The visit to The Woolen Needle!!

My visit to The*Woolen*Needle was exactly like a kid entering a candy shop and I found myself wanting a little bit of everything I could see!!! The shop is located in Williamsburg, Iowa which is about 25 miles east of Iowa City and just south of the Amana Colonies. I've been to the Amana Colonies a couple of times when visiting my sister so I thought I would venture in a different direction. With my mom out of the hospital and recovering well, Judy (my sister) told me to go ahead and take a couple of hours to go out and do some Christmas shopping and such. She pointed out a couple of shops that I might like and I had already decided, that if there was time while I was in Iowa City, that I would visit The*Woolen*Needle. It was so worth the visit!!! I would show you pictures of the shop and the beautiful wall of wool and other goodies, but in my excitement to get to the shop........I forgot my camera!!! However, I bought some things so let's have "show and tell"..............
There were so many cute gift items and Christmasy things that I bought several items. Most are gifts for family members but I bought that snowman with his sheep because it reminded me of my Yahoo groups. In my Seasons BOM group, I shared my Snowman designs, and then in my Wooly Buddies group, I sign off as the "WB Shepherd" and so this was just perfect to remind me of the joy those groups have brought me this past year (and more to come this next year!). Then there were the cotton fabrics. They were beautiful and lots of designs I had not seen before. I am not sure what I will do with these red and green fabrics but I liked them. All I know is they will be some type of Christmas project. I also bought a couple pieces of yardage for Dawn Heese's Civil War quilt blocks (yes, another block of the month in progress......I love making blocks, it's just getting them finished into a quilt top that becomes a problem!). But the best thing about The*Woolen*Needle was their "wall of wool". If you go to their website, you can see it and all the wonderful fabrics and gifts, too. I was in search of a green wool that I will be using for holly leaves in my wool throw project "The Path of the Seasons". I spotted just the right color and texture deep down in a stack of wool and here it is.......

And then there was the bin of scraps..........see that bulging plastic bag in the photo? For $9, you could stuff that bag as full as you can get it with scraps from two barrels full of wool!! I put my "mother of a Boy Scout who packs for camping trips" skills to good use and I rolled and folded til I had it chock full. The rule is that a staff member must be able to tape the bag shut and my bag was successfully taped. The fact that I filled this bag on Dec. 4th and did not open it til today Dec. 17th is amazing! All it took was a quick poke with my scissors and look what popped out..........

....lots of lovely pieces that will work beautifully in my wool throw!! The wool is priced by weight and had I bought these scraps, I would have paid $18 for them so what a deal!!! I probably should have bought two or gone for the bigger bag at $25 for all you stuff, but I had Christmas gifts to buy so I restrained myself from buying anymore wool! All in all, this is a great shop with friendly staff and other nice shops to visit in town, too.

And speaking of other shops, as I left Williamsburg I passed a little antique shop called Maple Tree Antiques (or something like that, I knew I would forget the name). Yes, I passed it but I turned around and went back. It was one of those shops that I could have spent a long time in and then a lot of money but I had neither. Instead, I found some vintage fabric and this little treasure for my mom. This little figurine of Mary and her lamb has the name "Mary Belle" printed on her and she is in fact ....... a bell! Since my mother's name is Mary, I thought it was just too appropriate a gift for her. And she really liked it so I was very happy that I turned around to go back to the little antique shop!

It's the end of a busy day.........afternoon was spent wrapping gifts and such. The morning and evening were spent preparing for the next block of the month that I'll be offering in my Season's BOM group. I posted the first two blocks for the series that is called "Coming Home to Quilting". I'll tell you more about it in the next few days. It's going to get a little busy here with Christmas activities and I'm sure you are all busy, too, so I am not sure how often I'll be posting. Let's just say, I'll be back soon...........

Lights out!

Sandi