Triple Treat

My dear friend Debi and I had a great FART (Fabric Acquisition Road Trip) yesterday. And, if you're like me, you know there's nothing better than a good FART. Debi and I have been friends for a long time, but we don't often get good one-on-one time together, and so the shopping was only one part of the nice day we spent together.

We started at Quilter's Cottage in Fallbrook, California. I first visited Quilter's Cottage way back in March, 2018. That was before the pandemic. (Have you noticed yourself marking time as BP and AP--before or after pandemic?) Back then we walked around all unmasked and smugly showing our faces...smiling at one another and sticking out our tongues. Good times. 

Since my last visit, the store has changed owners. It is still in the same quaint building. I don't know, but this might have been someone's house at one time.

Walking through the front door, it looks like this. The store has several rooms of fabric, which is what makes me think it might have been a home at one time. The rooms might have been bedrooms. I really have no way of knowing. 

Right away, I noticed their vintage sewing machines. 

I'm not a vintage sewing machine buff, but some of you are.

This store featured lots of colorful fabrics. There was quite a bit of Kaffe Fasset.

I found several things on these shelves I liked. I'll show you in a minute.

In this room, they had a lot of black and white fabrics and a lot of solids and tone-on-tones.

Each room seemed more colorful than the last.

I noticed this basket of "toweling." I love this stuff, but I never have any ideas about what I would use it for.

In this corner, there was a nice supply of notions.

Back here...a nice, brightly lit classroom.

One of the classes they're teaching now is this scrappy dog class. Aren't these cute?

Over here, a whole wall of my favorite Creative Grids rulers.

Debi picked up this journal and showed it to me. Certainly you'll get no disagreement from me.

And Debi is a retired nurse. I think this little package was wrapped up and set here for her to see.

And you know I love thread as much as I love fabric.

So when we'd thoroughly explored the shop, I chose this fabric as my regional fabric. I already have this store represented in a previous Shop Hop quilt, but with a new owner, I figure it should get a second chance at Shop Hop quilt fame.

You might remember I selected a backing for the City Bank quilt, but after considering it for a while, I decided to use something different. The fabric I chose originally is light, while the top is going to be dark. I decided I wanted to go with something darker, and so I got four yards of this one. It's probably too much, but I really like this fabric. I'll find another use for it. (Also, I just now looked up to link to the original fabric, and seeing it again, I might decide to go with the original. I still like this new one, and I'll find something to do with it.)

And this one. I'm still on a quest to make an art quilt from a picture I took in Colorado on one of our ATV trips. Besides, there's something I love about bricks and mortar.

We had lunch at a local restaurant. They had a nice outdoor patio, and these cyclamen were growing right next to our table.

From there, we visited Grand Country Quilters in San Marcos. This was a new shop to me. Debi informs me it is for sale right now. Anybody wanna buy a quilt shop in San Marcos, California? San Marcos has a great climate!

Walking through the front door, it looks like this. 

There wasn't a lot of fabric in this store, nor is it a very large store. They had a nice selection of wools, and Debi tells me she comes here for wool when she wants it.

They had a lot of vintage prints. I love the vintage prints, but I don't often use them.

They made good use of their small space with some of these free-standing shelf units. They had a nice supply of neutrals.

Also, a pretty wall of Valdani floss. This isn't easy to find, even searching online.

They had some pretty scrappy quilts. This one made me wish I had a snowball quilt on my list of WIPs. Maybe that will be my next quilt.

These little scrappy minis caught my eye too.

I didn't end up purchasing anything there since their fabrics weren't really the kind I use. 

From there, we ended up at the shop where Debi is a part owner. Annie is the name of one of the owner's dogs...not the owner. 

They had a pretty window display, ready for Valentine's Day.

Inside...oh my...look at all that color!

And this shop really specialized in color with a large selection of Kaffe Fasset prints.

And look at this cute panel. I noticed in the middle on the right, there is a Bible verse.

Debi looked up the verse while we stood there: "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." 2 Corinthians 9:6. Sow, sew...who cares which is which.

There was a whole fabric line to go with this panel, including the one pictured below.

They also had these beautiful prints that looked kaleidoscopic.

In the rear of the store were these pretty batiks. I grabbed one here. I'll show you in a minute.

On this long wall, a supply of batiks. And look at that pretty panel there. 

From where I was standing, I could look up and see more vintage sewing machines.

These two were toy sewing machines. I'm not sure about this, but I think I had one like the one on the right when I was a kid. Mine was red. In my military family, things had a way of disappearing between moves. I don't know what happened to my little sewing machine, but it disappeared at some point.

Debi and I were discussing my difficulties with using large scale prints in quilts. In this shop, they had done that very skillfully. They just cut them into Dresdens or kaleidoscopic blocks. There were some very pretty quilts hanging on their walls.

Also, I liked this idea of simply putting them in large wooden embroidery hoops and then hanging them.

Way toward the back of the store was this one made up of Dresdens. Debi informs me she'll be teaching this class soon.

I decided on the fabric below for my regional print. 

While I was having my fabrics cut, I turned around and spied this one stacked on the floor for reshelving. I just liked it, and so I added it to my pile.

It had an interesting silky feel to it. Check out what it says on the selvage edge. "Made with love, not pesticides." I need to check into this more. You can see more of their fabrics right here.

And then I got a yard of this batik. I just liked it.

Outside, were some more blooming things. I know the name of these, but it escapes me at the moment.

Debi gave me this rosemary salt she'd made. I wish there were a You Tube for smells because this smells so good! We were wishing we had a steak rub with us, and I think this will make a great seasoning for when Mike barbecues next time. Thank you, Debi.

Back at the Traveling Three Cats Ranch, Smitty had his toys all corralled where he could keep an eye on them. They get wild sometimes.

Sadie was taking a turn snoozing on the catio. The kitties really love this warm Southern California weather.

Okay, so it's all fun and games until the "groceries empty" light comes on. We have to do our grocery shopping this morning. It's been a while since we've done any grocery shopping, and so the list is rather long. The only sweet spot in that scene is that we're getting our beloved Egg McMuffins for the first time this trip. When we get back to the RV, I'll get to work tracing and coloring the designs for the Crabapple Hill Stitch-along starting February 1st. I'll tell you more about my idea for the stitch-along in tomorrow's post.