Tag: Quilt Shop

The other weekend, in addition to Runs with Scissors and Thistle Dew, I also visited the Fabric Garden for a second time.

I didn’t take photos the second time around. I think I got distracted, so these photos are from my first visit, which was last Fall for the Admission Day Celebration. The skies were bluer and the air warmer.

I went to look for the Hansel and Gretel kit, which I have decided to make for my little niece to keep Red and Coral company. The very nice shop ladies were successful in selling me a multitude of fabrics (for dresses, probably) and a charm pack of Poppy Mae by Robin Pickens for Moda. Yes, Moda fabrics. I loved the motifs too much to think about the fraying I would have to worry about.

The shop is light and airy and clean, though it is also stuffed to the gills and there is plenty to look at. I also think they have a nice variety of fabrics that suit many desires. They do only have a small section of repros, e.g. Civil War. I didn’t notice whether they had any 1930s prints. The wide variety of other fabrics from tone-on-tones to modern was really pleasing. They had a lot of pre-cuts, especially charm packs, though they were all packaged to it was hard to look at all the prints. I was able to look at the mini-charms to get an idea of what the Poppy Mae looked like and that worked for me.

I also liked their section of embroidery patterns and supplies. There were tea towel type projects as well as wool felt designs and patterns.

The people at this shop are very friendly and helpful, though they don’t hover. Between this shop and Thistle Dew, it is worth a trip to Sacramento. The other shops I have visited make it a quiltmaking haven and a weekend’s good quilt fun.

I made a circuit of the shops, mostly driving on surface streets. The second shop I visited during my #politicalwifery weekend was Runs with Scissors. Great name, huh? Runs with Scissors was a lot smaller and had fewer items than Thistle Dew. Still, I found some nice things.

I had some trouble locating this shop once I found the address/mall in which it resided. It is tucked below and behind a sidewalk, but is truly net to Goodwill as the online resources say. I don’t think I could see it from the street. The mall looks a little seedy, but the shop is bright and clean and has new and modern fabric and supplies.

One thing in which I was interested was the Scottie Dog patterns. You might remember that DH and I went looking for Scottie Dog quilt shop on our 2015 visit to the North Coast and found that it was permanently closed. I think that ScottieDogquilts.com is their new home. I ended up buying the Modern Meteor pattern because I have an idea for a quilt for one of the nephews and the pattern reminded me of my Star Sampler quilt, an idea with which I am not yet finished.

I also bought an apron pattern called the Chatterbox Apron because I liked the shape. After I got back to the hotel, I thought that it might be by the same designer as my Church Ladies apron. Not a good sign since I needed a translator for that one. Clearly, however, I like the designer’s style. I have an idea to make aprons as gifts. I hope not to need a translator now that I have made one of the line’s patterns.

The shop was filled with people making a group project or taking a class, so the place had a cheerful feel. I really liked the decorations they had including the mottos/sayings. I have been told it is slightly modified from a Molly Ivins poem or essay, however, I found it listed as a saying from Hunter S. Thompson. The above is slightly revised.

I had a #politicalwifery event over the weekend. While DH was in meetings, I went to 3 quilt shops, Thistle Dew Quilt Shop, runs with Scissors and I made a second visit to the Fabric Garden.

The name “Thistle Dew” made me think of Laura Ashley prints, so I didn’t have high hopes. I was VERY pleasantly surprised to find an awesome quilt shop experience. It was light, bright and cheerful. The people were friendly and helpful, but didn’t hover. It was that hard to find and though information said parking would be difficult, I found a spot right in front.

When I walked in, the first thing I saw was 4 large cases of Sue Spargo embroidery threads. I almost swooned! I love embroidery floss. I love Sue Spargo’s work and have been admiring her book, Stitches to Savor: A Celebration of Designs by Sue Spargo. It is a kind of coffee table book where you can see the stitching. I have been drooling over the designs for awhile. I didn’t even know she had come out with a line of embroidery threads. The threads were different weights. Yes, I bought several. I was pleased to restrain myself, because I wanted ALL THE THREAD.

I was already in heaven when I turned and found an entire case of Cosmo embroidery thread. I really couldn’t believe my luck. I remember seeing a big case of this thread at QuiltCon last year. I don’t know for sure, but it looks like they have all the colors. I didn’t buy any then. I love the way they arranged the colors in this case as well. Again, I wanted ALL THE THREAD.

I was also pleased to find that one their instructors filled in for Sue Spargo last year when she was sick. I don’t know if the woman is certified, but with the threads and the high level instructor, I would say that they have classes in Sue’s stitches and techniques and are within driving distance.

After selecting several spools and hanks, I went to look at fabric, which they did have. Lots of it. Bright cheerful prints, lots of text and low volume fabrics, many dots, plenty of solid. Generally, they had a great selection.

I was also pleased at the selection of notions. Theirs was not the standard selection of Dritz notions that new store often have. This was 10+ feet of very special notions, including so many needles my head was spinning.

As soon as I got hope and saw SIL, I told her we had to make a trip to Sacramento to visit quilt shops. There are several worth visiting. I guess I had better make some finishes. I told my mom about the store and will definitely visit again.

Thistle Dew Quilt Shoppe
10127 Fair Oaks Blvd
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
Tel:+1-916-967-5479

The other shop I visited in Portland was Bolt. It is near a really nice neighborhood that reminded me of Berkeley.

I have heard about this shop, but I don’t remember where. I wasn’t sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised.

This is a small shop and a number of my photos were blurry, so you’ll get a taste of the shop then you’ll have to go and visit yourself.

The shop has a respectable amount of quilting weight fabrics. They also have interesting garment fabrics including rayon, knits and non-garment fabrics like laminates.

I saw a lot of indie patterns as well. I think they were mostly garments, but I am sure there were a few bags and quilts as well.

I was thrilled to find that they had wool felt. Real wool felt. I have seen it online, but have never felt confident enough to buy any without feeling it and/or seeing it in person. I bought two pieces to make…something.

The shop also had a wool-rayon blend felt. I bought a number of pieces of that in order to make a kind of garden scene. I got an idea in my head and will run with it when I am done binding Flowerburst.

Bolt
2136 NE Alberta St
Portland, OR 97211
1-503-287-2658

Last week I sped up to Portland to pick up the YM from college. Yes, he has completed his freshman year of college. I can’t believe it! Time has flown. Stay tuned about whether he finished successfully. I am sure he did, but…. well, you know.

I drove up in two days, which is hard. It is about 700 miles and that is two full days of driving. Of course, I stopped at a couple of quilt shops along the route – Ocean Waves Quilt Shop in Eureka (always a favorite and reviewed previously) and Forget-Me-Knots in Bandon. I was in Bandon in August on my way back from dropping the YM off and reviewed the shop at that time. Both are great shops and I didn’t see anything that would turn me off from visiting again.

The Young Man had some errands on campus on Friday regarding his fall schedule and I needed to not turn right around and drive 350 miles, so we did his errands and then went our separate ways for a few hours. He needed a nap and I needed to see some quilt shops. I had to drive but it wasn’t flat out highway driving.

First stop: Cool Cottons. I had heard about this shop and tried to find it last time, but we missed the exit. I checked the directions again and found that the hotel we stayed in last time was farther south than the interchange we needed, which was the problem. As a result, mom and I got lost on our way there and gave up. I was determined this time and found my way.

I was a little scared by the owner when I arrived, but she turned out to be very nice and very chatty. We talked a little about the transformation of the house where the shop was located. Of course, we also talked about projects.

The store is the bottom floor of a Craftsman style house. The transformation was very well done. It was also sensitively done, which is nice for such an architecturally interesting house.

I loved their fabric and wanted almost EVERYTHING. I restrained myself and tried to buy things that I needed. I found some of the background fabric (see below) for the quilt I started in the Victoria Findlay Wolfe class. I wasn’t even looking for it, but when I saw it – well, what I think it the right color since I didn’t have a swatch, I bought enough for a background. If this isn’t the right color, I have enough for a background on another quilt. Buying this fabric means I have to actually work on that quilt! 😉

This shop has mostly modern fabrics, though not so many of them are the big prints. I saw lots of tone-on-tones / blender type fabrics as well as the various fabrics with motifs that come in lots of different colors like the Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets, the Timeless Treasures cross hatch fabrics, etc.

The shop had a lot of GREAT greys. I resisted, though I didn’t want to.

The selection of blues and turquoises was fantastic. They had a lot of in between colors, such as aqua, blue green, dark blue (like that StudioE blue I like so much) as well. Again, I was tempted to get one of each. Again, I restrained myself.

The stairs are used as display space for some of the solids, which was a great idea. In general, I thought the space was used very well for fabric. It was functional, appealing and very light.

The shop carried American Made Brands of solids. Yay! I didn’t see any Konas, but there could have been some.

I also saw an almost-full, if not full line of Peppered Cottons by Pepper Cory. Frances has talked about her and her fabric on the Off Kilter Quilt podcast. I hadn’t seen them in person before, so that was nice.

I would have bought more if they had had the fabrics I wanted in fat quarters. I know I go back and forth on fat quarters, but I am in restraint mode, so I am going with FQs some of the time lately. I am not complaining at all about the fat quarters at all. There were plenty of FQs in the shop, just not the ones I was considering. Also, I didn’t ask if they cut FQs, which I should have done to make this a complete review.

I was also pleased to see a really nice selection of sale fabrics. The two at the bottom of the photo below were both on sale. I will use the blue for the next food quilt and the pink was just interesting. There were also sale FQs.

Prices were $11-12 per yard, which I have found to be normal in urban areas.

The neighborhood is interesting. There weren’t a lot of traffic lights, so I got some steps in by walking a few blocks to a signal with a cross walk. There is a nice looking bakery for non-GF people, a couple of interesting vintage shops and some boutiques. I had coffee at a place called Coava after my fiber expedition.

This shop was stuffed with fabric, but didn’t come across as messy. There were shelves of fabric, nicely arranged, in almost every available space. This is a shop I will definitely visit again.

Above is my art shot of coffee and fabric. 😉

Cool Cottons
2417 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214

coolcottons@hotmail.com
503.232.0417

Monday: 10 – 6
Tuesday: 10 – 6
Wednesday: 10 – 6
Thursday: 12 – 8
Friday: 10 – 6
Saturday: 10 – 6
Sunday: 12 – 5

I know you must be exhausted by all of these quilt shops. I know I was by the time I got to the Rabbit Hole. I almost bailed on this shop, but since it was on my way I decided to stop in. Definitely worth the stop!

The last shop I visited was called the Rabbit Hole and the name was very apt! As I went into each room in the shop, I found another behind it. As I said, I was tired by the time I got to this shop and couldn’t focus as well as I would have liked, but I could focus enough to see that they had A LOT of fabric.

They also had a ton of panels, so if you are looking for panels, give them a call or stop by. Those flower panels might make an excellent One Block Wonder a la Pam’s piece and my Peacock. I couldn’t believe how crammed this place was with different types of fabric – lots of quilting cottons, certainly, but also net mesh, wool, etc. As you can see on the photo, they have a lot of patterns as well.

I was impressed with the number of novelty prints and stripes. It made my head swim with the possibilities of pillowcases, but I reined myself in and turned away from them. I still have a few pieces of Christmas fabric I can use to make pillowcases.

I didn’t recognize a lot of the fabric, which tells me that they have a different eye than I am used to seeing. This is probably why this shop is successful with another shop a couple minutes away.

You can see how large the room is and this is just one of about 4-5 rooms of fabric.

Cutting tables were scattered throughout the shop. The one in the phone (right) was in the very back of the store. I was a little surprised to see as nobody was in the shop except for me. I learned the reason for its placement when a large group of people (yes, there were some men!) came in the shop and filled the place with chatter and laughter. I had been there about 15 minutes and was wondering how much fabric they could move. I had my answer!

I think the newer fabrics were in the front of the shop. These rooms were small and there were several bolts of Asian style fabrics as well as projects made with them. The second room (through the doorway in the above left photo) also had baby style prints – soft colors, Minkee (or similar).

The shop also had a longarm and that room was not free from fabric either. A lot more panels were hanging in this room as well.

I headed out after this shop and went back to the hotel and to my Political Wifery duties. It was a somewhat rainy day, but it made for beautiful clouds.

The next quilt shop I visited was also in Paradise. It was called Debbie’s Quilt Shop and it was around the corner from Morning Star Quilts. The Morning Star Quilt ladies encouraged me to visit.

This shop had a very traditional bent to it. In addition to the Civil War type repros, I saw a nice selection of 30s fabrics. They had just gotten some fabrics that looked very mid-century modern. The lady helping me was trying to find a pattern with which to use them. The shop was not really my style, but there was a healthy selection of solids and brights as well, so I found a few things to pick up.

The shop was small, but well stocked with every thing needed for a variety of projects. There were a fair number of BOM offerings as well as patterns, books and samples from both. They had a number of paper piecing patterns, classes. Their strength was the lady helping me. She was very friendly and not in an obnoxious way. She said that she and the owner of Morning Star work together to keep their inventory different. I would guess they do that so both can stay in business. I like it!

The travel for NSGW with DH is starting up in earnest now. We spent the weekend after my birthday in Oroville at the Discovery of Gold event.

DH had board meetings. I visited quilt shops. 😉

The first thing I did was search Google when I got to the hotel. My search was (without quotes) “quilt shops oroville ca”. I was thrilled that I found quilt shops, but confused that none of them had towns listed. Could that mean there were a ton of quilt shops in Oroville mere steps from my hotel?

Too good to be true. There were no quilt shops in Oroville listed in the Google search results. All of those listed in the box (image above) were in different towns. I found one called Mary Jane’s, but I couldn’t actually find the physical place and all the images seemed to be bedspreads so I didn’t go and don’t know what that was about.

I decided to visit three shops. The driving would be about an hour. Sadly, no other NSGW wives seem to be interested in quiltmaking so I am on my own in these endeavors. Two of the shops were in Paradise and one was in Colusa. There were a few more in the surrounding areas, but I thought three was enough was enough to visit in one day.

As soon as I saw DH off, I headed out. It was raining, but not too bad and the drive was easy. I did make on wrong turn, but got to the first shop with no problem.

Morning Star Quilt Shop

Of all the shops I visited, this was my favorite. The samples and the fabrics on offer were my style. I wasn’t expecting much when I got out of the car, except to get out of the rain, but I was very pleased. The place was big, bright and airy and the ladies were friendly. The store was also clean – to the point of gleaming!

I remembered that I saw them vending at Quilts in the Garden in Livermore a few years ago.

I saw a lot of organization in that store. There wasn’t stuff laying around and very few bolts of fabric just around. Of all the samples they had on the walls, each one had a tag that said that there was a kit available. I am not a fan of kits, but many people are and they are great for stores. Also, most of the fabrics seen in the samples was still available. I didn’t ask whether they took down the samples when the kits and fabrics were no longer available but it seems like the kind of place where that practice would be standard.

There were other samples besides quilts as well: little girl dresses, pillowcases, embroidery and wool felt projects.

The embroidery projects were very intriguing. The ones that really caught my eye were from Crabapple Hill Studio. I actually don’t know if the shop had other brands’ embroidery designs. I don’t really do embroidery so I really just glanced at these. After I got home I looked at the Crabapple Hill Studio website and the designs really make me want to do embroidery. There is a sense of the traditional embroidery designs that we learned needlework on as children, but with more color and a little more whimsy. The pattern shown as an example gives you an idea of the style.

The front of the store had batiks and bags. I know that sounds great, but they also had fat quarters and Aurifil. 😉 Morning Star Quilts had organized their batiks together in the front of the store. On the other side of the front of the store were purse and bag patterns as well as bag hardware. I was impressed at the number of bag patterns and equivalent samples.

That was something that Morning Star did really well: patterns with samples. I mentioned this along with kits above, but it was impressive how well this was done. The color sense was also excellent. I loved the fabrics they used in the way they put quilts together.

They had a small curtain in the window, which was a light diffuser. I didn’t see a pattern, but I liked the idea. You can see it in the photo directly above in the upper left hand corner.

I saw a long arm, but I don’t know if they rent it out or if they do long arm quilting for customers.

You can see a lot of embroidery floss behind the longarm. Some of this is Cosmo, which I have never seen in that quantity before. I was thrilled and it was very hard not to buy it all.

Nobody was sitting in this little seating area, but it is cute and this was the area where they had wool felt patterns and supplies.

You can also see the light diffusers in the windows at the top of the photo.

I would recommend that you visit this shop if you make it to Paradise. Definitely go out of your way to visit this shop if you are anywhere nearby.

On my Reno trip, I also went to Windy Moon Quilts #2. They have two locations and we went to the newer one, which is located in an old school building in (or near, maybe) Sparks, NV.

The shop was packed. They had a lot of fabric, notions, tools, kits, thread -everything. The shop is also a Bernina dealer and does repairs.

The shop really had an amazing amount of items available for purchase. Some of the stuff was a little  hard to see because of how much there was and how it was displayed. Despite the layering of materials, I found quite a bit of nice stuff to buy. Dots. They had great dots. I thought I had them all, but no.

I also liked the pillowcase kits they had. Very elegant fabric combinations. They ran about $12.99.

I thought the color the walls were painted was nice in this context. I can see where it might make me a little sick if it were the color in my office or in a school classroom.

The shop had lots of great light because of the large windows and that was true in the big classroom as well.

The classroom was large and had a number of class samples on the walls. We were able to walk around and look at everything, including covet yardage from that stack of greys on the table.

The classroom looked comfortable to learn in and not too crowded.

One of the things about the shop residing in an old school building is the great molding. I love that thick, white molding around the windows and the doors.

They had a lot of samples, which was fun to look at. Not everything was in one style, which was nice.

Contact:
Address: 406 Pyramid Way, Sparks, NV 89431
Phone: (775) 870-4031

I visited Going Batty last Monday while I was visiting Kathleen in Reno. It is a clean and new looking shop in a strip mall. It is large with a variety of products and is a Bernina dealer.

I was looking for my favorite ruler (Creative Grids 4.5″x8.5″ – CGR48), because Kathleen really needed this ruler. Actually, everyone needs this ruler. It is really great for trimming. They had a good selection of rulers, but, sadly, not this one.

The shop did have the Quick Curves Ruler and several patterns using that ruler.

One of the things I really liked about the shop was the sample quilts on the walls. They had one quilt that made me want to go out and make a Feathered Star. The Feathered Star quilt is a Marsha McCloskey pattern called Star of Chamblie and it looked so great in all solids with a bright white background. Sadly, the photo I took was blurry. 🙁

The other quilts on the walls were just as great. There is one quilt that I have seen in other shops. It is a Block of the Month called Color of Love. It reminds me of the Star Sampler. I am tempted to make the BOM just because I like stars and I like the varying sizes of blocks. I do wonder how many star quilts I should make.

I was kind of amazed at the sewing machine and furniture display at the shop. the entire front of the store was full of all the best Berninas available. The furniture was sewing machine furniture and it was gorgeous. Some of it wasn’t very useful (sewing machine cabinet with a round flip-out table-WTH?), but the items I saw that I would buy were gorgeous and useful. One was a cutting table with a few drawers and an open space at the top. On top was a cutting table with sides that flip up to make it the size of a very large Olfa mat.

I liked the fabric, too, though they didn’t have tons. They had a respectable amount, but not tons. There was some modern stuff, but not tons. The shop didn’t seem to have fat quarters for their bolt fabric. Usually that means they only have FQs for end of bolts, but I didn’t ask, so I don’t know. GB also didn’t have very many pre-cuts. I wanted some more of that Zen Chic background mini-charms, but couldn’t find them. The shop had a few pre-cuts, but not many.

The displays were really great and the shop was light and airy. They had an up to date system for checking customers out, though it was a bit slow when we were there. The shop offered Bernina service and sold the new-ish Bernina longarms. This shop is definitely worth a visit.

Contact the shop:

Going Batty
9744 S Virginia St, Reno, NV 89511
(775) 351-2424