California Shopping

So, of course I can't visit the US without doing some shopping. And San Diego apparently has about a millionty seven quilt shops, of which I was lucky enough to visit three, courtesy of Lynn from delphi forums (she's not really "from" there, but that's where I know her from). Which is not to say I wouldn't have found a quilt shop without her :) but she sure made it easier. We met her at Rosie's, which is quite possibly the largest quilt shop I have ever been in - they kindly let me take a few photos and this is just one tiny corner of the main room - this section is organised by colour (you may have been able to tell). There were other rooms with themes - a civil war repro room, an oriental room, 30s, Christmas, batiks, and so on. I actually found the shop a bit intimidating for browsing, but it's a great shop if you want to match colours or need fabric to a specific theme. I picked up the fabrics I needed for specific things, and then, spotted a nice print I liked, and found several to match it. But it was hard - a bit too much fabric to just wander around and look at.

Anyway, the photo at the top is me and Lynn with the quilt which I made for Twisted Mystery 1 on Quilt Shoppe Forum (where you send in some fabric to the hostess, and get some to make a quilt from without knowing whose you had or who has yours, until the end). Lynn is the hostess for the Twisted Mysteries - I did 1 and 2, passed on 3 (which is happening at the moment) as I felt I was too busy to give it the time it deserved and am looking forward to 4, some time in 2008. As it happened, the fabric I got for TM1 was Lynn's, so she brought the finished quilt so we could have our photo taken with it.



The other good thing about meeting at Rosie's (my stepmom and grandma came along as well) was being able to pick out some fabric to go with Dad's shirts. I realised after taking these photos that the bedspread in the hotel room is really busy, and not the best background for photographing things, but you guys can use your imaginations... The photo at left is the pile of cut up shirts (I counted today - there are 22 different shirts) along with a number of coordinating blue tonal prints, and some backing fabric. My stepmom bought all the fabric for these quilts, which was an added bonus... I will probably add other tonal blues as well, as I think it looks like I am now making 4 quilts from these shirts (there will still be fabric leftover - there were 22 shirts, and they were all XL). One quilt for my stepmom, of course, but her mom wants one, and I'd like one, and I'd like to do one for my brother. I have some design ideas (more on that below), but we'll see what happens...

The photo at the right is the fabric I bought at Rosie's. Some of it is for specific things - the 30s prints for Faye's block for the birthday block swap (I have absolutely NO thirties in my stash), the green batiks for a group quilt with a private group, the orange for the orange block swap on QuiltShoppe Forum, the CW repro for my Dear Jane swap with Cathi, and the Christmas fabrics for, well, Christmas. On the left, the stack of fabrics is my birthday present from DH. Two yards of the print, two of the red and one each of the others. No, I have no specific plans for it, but isn't it pretty?



After lunch at a great Jewish deli with Nancy & Beverley, we split up - they went off to do stuff and Lynn took me to a shop called The Country Loft, which was a beautiful shop in an old house - the house was still house shaped inside (by which I mean, they left all the rooms, even the kitchen, more or less the shape and size they would have been) and they specialised in country and repro fabrics - this was much easier for me to shop in because there are some country lines I really don't like at all, so I only had to look at about half of the fabric - I got these three pretty prints - a bit hard to see the colour here, but they are very muted and the green is a lovely soft green which I adore. I am being a very good girl and putting these aside for a Christmas present. I wish I'd taken photos of the shop - it's really lovely inside. And although it was decorated for Christmas, it somehow didn't look out of place or too early, unlike a lot of other stuff I saw elsewhere. Maybe because country Christmas is a bit more subtle and muted anyway.

Then we went to a shop called Cozy Quilt, which is just about the right size for a shop - you can browse the fabrics with no general idea what you want without being overwhelmed. Not that I wouldn't visit Rosie's again, I sure would, but I would take a list of what specifically to look at. Anyway, Cozy Quilt was great fun, and moreover, had lots of bolts on 50 per cent off sale (my favourite price!) so I bought some more fabric (what else?). Another blue for the shirt quilts, which was among the half price stuff, and a small piece of fabric for each of the kids. The other three were just fabrics I liked the look of, and again, they are going away for Christmas.

And believe it or not, I actually had enough energy to do a little sewing today - I couldn't wait to start playing with the shirts, so I made half a dozen blocks with 6 inch centres and 3" strips around (I've decided I'm going to do 12 inch blocks because that's simpler), and then I made some with 4 patch centres (these have 2 inch strips around instead of three). I think all the blocks I make will have the same basic design - a centre which is either a "solid" shirt fabric or a simple pieced block. I may turn one or two blocks "inside out" as well - that is, a blue centre with shirt print around the outside. The fabric in the shirts doesn't really want to be cut into small pieces - especially the ones with motifs. But I think it's going to work well.