Visit to Minnesota

I went to Minnesota for a series of meetings a few weeks ago. I am on an Advisory Board for a company and this is the third year I attended the meetings. It is not as important as a Board of Trustees, but important enough. This will be the last year I attend, and since I have no plans to head back to Minnesota in the near future, I told the organizer I wanted to come a day early and visit quilt shops. She graciously arranged for an extra day at the hotel and found a quiltmaker in the company who was willing to drive me around to quilt shops. Michele, my fabulous ‘driver’ was excellent. She sent me a huge list of quilt shops, mapped out a plan and came to pick me up at an agreed upon time and then drove all over the Twin Cities visiting quilt shops.

Glad Creations
Glad Creations

Glad Creations was the first shop we visited. It was a small shop neatly crammed with  tons of fabric, books, tools and notions. I bought some Wonder Clips, which I had never seen anywhere before. They also had a large selection of Jo Morton fabric and books, which I had also never seen before. I am not really interested in her fabric or projects, just in her triangle techniques. They had a Sew Day going on upstairs.

Blast from the Past
Blast from the Past

You are probably wondering why I have a photo of the Glad Creations restroom here? See that wallpaper? That is the exact wallpaper that the kitchen in my childhood home had. The only difference is that this colorway is a little more green. The colorway in our kitchen was more blue.

I posted it to Facebook. My sister screamed 9virtually) and my parents laughed. I didn’t ask, but I wonder if this wallpaper has been here for awhile or if that pattern is still available to hang? Perhaps I should find out and buy some rolls of it and send them to my sister? I wonder if she would scream more? Heh heh.

It could also be used as inspiration for a Kaleidoscope quilt a la Paula Nadelstern.

Glad Creations Classroom
Glad Creations Classroom

Did I mention that Glad Creations was crammed? It was. They had fabric, notions, tools, books, kits, batting, and samples EVERYWHERE. Everywhere I turned there was another something that was gorgeous. There was lots to see and look at and to give a person inspiration.

I took this photo of the classroom, because you could see at least 3 samples from this little slice of the room. On the right side – just out of the photo was another wall with 4-5 other samples.

Glad Creations Quilt Block 3400 Bloomington Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55407. Phone: 612-724-1079. E-Mail: nancy [at] gladcreationsquilts [dot] com

Bear Patch Quilting
Bear Patch Quilting

Bear Patch Quilting was in a place called White Bear Lake. I wanted to see the white bear, but it wasn’t possible, apparently. Bear Patch Quilting is a large store with a wide variety of everything quilt related. The stock was different than Glad Creations and the lighting was good. There was also a selection of rug hooking materials and several ladies were in the back of the store hooking away. They had lots and lots of 1930s fabrics. I wished, then, that TFQ had an online swatch inventory so I could have picked out some 30s fabrics for her hexagon quilt. I saw a number of embroidery projects and they were more than willing to cut me some FQs. As I result I added a couple of pieces to the Food Quilt fabric stash.

Bear Patch Quilting
2199 4th Street
White Bear Lake, MN 55110-3014
(651) 429-1039

Hours: Sun 12:00–4:00pm; Mon-Thu 9:00am–9:00pm; Fri-Sat 9:00am–5:00pm

Rosebud's Cottage
Rosebud’s Cottage

Rosebud’s Cottage was down the street and around the corner from Bear Patch, so if you go to White Bear Lake, you can hit two quilt shops!

I am not sure why I expected Rosebud’s Cottage to be larger, but I did. It has a nice selection, but is pretty small. They also had a small selection of cards and scrapbook materials. There were a group of ladies there stitching. We talked to them about their interesting Block of the Month. Some of the ladies were working on Halloween blocks. The shop had great bag samples!

Rosebud’s Cottage
2154 3rd Street
White Bear Lake, MN 55110-3233
(651) 426-1885

Quilt Haven
Quilt Haven

Quilter’s Haven was a shop on the bottom level of a newish looking condo complex. I didn’t see a sign. Michele knew where it was, but the only reason I knew we had arrived was from the Bernina sign. They must have some ordinance about signage.

The building was new, the space was filled with fabric and there was a large class going on. The woman at the counter showed us a quilt she had made that, despite the Civil War repros, was gorgeous. They had a great selection of books and I was able to look at the Zentangle quilting book (forgot the name).

Quilter’s Haven
2930 146th Street
Rosemount, MN 55068-3163
(651) 322-7071

Fabric Town
Fabric Town

When we pulled into the mall (outdoor type mall with a Dollar Store),I thought Fabric Town would be kind of a remnants or cut rate/discount store. WRONG! This was a regular quilt store sandwiched into a strip mall. (As an aside, a lot of the MN quilt stores were in strip malls and all I can think is that they can guarantee someone will plow their parking lot, if they set up shop in a strip mall). Walking into the store was walking into a completely different world. The store is filled with all kind of reproduction fabrics, embroidery and aprons, but it didn’t feel dark and depressing. The store is arranged in such a way that it looks like you are on Main Street of your local small town. It is really a gorgeous store with a lot of interesting samples and patterns. The way they put their reproduction fabrics together was different than repro quilts I have seen in the past.

Fabric Town Quilt
Fabric Town Quilt

Their quilts, even the Civil War quilts, were not dark or depressing looking. I know not all repro quilts are dark and depressing, but until this shop I had seen very few.

Do you remember those dishcloths that your grandmother or auntie used to make that had “Wednesday” with a picture of a girl doing laundry on it? The shop had a large number of block of the month type embroidery patterns that were similar in style.  I saw one set that had patterns for baskets. I resisted, but I was sorely tempted. The pictures were so graceful and the flowers were so pretty. These were patterns that I knew would completely change my life if I bought them. 😉

One thing I really wanted from this shop was their pattern for a baking dish carrier. Sadly, they only had kits and none of the fabrics in any of the kits were remotely appealing. I have a covered dish/baking dish carrier pattern and haven’t made it yet. I am sure there are other equally useful patterns for the same sort of thing out there. Michele is going to check back and see if they start selling the pattern. That pattern would look great made with one of Martha Negley’s large vegetable prints.

FabricTown
7655 148th Street West
Apple Valley, MN 55124-7800
(952) 432-1827

Quilt Cove
Quilt Cove

Michele saved the best for last. I liked the other stores, but Quilt Cove had more fabric – MUCH more, more tools, notions and supplies and more patterns. I didn’t even look at the patterns. I didn’t have time. We stayed there for a long time and it was so enormous that I didn’t have the time to look at everything. I also became a little overwhelmed at the amount of stuff in the store. I am not sure I have ever been in a quilt shop as large as this store was. Again, this store was in a mall. It was in a mall with a Target and I think that would be great to have. After fighting the crazy people at Target, I could go and give myself a treat at the quilt shop. Might be dangerous.

The cool thing was that I saw fabric I had not seen before. One of them was Mixmaster Dot to Dot by Patrick Lose. You know what a sucker I am for lines of nice tone-on-tones in a variety of colorways. I promise to do another Interlocking Triangles quilt in the near future with some of the lines I have been collecting. You will be proud that I did not buy all that I saw. I tried to be discerning, even though it was difficult.  I would highly recommend a trip to Quilt Cove.

Quilt Cove
1960 Cliff Lake Rd # 134
Eagan, MN 55122-2439
(651) 452-8891

Patterns & Tools
Patterns & Tools

Here are the various patterns, books & tools I bought. Yes, I bought a Jo Morton book. It was on sale and I wanted to be able to study her flying geese technique. I think she self publishes and her books are on the pricey side.

The This & That pattern is the great pattern I bought at Rosebud’s Cottage. I thought I would use a Jelly Roll, but now that I remember that I sincerely dislike Jelly Rolls again, I’ll cut my own strips.

If I ever get any quilts quilted again, I can’t wait to try the Wonder Clips. I also think they will work well for laminates.

Mixmaster & Friends
Mixmaster & Friends

These fabrics aren’t specifically designated for anything just yet, but soon. Some of the pinks and yellows may going into a quilt for which i have inadvertently gathered quite a little pile of fabric.

I bought a couple of yards of the two Mixmaster greys thinking I could them as backgrounds for the Interlocking Triangles quilts I am planning.

Like everything, we will see. I counted up my in process projects and that number was enough to scare me off of starting anything new in the near future.

Funky Bundle
Funky Bundle

These fabrics were a little off from what I usually buy, but they appealed to me when I saw them at the Quilt Cove. they are completely on ‘spec, so I will have to think of something stellar to do with them. A bag, I think, and perhaps the This & That bag. Hhmm.

Bits and Turquoise
Bits and Turquoise

I couldn’t leave without some turquoise and aqua.

It was a great day thanks to Michele. We had a great time chatting about our quilt projects and our families. It was a very pleasant day.