my San Diego adventure, pt. 1

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going on my own little quilt shop hop around San Diego. This was on the way to seeing the Indigo Girls at Humphrey’s By the Bay! Let me just say that my husband is awesome. He left work early so that I could have the whole day. I made it to three shops, and then had a couple hours between when the shops closed and when the concert started, so I had a nice dinner at Chipotle (my most favorite place to eat), reading a good book (A Piece of Normal by Sandi Kahn Shelton), and I had plenty of time to get to the show.

My first shop was Quilter’s Cottage in Fallbrook. I LOVE this store. They have expanded and they are chocked full of all kinds of great fabric. Best thing about this stop? It happens to be their big annual sale - at least 25% off everything! I got to say hello to the shop cats, and had a ball chatting with the ladies. The store is divided into great little sections - a baby room, a chabby chic room, a batiks and asians room, tons of patterns, lots of brand new fabric, great samples all over the store. I could spend hours in there.

My second stop was a shop that’s been around for a long time but was new to me - Bits and Pieces in Escondido. What a great shop! Tons of fabric, lots of unique patterns (Mount Redoubt? I’ve never seen those patterns before, but they are really lovely), and they seemed to specialize in embroidery machine stuff - software, threads, etc. I also spied a huge classroom. I got some super cute Alexander Henry fabric there - I think it’s been out for a while, but I’d never seen it before. This cool 3D quilt was hanging in the bathroom. It was beautiful. The best part about that shop was that the lady there (I never got her name) told me how to shir (or smock) and pointed out the elastic that I needed! I got two spools of white elastic. Look forward to a shirred shirt coming soon.

I also went to Amidon Quiltworks in Poway. I didn’t take any pictures in there because I knew from past visits that they’re not crazy about photos of their gorgeous (and trademarked) appliqué quilts. I got a few pieces of fun Western fabrics for dad projects, and eyed a nice book called Home Sweet Home, but I figured I could get it cheaper on Amazon. (Sorry, Amidon!)

I’ll save my concert review for the next post!