Mini MN Quilt Shop Hop

My own version of Quilt MN Shop Hop – 8 shops in 8 days!  Due to a family vacation and the MN Quilt Show, I was able to stop and shop at a variety of quilt shops!  (In addition to seeing all of the vendors at the quilt show.)

Aitkin Quilt & Fabric in Aitkin MN:  Small, little shop.  Walked in, looked through the many rooms, but nothing really caught my eye.  The fabric selection was more than I expected.  There were all sorts of rooms, so the store just seemed to keep going.  There were some cute baby fabrics, a few batiks, and a series of pink camouflage fabric.  With quite a few quilts showing differ ways to incorporate the camouflage and pink.  This wasn’t my style, but I could totally see that type of quilt would make some young ladies very happy.

Sew Much & More in Aitkin MN:   This quilt shop had maybe 200 bolts of fabric.  I found  1/ ¼ yards of Bonnie and Camille’s Marmalade Swoon Bloom in Blueberry.  I have been looking for this fabric online for over a year.  Multiple people have been searching for this fabric on Instagram (#thegreatfabricdestashiso).

Gruber’s Quilt Shop in St. Cloud, MN

I have heard rave reviews about Gruber’s for years.  I can totally tell why people love this quilt shop.  Amazingly enough, I walked away from the store with only fabric for backing.  There were lots of options, but I wasn’t feeling it.  I don’t have any friends who are expecting babies.  Gruber’s has some really cute fabric and kits for baby quilt.  There was a lot of batik fabric, holiday, and civil war fabrics.  There was some fabric that I would call modern, such as Bonnie and Camille, Vanessa Christianson of V & Co, etc.

I found a fabric that I would like to use as backing for a future quilt.  Bold and Bright by Michele D’Amore by Bentarex.

Millie P’s Quilt Shop in Anoka, MN:  This is one of my dream quilt shops.  There is a large selection of fabrics!  They have a great section of kitchsy fabric for the aprons, runners, curtains, napkins, etch.  A specialty of theirs is that they have lots of dotty fabric.  The kid fabric is cute and offers the typical dogs, cats, fish, and other animals.  One of the things that I found interesting is that they have bolts of fabric from previous Moda lines.

Bonnie and Camille’s Scrumptious, Marmalade and  Vintage Modern

Sweetwater’s Reunion and Mama Said Sew (sorry for the poor photography)

   

Of course there was also a lovely selection of Tula Pink’s Fox Field.  The only item I purchased was a pattern.  Can you believe that?  The store sample was made from fabric that was no longer in the store.  I was saddened, but knew that I have some serious skills tracking down fabric I want!  (I have since found the fabric:  Valori Wells Novella Finnelopy in Indigo.

Julie was able to get a few Wizard of Oz fat quarters.  She has a friend that loves The Wizard of OZ.  The fabric was too cute to pass up.  She purchased a couple of fat quarters that have lots of potential, Twice as Nice by the Quilted Fish for Riley Blake Designs.

Quilted Treasures in Rogers, MN

Definitely a shop worth stopping at.  I was very sad that I didn’t stop the first time I passed this shop.  There was a ton of road construction and was running a little behind schedule.  On the second pass through the area, I made sure that stopping here was possible.   This shop offered fabrics, kits, and patterns that I haven’t seen or noticed at other quilt shops.

Here are my purchases:

Rock Candy by Jaybird Quilts in Peppered Cottons by Pepper Corby (Studio E)

A couple Halloween fat quarters picked out by my husband.  Of course, he can pick out a few (especially if he is paying!)

  A pincushion pattern and a pumpkin paper piecing pattern to go with my new skills.

The Noble Quilter in Elk River, MN

This was a cute little quilt shop.  There were a lot of batiks and Civil War Reproduction fabric.  It was a pretty traditional MN quilt shop.  I walked through the store pretty quickly.  I may have been a bit jaded after seeing so much fabric and quilting supplies all within a week.

ABC’s of Quilting in Grand Rapids, MN

This was a cute little shop in part of an old schoolhouse.  The woodwork and stairs of the school house was very impressive.  I was able to shift my focus back to quilting shortly after I entered this shop.  I found a great deal on Alexander Henry’s The Ghastlies in Mauve.  They were only $4.95 a yard.  I bought 6 yards of the clover and 3 yards of the scribbles.  I was inspired by a quilt at the MN quilt show.  I have been collecting fabric from this line for a couple years.

Country Fabrics and Quilting in Brainerd MN:

Loved it!!  This may be my new favorite shop in MN.  They have a ton of fabric and plenty of shop samples & kits.  There is a wide variety of fabrics and sewing notions.  I tend to lean to more modern fabric and this store had plenty of bolts of fabrics.  The modern fabrics are stored in the upstairs area of the store.  They have a large selection of Tula Pink, Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, and Anna Marie Horner!

I purchased an apple core template.  They had a Tula Pink Prince Charming quilt made using this template.  Loved it!

 

I was able to pick up some fabric from Alexander Henry’s The Ghastlies line.  They were 30% off original price.  It was meant to be especially after my bargain purchase the day before!

Overall, this was a great shop hop!  Only 1 repeat of the 8!  I totally see myself returning to many of these shops.   Definitely a fun week of shopping!

For those of you interested in checking out some MN quilt shops, the 2014 Quilt MN Shop Hop website is a great source.  The shops are divided into sections throughout the state.  Not all shops in MN participate, but the majority are listed there.