thimbles and threads

i've done no sewing since the start of summer, but my summer travels and activities have taken me to a few quilting stops along the way, so that's what i've got to share right now. when i was in utah around the time of my birthday earlier this summer, my sweet aunt barbara (who is only 12 years my senior and a lifelong friend) gave me a day of quilt and family history touring. one of the stops we made was at a shop in draper, ut called thimbles and threads. barbara had looked up shops in the area and thought this best suited my tastes. the selection in the two-story shop was pretty extensive, i must say!

this is a look at half the main room just inside the front door. bright and cheery and friendly. this section was heavy on riley blake and moda fabrics, with some surprising mix-ins of cloud 9, tula pink, amy butler true colors, cotton + steel, amh, a little bit of heather bailey, and lots of other fun picks i cant't even recall now. so while i wouldn't call this an ultra modern shop, it did have great variety and offerings on all ends. there are two more rooms of fabric here. lots and lots of fabric. the shop calls itself "modern traditionalist" and i think that's pretty apt.

lori holt's "farm girl vintage" was all over the place and i noticed on the shop's instagram account that she's been there for book signings and events before. i suspect this is her local quilt shop or at least a frequently visited shop. there were longarm services and a classroom in the basement, too.

when we first got there and i was browsing, i had no desire whatsoever to buy fabric despite all the cute pickings. strange, huh? i think it's just because i've been so out of sewing for a while and i have all this fabric sitting at home that is still begging to be used. i couldn't even think of anything i would actually need or recall what i was working on that might benefit from additional fabrics. then i remembered i always want more red. and it's a good idea to stock up on blenders or low volume given the chance. so i managed to find some things and not pass up a good opportunity to shop in person and support a brick-and-mortar.

probably the thing i was most excited about was finding the wonder wheel, an item useful for adding a 1/4" seam allowance to templates, that's recommended in the quilt lovely book. the staff didn't know they had it but i scanned the gadget wall closely and found it. now maybe i can get some of those cabin quilts started. the little moda reference book looked pretty handy, too.

if i ever get back to sewing once summer is over, i'll let you know just how useful my purchases turn out.

in the meantime, i'm working on three separate tutorials for three quilts, which are close to completion once i get to them: my "cinched" pattern, the "arrow check" pattern, and a work up of how to make a 3 block penny patch quilt since rachel's tutorial only covered the 2 block version.

fall will tell all!
see you soon when the weather gets cozy and life settles in again, if not before.

field trip to craft south

i'm not a girl who gets out much for quilting or sewing events. as much as i'd like to attend a sewing retreat or quilting conference, it's just not practical for me to take the time away from my family for such things at this point in my life. i always admire these events from afar and enjoy them vicariously through others' reports on social media. i try to take in fabric sights when i'm travelling, but i don't travel specifically for my hobby. so imagine my surprise and giddiness when i realized i'd be in nashville, tn on the weekend craft south was opening its doors. i could not believe my luck that i'd be in town the day everyone's fabric design darling, anna maria horner, opened up her lovely, brick and mortar crafters heaven.

vintage record player actually playing vintage vinyls - i wish you could hear it

the space was smaller and more intimate than i'd expected, but it was chock full of goodies, all artfully displayed. i was in town for another event and only had a short time to spare for popping in, so i didn't get to explore very fully. and after i left, i was appalled at the small number of photos i'd taken while there. but i did not leave empty handed.

the whole event was rather low-key. there were refreshments laid out on the table in the fabric section and ms. horner herself was greeting people by the cutting counter. a few of her family members were also wandering around mingling with customers. there wasn't a lot of hype going on, they were letting the beauty of the space and the products speak for themselves, mostly. and from what i could tell most of the customers were local people. it wasn't like being at quilt market or quiltcon with a bunch of super excited fans around. this made me a bit shy, especially with the camera. i felt like i might be the only star-struck fan girl there at the moment. but i played it cool and did not embarrass myself too badly.

the main attraction to me as a quilter was seeing some of amh's recent quilts in person and the fabric section. while there was not a ton of fabric, it was a beautifully curated selection of fine pickings. it almost felt like shopping ms. horner's personal stash of bolts, if that makes any sense. the collection is organized by color family rather than fabric line or designer, which was a new experience for me and makes for some very different shopping. i would see one print from a line and wonder where the others were since that's how i'm used to shopping. not finding them together, i forgot what some of the prints in a range were and didn't look them out. and it wasn't until later that i realized the plaids i had seen mixed in were probably bits of loominous, her latest line. i so wish that line had been presented by itself somewhere!

on the upside, having the fabrics organized by color really helps you not only select based on color but i also found it helped me look at fabrics individually rather than as part of a line or as belonging to a certain designer. you let go of expectations or preconceived notions you had about the designer or line and just see the fabric. it really does help get over the hype factor that comes with some fabrics. once again, i was surprised with how i liked certain fabrics on their own that i hadn't really liked before because i had only viewed them as a line, not as individual prints. really, there is no replacement for seeing fabrics in person.

of course there was plenty of amh on the shelves, as well as fabrics i have never seen on the bolt before - leah duncan, various art gallery designs, heather ross, birch fabrics, and liberty. yes, liberty of london on the bolt. just a few, but all the same, there it was in abundance and in real life. the liberty was on a special shelf of its own behind the cutting counter.

even though everyone else seemed to be mostly browsing i got over my shyness enough to start taking bolts off the shelf for purchasing. the way some people were acting it was like we were supposed to admire and look-but-not-touch because it was all so artfully set out. i decided to indulge in a few quarter yards. as i scanned the shelves with about 7 bolts in my arms, an elderly gentelman and his wife wandered over. "are you going to buy all that?!," he asked? "yes!," i said. "but just pieces of each, of course." i don't think he'd ever seen a fabricholic in shopping action before and he seemed greatly amused.

i picked out some low-volume prints and the dodo bird fabric from liberty's new alice line for my quarter yards, and since i was in house, got some yards of a lovely amh print, "summer totem" from loulouthi, for a backing.

while i was waiting at the fabric counter, mr. horner, canned beverage in hand, casually mosied on by and stopped to comment on my purchases. "you're mr. horner, aren't you?" i asked. "yes, i am. who are you?," he replied, in a friendly and earnest manner, reaching out to shake my hand. just a few minutes before i had seen amh, out of the corner of my eye, greet someone who seemed to be from the industry and i knew there were other people from the community around, so with that in mind i tried to introduce myself as a person-of-the-masses customer, not anyone who he should know. i didn't manage it well at all, getting tongue-tied and a bit confused. "i'm, well, i'm not, i mean, i'm just hydee (last name)," i stammered. holy cow, i was silly! but he was very gracious and pretended he didn't notice at all. we then proceeded to have a pleasant conversation about my fabric purchases, large families (we both have 7 children), and nashville, since he's mostly a native and i lived there in high school. after a few minutes he excused himself to go put a record on the record player.

juliana horner, their eldest daughter and creative genius in her own right, was also there, with colorful, pixie-styled hair, helping customers find things. after chatting with mr. horner, i decided i should just go say hello to The Lady herself once my fabric was all cut. i know she's used to it, so i was even going to ask if i could take a photo with her. to my dismay, shortly before i was ready to go, she disappeared into the back to take a break. my time was up and i wasn't fan girl enough to barge into her break time, so i left without speaking to her.

the whole experience was a little surreal, like walking into a book i've read before, and having it be alive all around you. but at the same time it was very down-to-earth, warm and inviting at the shop. it's located in a lovely neighborhood of nashville i'd never been in before. i believe it's called 12 South. that's the road it's off of anyway. there are several unique shops and eateries all within walking distance. most notable to me was a jeni's splendid ice creams scoop shop, home of the absolute best ice cream i've ever had in my life. seriously. i didn't get back to craft south the rest of the trip, but my travel companions gladly accompanied me to jeni's twice more in the four days we were there. nashville is lucky enough to have three locations.

jeni's nashville 12 south location

 darkest chocolate was my absolute favorite - the best chocolate ice cream i've ever had. i tried most of the flavors because they'll let you sample all of them if you'd like, and thought they were all great but the darkest chocolate and passion fruit were my favorites. jeni is pretty smart and offers mini scoops so you can get a bit of everything if you'd like. on my second visit i got a 4-scoop sampler. delicious!

 the 12 South area has lots of small, charming old homes, some of which have been turned into businesses. it was pleasurable to drive around and look at them. i wish i knew more of their history, time period, or even the name of the architectural style prevalent in the area. even in my ignorance, i could enjoy looking at them, nestled into all the growing greenery as they lined the gently rolling streets.

jeni's round three, two mini scoops, this time with a sugar cone

after my visit to craft south (and jeni's, of course) i was ready to move back to nashville. it's such a nice, quirky town with so much distinct flavor. but since moving is not in the cards for me anytime soon, i'll have to settle for trying to capture this in a quilt somehow. thank goodness for online orders to help me fill in the gaps whenever i need to. like that loominous collection i missed.

savannah

 i missed quiltcon 2015. did you? i flirted with the idea of going, but i just couldn't justify being gone for it. not now, not at this point in my life and my children's lives. that's totally a personal decision and i was ok with it. but when the photos started pouring in to instagram and i realized how many of my favorite internet quilty people were there, not to mention that it was in austin, one of my very favorite cities i ever lived in, i may have regretted that choice just a little bit. especially missing the gee's bend ladies! however, austin quiltcon is all water under the bridge, memories for those who went or didn't.

i looked up the next dates for upcoming quiltcons and was excited to see that the 2017 show is in savannah, ga. i've heard all kinds of good, romantic things about savannah, but inspite of having lived in the south several times and the state of georgia twice, i've never been there. quiltcon seemed like a good excuse/opportunity to go in a few years and check the place out. i was talking about the missed austin conference and the upcoming savannah one with my husband. he said, "great! you should go. i'll come with you. you can do your quilt stuff during the day and hang out with me at night." um, that's not how it works, hon. quiltcon is for being with your quiltly people all day and night.

fortunately for me, he took me to savannah for our 20th anniversary this spring instead. whew! and i have to tell you, savannah is amazing. we were there for the beginning of azalea season, so blooms were just starting to pop up all town. savannah is built around 24 sqaures, which are kind of like parks in the center of the blocks, in a grid pattern. it's very walkable and incredibly pretty.

i'm sharing a few shots i took around town in case you were thinking of going to quiltcon 2017 and need some incentive beyond quilts. here follows some sightseeing photos i took and a bit about some savannah sewing spots as well.

 personally, i just loved all the colors and natural textures everywhere on all the architectural features and structures.

 savannah is a city of churches. this catholic cathedral had some incredible stained glass inside. we visited this one and several historic homes open for tour, also.

there are a variety of architectural styles preserved through out the city.

 and there are some pretty good eats - like the ice cream sandwiches at byrd cookie company. the cookies are famous, but we went right for the cookies with ice cream combo. they were perfectly sized and utterly delicious.

 the highlight of the trip may have been lunch at the wilkes house. our first day there, i kept noticing poeple coming out of a street level entrance, which was curious because most of the main entrances are on the second floor. one of the patrons explained to us they'd just eaten lunch at the wilkes house. lunch is served, boarding house style, daily from 11am to 2pm. you have to line up outside and wait to be seated at a table for 10 with whoever is next to you in line. a typical wait is about 30 minutes. there are 20+ dishes of authentic southern home cooking served up to the table, followed by dessert. $20 a person, cash only. we were assured it was really great food and worth the wait.

the next day, we tried it out, waiting in the rain with a larger-than-normal crowd (which had started to gather for st. patty's day the next week. another story.) my husband is in the above photo, at the rear with the black and rainbow striped umbrella.

 we were a bit afraid this was mostly hype, just an experience you had to have if you went to savannah, with mediocre food. fortunately we were dead wrong! it was so completely delicious, every last dish. if you do quiltcon 2017, you had better make time in your schedule for lunch at mrs. wilkes or you will have missed one of the finest institutions of southern cooking on the planet.

ok, ok, you're thinking. architecture and great food. fine. but we're quilters and fabric lovers. well, savannah has that too! i was on my anniversary trip, but the mr was very nice about letting me do some fabric shopping when the chance occurred. unfortunately for me, the luck of the irish was being spent elsewhere during that holiday season. no kidding, the very first shop we passed on the street after we parked our car the first day was a fabric shop. he said i could go in, but that seemed the wrong way to start our romancing, so i told him it could wait til later. later that day, i noticed another store, but we were in a hurry to get to our anniversary dinner, so i let that one pass, too.

the next day we were out and about, i was ready for some fabric shopping.  fabrika fine fabrics is in downtown proper, pretty close to byrd cookies, if i remember correctly. a peek in the windows had me drooling. it's a wonderful looking shop.

 unfortunately, window peeking is all i got. they had just closed down for the st. patrick's day weekend. i was crushed.

 apparently savannah is the second largest st. patrick's day gathering in the united states. it's rather like mardi gras. the streets get closed down to auto traffic and the party gets big. we were there the week before the holiday and things were already getting plenty green and crowded. they city even "greens" the fountains, shown above. i guess the local merchants not in the party business are wise to this and they simply close shop. if i'd known this, i would have taken the husband up on the fabric shopping offer the first day instead of being such a noble, self-sacrificing wife.

 the first shop i had seen on the first day, measure - a fabric parlor, was closed also when i tried it the second time. i couldn't believe my bad luck! both shops were open the first day and closed when i went back.

measure had some very cute window displays with some fun fabric projects and vintage items in the window displays, but i couldn't see any more than that. looking at the site on-line i can tell i missed out! (they have an etsy shop, and ig account, too.)

so, yeah, i didn't come home with any fabric for a 20th anniversary commemorative quilt or anything like that. but i will definitely be going back to savannah. maybe for quiltcon 2017.

anyone thinking of being there, too?

prairie city gem

tucked in on main street

one of my daydreams of travelling by car through so much of the country was to stop at quilt stores along the way and maybe even find hidden treasures, lines of fabric sold out everywhere else long ago but tucked in a corner of a store in an out-of-the-way place. maybe some meadow dot for me or parisville for liz.

decorative painted quilt block at the front door

the first stop i got to make came as we were wending our way from Utah to central Oregon. we were going from aspen grove family camp to a reunion at sunriver in Oregon. it took all day long. any trip for our family can be counted on to require a few extra hours. there were lots of interesting and inviting sights along the way, but we had to cover a lot of ground and couldn't stop.

finally, we were making a pit stop in the very cute little town of Prairie City. while the kids played in the park and took a potty break, i noticed a shop on the main street across from us that said "quilts." without telling the mr. or anyone else, i grabbed the 5 yr old's hand and ran across the street. i wasn't sure if it was a gift shop or an actual quilting shop until i got inside.

on the design wall

 what i found was the heart of a small but thriving quilting community in rural Oregon, quilts & beyond, etc. the owner told me they had a guild of about 25 members, which i found quite impressive considering there weren't that many buildings in town. the tiny shop was crammed full of bolts of quilting fabric with a mostly traditional flavor as well as a back room for classes and guild meetings.

 i hadn't brought my camera or even my wallet with me, but i ran back to the car to get both. and to tell the mr. where we'd gone. the shop was about to close, but they were kind and chatty with me, as quilt folk will be. they let me take a few photos. i didn't have the time or lighting to do justice to the samples i photographed. i hope they'll forgive me!

 the owner, marci, is also into Brazilian embroidery, which i'd never heard of before. it's much more three dimensional than traditional embroidery. you can't tell well from the photo of the humming birds, but the individual feathers on the wings are quite raised from the canvas. it was beautiful and i wish i'd had more time to learn about it.

 my little charmer i'd brought with me lucked out. they were having a "Christmas in july" sale and giving away sewing kits to every 10th customer. when my daughter begged me for a pair of snips similar to some I already own, they gave her one of the kits, which included some of the snips. and we hadn't even bought anything yet, nor do i believe we were a 10th anything. quilt people really are so generous! this kit provided entertainment through out the trip and prompted many pleas to sew.

i did pick out a few fat quarters and a bit of yardage from their collection, but the kit they gave her far outweighed my purchase in value. it was truly very kind of them. when my other girls popped in to see the shop and did not get a kit offered them, my little stinker said, "i guess i'm just the cutest."

 

d5 gives quilts and beyond shop a thimbled thumbs up!

soho, purl and makie

 the mr. and i took an 18th anniversary trip early this month to nyc. we've been there once before, nearly 15 years ago when i was 6 months pregnant with our first. we went on a whim for 2 nights with no real idea what we were doing. that was a fun trip and opened my eyes to why everyone loved new york so much, an affinity i could never fathom until i'd been there.

fast forward to this trip and we had lots and lots of ideas of what to do. one of my secret wishes was to visit purl soho in real life. i've ordered from them once or twice and dreamed of browsing through in person, but knew better than to suggest we spend any of our precious trip time in a fabric shop. especially since i didn't think we'd be anywhere close to it on our planned travels.

however, when the mr. said he wanted to check out soho's ironwork district and find lunch there, i saw my opportunity. "do you think maybe, if we happen by it, i could pop into this shop i've always wanted to see?" he actually said yes! when we exited the subway in soho, i googled purl and it was .3 miles away. after lunch (and a lot of reorienting ourselves with our phone maps) we managed to find purl.

as the name would indicate, it's primarily a knitting shop. however, they do have a selection of fabrics (wool felts, linens, liberty of london, organic and imported cottons, etc) that is nothing like what's available to me locally on the almost-west coast.

i am not, nor will i ever be, a knitter. but their cute little gal sitting at the counter by the door spinning yarn and their mouthwatering selection did sorely tempt me. even the mr. saw a sample or two that he deemed, "cute - very cute, actually," almost in a "why don't you make one of these?" way. he was such a good sport that he took the camera from me and unasked, photographed me in the shop.

oh, yes, i was walking around with that sappy smile on my face. these are totally candid shots he took. what a sweetheart! after taking a few snaps of me, he said he was going to check out the place next door. i was alone and free at last! no hubby hanging over my shoulder questioning what i might pick up or purchase. 

 i thought about how much daughter#1 would have loved these hand puppet kits, but at $18 a kit, i knew she could just as well make up her own original softie, probably even just by looking at the photos.

 box of shiny flosses and some lovely mixed-color mettzler threads unlike any i'd seen before.

there were even a few quilt samples on the wall. purl offers classes by the likes of heather ross and denyse schmidt. maybe next time we go (the mr. wants to make it an annual trip now) i can arrange for a class. that would be dreamy.

this basket of vintage-looking offerings caught my eye. i thought they must be finds from old linens. but when i turned one over, i thought, "of course!" liberty of london 1/2 yards. just gorgeous and soooo many choices. i selected only 3, due to the cost, then kept browsing. my picks: mirabelle f, poppy and daisy j, betsey a. i'd been inspired by some adorable softies i'd seen in another soho window while hunting down lunch and thought these might be perfect for softie bits.

 next i spied the scrap bags - another perfect softie find. i really loved that blue bag on the left, but decided on the reds because it had some neutrals in it that would make good softie faces or limbs. i was looking at that bag of oranges and yellows in the front when my mr. walked back in, completely surprising and flustering me. i'm not sure i meant to buy both scrap bags, but i was unnerved at seeing him again so soon. he'd been gone all of 5 minutes and i already had an armload of fabric. he was bored and i needed to get moving, so i made my way to the front to pay before he could object or look too closely at what i was holding. unfortunately, he also walked up to the register with me and heard the total. i had to remind him that i hadn't even hinted at wanting anything at tiffany's the day before and that i really would prefer fabric from soho. he got over it quickly enough.

a parting shot from purl: an adorable baby cardigan. sigh. oh, speaking of babies, the one other fabric purchase i made was a set of organic cotton 1/2yrds to make either a quilt or 4sq for the baby we're hoping to expect soon. i didn't photograph it yet: browns, ginghams, elephants, linens. baby but very soho.

the other shop i mentioned stumbling upon as we tried to get our bearings while searching for lunch was this tiny gem:

just an itty bitty storefront window display and a white door. but the dangling softies were what caught my eye. i am still a sucker for softies and these were as handmade charming as they come.
i was stopped dead in my tracks. the mr. was half a block ahead and turning the corner before he realized i wasn't keeping pace.

looking down below the softies, there were some lovely fresh flowers and a small but sophisticated selection of handmade baby items. the whole scene just oozed newborn softness and elegance.

 the bunny lady was my favorite. i think she might have liberty ears. see why i was inspired by those 1/2yds and scrap bags? i neither wanted to or needed to spend $85 for a softie when i could make my own souvenir from soho.

 the mr. backtracked to me and admired the 100% cotton fur booties while i drooled over the silver polka dotted bib. he offered to go inside but i knew that was pointless. i'd fall in love with some $100+ baby item and want it for our daughter. better just to dream from the window and photograph.

i stepped back to see the name of the boutique, then searched the front over a minute before finding this one small hint hanging from twine in the door window:

MAKIE. and nothing else but the address and website. oh, yes, a website. so now you can browse and drool, too. without hopping a plane to soho or even leaving your home screen. enjoy!