Category Archives: Quilt Stores

Creative Quilting, Wheeler, OR

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After Quilt Camp at Twin Rocks (OR), my friend Nancy Watts and I headed north up the coast to explore and enjoy the quilt shops. There is a delightful store in Wheeler, Creative Fabrics, housed in the Old Wheeler Hotel building complete with a Quilt Trail (see earlier blog) painted quilt block. Wheeler is a tiny seaside community of about 350 in a beautiful spot about 25 miles north of Tillamook.

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The staff were friendly and welcoming. They had an impressive selection of marine themed fabrics and unusual prints as well as a good number of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

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This lovely tree quilt was hanging in the back corridor leading to the restrooms and an adjacent store. The pattern was a free download from Moda with their Figgy Pudding fabric line. In addition to all the fabric, there was a good selection notions and patterns.

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This store is definitely worth the stop and there are also eateries and nice gift shops in Wheeler too.

 

Jane’s Fabric Patch, Tillamook, OR

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I always enjoy the opportunity to visit quilting shops on my travels. On the way to Quilt Camp (see my previous blog), I visited Jane’s Fabric Patch in Tillamook, owned by Jane Wise our fearless Quilt Camp leader and organizer. This bright pink building certainly stands out! Jane is definitely into pink!

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Inside, there is a cheerful atmosphere and the employees clearly enjoy working there. Everyone was excited about Quilt Camp about to begin and most of the customers that day were on their way to Camp. There are multiple rooms with an amazing quantity of fabrics, notions, books and patterns. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you discover another corner where there is even more…

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Here’s the book and pattern nook and the large classroom.

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Great fun and well worth a visit along with other attractions in Tillamook such as The Cheese Factory with delicious ice cream and the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center.

Teaching at Fabric D’eva, La Conner, WA

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Last month I did a one day trip to La Conner to teach at the relatively new fabric store, Fabric D’eva. La Conner is a picturesque town by the Skagit river with an excellent bakery, boutiques and artsy shops.

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In addition, it is the home of the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum, which as I’ve written before, is a wonderful place to go. Their Quilt and Fiber Arts Festival with a large quilt show as well as exhibits at the Museum on 4th-6th October is not to be missed. While you are in La Conner for the Festival, take a walk along the main street and check out the quilt store, Fabric D’eva.

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The Skagit Valley is well known for the bulb fields which are ablaze with color in the spring. First the daffodils, and then a whole array of tulips. The have a tulip festival every April to celebrate. Fabric D’eva has a great selection of daffodil and tulip fabrics. They also have a whole shelf of fruit and vegetable fabrics as well a wide selection of other goodies.

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The classroom and some of the fabrics are upstairs. Here’s the fantastic fish quilt hanging by the stairway and the view looking down from the top.

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Seven is about the maximum you can squeeze in for classes. We had a full contingent for my Op-Art Kaleidoscope technique and it was a great day.

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I’ll be back in the area very soon, attending Quilt Festival on Sunday 6th and then lecturing for the Fidalgo Island Quilters on 7th October and teaching my Bargello class at In Stitches Quilt Shoppe in Anacortes on 8th October.

Western Washington Shop Hop

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June 19th to June 23rd is a crazy time for quilters in Western Washington. Many go on the annual Shop Hop and drive hundreds of miles to visit all or some of the participating 52 quilt shops. They travel from Vancouver, just across the river from Portland, OR, all the way up the I-5 corridor to Lynden which is practically in Canada, then out west as far as Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula. Each shop designs a special quilt block to give away with one piece of Shop Hop theme fabric, one coordinating fabric, and a fabric of the shop’s choosing.

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The poster shows a quilt containing all the quilt blocks created by the stores, with the theme fabric in the border. This colorful floral fabric was designed especially for the Shop Hop by In The Beginning Fabrics and the coordinating fabrics come from Clothworks Textiles.

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The left picture shows the coordinating prints, and the block with appliqued hexagons designed by Quilted Strait, Port Gamble. The palm tree block on the right was designed by Esther’s Fabrics, Bainbridge Island. I’ll be spending today, (Friday, 21st June), at Quilted Strait demonstrating my template-free Kaleidoscope and Bargello block techniques.  Quilted Strait, this wonderful store in a spacious red barn, is my home base for teaching and they hang several of my quilts in the store on a rotational basis, to promote classes and pattern sales. In these pictures you can see the Ohio Star Lattice – Harvest Stars, my Feathered Star quilt – Brideshead Radiance, and one of my Kaleidoscope Puzzle Quilt – Arctic Spring. 

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Visit to The Quilt Barn, Puyallup

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A few weeks ago when I was in the Tacoma area, I went to Puyallup and visited the wonderful quilt store, The Quilt Barn.

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The Quilt Barn used to be housed in a red barn, but moved to this larger 6,000 square foot facility a few years ago. Pam Hewitt, owner for 10 years, has a huge inventory of 10,000 bolts of fabric with rows arranged by color, a large section of batiks, and areas with novelty and seasonal prints. The fabric bolts are a colorful feast for the eyes, but in addition, there are many inspiring quilt samples hanging high on the walls where they are nice and visible.

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In the back there is a big classroom with more beautiful quilt samples hanging and Pam offers a wide variety of classes. She also has a long-arm Handi Quilter sewing machine which is available to rent after you’ve taken a training class. In another area, there is a comfortable book nook with couches and lamps so you can settle down for a few minutes to peruse the great selection books and patterns. I love this.

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If you are in the Puyallup area, or you go there for Sew Expo in early March, it’s worth taking some extra time to visit this awesome store.

Visit to Superior Threads, St. George, Utah

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While on vacation in Southern Utah, I stopped at the head quarters of Superior Threads in St. George and owner, Bob Purcell, graciously gave us a tour of the 25,000 square foot facility.

20130424_10285920130423_105254The store with a large selection of fabrics and, of course, plenty of thread is upstairs. Downstairs, there are shelves and shelves of thread, manufactured in Japan and distributed from here.

 

20130423_112834 20130423_105704They stock around 2 million spools of thread and ship orders to customers all over the world.

20130423_105107 20130423_105441Every day, they wind over 3,000 bobbins in a beautiful array of colors. The bobbin winding room is noisy with several machines winding multiple bobbins simultaneously. Once the thread is wound onto the bobbins, each bobbin has to capped with white cardboard top and bottom.

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A guy spends all day placing bobbins into a machine which does this a rate of about one per second. He removes a completed bobbin with his right hand and places the next one to be done with his left hand.

Seeing the array of wonderful threads, fabric and display quilts was inspiring. Do stop by for a visit. No appointment is necessary and the staff are extremely welcoming and friendly.

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Calico Threads – New Quilt Shop in Tacoma

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Last week I went to Tacoma to lecture at Quilters by the Bay. The guild member who hosted me, told me about a new quilt shop that opened about 6 months ago – Calico Threads, located at 2727 N Pearl Street. I had a delightful visit there and the window cleaner was at work when I snapped my photo of the outside of the store!

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Owners Donna Denman and Sandi Pickering were friendly and welcoming. Both have several years of experience working at Quality Sewing & Vacuum stores in the area and have a wealth of knowledge on sewing machines and quilting. They have a good inventory of fabric and notions.

Something I loved about the store was an area with several high quality sewing machines set up and ready for use. Donna and Sandi encourage customers to come and sew in the store, without having to lug machines in and out, and they have frequent “Sew-cials”. They enjoy being able to do some sewing too, if they have a quiet spell between customers.

Do visit the store if you are in the Tacoma area. They will be participating in the Western Washington Shop Hop In June.