Shopping through Scottsdale

We shop hopped all over the greater Phoenix area while we were on vacation in Scottsdale last week.  It was fun to return to several shops we were familiar with, and to discover a few new gems as well.

I scored two gorgeous Christmas panels for $2 at a quilt show held in the Gilbert Historical Museum.  The show was only OK, but the museum was really interesting.  Women gather weekly to hand-quilt on vintage frames.  Their work was awesome.  There was also lots of military memorabilia and historical re-creations of home-life of early Gilbert; plus, the whole downstairs of the museum is devoted to model trains!

Santa Panel

I was totally unable to resist this gorgeous Christmas panel, despite having about five other Christmas panels already, and never having done anything with a single one.  Someday I will; you'll see. lol

Christmas Door Panel

I am also a complete sucker for quilty novelty fabric.  The tote bags I have designed in my head!  Who can resist "Lake Applique" and "Spool Pond"?

Quilt Country Print

A half yard of "Quilt Girl" fabric needed to make Texas its new home too, as well as this cool vintage sewing machine fabric.  I should make something for my Singer-restoring sweetie-pie out of that.

Fabrics my husband made me get

We went back to the Olde World Quilt Shoppe, which is well known for its selection of wools and wool patterns.  I bought enough white (and it is not at all yellow) to make the snowmen in this pattern, as well as in the pattern I bought there last year.

Cool wool and pattern

I fell in love with this pale powder blue silk dupioni at the Bernina Connection.  It will make the most gorgeous needle case holder.  Now I just need to design one and make it.  I have a large collection of wonderful Bohin needles that need a beautiful home.

Pale blue changeable silk

The Bernina Connection also has a terrific selection of batiks.  You know me and batiks.  Despite having a collection sufficient for the creation of several complete Dear Janes, quarter yard cuts of these seven lovelies beckoned me to buy them and bring them home.  So I did.

Batiks and thread

The bottom two batiks come from 3 Dudes Quilt Shop in Phoenix.  I just love the green with the blue streaks - yummy.  I bought the white Isacord at the Bernina Connection.  I have heard what wonderful thread it is, and I have decided to give it a try.  

Apparently I have been living in a hole because I did not know that YLI still sold some of their thread on wooden spools - yes the yellow thread is on an actual wooden spool.  How cool is that?  Quiltz, which we have visited several times, had an excellent selection of YLI thread, each color lovelier than the one before.  It was a hard choice, but I settled on this rich yellow.

My husband was a terrific sport, as usual, and I bought lots of pretty things for not too much money.  All in all it was another fabulous trip to Scottsdale.  (And by the way, Fountain Hills really needs a brick and mortar fabric store.)