Quilt Shops: Double Delight!

Good afternoon, my friends. My dear friend, Debi, picked me up this morning, and we visited two quilt shops before we were finished for the day. Is there a better way to spend a day than fabric shopping with a friend? I think not.

Before Debi arrived, I went to work on a dessert I wanted to make for St. Patrick's Day. Lacking any Irish Cream, I ended up making something else. In the interim, we acquired the missing ingredient, and so I baked this up this morning. This is Chocolate Shamrock Bread Pudding. We haven't actually tasted it yet, but it looks pretty good to me.

We'll have that for dessert tonight with a dollop of whipped cream. I'll report back about the taste. I only made half the recipe and baked it in an 8 x 8 glass baking dish. It has a quarter cup of Irish cream, but you could substitute regular whipping cream if you want to avoid the alcohol. Mike and I are going on a date for Mexican food tonight. We don't have the best Mexican food where we live, although there are more choices than there were when we moved to Oregon nearly 45 years ago. In any case, the Mexican food here in southern California is far superior.

But let's get back to the quilt shops, shall we? As you might imagine, I took tons of pictures. You might want to fill your cup or your glass with whatever your drinking, because we have our work cut out for us. It's important to stay hydrated.

Our first stop was this shop in Mission Viejo. They specialized in batiks, and particularly, in Hawaiian prints.

They also have a shop on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Here's how it looks from the outside.

Debi noted that the only rule here was 30-minute parking. So, set your stopwatches, my friends. You don't want to get a parking ticket.

Stepping inside the front door, it looks like this. That's Debi on the right there. She was kind enough to do all the driving.

They had the most beautiful quilts hanging on the walls and windows. I have another friend who would love this quilt below. They didn't have the pattern for sale, but they had the link to the designer's website. It's worth taking a look. She offers to make patterns so that you can make a quilt of your own pet. The pattern for this bird quilt is also available there. She also has a full schedule of classes she teaches at this shop.

Here are some more pictures of the quilts they had on display. These three below were hung above fabrics that would have been beautiful for any sort of water scene.

I don't have a lot to say about these, so I'll just let you look.

This is a cute take on Sunbonnet Sue and Sam. I like the straw hats.

This cat block is widely available. I believe I have it somewhere at home. It was cute made up all scrappy like this.

These next ones were quilt tops only, hanging in the window, which gave them the appearance of stained glass.

I liked this scrappy book case too.

Walking to the back of the store and looking forward, it looked like this. Their fabrics were all batiks and Hawaiian prints.

If you like batiks, you would love this store.

These were postcard-sized quilt patterns with all the instructions printed on the back. 

These were 108-inch wide bolts.

Look at these pretty Hawaiian prints. My mother was a garment sewer. When we lived in Hawaii, she loved making muumuus for herself and for me, and she made Aloha shirts for my brother and my dad. She would have gone wild in this store.

There was a small room off the back of the store with Sashiko kits. I've only done a little bit of sashiko at a quilt guild meeting one evening, but I like the look. I ended up walking out with one of these (you'll see in a minute). I liked them all, and it was hard to choose just one.

To my left were more of these. There were also laser-cut applique kits.

Toward the back of the store was yet another room with more fabric, notions, and thread.

This is the Sashiko panel I chose. I love turtles, and especially the Hawaiian totem-style turtles. Everything I need for this is included with the kit, and the panel is pre-printed. I can stitch this while we're traveling.

I've seen these color value evaluator glasses in several different shops. I know you can check gray scale on a computer. In my house, that would require me to walk up two flights of stairs. I decided these were worth having. When we got back to the RV, I tried them on, and all I can say is they were a little weird. Obviously, I'll need to read a little more about how to use them.

I bought a yard of each of the fabrics below. One of them will be my regional print. For sure, I'll use this first turtle print in my Sashiko piece.

We had some lunch, and then headed south again. When we reached the general area of the RV, Debi wondered if she'd ever taken me to Grand Country Quilts. She did, but the shop was for sale at the time. You can read my post about our last quilt shop outing right here. It's now under new ownership, and they've split it into two shops. When we visited originally, most everything we saw was of the dark Civil War-style prints, and that isn't really something I use very much. They still have that part of the store, but they've also opened a modern quilt version to the right of the original store.

Here's how it looks from the outside:

Stepping through the front door, it looks like this:

To the left was a bright and spacious classroom, and there was lots of activity going on here while we visited.

So let's just take a look at all this color, shall we?

I really loved these four on the left side of the shelf.

They had plenty of prints.

They also had a large supply of solids. You improv quilters would have been right at home here.

My eyes were full of color.

In this next image was a brand of ruler I'd never seen before: Quilter's Select. 

Debi said she likes these rulers. This is what their website says about them: "Features easy-to-read lines for marking and measuring fabric, as well as multiple angles. Each ruler has a unique non-slip coating that makes for more accurate cutting!"

They had a nice supply of books.

 

Wandering back into the classroom, we liked this quilt.

And look at these bears. Aren't they cute?

I liked the cover of this journal. It's been a while since I did much cross-stitch. I'm not sure why one would need a "journal," but that's just me. Who needs a journal when you have a blog?

And oh...be still, my beating heart. Polka Dots!!!

As I was waiting for my fabric selection to be cut, I noticed these pins beside the cutting table. I like the ones that say "Less Bitching, More Stitching," for those days when absolutely nothing goes together the way it should.

I selected one yard of this fabric for my regional print. It seemed to say "modern" to me, but mostly, I just liked it.

So that was a banner day of fabric shopping with my dear friend. Thank you, Debi. (I'm encouraging her to come to Oregon so I can show her the quilt shops in my area.)

Before I leave you today, I want to acknowledge those of you who have encouraged me to visit Temecula Quilt Company in Temecula, California. I visited this shop some years back. You can see my post about it right here. I might have gone again except that the brick and mortar store closed several years ago. It is an online-only shop now. You can find it right here. I've also visited Primitive Gatherings in Murrieta, but that shop seems to be less well known to you guys.

So I hope you've enjoyed this little fabric shopping expedition. It was a good day all around.