Thursday, April 16, 2009

Day 2...

and the hopping continues.  We discovered from the first 2 shops we visited on Thursday, the Annual Blue Bonnet Shop Hop was happening the following weekend (Apr 16-19).  So we picked up a shop hop listing and did our own.  By some miracle we actually hit 9 out of 12 (one I had been to previously and didn't need to go again)!

We get up EARLY on Friday to arrive at first shop by 9:00--well, it didn't open until 9:30 - DOH!

Shop #4 - The Quilt Haus, in New Braunfels.

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Very nice shop, in fact we enjoyed the clearance racks here and their selection of charm packs.  The staff seemed not quite awake or something.  When we checked out they seemed to perk up a little.  The selection of overall fabrics was very nice.

Shop #5 - Oak Leaf Quilts, New Braunfels (not part of the Blue Bonnet shop hop)

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Very warm, country, traditional feel to this shop.  Had a very nice selection of baby items.  Lovely feel for an older store fun.  I picked up some on sale sunflower fabrics to make a bag.  I took this picture of a quilt called "Lessons from Mama".  I love the color choices and this was the BOM I hosted last year at Patches Quilting.

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Shop #6 - Seventh Heaven, San Antonio

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Nice selection of patterns.  I did like their selection of patterns the best out of all the shops.  Friendly staff and some good discounted books and fabric.  Purchased several patterns from local quilt artists and hope we can get them in at my shop.

Shop #7 - Las Colchas, San Antonio

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The name means "The Quilts" in Spanish.  I like this shop a lot.  It wasn't "my thing" but the selection of wool, felt, embroidery threads and patterns was large and perfect for the hand work person.  They also carried a large collection of 30's repro and civil war repros.

Shop #8 - Fabric n' Friends, Castroville

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Well, first let me share a little background on Castroville.  When we were station at Kelly AFB in San Antonio (over 22 years ago 87-91) we took the boys to the creek in Castroville and always dreamed of retiring down there.  Now I have a reason to revisit that dream :)  Loved this store, second to Creations, but very "me" choices in fabrics, colors, and batiks.  The owner was very pleasant and catered to us the entire time.  We really enjoyed our visit here.  Granted it's a long drive from Austin, it was worth the trip to explore!

Shop #9 (6th for the day and last one of the day)  Sew Special Quilts, San Antonio

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This is the shop we had the wrong address for the day before.  It wasn't worth stopping in my opinion.  They seemed to be preoccupied with Shop Hop prep work, that we were just not important.  Their pattern selection was very nice and they carried a lot of modern/contemporary fabric lines.  I was bummed when I didn't get a shop pin (80% of shops in Texas has pin---I have collected 13-3 are the Bluebonnet Shop Hop pins, I got one in 2007 as well).

Exhausted we drove back up to Austin to have home made Red Beans & Rice.  Then headed to another Austin experience, the Alamo DraftHouse Cinema.

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We saw LOTRS in 90 minutes...yep, they had comedians host the screening and do monologue while the movie played.  It was sooo wrong and fummy.  A 3 hour moving in 90 minutes---and Anjea was correct, I'll never view the movie again the same way.  It was hilarious!!  Anjea, noticed the floor design:

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We got home around midnight....long day!!  And we planned to be up semi-early on Saturday to hit a few places and sit and sew Saturday afternoon....well, it didn't quite work out that way....more to come later today.....

3 comments:

  1. I like the way Las Colchas looks too.
    Did you do alot of damage on this trip?

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  2. quiltingcindy4/16/2009 8:10 AM

    Oak Leaf Quilts window is very attractive. I love the details you share with us regarding each shop. I love the look of Las Colchas. Can't wait until you start showing the goodies to brought home with you.

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  3. Sigh... reading your Austin posts is really making me miss it! I lived there for 7 years, and moved away nearly 3 years ago now. I did the Bluebonnet Shop Hop every year-- so many of the shops you're showing are familiar. (Creations was always one of my favorites too! And always the most fun to visit on shop hop!) And, oh, Alamo, how I miss you! I once got to do a LOTRS marathon-- all three movies, back-to-back, while being served an 8 course feast. Fabulous! :) It sounds like you had a lot of fun!

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