Wednesday, 19 June 2013

California, USA Road Trip #2 - Quilt Shop Hops

Before we headed off to the USA, I did a little research on Quilt Shops beforehand, which focussed on a few key resources
  1. Quilt Shop Heaven - an internet Resource which lists Quilt Shops by State, as well as information on Shop Hops
  2. Quilt Shops of the Central Coast , California (Shop Hop, May-June 2013), including quilt shops north of Los Angeles (Ventura, Carpinteria, Orcutt, Grover Beach, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo)
  3. Shop Hop By the Bay, California (Shop Hop 19th-23rd June 2013) includes quilt shops south of San Francisco (Pacific Grove, Cupertino, Morgan Hill, San Mateo, Scotts Valley), Yes, it's this weekend!
  4. Central Kansas Quilt Shop Hop, Kansas (Shop Hop 4th-6th October 2013) includes Hutchinson, Wichita, Yoder, Severy
My timing was such that I didn't actually manage to do any of the official Shop Hops, but along with my loyal friend - the Tom Tom (GPS), the local quilt shop information was invaluable.  I think we visited about 20 shops in all, and I thought I would share with you some of my favourites.

I found that it is really hard to focus on what you want to buy unless you have a project in mind, in fact it can be overwhelming - let's face it, you would buy the whole shop if your could! At first, I did not have a plan, but then I bought a few Quilt Magazines and found inspiration from some of the quilts and colour schemes, which gave me some purposeful direction and excuse to buy more fabric!  I guess it is the same as any other Quilt Shop Hop.


Cotton and Chocolate Quilt Company, Thousand Oaks, California

Cotton and Chocolate Quilt Company, Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
As a taster, this was the first shop we visited as we drove out of Los Angeles. A really great, varied selection and really friendly assistants.  They had lots of cute kits, which is nice to see, especially if you just want a small project, as well as a great book selection.  At this stage I just added some Red and cream fabrics for my Nearly Insane Quilt, as they stocked the Somerset Shirtings range, from Wyndham Fabrics, which I had only seen on the Internet. This shop set the bar high, for the rest of the journey!

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