Quilt Shop: Quilter's Cove; Newport, Oregon

Okay, so I have just one more thing to tell you about our trip to the beach last week. I found two quilt shops nearby, but only one was open. This is Quilter's Cove in Newport, Oregon, and it was just about five minutes away from where we were staying. We probably could have walked.

Walking through the front door, it looks like this.

They had some beautiful fabrics. I took special notice of the ones in the upper left-hand corner...all butterflies, and glow-in-the-dark. The glow-in-the-dark kind of put me off a little, or they might have come home with me. I'm not sure why I was put off by that, but I couldn't actually imagine using them in any quilts that came to mind.

There were beautiful batiks, and that seemed to be this store's specialty.

There were lots of bins with pre-cuts. I couldn't find any indication how much fabric was here without unfolding them, and there was a lot to look at.

This was interesting...laser cut appliques. I've seen these before. Some of the McKenna Ryan patterns come with precut applique. 

In the image below, you can see some examples of a technique that was new to me. Take a look at the book at the bottom with patterns for Oregon Coast Lighthouses. It used a "hot ribbon applique" technique.

The quilts of lighthouses hanging on the wall above, and the...what are those? dragonflies?...used this technique. She had the hot ribbon packages for sale as well. They came in all colors. They looked like seam binding, and I didn't exactly understand how this worked. She said the patterns could be completed without the applique, and I'll admit I was tempted by the patterns alone. On the other hand, I have in mind to do my own embroidered lighthouse pattern some day (hopefully I'll live long enough), and these were too large for that purpose. I passed them by, but I'll admit I'm still curious about the hot ribbon. If you're curious too, you can find a video demonstration right here. I only just now searched for it, and so I haven't watched it myself. 

This shop was a little cluttered for my taste. I found it hard to see much even though it was all right in front of me. Fabric was stashed all over, and we (the four of us) found ourselves missing whole sections of the store. It was easy to get lost in the forest because of all the trees. Nevertheless, it was a fun little outing. I chose a fat quarter of this lighthouse fabric for my regional fabric. I'll include it in my Shop Hop quilt.

What I couldn't walk away from was this "Beach Bums" pattern. This was just too stinkin' cute to pass up.

There were kits of fabric available for making it, but they were over $100. I'll do just fine with my scraps, thank you.

Okay, so that brings me back to yesterday. We got our second vaccines, and so we are fully vaccinated. As of this morning, we're feeling just fine...only a sore arm, which is to be expected. And, heck, my broken shoulder arm hurts worse than that, so no complaints. Two more weeks, and we'll be able to breathe a little easier (no pun intended). We arrived quite early at the clinic, but they took us in anyway, and we were in and out in less than half an hour. 

That gave us plenty of time to meet up with our friends, first at a quilt shop. I took Lenelda to my favorite shop, Boersma's, during her last visit to Oregon, and she wanted to go back. And, honestly, I'd never refuse a trip to a quilt shop if nothing was standing in my way. I was on the hunt for some light blue florals. You might recall this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge was supposed to be a light blue. My quilt requires florals, and so I made this block, but the blues are dark.

It was all I could find in my stash at the time. Supposedly we'll be doing darker and brighter blues down the road, and so I'll make my lighter blue block then. For now, I've stocked up on a couple of lighter blue fat quarters, and I'll be ready when the time comes. I couldn't make up my mind between these two, and so I got them both.

We finished out our day with lunch and wine tasting, and now our friends will be journeying back to their home in Texas. We hope to see them again when we travel to their part of the world to see the next complete solar eclipse in April of 2024. Hopefully, we'll all be alive then.

Before leaving yesterday morning, I had some more time to work on Calendula Patterdrip.

I filled my hoop, and now I've moved to the next position. You can see I have this block more than half finished.

This being Sunday, I'll be linking up to:

So, with all that going on yesterday, there was no time for sewing...kind of unusual for me. I'll get back to my piecing on I Believe in Snowmen today. I'm hoping to get well along with the blocks for this quilt.

There was no time for any housework yesterday either, and so I've assigned myself a couple of small chores. Other than that, I'll be squeezing in laundry along with my sewing. I'm looking forward to getting down and dirty in my sewing room today. It's been quite a while since I've had a good day of sewing. Rain has returned to our neck of the woods, but it looks a little brighter than yesterday. It's going to be a good day to stay inside.