Stash -- Road Trip Report

You know it's a good day when you visit not one, but three shops you've never visited before!

My friend and fellow Front Range Modern Quilt Guild member, Chrystal, recently opened a new sewing shop in Loveland, Colorado. Since I resisted attending the Taos Wool Festival with BFF Mary, I took myself on a little road trip to Northern Colorado.

The first stop of the day was Greeley, and a fairly new shop, Sew Downtown. Greeley has recovered from the September floods, and the view of the Front Range is incredible. It was fun to eavesdrop on the Girl Scout (I think) sewing class that was happening in the back of the shop!

Next, a lovely drive through the Colorado countryside to Quilter's Stash in Windsor. I can't show you what I bought because it's for a mystery project. Let's just say I'm well on my way to my "you shop here too often" reward! (Psst -- if you're searching for the bunny with the FabShopHop, Quilter's Stash is a participating shop!)

Totally worth the drive!

"Cotton Candy Sewing Shop" is going to be a big hit, I'm sure. My "acid test" for a quilt shop is "does it have something I can't get anywhere else?" Well, Cotton Candy Sewing Shop has that -- in spades! Cotton Candy carries lines by designers Anna Maria Horner, Heather Ross and other lines from Michael Miller, Art Gallery and Robert Kaufman Fabrics. 

Of course, the shop MUST have one wall painted "cotton candy pink."

Anna Maria Horner -- fabrics not easy to find in Colorado. And fabrics by Free Spirit, also not something a lot of shops here stock.

I failed to ask Chrystal is she is the maker of this stunning quilt -- but look, it has a ribbon from the Larimer County Fair!

Update, Chrystal writes:

My grandma Dorothy made it, so the ribbon is from the Madison county fair in Nebraska. It's a pattern that she said is from a book called Bargello Quilts by Marge Edie but I just looked thru it and I couldn't find a heart pattern like hers, so i don't know how reliable that is. It is machine pieced and hand quilted, and that is her old treadle machine in the picture.

I was so pleased to find some Valorie Wells "Cocoon" voile in my "Japan trip" colors:

I bought one yard of "Effervescence" by Amelia Caruso for Robert Kaufman, just because Amelia is from Ft. Collins, Colorado. I didn't know what to make with it, but looking at her website, I see custom-made bags fashioned from this fun fabric. Score!

And Some Yarn!

Since I was "almost there," I dropped into the Loopy Ewe in Ft. Collins. They were my favorite yarn shop before they moved to Colorado -- now I can visit and fondle the yarn in person.

I recently cast on for a hat pattern called "Wurm" that needed a yarn with long, long color repeats. The yarn I was using was nice, but the repeats aren't long enough to make the stripes. On my last turn around the Loopy shelves, I spied:

Exactly the yarn used in one of the finished hats on Ravelry! This one's for me, baby! (Note: if you don't belong to Ravelry, it's free. Join so you can see this cool pattern!)

When I went to check out, Lynne told me I had a $16 credit -- who knew? Then while she was ringing up my sale, her assistant "dinged" the counter top bell. "That's for you," says Lynne. I won a free Loopy Ewe bag and skein of gorgeous Sweetgeorgiayarn tough love sock yarn. The bag also had some Tootsie Rolls in it, but, umm, they're gone now.

My last stop of the day was at Trelotta on South Broadway. I missed the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild meeting that was held at the shop -- WHAT a mistake! Look at these lovely Liberty prints I scored:

Tomorrow is BOM-Day. I have a new BOM to begin sewing tomorrow, come back and see what it is!

From the desk of your