Road Trip!

My Florida friend, Mary Jane, was going to be in Nashville this weekend for a wedding, and I decided to drive down for a visit with her on Friday. I dodged the thunderstorms, and met her near Franklin, TN, a delightful historic little town just south of Nashville.

Do you think it is a coincidence that we met in Franklin, which has one of the best fabric stores in this region, Stitcher's Garden? Maybe not.

This shop has an amazing selection of wonderful fabrics. Up until recently, they were in a little shop on Main Street that seemed to be bursting at the seams with bolts of cloth. Early this year, they moved to a shopping mall just outside of town, and it is much better arranged and has higher ceilings and better lighting than the old store.

I spotted some wonderful food fabrics - grapes, olives, and figs - that all looked good enough to eat. I have a stash of food fabrics, and have made some wonderful gifts with them.

This shop has thousands of fat quarters, and I found these great tonals and batiks; I'm always collecting blues for my water quilts. Did I mention it is my favorite color?

And these three striped fat quarters were my treasure of the day. Mary Jane found them, and finally, when she got tired of my drooling all over them, she gave them to me.

 I had used up my fabric like this for binding on one of my flamingo quilts, and have been looking for more ever since. (Thank you, Mary Jane, for your keen eye and generosity). And then of course, more water fabric.

 

These next two pairs of coordinated fabrics look like they would make nice little bags, maybe for gifts. 

And the other two looked like potential background fabrics for some of my little birds - just enough pattern to be interesting, but not too  much to compete with the foreground.

And this last fabric was my splurge of the day. It is a Phil Beaver fabric that will make a perfect shower curtain for my yellow bathroom. And I'll have enough left over to play with. I spotted it hidden in the back of the store, and it "had my name on it."

Although it is sometimes convenient to get fabric on line, there is no substitute for spending time in a well supplied fabric store, and having the luxury of touching  and comparing and coordinating fabrics, and getting someone's else's opinion. 

I love our fabric stores here in Louisville, but it is still fun to visit the shops in other towns. 

When I got home around 6:30, Bob and I went to a housewarming for a young friend who just got her first apartment; it was a beautiful place in an older building with lovely wood floors and stained glass windows. He gave her one of his beautiful wooden fleur de lis pieces - a nice gift for a transplant to Louisville from Memphis.

We then headed for a Lacrosse game, the state championship game played by Louisville Collegiate School where I used to teach. I still have many friends there and enjoyed seeing former students and colleagues. Unfortunately, Collegiate lost by one point to St. Xavier. 

We then headed to Za's pizza for a late supper. For some reason, I didn't feel a bit tired.

It was an altogether pleasant day!