Almost as good as going to Market!

Last Saturday, my friends, Laura and Sharon and I took a "girl's day out" and went to nearby Mankato for some "fabric fun". While lots of quilters were at Market this past weekend, we were not but this day was, for us, as good as going to Market! We started with a stop at FireflyQuiltShop and when you enter the door this is what you see...........
I've featured the shop before on my blog but here are a couple spots, I've not shared. I love this entry into the room where kids fabrics, colorful prints and 30's fabrics are located.

One corner of the room features this old wooden spool crib that Janice's husband made into a neat display for fabric and quilts. I love this crib.

I found it at our church garage sale several years ago. Some youth group kids were playing in it and broke the rails so nobody would buy it, so I took it home. I had plans for it. I wanted to make it into a garden gate or maybe a quilt rack. My husband was not enthused and he thought we should just throw it in the trash. Horror of horrors! Nope, I was determined to find someone who could use it, so I asked Janice if she would like it and she said yes. I am happy it has a good home. :-)

This quilt in the classroom really caught our attention and so did this floormat that Sharon is holding up. I couldn't get a good picture of it when it was laying on the floor so she obliged and held it just right for a photo............

The mat is partially pieced and then fabric pieces are layered and it's all done with ModPodge. There will be a class on this sometime in the spring and we are all thinking it would be a fun class to take.

This is Sharon (left) and Laura (right). We were having fun looking at the $5.00 fabric bags that Janice sells. I love the "grab bag" aspect of the $5.00 bags. :-)

We all found a little something we just "had to have"!

Thankfully, I remembered that I needed batting or it would have been like going to the grocery store for milk and coming home with everything but the milk!! I did find something unexpected right below the batting so I was really glad I remembered it. Those fabrics on the right are from the "Summer Solstice" line by RJR fabrics. I won a charm pack of them last summer and I cut out a totebag but had never finished it because I couldn't find any yardage of the fabrics locally. There they were, though, right next to the batting! I won't get this finished before Christmas but it's looking good for a January project!

We ate lunch at Panera ......

yummy sandwiches and salads.......

and then headed over to RiverCityQuilts .

This is the scene that greeted us as we walked in the door.......lots of Halloween fun!
We didn't know it til we got to the shop, but they were having a ten year anniversary celebration. That gorgeous plant on the floor was a gift from a vendor and I would have loved to take it home. We found all sorts of fabrics and patterns to look at........and, of course, we each found a little something that we just "had to have". I found some Christmas fabrics on clearance and bought some for backing on tablerunners, plus I bought a few Christmas fat-quarters. They'll show up in projects in the coming weeks. :-)

These two quilt shops in Mankato offer quilters are real variety of fabrics and quilty things. River City has a long wall of colorful bolts and lots of fat quarters............

and a real variety of prints and lots of samples. Somewhere in there I saw my first GO! fabric cutter and I can see how using one would really cut down the cutting time for projects. It's on my list for Christmas.....or maybe birthday. :-)

I love fabric. I've decided it's better than chocolate. I've given up Coca-cola and I think I could give up chocolate if I had to make a choice between fabric or chocolate. Actually, I don't even have to think about it.......I know I could give up chocolate for fabric. LOL!

Anyway, after we left River City, we had two more spots to visit......HancockFabrics and HobbyLobby. I mean, we were seriously covering ground that day. I couldn't resist these 75% off Halloween prints at Hancock. I know what you are thinking......

"she just made several Halloween projects".....and that I did, but I would actually like to make a large quilt next year and I think all these fabrics (1 yard cuts) will do the "trick"........and it will be a real "treat" when it's finished! I had been in search of Halloween buttons for one of the projects that didn't quite get finished this year and found perfect candy corn buttons at Hobby Lobby. I also picked up a few Christmas crafting items and then time and money were running out................so we decided to end the day with ice cream at Culver's. It was an awesome day out, just as good as going to Market, and we are looking forward to doing it again. We plan to hit the local thrift shops next time. Always nice to have something to look forward to!

Sandi