Quilt Shop: The Patchwork Pig; Farmington, New Mexico

Yesterday's comings and goings would fall under the heading of "Life Happens." Yes, even while one is traveling there are still the basics of human functioning to take care of: laundry, grocery shopping, etc., and of course, visiting quilt shops. The rest would be pointless if there were no quilt shops in the mix. 

While we were in Silverton, I inquired of The Google to find out if there were any quilt shops near Bloomfield, where we are staying. Three came up, and in deference to my pig-loving friend Sue, this one was the obvious choice.

As we've been making our way around various places, we've found mask usage to be almost non-existent. Kroger grocery stores have a mask mandate nationwide, apparently. While we were in Colorado, we visited one of their stores with a large "masks are required" sign at the front door. Almost no one inside was wearing a mask, and that includes employees of the store. And so, in our travels, I've been taking a mask with me as I approach any closed door. I'm complying as others are. If nobody else is wearing a mask, then I'm not wearing one either. 

And all of that to say that I completely forgot to take my mask when I got out of the truck yesterday. When I approached the door of the quilt shop, a sign on the door said something on the order of "Due to the new mask mandate, masks are required inside." And, drat. After being so careful all along the way, I had to return to the truck for mine. It was one of those, "Of course!" moments. Of course, the one time I forget mine, I have to go back for it. Oh well. I'm totally on board with masking, so no complaints...just a useless observation of my own forgetfulness. By the way, when we went for groceries at another Kroger store yesterday, mask compliance was 100%. Good on you, New Mexico.

Okay...all pandemic worries aside, here's how the store looks from the front. It's on a main street through town, sandwiched between even more storefronts that look exactly the same.

As, I reached for the door, I noticed this sign:

Noted. Mind your manners, please.

Stepping inside, this is how it looks. Holy Moly...this is a big store.

A friendly employee greeted me, chatted briefly, and then left me alone for the rest of my visit. (That's how I like it.) I first noticed this table with reds and whites. I thought they might be good choices for my vintage quilt, but then realized they were Fourth of July oriented, and so I passed them by. Still, I love the red and white fabrics. They were tempting.

Just behind me was this quilt...it used some of those fabrics. I like this quilt as a Quilt of Valor pattern.

Just beyond were these colorful choices. This is what I love about quilt shops. All that color is like stepping into Oz.

I thought this pretty fabric was a panel at first glance, and then realized it was yardage on a bolt. It's so pretty...I'm just now sure how I'd use it in quilt-making. It would need to be a quilt pattern that showed off large scale prints.

Behind me and just inside the front window were these homespun stripes. The sun was shining in through the window, thus the glare on my camera lens.

Continuing across the front of the store and to my right, I was thrilled to see so many regional prints.

There were even more to the right of those. It was hard to choose just one. Sometimes it's surprisingly hard to find something to represent a particular area. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the choices.

They had a nice display of patterns and notions. I looked for any local designers. If there were any, I didn't see them.

Continuing on, I found a nice supply of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I love the colors and design patterns of his fabrics, but I have a hard time using them in a quilt. 

There was a particularly pleasing supply of polka-dots. Looking more closely, I realized they were all flannels. It's kind of unusual to find polka-dots on flannel, in my experience, although I'll admit to never having actually tried. Usually I find them with bears, and bunnies, and other things that might be useful for children's pajamas.

Turning around, I found these bolts with Moda's "On the Dot" line. They had them in all colors. If I didn't already have polka-dots in all colors at home, I might have selected some of these.

These caught my eye. They were mainly tone-on-tones of the most beautiful colors, but looking more closely, they had more design than most tone-on-tones I've seen.

Here are a couple of examples. They're tone-on-tone, but not in the usual understated way.

Here's another with more color, but it still reads as purple...at least it did to my eyes.

There was a whole large section of the store devoted to black and white...

black...

and white, grey, and tan. On a different day, I might have selected something here to use as an embroidery background.

Toward the back of the store was a large display of sale items. Fabrics were 50% off the marked price. I paid close attention to these, but didn't really see anything I couldn't live without.

Here was a little display of food fabrics. They tended toward spicy peppers and such, this being New Mexico.

As I said in the beginning, this was a huge store, and yet spread out, so I felt as if I had room to breathe and to roam.

There was so much I liked here, I could have gone hog wild. Get it? Hog? I'm beginning to understand the name of the store better now.

On the left side of the store was a nice supply of batiks. I looked closely at these too, but passed them by. 

There were even more here...

and here.

These stripes tempted me mightily.

Oh yes, and for those of you who love vintage sewing machines, there was quite a collection:

The pigs were well-represented too, as you might guess. There were pigs all over the store. Dozens of them. I only took pictures of a few.

As I was paying for my selections, I noticed another sale bin. For these, you took what was left on the bolt at 25% off. Nothing caught my eye.

Okay, so what did I choose? For my regional fabric, I loved this one:

I picked up this fat quarter to use in my vintage linen quilt.

This one reminded me of a beautiful sunset or sunrise. I got a yard of it. I expect to use it as a background in a landscape quilt some time.

And I fell in love with this one. At first, I thought one yard, but then I ended up buying two yards.

You might remember when we visited a quilt shop in Cortez, Colorado, on a previous trip. I picked up this embroidery pattern then:

I haven't started the pattern yet, but I thought those horses might work well to finish it off. Now, it makes me want to start the embroidery right away. If you like those last two fabrics, they both had the same notation on their selvage. They're from Timeless Treasures "West" line of fabrics. So pretty, and so "New Mexico."

I enjoyed this quilt shop very much. They had a huge selection of fabric, and something for everyone's taste. I liked that it was spread out with plenty of room to stand back and admire their displays. It's worth a stop if you find yourself in the area.

All right, so that was our first stop. After that we filled our gas tank, visited Walgreen's for some of those kinds of things, and then bought our groceries. Our latest indulgence is these Salted Caramel Pretzel bars from Skinny Cow. At 160 calories per bar, they're relatively diet friendly.

Trouble is, Kroger stores seem to have a hard time keeping them in stock. And so, as addicts, when we arrive in a new town, we go in search of a new dealer. Walmart never lets us down in that regard. We found the same thing when we were searching for our previous drug of choice...these Dove Sorbet Bars.

When we toured the USA back in 2017, we were hooked on them. Walmart always had our backs. Kind of makes you think, doesn't it? Ordinarily, I avoid Walmart, but for ice cream, we're tight.

Okay, and I indulged my penchant for sweets just now so that I could tell you about the pretty blooming things in Walmart's parking lot. I've seen these before. They look like hibiscus.

A little farther on, this pretty rose.

Okay, so the rest of the day we just hung around. It's nice to have a free afternoon. 

Today we'll get back on schedule with our sight-seeing. Our journey will take us to Chaco Culture Historic National Park. Our son, Matthew, visited just about a month ago when he was in New Mexico for a music retreat. It was already on our bucket list, but Matthew's enjoyment of his visit sealed the deal. It's only about 60 miles from where we are, but some of the roads are unpaved, and so it will take longer than you might think to get there. Of course, I'll tell you all about it in tomorrow's post.