Saturday Stash: A Road Trip and What I Learned

Last weekend I went on another road trip.  Thursday and Friday I attended the Home Machine Quilting Show in Salt Lake City.  I learned as much from visiting with the vendors as I did in the class I took from Dustin Farrell.  Watching the demos of all the new long-arm rulers and templates made me eager to get home to Meggie.

I took the "long way" to Salt Lake, via Colorado's Western Slope.  It really only takes about an hour longer, but somehow it seems  like it takes forever!  Worth the extra time, though:  not only did I get to have lunch with my cousin, I got to visit a wonderful quilt shop in Grand Junction.

Quilters' Corner sports an excellent collection of batiks, along with plenty of reproduction fabrics and quite a few "modern" fabrics.  I will definitely return in August when Colorado Quilt Council meets in Grand Junction.

Here is the first day's stash:

 

That yellow in the upper corner is one of Moda's new Bella Solids, Citrine.

I bought this embroidered block from a company that specializes in patriotic fabrics and images.  The husband of one of my nieces serves on the USS Nebraska submarine.  This might not be the right class of sub, but it's the only submarine fabric I've found:

One  vendor was demonstrating this cool tool to make loading your quilts on the long-arm easier.  Instead of pinning the quilt, quilt back, and batting to the leaders, you slide these tubes into a channel on the leaders and snap the quilt onto the plastic tube.  Can't wait to try these -- loading the quilt onto the machine is my least-favorite part of long-arming!

Here is some red-white-and-blue half-yard pieces I got to make a Quilt of Valor quilt using the "Take 5" method:

I snuck out of the conference Thursday afternoon to visit my favorite Salt Lake area shop, Quilter's Haven in Bountiful.  Quilter's Haven is the one of the only shops I've ever found that carries a good selection of Anthropology fabric.  Plus they were having a Mother's Day sale, 20% off everything!

It's important to have a good stash of Schnibbles and charm packs, just in case one of these is selected for the next "Another Year of Schnibbles" pattern!

Today's post is only the Salt Lake City portion of my Road Trip.  And what I learned?

Keep the receipts with the purchases, so when you blog about your road trip, you'll know where stuff was purchased!



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