I have visited the Fat Quail Quilt Shop before. The last few times DH and I have driven to the North Coast, we haven’t stopped. Absence makes the heart grow fonder? As Mom and I drove south from Portland it turned out to be a good place to stop for a stretch. Laytonville is a small town after Leggett and before Willets as you drive south on Hwy 101.
When we visited several ladies were having a sew-in. The ladies were sewing away on their own projects and asking for advice as needed (by their own words). I was glad to see that they were there. Those small towns look so small, I always wonder how they can support a quilt population. My mom and I discussed this quite a bit in the car and her theory is that crafts are popular because of the lack of big city distractions. She could be right.
Fat Quail interior
Fat Quail probably has the most ‘country’ style of the stores we visited. The colors of the decor tend more towards sage, beige, cream and rust. The shop is light filled and there are plenty of pinks and turquoises for people like me. They also have some more modern patterns, such as the Time for Tea pattern, which makes me think of the Mad Hatter.
“Time for Tea”
I don’t know that I will make it as a quilt, but I do like the clock being half off the quilt. It is a good reminder that design elements do not need to be complete. I also like the stylized coffee pot. Both are interesting design elements. The pattern is Time For Tea (CSD-110- 13″x 35″) from Creative Space Designs. They have other interesting, including more Mad Hatter-ish, patterns as well as flowers and animals. You can buy it from their website or call Fat Quail.
Fat Quail interior
They brightened things up quite a bit from last time. The room with the card catalog drawers holding fat quarters held a lot of Stonehenge last time. This time there was the cat quilt and that green, cream and rust quilt. The room was a lot brighter. No Stonehenge. Sorry Sandy!
I also saw some 1930s fabrics as well as some aqua and turquoise hiding in that room. 😉
Fat Quail front room
As at the Quilter’s Corner, this shop had some specialty quail items. The quail is the state bird of California and this shop had a pattern for s stuffed version and some prints that could be added to a quilt. You can see them hanging on the fabric shelf to the left in the middle of the picture.
Autumn was in full swing in all of these quilt shops so there was a lot of Thanksgiving: reds, golds and browns. You can see those fabrics on the left in the back of the picture.
Fat Quail front room
While fabric wasn’t everywhere, which I didn’t see in any shop I visited, there was plenty to choose from. I also found that a lot of different styles were represented even if there weren’t samples using every fabric.
I still think this shop is worth a visit and there is a coffee shop down the road a little where the family can relax while you look at fabric
Location:
44550 US-101, Laytonville, CA 95454
(707) 984-6966
I went to a number of shops, but some of them are not getting their own post because I didn’t buy enough, take enough pictures or I had been there before pretty recently.
The best thing about visiting all the quilt shops I visited, aside from being distracted from leaving my Y.M. in a strange city all alone, was that I saw a lot of different stuff. Different colorways, different fabrics, different motifs. It made me realize how much fabric I never see. I suppose that is a good thing.
I found a big list of all the quilt shops in Oregon and we kind of followed that one.
Ocean Waves, Eureka, California
Ocean Waves, Eureka, Calif.
I usually visit this store when I am on the North Coast and this trip was no exception. The last time I visited was in February.
The Young Man and I drove up on Tuesday and we had kind of short driving day. We should have driven farther, but we didn’t. We arrived in Eureka, checked into the hotel and I called the quilt store. They were open for another half and hour so I hightailed over there and looked around. While I was there, I texted the Y.M. with a picture of a not-too-juvenile back-to-school print and asked if he wanted a pillowcase out of it. He said YES so I bought it. I also bought some more dress fabrics. You know those Philip Jacobs will be on body in the not too distant future. 😉
Ruth’s Family Fabric, Waldport, Oregon
Riley Blake Awning Stripe
This is an upholstery shop and quilt fabric store. I may just bring my wing chairs there to be recovered. It will force me to drive by. The price is right and the Fabric Depot in Portland had some great upholstery fabric.
I may have found the perfect fabric at this store. I have never seen this Riley Blake Awning Stripe before. The stripes are about an inch wide. I would upholster an entire room in this fabric if I had a sunroom or a boudoir. I love this fabric so much. It is an older fabric from the La Creme Basics line. This should seriously be in their lineup all the time. And WHY did I have to go to Southern Oregon to find this fabric? Why didn’t I ever see it before? WHY?
It was also in red and another version in black, but I restrained myself. I have to make something that I will use all the time. I don’t know what yet, but something great.
By My Hand, Brookings, Oregon
The lady who was manning the store (pretty sure she was the owner) was super nice. Mom barely looked at anything in this shop because she really hit off with the owner and they just chatted the whole time.
By My Hand light grey
The store is yarn and fabric, but more yarn. I looked for light greys for my Flying Geese project throughout the trip and found a good one here.
This shop was hard to find. It is in a kind of strip mall, but the sign is impossible to see if you are driving. Quilt and fabric shops MUST have a giant sign near the road if they want out-of-towners to visit.
We passed about 3 shops up because we simply couldn’t find them. One was in the same town as this shop and we drove by where it should have been twice and we still couldn’t find it. Another thing, shops should have navigation tips on their websites. If they are near a giant department store their website should say “we are just before Super Giant Department Store if you are going south.”
We did stop at a wonderful cafe in Brookings called Blue Water cafe. It was down by the water and little hard to find, but totally worth it. They had gluten free bread and the service was excellent. The lady was very friendly. The place was also clean and had a very interesting Hawaiian/surfing/tropical theme.
Missed Shops
I drove right by Cool Cotton, Portland. It is, supposedly, a modern quilt shop. I was looking for exit, but didn’t see it. I’ll make it there next time.
Country Keepsakes was impossible to find.
We were shopped out when we passed the Quilted Angel. It isn’t that far from my house so, theoretically, I can go almost any time.
We found a list of Oregon quilt shops ** on the web and used it quite a bit. Mom was really good at directing me to the various shops. I think I have a bit of DH in me (he has trained me, more likely) after all these years of traveling together. I tend to stay in the car far too long whereas mom needs to get out and walk around. I have to say that getting out of the car was easier when we did it more often. I didn’t feel like I needed a crowbar to get myself out of the car.
There are a lot of quilt shops on the Southern Oregon coast! It is amazing that every hour or so you can get out and take a look around a quilt shop.
Quilter’s Corner – no life sucking beige
Quilter’s Corner was bright and cheerful. I love the paint on the outside of the shop. I am not particularly fond of the color on its own, but with the white, yellow and stainless steel flower tubs, it really works. It looks so welcoming and cheerful.
The inside of the shop was bright and cheerful as well. The people were friendly. They had a great selection of notions and fabric.
Quilter’s Corner batiks wall
To the left when we walked in was a wall of batiks. There were a lot of bright and cheerful, clear colors.
I think the light along the southern Oregon coast must be similar to the light we have at home, because I didn’t see a lot of country/Civil War themed shops. Most of the shops had bright and cheerful colors. Granted, we did not visit most of the shops on the list.
Quilter’s Corner notions etc
You know I love looking at notions and this shop, as I mentioned, had a lot of interesting notions. I had seen, that morning, a post on Instagram from Moda Fabrics about a finger light for handstitching. Before I left I had been working on the Food Quilt #2 binding, and stitching black on black was hard to see, so I was interested. They were on my mind when I was checking out. There was a basket of the lights on the counter, so I picked out one for me and one for my mom. It is so awesome that I didn’t have to hunt around for weeks for one to try. They were only $2 and the counter lady said she liked them. DH has been out of town so I haven’t been sitting with him and stitching, but I will give a full report on this little light later.
Quilter’s Corner books etc
There is a certain ruler for which I am looking. I don’t know if it exists, but it is about 5″ or 6″ x 12″. I looked at all the shops we visited, but haven’t yet found exactly the ruler for which I am looking. They had a good selection of rulers at this shop. I spent some time looking at them and really wanting to get back to the sewing machine. I envy OzzyPip for taking her machine with her on her trips. Of course, I would not have had time to machine sew on this trip. I did have some handwork with me, but as I drove most of the time, I didn’t work on the project (EPP). Not making much progress there.
Quilter’s Corner fabrics
One thing I noticed in a lot of these shops was the sea theme. They didn’t have it all over the shop, but had a section of fabrics with a sea theme or panels (such as the lighthouse panels you see, right). I didn’t buy any of these, but it made me think of the Michael Miller Ocean fabric I bought a few years ago. I think these must be for tourist quiltmakers who come and want a little something to remember their trip.
I also saw the nationwide row by row challenge in full force in many of these Oregon shops. Daisy mentioned this challenge experience in one of her recent podcasts. The theme there is something about the sea and each shop had a pattern for a row. These were free, but they also had kitted up the pattern with fabrics and those seem to run around $15.
I am not one for challenges, but I do like the idea of getting different rows from different shops and putting the rows together in your own way. It seems like a very neighborly thing to do, especially if people were doing it together. I could have collected a lot of rows on this trip, but, again, not my thing.
Quilter’s Corner fabric displays
The shop really had a lot packed into a little space and they still had the opportunity for displays using antiques like the sewing machine. Sometimes I feel like such displays are taking away valuable space from fabric, but I didn’t in this case.
After we had been there for a few minutes other ladies started to trickle in. We found out that the local quilt group was coming to meet and 30 ladies would be there in about 30 minutes. We didn’t rush, but since we were almost done anyway we finished up and got out so someone else could have our parking space. I do like it when quilt shops offer space to quilt groups. It is worth their while as, in this particular instance, several ladies handed over bolts of fabric to be cut and bought fat quarters for an exchange they were having.
I never cease to be amazed at how different quilt shops can look. This shop is well worth a stop if you are heading to the Oregon Coast.
Location: 335 7th St, Port Orford, OR 97465
(541) 332-0502
**Nota bene: both shops on this list in Tualatin are closed, as in no longer exist.
I stopped in Corvallis, Oregon on my way home at a shop called Quiltwork Patches. This wasn’t the largest store I visited, but it was one with a very good selection of fabric etc. Their excellent selection of fabric also included colorways that I hadn’t seen. They had some of the latest Moda charm packs and mini charm packs and really great selection of sale fabrics.
The ladies in the shop were friendly, but not too pushy, so I felt ok looking around, which was great, because I wasn’t feeling that well*.
There was a ton of fabric in this shop and half of it was sale fabric. The other part was really different, as I mentioned.
Quiltwork Patches front to back of the store
I liked the displays as well. They weren’t too cutesy and didn’t get in the way of the fabric. The displays facilitated the display of the fabric.
This was the first time I really liked those little benches in a quilt store. They, again, facilitated the display rather than overwhelming the display.
Quiltwork Patches back to front of store
Quiltwork Patches FQs and Sale Fabric
If this looks like a lot of fabric, it is because there was a lot of fabric in this store. Their website says 4000 bolts and I believe it.
Quiltwork Patches across the front of the store
Location:
212 SW 3rd St, Corvallis, OR 97333
(541) 752-4820
I kept catching Mom in my photos!
*Nota bene: Mom and I ended up with what we think was food poisoning. We can’t figure out where we got it, but I was sicker than she and it was unpleasant.
If you have been playing along you know that I was in Portland (Oregon) with my DH over the weekend dropping our Y.M. off at college. It was a whirlwind adventure filled with moving in, then 2 days of orientation, some picking up the slack and then letting him go off on his new adventure living somewhere else and fending for himself. Sending children off to college is weird! One day they live with you and you are telling them to pick up their socks and the next day they live somewhere else.
Fabric Depot, Portland, Oregon
My mom flew up to drive back with me and while I was waiting to pick her up at the airport, I went to a shop that Tanesha mentioned, in one of her podcasts, called Fabric Depot.
OMG! This place is so enormous, I couldn’t even, while I was in the store, understand how large it was. Conservatively it was the size of 3 Safeways. I think. It was so big that I couldn’t even begin to think about seeing everything. Truly. I am not exaggerating.
Truly enormousTruly enormousTruly enormous
The three pictures above are the view from where I was standing when I walked in and got past the husband area. The three pictures show the vastness of the space. It is a store you have to go to with a bag lunch and plan out to look at one corner, then go back that next week with the same idea in mind.
They had everything new that I have been hearing about. I saw April Rosenthal’s Meadowbrook line, which I thought I would buy, but I ended up not buying any. They had charm packs and layer cakes, but I didn’t like it enough to have the desire to make something with it.
Draping fabric
The other thing I noticed is that they drape the fabric like House of Fabrics, etc used to do. It is a great idea, because you can really see a lot of the motifs on the fabric.
The fabric shown left is a row of batiks. There were about 10 rows of batiks that I saw.
Hallowe’en fabrics
Julie would be thrilled with the Hallowe’en selection they had. I never saw so many interesting Hallowe’en fabrics! I bought some panels to make the Young Man and his two (yes, TWO, count ’em two!) college roommates Hallowe’en pillowcases. I already made the YM a Hallowe’en pillowcase, but hopefully he will change his sheets more than once in October.
There was a little boy with a 4 week old puppy walking around the store showing off his puppy. He wanted everyone to pat the puppy. I got to pat the puppy twice. The boy was about 4. OMG! They were both so cute.
Color Kits
In addition to a zillion pre-cuts, they also kits made up from their own designs or from local designers.
There were a lot of different ideas in this area and they all used solids.
The store had an excellent selection of solids. They had the ubiquitous Moda Bella solids as well as the Kona Solids. They also had the Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids and a few of the American Made Brands solids. It was great to see such a selection of solids.
There were also packs of solid colors with color related patterns prepackaged and ready to grab and go.
Moda Modern Mixers
I saw a group of fabrics called Modern Mixers. I love the name of these fabrics and wanted them all. They reminded me of Half Moon Modern (and that I have to find something to do with those fabrics!). There may have been some that were in the Half Moon Modern group.
I did buy a couple for some more Political Wifery/work outfits.
The store also had some great displays. I loved the quilts they had hanging up including one from Dr. Who.
Dr. Who etc Display QuiltsFabric Depot Display Quilts
I have noticed the Jack’s Chain pattern (above quilt with green background) showing up in shops and on the web lately. I have loved that pattern since I saw it in the Cotton Patch a thousand years ago. Perhaps it is time to make it?
Fabric Depot Purchases
I didn’t have a lot of time, but it is probably good since I would have spent more money. I bought a few things, mostly they are earmarked for projects. Fabric Depot had a great selection of zippers, which were on sale. I took the opportunity to stock up on a few for dresses so I don’t have to go rushing around when I need them.
The store was definitely worth a visit and I will go there again when I am in Portland another time.
I was in Boston for the Special Libraries Association conference. On my last day in Boston, I walked over to a fabric store called Grey’s Fabric and Notions. I had looked at their website and saw a number of blog posts on garment making including lingerie, so I was on the fence about visiting.
Building with interesting colored windows
My conference buddy encouraged me so we walked over there together. We got there off of Summer, A Street, 4th and finally Harrison.
Summer Street was a main road and to get to A Street we had to go down a set of metal stairs to the street below. It was kind of like the Stockton Tunnel street madness here in SF. The neighborhood looked yup and coming, but also very much in transition.
It was a bit of a long walk, but we enjoyed it. We took pictures of interesting architecture and things we don’t see at home or interested us. The neighborhood is definitely changing.
Pretty alley housing Grey’s Fabrics
Grey’s was a little hard to find, but worth the trip and in a charming little alley with other art galleries and creative spaces, including a bead and fiber store.
The store itself is great. It is a good size without being huge. They had plenty of quilt fabric; a very respectable selection and I liked what they had. I indulged in a couple of pieces. One will be a dress for a future NSGW event. They had a fair selection of Philip Jacobs (my man!!!), considering the size of the store. They also had notions, patterns, embroidery floss and a lot of gift items.
Front of Grey’s
One thing I really liked was the table in the front with lots of little things, including gifts. If that “Be Nice or Leave” pouch had been a sign I would have bought it. I need to tape such a sign to my forehead.
I bought a piece of flannel to make future receiving blankets. Ashley, the store manager, introduced me to double gauze, which she said fluffs up a little after it is washed. It came up after I told her about the receiving blankets I make as gifts for babies. The double gauze, apparently, makes very soft receiving blankets. I didn’t buy any, though it might be good for lighter weight receiving blankets. They have an online shop and it is made by Cotton + Steel so I maybe able to find it locally as well.
The store had lots and LOTS of the independent pattern company garment patterns, such as Colette. I was tempted by one, but restrained myself because I want to look at the Vogue patterns before I buy any other patterns.
The other thing I saw that I liked were the Sublime Stitching embroidery patterns. Of course, I have heard about them and seen them online, but I have never seen them in person. There was one called Sexy Librarian that would make a great raffle prize for my library association, if made up into a pillow or something.
All in all, visiting Grey’s was a worthwhile activity and I would visit again. I wish it was near my house as I would love to take classes there.
You can find Grey’s Fabric and Notions at:
450 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118
(617) 338-4739
Last weekend we headed up to the North Coast again for an annual NSGW event. Normally there is an event Friday evening, an event in the late morning on Saturday and a big dinner on Saturday night. This year the Saturday late morning event fell through, so DH and I had the whole day until 5pm to spend together. It was nice. Not having the normal day-to-day to deal with for a little while makes spending time together quite enjoyable.
We took the opportunity to spend some time in the Eureka/Arcata area. The Young Man got accepted to Humboldt State so we went to take a look at it. We did offer to pay for him to come with us and he decided to go visit his grandma and grandpa instead. We tortured him by sending him a bunch of photos of various parts of the campus in a running commentary.
After the campus visit, we had lunch at The Lost Coast Brewery and it was AWESOME! They had gluten free buns, so I took the opportunity to have my first French Dip in, probably, 15 years. It wasn’t as good as I remember a French Dip being, but I still enjoyed it. The restaurant had fun decorations, too. There was a pulley system with a giant spider at the end of it and when the door opened and closed the spider when up and down. They also had a number of paper mache animals hanging from the ceiling. It was a little loud, though.
Ocean Waves Quilts
After lunch we headed up to Ocean Wave Quilts. DH actually came into the store with me. I really like it when he comes in with me. I told him to pick out some shirt fabric, but he didn’t see any that he liked enough to buy. He was interested in everything and looked around. I didn’t buy much as I really don’t need anything. I just bought a couple of fabrics for projects in process and some of the new rainbow Wonder Clips. I bought the latter because they are so fabulous. I think I spent around $23. You might remember my posts from last year?
Lincoln’s Hearse full view
Not too far from Ocean Waves is the Blue Ox Millworks. Over the weekend they had an open house to show off a replica of Abraham Lincoln’s hearse that they are building. Creepy, I know.
Next year (I think) is the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s death. I don’t know what it is about death anniversaries… Media hype?
The original hearse was destroyed in a fire in about 1870. For some reason that I don’t know since didn’t read in the article very carefully, the Blue Ox is making the replica. Their shop has some amazing tools and fabulously HUGE work tables. I think safety was good in terms of the machinery, but the place felt old and messy and dilapidated. Still, I like the idea of a place that can replicate Victorian ornamentation and where woodworking is a valued art and craft.
Still DH was interested and he slogged through the quilt store with me, so we went. Also, it is historical, and probably once in a lifetime opportunity. I have to remember to tell SIL#2 not to go near the place with her husband. He will be working in that shop and they will be living in Eureka in a heartbeat if he hears about it.
Google notice
We also went to Scottie Dog Quilts. Shockingly, the shop is closed, as in no longer containing anything much less fabric and notions. The property looks abandoned. I finally saw a small note in Google (mobile) that said ‘permanently closed’. I didn’t notice that before. I didn’t really believe it because the website looks completely normal. Finally, I tracked down what was going on on Brenda Lou’s blog. She said that they closed the retail shop last June! So, we drove on and didn’t stop. I hadn’t researched any other quilt shops and one had to be enough for this trip.
I took a quilt look at Google when we returned to the hotel and found Bunny Hop Quilt Shop also in Eureka. We drove pretty close to it, but not right by. It only has a Facebook page, but looks like a real place. If we head up there next year, I will look into quilt shops more exactly.
I really am a most demanding houseguest. All I want to do is sew or look at fabric and quilt shops when I travel. Fortunately, my SIL was willing and able to feed my frenzy. She came and picked me up on Saturday morning from the hotel in Baltimore and then we headed back to her house to sew. On the way we stopped at a new shop, Prints Charming.
I liked this shop. In general, I thought the feel was good. They had a lot of nice fabrics in my style and colors. They had a good assortment of tools, notions, patterns and books and a longarm that people could rent. The shop is in a new mall, so the building is brand,spanking new and that adds to the feeling of fresh and clean.
Prints Charming front of shop
In the corner near the window is a lighthouse quilt that we also saw at Patches in Mt. Airy. There is a sea theme that pervades quilt shops in Maryland. They are on the Atlantic and seafaring, as well as various Navy related activities go on there, so it makes sense. Plus the whole crab thing.
Anyway, that lighthouse quilt is interesting (not interesting enough for me to make, but interesting) and I enjoyed seeing two different versions. I liked the one at PC fine, but I thought the background used in the Patches version added more interest. In the front of the shop photo, you can see the longarm (Handiquilter, perhaps?) and some of the patterns and books. If you are working at the longarm, you have your back to the front window of the shop, which is seen in the top photo.
The shop still had some of their Christmas stuff out. Mostly it was panels around the counter. Good idea to start early, if you are planning Christmas gifts IMO.
Prints Charming: front to back of shop
I stood near the longarm, kind of in front of the main door, to take this photo, which looks to the back of the shop. The table in the bottom left of the photo has kits and panel kits.
I am kind of interested in this resurgence of panel quilts. I got a panel when I bought some Kate Spain Christmas fabric, but I didn’t think that much of it. You might recall that I didn’t want to waste it, so I put it on the back of the Frosted Stars Leftovers Quilt. I have seen some really pretty panels lately. There was a peacock one that was very tempting. I don’t really begrudge people for wanting a quick quilt and using a panel. I think it is interesting and wonder if there is an AQSG article about it?
I didn’t get a good photo of their featured, new fabric, which you can see part of in the middle right (above). They had great fabrics in that section. I found a paintbox print that I plan to use for a set of gifts. (famous last words, right?).
Prints Charming Back of Shop
I really liked the self made jelly rolls and pre-cuts that Capital Quilts had. The colors were just so fantastic. Prints Charming had a nice array of the kind shops buy from Moda as well. I am always so tempted by the small cute little bundles of pre-cuts, but I rarely use them so I let the shop keep their Jelly Rolls.
The area shown in the picture with the pre-cuts was in a bit of disarray. it wasn’t terrible, just not as tidy as the rest of the store, which was VERY tidy. One of the ladies said that they needed, desperately, to get rid of something and clean up that area. I can’t fault them. Every space (house, shop, cubicle) has a junk drawer. 😉
Prints Charming: Fabric
I guess what I want in a quilt shop is fabric. We have already established that I don’t need more fabric, but I do enjoy having a wide variety of colors and patterns from which to choose.
Prints Charming had a good amount of fabric. Not only did the have a good number of bolts, but they also had a wide variety: 2 brands of solids (not American Made Brands), batiks, novelty, tone-on-tones, flannels, modern, baby/kid fabrics, some 30s, I think and a section of nautical/ocean fabric.
I didn’t ask about whether they cut fat quarters. They had plenty out. I thought the range of colors they had tended towards brighter rather than muted, though I did see a small section of browns. I don’t know if there were other Civil War-colored prints there as I zoomed right by after looking at a coffee print.
One fabric we found was an architectural drawing of boat plans. SIL bought enough to make a shirt for her DH. We discussed cutting it out, but decided we had better finish the other shirts first.
Prints Charming: looking towards the back
I also noticed that they had a lot of examples and class samples hanging in the shop. I thought the hanging quilts made the shop look warm and friendly.
You can see some of the class samples on the back wall. That is their pattern section as well.
Back by the patterns were two more exits and another cutting table. One exit (right) led to a nice clean restroom and connected the shop in some way (I didn’t explore) to the condos above. Can you imagine having a quilt shop right downstairs? I would love it and be totally doomed. DOOMED!
If you are heading to Maryland, I would recommend a visit to this shop. I found some nice stuff to buy and I am sure you would as well. (says your personal Temptress!)
A few days ago I wrote about the Ocean Waves quilt shop, which was actually the second shop I visited on our trip to the North Coast last weekend. The first shop, which I really like was Scottie Dog Quilts. For the first time since I have been going there, one of the owners was there and we chatted for awhile while she cut my fabric. I heard her answer the phone “Redwood Sewing Center” and thought “huh?”, so I asked. She said they have a different, affiliated business called Scottie Dog Quilts, but officially the shop was called Redwood Sewing Center. Hhmm. Who knew?
Cafe Apron Sample
One thing I bought was a kit with a pattern for a ‘cafe’ apron. It was one of those postcard patterns. They only had them in kit form (no patterns alone) and the kits were more my colors (pink, yellow, etc). I have plenty of fabric to make a few of these cafe aprons, but had to buy the kit in order to get the pattern. Frankly, what appealed to me was the Eiffel Tower fabric, but they were out and they didn’t have dark kits. I bought some yardage of the neutrals/blacks from the Little Black Dress collection to make one as a gift. I may have some Eiffel Tower fabric leftover from my sister’s quilt, but I don’t think so. I think I used the leftovers for the back. Now I have the fabric for two and hope to make them soon, so the fabric doesn’t get lost or used for something else. I have another short apron I wear in my workroom (it was a gift), so I don’t need one, but, depending on how difficult they are, I think these would make nice gifts and, perhaps, a giveaway or officer gift at BAMQG. We’ll see.
Little Black Dress & Lozenge Quilt
It is a small shop, but they have a lot of fabric. I didn’t think I was in the mood to buy fabric, but I did buy a few pieces. They have a small batik wall and I picked out a few pieces just to freshen up my batik options.
I always like the quilt samples they have in this shop as well. I have been, for a long time, toying with the idea of lozenge quilt and the one in the photo is an interesting variation. It is not actually made from a lozenge shaped patch, but from squares, HSTs and rectangles. I am not that fond of the colors of the sample, but that is no problem.
The fabrics I discussed for the apron are shown above the quilt.
Fabric at Scottie Dog
they had a small, segregated selection of modern fabrics, one Heather Bailey I saw this time was also there last year (used it for the Petrillo Bag). It made me wonder if Free Spirit is reprinting that particular print of if the shop does not sell many modern fabrics?
They also had Mary Ellen’s Best Press in the regular size and a lot of different fragrances as well as a lot of charm packs.
You can also see more of their samples. I don’t remember if those were just decorations or if they were class samples. There was actually a class gong on when I was there. I went into the classroom to look at the quilts hanging there. I listened to the discussion and could only get that I think that was some kind of finishing class – bring your half finished project and someone would help you finish it. There were a couple of ladies doing applique’ so it could have been an applique’ class as well.
Notions Wall – Scottie Dog
There was a nice selection of notions. I bought another pack of True Grips. A few of my rulers still need them, especially the specialty templates.
I definitely think that the notions wall is a telling sign of the type of shop. Some shops just seem to have a bunch fo Dritz notions and that is it. Other shops seem to have a varied selection of useful notions. Scottie Dog/Redwood Sewing Center is a shop that has a variety. It was a small-medium selection, but I think they picked what they thought would be useful rather than ordering a ‘notions kit’, if such a thing exists.
I think I have mentioned before that they sell machines – Pfaffs (perhaps that is why they are officially called Redwood Sewing Center??). I looked at the Pfaffs they had available – about 6 machines – just out of curiosity. I couldn’t tell anything from what I saw and I didn’t ask for a demo.
Towards 30s and Dots Wall
Straight ahead and to the left as you walk in is the 1930s fabrics and dots wall. If you turn left from the notions wall, you will also see it. I didn’t see anything that jumped out at me for TFQ, but there were a few dots that tempted me.
The cabinets on the left of the picture are covered with Bali Pops, Tonga Treats, etc. I rummaged through them and was very tempted, but I have a few slated for projects that I have not used yet, so I restrained myself.
Right to the right of the dots and 1930s fabrics was a large display of Bonnie & Camille fabrics. They had charm packs of Scrumptious, but yardage from a variety of their different lines, even Ruby.
You can really see how this shop is just crammed with fabric and everything. I found that to be the case with Ocean Waves, too. I didn’t really get a sense of the vibrancy of the quilting community, but it must be strong to support two quilt shops which are almost within walking distance of each other in the same town.
More notions, patterns & batiks
Taking this picture, the Little Black Dress and lozenge quilt display were on my left.
I liked the Bonnie & Camille quilt and was very tempted by that ruffled bag hanging above the notions. I have a number of bag patterns yet to make, so I refrained from buying that one.
The photo to the right gives more examples of the sample quilts and there is a wide variety.
I visited Ocean Waves Quilt Shop again over the weekend on a break from the Native Sons Events. I have visited this shop twice before.
First of all, I forgot to take photos of the inside this year. It looks much the same as last year, so go look at those photos. 😉
This shop has a great selection of FQs, also a good selection of notions and books. I bought a Sewline glue pen to use for the Serendipity Quilt.
In their book section, they had at least three books by Eleanor Burns. I thought about buying the one with the cooking theme, Quilts from El’s Kitchen. I ended up not buying it, because a lot of the blocks were blocks for which I already had patterns. The attraction was the layout and colors she used for her quilts.
I also really liked a quilt, made with Robyn Pandolph’s Notting Hill line from Eleanor Burns book, Quilts Through the Seasons. It was a combination of Four Patches and Flying Geese. The colors were nice and soft. This is a line that I love when I see it all together. If I bought pieces and parts, I would never know what to do with and it wouldn’t play nicely with any of the other fabrics I own. I did buy 2 FQs of the greys, because I couldn’t resist. They are beigy greys, though and wouldn’t look good with the other greys I am working with.
I bought a nice selection of batiks that went together really well once I saw them stacked on the counter. I also replenished my supply of turquoise-as-background fabric. It was a fun outing, but I kind of missed having a friend with me.
Ocean Waves Quilt Shop
305 V Street
Eureka, CA 995501
(707) 444-0252
https://www.facebook.com/OceanWaveQuilts/info
Before I left with the DH to go to Jackson, California, I looked up quilt shops (of course I did!) and found a few in the area. The issue is that ‘area’ in the surroundings of Jackson can mean anything from 5-30 miles. There is a lot more driving there than in my area. I ended up not being willing to drive the 45 minutes to Galt and Angels Camp, thus only visited one shop.
The Sewing Cottage turned out to be a very nice shop. It is the kind of shop I wish were near my house. It is in the same shopping center the restaurant where we had lunch on Friday (the day before I visited the shop). Clearly, my quilt radar was not working, because I didn’t see it. I did know where it was once I spoke with the owner.
They had very nice shop windows. One of them showed samples from their applique club, which was taken from a QNM magazine or series.
I also thought the unique way of using fan blocks was clever and interesting. There is a real sense of doing things in an unusual, clever, but not weird way in the shop. It seemed like they didn’t mind trying things.
Sewing Cottage: Dresden PlateSewing Cottage: View across the width of the shop
The shop had a wide variety of styles of fabric. They had a little bit for everyone, which is probably a good decision in this type of area. The only thing I didn’t see was much turquoise fabric in the shop. They may have been out. I still found a few things to buy. 😉
Looking at this photo across the width of the shop, I was looking at their shelves of batiks.
Sewing Cottage: View down right side of the shop
They are also a Brother dealer. They had a few machines. I didn’t really spend any time looking at them — just a glance.
They had a lot of batting. Laurel, one of the owners, said that when she and her sister, Olive, bought the shop, the previous owners had a longarm. I don’t know if the batting is leftover from that time or if the local quiltmakers just prefer batting on a roll. They no longer have a longarm and I didn’t ask why not.
Sewing Cottage: View down the Thread wall
I was amazed to see the variety of thread this shop had! Yes, they had Aurifil. I just had to buy a spool of my favorite piecing color, #2600.
It was a fun diversion while DH spent time in meetings.
Stop by and visit Laurel and Olive if you’re in the area:
The Sewing Cottage
Address: 11974 California 88, Jackson, CA 95642
Phone: (209) 223-0393
Hours: Friday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Recently a new brick and mortar store opened in a nearby town. I heard about it at a recent BAMQG meeting, but I wasn’t able to visit until last week when SIL and I escaped the family for a couple of hours. I would have really liked to visit a few stores, but this was the only one we were able to visit. It was definitely worth it.
The shop is filled with light and has a variety of fabrics, patterns and notions. The owner was friendly and, clearly, thrilled to see us.
Scruffy Quilts – inside view 2
I thought the inventory was a little sparse, but I know that many new businesses need time to build up their inventory – the old dance of selling allowing the owner to buy more.
Needless to say, I was able to find a few things to satisfy my desire to buy some new fabric. They have a discount on pre-cut fabric. They had a number of FQs, 1/2 yards and yards already cut. I am not sure what the discount was, but any discount is welcome.
In addition to Mettler thread, they also had a rack of Aurifil small spools.
There was a nice selection of batiks and lots of tone-on-tones. There was a little of everything, I think.
You know what else? They use Square for payment, which is awesome! I don’t like it because it is hip and cool, I like it because it is straightforward and easy to use. There is no complexity for the staff and no issues with taking credit cards, etc.
The parking was pretty easy, even on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of Winter Break. The shop is easy to find. We went past and had to do a blocky, which was a little tricky because the neighborhood surrounding the shopping area has a lot of twisty streets. We had to drive a few blocks up before we could head back down the correct street.
The owner said that they have had a web presence for a decade. I wasn’t aware of that site, so I went looking just to see more than their hours and indeed they do sell online. I think it is smart to start a business online before committing to a brick and mortar presence.
I went to pick up two quilts the other week from my longarmer. While there she showed me what she was working on for Quilt Market: Instant Quilts. When I hear ‘easy’ and ‘simple’ related to quilts, I can roll my eyes like the best of a teenager. “Instant” stopped me for a second, but as I was about to roll my eyes, Colleen put up her hand and showed me what she meant.
The quilts look like windows and I love the possibility of windows. These quilts are the ‘Big Block of Special Fabric’ type quilts. These quilts do use special fabrics, but the window type design makes it appear that you are looking into a fabric landscape. I saw some of that Octopus fabric from the Salt Water Collection by Tula Pink that would look fabulous in this design. Modern fabrics are made for these designs. I can also imagine hand dyes being used to wonderful effect. Admit it, you hand dyers (ahem, Sandy), sometimes the fabric is just too delicious to cut up into tiny pieces. 😉
I also think some of the Asian fabrics that are popular would look great in this style. My mind was whirling after we talked and I kept thinking of how many different types of fabric would work using this format.
This will be rolled out at Quilt Market, where Colleen is also presenting a game. She has self published a book about the concept, which should be available on her website Monday or Tuesday for those of you who are unable to visit her booth at PIQF. I have to say that I really like the concept.
I was visiting Grama over the weekend and took a few minutes out of the constant care and cleaning to visit with Susan, have lunch and take a trip to the quilt shop in Northridge. I used to live near Northridge and the place looks so different now. I don’t know if my eyes have different standards for how streets should look or if the streets have really changed or if I never went to this area of Northridge. The area we drove in had lots of concrete, not much green, signs stacked on top of each other right near the sidewalk to announce the businesses in each strip mall. I guess I am not used to seeing the types of strip malls they have here. I don’t know.
Candy’s Quiltworks backdoor
Regardless, Susan came and got me (what a saint) so Mom and Grama could go to Grama’s lunch bunch. She also did all the research and found a pizza place that served GF pizza and a quilt store right down the street. Perfect!
The pizza place was called Pizza Rev and they had GREAT GF standards for handling the ingredients. The only thing I didn’t like was how loud the place was. However, Susan and I could hear each other and we couldn’t really hear the people around us, which was good. I would go there again in a heartbeat.
We chatted quite a bit at lunch. I am interested in Susan’s remodeling project. Of course, she had questions about Grama, we talked about our kids and, of course, quiltmaking!
Much too soon, we had to go to the quilt store. 😉 We could have talked for a long time.
Quilts on the wall
Candy’s Quiltworks is a big shop. In the picture above, you can see that there is one of those rolling doors like auto garages have. The walls were cinder block, which is odd to a girl from earthquake country. I assume it is reinforced, but in an earthquake, I think I would run outside.
None of the above has anything to do with the shop. Candy’s has over 10,000 bolts of fabric, at least according to one of the clerks. I believe it. Their entire front wall and one side was filled with bolts of batiks. One entire side wall was tone on tone fabrics. The middle was filled with different lines of fabric, mostly together, as well as an aisle of blacks on whites and whites on blacks.
The quilts in the photo above are two of the sample quilts they had hanging. I thought there was a lot more space for samples, but perhaps they were in between hangings? The one with the white background looked like it could be a Jelly Roll quilt. I thought it looked like an updated log cabin version.
Notions wall
This is part of the Notions area. They focused on Creative Grids rulers (saw a Tumbler and a strip maker as well as others), but also had some specialty rulers from Eleanor Burns.
I didn’t see any Fons & Porter rulers, but they have a wide variety of the Marti Michell rotary template sets and rotary rulers such as the 60 degree triangle rulers. I also saw the Clear Angle ruler needed to cut the hexagons in that strip piecing method I used (originally on Little Bluebell’s blog) a few years ago for the Attack of the Hexies quilt.
This is also where they keep their sale fabrics – $5.99/yard. Can you believe how many bolts of sale fabrics they have? I didn’t really do more than glance at them, but it seemed like a lot of novelty prints.
Books and Such
The shop had these racks of books all over the store. I wasn’t in the market for any books today, so I only took a quick look at them. From what I saw, they were a little off the beaten path. It was an interesting mix of books and I think you would find some interesting titles. I think it would have been a little difficult to find a specific book.
There were a wide variety of panel projects hanging all over the store. In the photo with the books you can see some Halloween panels (the one with the pumpkin looks like it has a Halloween bunting as well), a gingerbread house panel. I saw panels from which you could make aprons and other small accessories.
These things are hard to display. I don’t see them in quilt shops up north, so I don’t know if they sell or not. I got one as part of a pack when I bought the fabric to make the Frosted Stars quilt. I thought it was fairly hideous, but I used it for the back anyway. This was a good way to display them as shoppers couldn’t avoid seeing them. The annoying thing was that we had to hold them out of the way for each other so we could see the fabric.
In another area, I saw Aurifil thread, mostly in neutrals. I saw a HUGE selection of DMC floss.
Tone-on-tone wall
TFQ and I have been lamenting the lack of tone-on-tones now that solids have returned with force and bold modern prints are such the rage. I love solids, but sometimes you need a good tone-on-tone to add interest to your fabric selections.
Candy’s has you covered. This is a picture of HALF the wall of tone-on-tones. It looked like they had every tone, shade and hue of tone-on-tone imaginable there. I was very disappointed that I didn’t need to buy some tone-on-tones to fill in for a project.
Near different groups of fabrics, the staff has posted patterns and pamphlets with different ideas for quilts, bags and small accessories as well as baby projects.
You can see a little peek on the top of the bolt shelves of other stuff. The tops of the shelving were stuffed with different things: Jelly Rolls, patterns, kits for handbags (we saw some by Riley Blake that had everything you needed to go home and start sewing a gift.), fat quarter packs, though not a lot, and a multitude of other stuff that I can’t even remember.
Batik wall (front)
I don’t think I have ever seen this many batiks in one place. It was an amazing number of batiks.
I don’t like those kind of shelves, normally, but in this case I think it worked well for two reasons: 1) the aisle was big enough to so I could get far enough back to see the different shades and tones; and 2) there were a lot of bolts of batik fabric.
I was kind of looking for a background for the Russian Rubix. I was thinking of a white with some grey on it. Shockingly, we didn’t find any of those colors. There didn’t seem to be any white batiks at all.
Rows and rows of fabric
I really could have bought a piece of almost every one of these batiks. I am really noticing how they glow in projects near regular quilting cotton.
On top of the shelves, you can see more of the samples and projects.
I have never seen as many novelty fabrics in one place. They had as many junk food fabrics as a person could wish for. I saw some of the RJR food fabrics and was tempted for the other two food quilts I want to make, but refrained.
We saw a ton of baby fabric. Susan noticed the American Jane Punctuation fabric and several other lines from a few years ago. They might be worth calling if you are looking for something out of print.
There was a whole aisle of Asian fabrics.
We really had a short amount of time to visit this store, so I wasn’t able to look in detail at all of the fabric. It will definitely be worth another trip.
Actually I may not have seen this much fabric in one place in California ever. I have seen this much fabric in one place in Lancaster County Pennsylvania.
Patterns and Pink
This is a shot from the restroom across the store to the opposite wall. The back door, where we entered would be to your left if you were in the store.
In the area to the left of that rounder of pink were all of their charm packs. there were piles of Jelly Rolls that were just the beginning of the Jelly Roll Extravaganza (not to leave out Anthropologie strips and Bali Pops) available at Candy’s.
They also had patterns galore in that rack and all over the store.
The store was a bit messy. I think it is hard when there is so much inventory. All in all, though, worth the trip. As I said, I would go there again.
Vital Statistics:
Candy’s Quiltworks
8549 Reseda Blvd
Northridge, California
(818) 349-7397
(between Napa and Chase)
There is no sign in front and the windows are tinted black. We went around and parked in back, but found out that there was a front door later.
Why Should You Care: you might have to travel to Northridge someday. This would be a great shop to visit if you need to get away from a conference or a little too much family for a few minutes.
I have mentioned The Quilting Loft in other posts, but it doesn’t look like I have done a full on review of the shop. I am much more organized now than I used to be (and I have done no sewing to tell you about!), so you get a review of this shop as well as the ones you have already about this week. 😉
TFQ and I walked down to the Quilting Loft, after visiting the Farmer’s Market. TQL has moved to a new space, though is still in Ballard, just across and down the street a bit from its old location.
Quilting Loft, patterns area
The new location is larger and has much more light. They still have that honey colored wood, which seems very popular in Seattle. I wouldn’t use it if I had a shop, but they may have no choice due to built-ins or landlord requirements.
The patterns area is to the right as you walk into the store. It looks very similar to the patterns area at their previous location.
Quilting Loft
To the left of the photo above is little sofa and some modern displays of samples and fabrics.
Quilting Loft
Same view, but you can see a little to the left of this modern area as well.
Quilting Loft
Detail of the quilt you can see in the photo above. The sunlight makes the quilt glow and I like the variety of fabrics.
Quilting Loft, over the front counter
I couldn’t get very good pictures of the front counter, because one of the ladies working kindly allowed me to photograph the shop as long as I didn’t take any photos of her.
Quilting Loft
View from the front counter.
Quilting Loft
The shop has a nice selection of solids.
Quilting Loft
The notions area is at the back of the store. Wonder Clips (one of the world’s best notions!!!) seem to be hard to find in Seattle, but the Quilting Loft had them in the small and large (50) packs.
Quilting Loft
This is a detail of the Spiderweb quilt in the notions photo. They have emphasized the center pieces, which make this quilt look more like a propeller or X. The different coloration may give the pattern a different name as well. There is also a bit of sashing, which changes the look further.
Quilting Loft
The shop makes good use of the top of the fabric shelves. We found a lot of pre-cuts and samples as well as patterns up there.
Quilting Loft
Not only did the shop have quilt patterns, but also patterns for dresses, baby items, accessories, placemats and coasters, etc. They have that Amish Block of the Month that I like so much. I resisted the continuing temptation to buy into the BOM madness. 😉
Amish BOM
The Quilting Loft
Address: 2622 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107
Phone:(206) 706-0445
Hours: Monday hours 10:00 am–6:00 pm Website Blog
