Road to California Day 2

Well I was on the road out of Amarillo by 6:15 a.m. and it was beautiful to see the sun rise in that big expanse of sky.  It was so pretty seeing the big wind turbines and the sky had this really beautiful haze that was pink on the bottom, then white then blue.  Really lovely.  I've been listening to the Harry Potter book 7 on the drive which really makes the drive more enjoyable.I got to Albuquerque by 10 a.m. just in time for Hip Stitch to open. 

I love this shop.  It is so fun and right up my alley with it's modern fabric like Cotton and Steel and unique patterns like quilters cotton shoe laces!!!!!! Of course I had to buy that pattern.  In fact I spent more in this shop than I have in any of the other shops on this trip.  There isn't a huge selection of fabric but I liked almost everything they had.  There were patterns that I'd never seen before like the laminated Cotton Catch All.  Of course I had to buy that.  Also bought a couple of Cooling Neck Wraps that were already made up.  My daughter doesn't have air conditioning so I figure they will come in handy over the next couple of weeks.

They had this great Halloween fabric with little skeletons.  That I just had to own.  

I spent way too much money in this shop but then Susanne was so nice and the stuff was unique so as all my quilting co-dependants say "YOU HAVE TO BUY IT WHEN YOU SEE IT!!!!"  Plus when I showed her my "Everything in its Place" bag she owwed and ahhed and said she was going to order the patter right away.   Did you know show and tell is my favorite part of quilting.

I asked what other shop I should see in Albuquerque since I only had time for one more before I met my friend Cathy for lunch and Susanne recommended "Quilt Works" and she also handed me a list of all the other quilts shops in the area which she had put together for visitors.  How nice is that?  I already had Quilt Works loaded in the GPS so I was off to my next shop.  I did learn something on this trip.  It really helps if you put all the digits of the address in the GPS,.  If you don't you can be 100 blocks away from your real destination.  Lesson learned.

When I finally arrived at Quilt Works I saw the most beautiful quilt which I think was done by the local guild.

All those hot air balloons are so appropriate for the Albuquerque area because of the big fiesta in October.  I used to be a hot air balloon pilot so I have a special place in my heart for them and the detail on this quilt was amazing!!!!   The children at the bottom were entirely thread painted.  I'm guessing the background fabric was hand dyed.  I hope to be that good at dyeing one day.

Quilt Works was a very nice store.  Much bigger than Hip Stitch with lots of panels and samples hanging all over the place.  The staff was very friendly, in fact I learned a new way to do binding using the purple thang from a gentleman who was just finishing up a beautiful shop hop block quilt.  There was tons of fabric and some really really cute patterns.  

I almost bought my friend Twyla a Helen Hedgehog pattern but then I was pretty sure she already had it so I passed. (I found out later in the day that she did already own it).   If I had been so inclined there was at least one kit and a few patterns I would have bought but I blew my wad at Hip Stitch.  I did get half a yard of cute fabric with bicycles which I just couldn't resist.  Since my daughter is a cyclist, I'm drawn to bicycle fabric.

Next I was off to Jason's Deli for lunch with a friend I made in my ballooning days, Cathy Luenenborg.  It was great to catch up with her and get a couple of hugs.  She is just such an upbeat, inspiring woman.  If I lived in this area, I would want to hang out with her all the time but I would have to get in much better shape since she likes to hike and do all kinds of outdoor stuff.

I stopped in Gallup at their local shop, Gallup Service Mart.  It is a small shop that has some fabric, sewing machines and vacuum cleaners.  They have a very nice selection of Native American, and cowboy fabric and  I was intrigued by this folded Star of David pot holder pattern but I came away from this shop empty handed.  

Back on the road I listened to more Harry Potter until Bre, my daughter, called and we talked for about an hour which really made the drive enjoyable for the last hour.  Finally told her goodbye as I was driving into the hotel parking lot.  A quick burrito for dinner and my day was complete.  2 down 1 to go.