Stonehenge by Northcott

I love fabric.  :-)   Heh .. try saying that without smiling. :-)

Yesterday, the Pirate family had an Adventure (nope, no webpage or blog about it) to Columbia State Park (in California) which is a historic gold mining town preserved to the 1850's era.  Our middle daughter has an out of state friend staying with us for the week and this Adventure was to show her one of the places that our family enjoys visiting.  One of the private shops in town (used to be) a Dry Goods, which stocked Civil War Reproduction fabrics.  Yes, I know that the Civil War is after the 1850's but in this case, it's "close enough". :-)  (The Dry Goods store recently relocated just outside the park boundaries, in Columbia town proper).

And while I love fabric, Civil War era fabrics just don't float my boat.  So, I am not in the least tempted by them. That's why there's no post about Columbia State Park.

BUT .. on the way to Columbia, if you take Highway 120, you go through the sleepy little farming town of Oakdale.  On the main thoroughfare (Highway 120) is a quilt shop.  :-)   I casually mentioned this to Mr. Pirate, rather facetiously.  I had no intention of stopping or shopping there ... I have enough fabric in my stash right now to work with.  But Mr. Pirate insisted (Really.  He did.  Insist.) that Oakdale would be an appropriate time to stop & stretch our legs, for him to get a cup of coffee, etc, etc, etc.  So we did. 

Quilter's Cabin is a DELIGHTFUL log cabin, absolutely *stuffed* with fabric.  You can hardly walk between the aisles.  You definitely could NOT maneuver a stroller between them.  The picture to the left of Quilter's Cabin is not good quality because it's from Google street view .... *I* didn't think about taking a picture of the place for myself.  My bad.

Since all 5 of us trooped into the store and used their bathroom, I felt compelled to buy something in return.

Since our Adventure involved a Road Trip, I naturally brought along my Forever Project box so I could do handwork along the way.  Unfortunately, I neglected to pack in a thimble.  Fortunately, Quilter's Cabin stocked the soft leather thimble I normally use but I spotted a new product, W'nder Thimble, on the rack and decided to try that one instead.

This thimble is made from a VERY VERY thin, flexible plastic material.  It fits snugly on my finger tip yet doesn't feel confining.  Upon using it, I discovered that the tip of the thimble is smooth and the eye of the needle tended to slip off the surface.  (Since then I found out that they have another version, called the Diamond Thimble that has ridged cross-hatching to prevent that very thing from happening .. but Quilter's Cabin didn't stock that version.).  To solve this annoying situation, I simply stuck a small piece of stick-back Velcro (which Mr. Pirate happened to have in the vehicle) to the tip of the thimble.   It worked well, although my silk thread does have a tendency to get trapped in the fuzzy Velcro. :-)

Youngest daughter is currently enamored of cute, girly aprons.  (Since I cook only under duress, *I* have no need of aprons!)  We found this awesome dessert fabric, "Chocolate Lovers", by Studio E Fabrics which will be made into an apron at some point.

But the piece de resistance .. the SCORE of the day was Northcott's new Stonehenge line.  Oh. My. Goodness.  This stuff is g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s.   I normally don't buy fat quarters or jelly rolls or cake layers or bali pops or any of the pre-cuts ... they just don't (at this time) fit in with the way I use fabric or the patterns that I use.

HOWEVER, the bolts that Quilter's Cabin had in stock were just So Luscious that I could not POSSIBLY decide which ones to take home with me.  I buckled and bought a 'Stone Roll' .. a collection of 18 fat quarters in cool tones.  The picture to the right is the rolled up fabrics.  ::Sigh::  they are sooooo pretty!

and there they are laid out flat.  They are absolutely PERFECT blenders and I looooooooooooooooooooooooooove them.  :-)

I have NO idea how I will be using them but some idea will be formulated .... at some point. :-)




I don't think that Mr. Pirate ever got his cup of coffee.  :-)