in school. In any case, I've been reading up on all the things I missed while snoozing through history class and not doing my homework. As for the quilt, Astoria is a maritime city. It is right at the mouth of the Columbia River, and huge ships pass through on their way to Portland. This seemed like a good print to represent the area. One can also see the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale, a local landmark. The shop has a web presence right here, and you can read my blog post about it right here.

This next one was a quilt shop I'd wanted to visit for a long time. Most everyone is probably familiar with the Temecula Quilt Co. blog, although I think Sheryl is on a blogging break right now. Her shop was lovely, and it was so much fun to meet her in person. She had the most incredible hexie quilts with hexies no bigger than a dime. This fabric was an easy choice. The web page for the shop is right here. My blog post about our visit is right here, and you can see her beautiful quilts if you click on that link.

We'd been visiting a national seashore the day I visited this next shop, and so the print was an easy choice. This was a lovely shop in northern California. If memory serves, we were on our way home after our long USA perimeter trip. You can find my blog post about this shop right here. Their web presence is right here.

So if that was at the end of the trip, this next fabric was from the beginning of the same trip. We were trying out free spots to stay for a night, and found this one at the fairgrounds near Minot, North Dakota. Minot (rhymes with "why not") had been in the news because of the oil and gas boom happening in the area, and so it was kind of fun to stop and see the place for ourselves. Our "free" spot actually cost us $20 for the night, but we had hook-ups and a quiet place to stay, so we were happy. We visited this quilt shop in the historic area of town. Leaves were just beginning to turn, and so I chose this fabric. You can find my blog post right here. It has a web presence right here. I should mention I keep track of these fabrics by pinning the receipt to the swatch. Sometimes the receipt shows a different name than the shop itself, and I can only think that's what happened here. It looks as if the actual name of the shop is "Bernina Plus," but I'm sticking with what's on the receipt.

Okay, so I've committed to quilting a row per day until I'm finished, and that was the end of yesterday's commitment. I think there are just two rows of blocks left.

There were still hours left in the day, and it was another hot day. I decided to head down to my basement sewing room, where it is so cold when the A/C is running that I have to put on a sweatshirt to keep warm. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to find icicles on the sewing machine. I finished making the back for "And On that Farm," and then it seemed like as good a time as any to make up the next block for "Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs." It'll be quite a while before I'm ready to start the embroidery, but I still need to do the applique before any slow stitching can start.

Before quitting for the day, I had it all traced and fused. If there's time today, I'll top-stitch the applique, and then it will be ready for slow-stitching when its turn comes up again.

Okay, so after this morning's slow stitching, I'll be doing some work in the garden. We're expecting cooler temperatures today after a couple of hot days, but it will still be in the 80's. I need to make up a shopping list for our grocery shopping trip tomorrow. After that, it'll be nothing but sewing for me. What are you up to today?