The Quilted Angel

After a few days of drinking wine, eating chocolate & eating local cheeses, we decided to change things up a bit a went to visit Petaluma, California. This basis of this trip was a visit to the The Quilted Angel. The drive from Sonoma was extremely beautiful: endless fields of vineyards, cows enjoying being out in the pasture, hilly dry lands.
When we arrived in Petaluma, we entered via a more industrial area. There were some incredible buildings old brick buildings that had been carefully restore with ivy growing on the side. Other buildings still stand tallbut have certainly seen better days. Just a few moments later, we arrived at the Quilted Angel. The building itself was welcoming but did not seem large. How much fabric could they really have? From the outside, the building looked too narrow to hold much. Oh well, I thought. At least it would be a quick stop. Gilles decided to wait in the car. Once I started to explore, it felt as the the store was growing by leaps and bounds. The store seemed to go on forever. So many fabrics, so little time. Towards the middle of the store, there is a large classroom. It looked like it would be a lot of fun to take a class here. Their selection of books and patterns are amazing. They have pretty anything you could want or imagine. There were many things that I had not seen before.
Definitely worth a visit. At one point, Gilles came in thinking the shop had swalowed me alive. Almost, but not quite :) The ladies in the shop were lovely with him asking if he needed any help. When I called out to him, they all sighed a sigh of understanding what this goofball was doing in the shop.
I forgot to mention that we stayed at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission. Quite frankly it is amazing we went anywhere since the resort was fantastic.

SugarPineQuiltShop

Linda and I had the day for ourselves. Gilles dropped at the 70mile mark of Western States. While not being able to complete the race after anticipating running the race for 2 years (last year's race was canceled due to forest fires. Needless to say, Gilles wanted to rest which meant more quilt shop hopping for Linda and I.
Sunday in the Auburn, California area is a bit of a challenge to find a quilt store open. After combing the yellow pages, we found The Sugar Pine Quilt Shop in Grass Valley, California. They don't have a website. They are 25 miles north of Auburn. How good could it really be? We called and they were open on but they were open on Sunday. As Linda stated, We could drive around the countryside or sit in the hotel and stare at each other since it was 112 degrees.
When we arrived, we were pleasantly greeted by a nice shady parking lot and a welcoming house tuned quilt shop. Ok, maybe not everyday is a shady parking lot a plus, but on this day...
Anyway, back to the store, I was amazed and the amount of stuff that she carried in each room of this house. A few items I had seen before, but many were completely new to me. Best of all, there were lots of quilts gracing the walls. Loads of inspiration, ideas. The owner was very helpful with all our questions. It never felt like she was trying to sell, but rather enlighten. There were hand and fusible appliqué quilts, traditional quilts, Helene Knott's Garden Patch Cats series and so much more. There was also an incredible array of fabrics lines: Amy Butler, Moda, Michael Miller, Kaffe Fassett, FreeSpirit to name a few.

I was able to take a few pics in the store as long as I did not take a pic of the owner (fair enough).The owner also went to the back before we left to get a pattern of a quilt that was hanging on the wall. It is a simple pattern, but very dynamic with all the bright colors that are so popular these days. Thanks, I look forward to making it one day.

Purchases:

1. Aunt Millie's Garden: 12 Flowering Blocks from Piece O'Cake designs
2. Flowerbed by Sue Spargo
3. 1.5 yards of Michael Miller Birds of Norway
4. 1 yard of some really cool Japanese looking cotton fabric - Dress for Sofia comes to mind
5. 2 yards of Yoki Kokeshi, Alexander Henry
6. 1 yard Amy Butler, 1 yard Free spirit for an embroidery quilt I am working on while we are on the road.

The neat thing, was the care with which the owner folded and packed the fabric. When I commented on it, she merely stated, "they needed to fondle the fabric one more time before it left the shop".

For more pics from the shop: click here