That seemed to me a great reason for a little road trip. I had plans to meet with Kathy B. and my aunt Debbie to discuss programs for the 2016/2017 Table Rock Quilt Guild on Friday so I proposed that we all hop in the car and do our program work in the car. They both thought that was a great idea. I love women who are up for a road trip at the drop of a hat. My mom had to come because a road trip isn't complete without her. She is pretty damned entertaining!!!!!!! So the Chevy Volt was full and we were set. YEE HAW.
We headed out a early and were ready to shop our little hearts out. Now my aunt, my mom and I all have rather huge stashes and no one needs any fabric and we have probably all made resolutions to not buy any more fabric but I figure resolutions are made to be broken and at $6 per yard I meant to break the no more fabric resolution big time. I really like Blue Top Quilt Shop.
It is in a building that was a landmark restaurant for years and is bright and cheery. I spotted a great new fabric line as I walked in the door that was red and turquoise which I need for a new project I want to start this year.
I found some great grays which I need for this project I have had in mind since I started quilting and now that I'm retired I'm going to get it started. Then I had to pick up some green batiks cuz my stash is really light on greens.
The store is well lit and has a great choice of patterns and a wide range of fabric choices. The staff is very friendly and helpful. What more could you ask? Oh did I mention they were having a $6 per yard sale. Mom was happy because they had a great selection of landscape fabric which is her jam and I know Debbie scored some great stuff. Kathy showed great restraint but she bought one or two things as well so I considered the visit a success.
A few days prior, I saw that Bittersweet Quilts had opened a store in downtown Joplin featuring modern fabric, The Fabric Merchant. So we headed to Joplin to check it out. The shop is located in a great old building with tin 12 foot ceilings.
The modern fabric was lovely but I'd just been to a sale so I wasn't really up for $11 and $12 per yard fabric.
This store is worth another visit though.
Had a great lunch at my favorite Joplin restaurant, Woody's Wood Fire Pizza. Love that place. It is just a little hole in the wall but gosh they have great food.
We were heading home and going to stop at The Country Store Quilt Shop but found that it had closed in December. I didn't buy much there the few times I had visited in the past but it is sad to see local shops close especially since Block By Block in Carthage had closed a few years prior.
As we stopped for gas and drinks on the way home, I remembered a shop hop I had been to a few years ago of little shops in the area. I knew P-Dub's was in this shop hop and went to her site to find out the names of the other shops. Tracked down The Thistle in Pierce City and the Quilted Garden in Aurora. We'd have time to visit both,
The Thistle is a small shop in the back of an antique shop in a beautiful old building. They are in the middle of taking over the whole building and should be ready in early March. This is going to be a great little shop. They have some amazing samples of recycled denim jackets and purses. The quilt samples in the shop were wonderful and the prices were good. They didn't have a huge inventory but the fabric they had was very nice and a wide range of styles. I bought a little pad to put under the foot pedal of my sewing machine. Great idea.
Then we were off to Aurora to The Quilted Garden.
I need to add this shop to my regular rotation of shops. The displays are lovely using antiques to house the lovely fabrics.
There were some unique hand embroidery patterns and the samples for their classes were awesome.
If they offer a class for the one block wonder that was on the wall I'm driving over there to take it. It was awesome and the owner said the fabric they started with was pretty ugly.
Not any more. I bought some more turquoise and red fabric. There was a really nice variety of fabric in the shop with some great patterns. The staff was very helpful and some unique samples were on display.
All in all it was a very nice day and the weather was gorgeous, not bad for an early February day.
