Road trip...

Every so often my quilt bee gets together and plans a road trip.  This week was just such an occasion.  One of our favorite quilt stores recently moved and we were eager to check out the new location.  Whistle Stop Quilt Shop moved from Selma to Cary, NC and Connie has done a wonderful job setting up the new store.  With her permission, I managed to get a few good pictures of the space...

First up is a quilt she had hanging in the old store.  What a great way to personalize a quilt!

This section of the store is primarily civil war and reproduction fabrics.

Can you see that bundle of fabric on the right hand side, middle shelf?  Here's a closeup...

I really, really liked this bundle of civil war fat quarters - especially all the pinks in it.  I would love to own it, but talked myself out of buying it.  If it's still there when I go next time, I'll know it's meant to be and snap it up.

This store has more room than the old shop and she's gotten in several new lines of fabric including Dominique II, Sunkissed and Buttercup.  She also carries Primitive Muslin.  The link takes you to the page at Fat Quarter Shop where you can get a good look at the colors.  I wouldn't mind having a bolt of each of them in my stash.  (I'd have to win the lottery first though.  And I expect I'd have to buy a ticket before that could happen either.)

She carries quite a number of charm packs too.  And as you may or may not know, I have a bit of a thing for charm packs.

All in all, we were very happy with the new store and wish her all the best with it.

Considering there's another quilt store about 5 minutes away from Whistle Stop, we had to stop by there as well.  It's called Elegant Stitches and isn't only a quilt store, but also carries smocking and heirloom sewing supplies.  I have a good friend who enjoys smocking and buys all her supplies from this store.

They had some adorable clothing samples for kids, like this little dress and pant set...

And I fell in love with this little dress.  It made me wish I knew of a little one I could make it for.

The store carries such a wide variety of items that it's easy to spend a lot of time looking around - and we did.

While we were out, I managed to make a few purchases here and there.  (The operative words are here AND there.)  But I'll wait until I do my stash report to share them.  This post is long enough.  I hope you enjoyed the tour and if you're in the area, you really should stop by both of them.

Until later...

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. 

Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

Busy little bee... (but not sewing)

I feel like I've been SO busy since I returned home. I went to Selma on Monday. Grocery shopping, cleaning and Drs. appointment on Tuesday and hosted quilting at my house today. But the rest of my week is pretty easy (I hope) and I should be able to catch up on some rest and sewing. I intended to post the pictures of my purchases from Whistle Stop earlier but couldn't find the time. I received 2 packages today with some great fabric, but I'll wait until tomorrow to share those with you.

Whistle Stop Quilt Shop in Selma, NC is having a great sale on all their fabric for the 4th of July. I had never been there before and found it to be a beautiful quaint little quilt shop. She had a pretty good variety of fabrics from batiks to CW to 30's to novelty and so on. She had a nice selection of fabric on clearance too. Usually when I see a fabric on clearance, it's immediately obvious why. Not so here! She also carries Triangle Paper! I thank Jan for introducing me to this paper for making HSTs (half-square triangles). Each package lasts for a very long time. I bought 3 sizes to complement the ones Jan picked up for me a while ago. It turns out I already had the 2.5" ones, but that's the size I usually make so they won't go to waste.


I've been collecting fabrics from the Williamsburg Heritage collection by Windham. I first saw them in Plain and Simple and fell in love with them. I picked up a few more at Whistle Stop.


Here's a picture of the ones I already had. Aren't they beautiful? I was so pleased to see that I didn't buy any ones I already had. Sometimes it's difficult to remember. However, if I buy a fabric twice, I must REALLY like it and so need more of it. Right???


She had a pretty nice selection of batiks including this one that I found on clearance (the bottom one). I don't know what I'll use it for, but I love the color variation in it.


And here are the tan/brown and black batiks that I'll use in a quilt together. Susan bought some first, then I picked them up and finally Jan bought a couple as well. The fabrics are actually much richer than appears in the picture.


Well that's it for my purchases in Selma. I spent a lot less than it probably appears because she had really good prices and I tended to buy 1/2 yards of most things. I'm off to pet them for a little while and hopefully to sew in the morning. Until later...