Satin Moon Quilt Shop - Victoria, BC Canada

Satin Moon Quilt shop was truly a treat! First, I didn't expect to visit a quilt shop in Victoria, BC Canada but of course I asked since we only had a few hours to kill that morning in town but I just love this city - it has to be one of the cleanest cities I have ever visited, twice now. This shop was great and we were led there after asking a couple locals if there was a quilt shop within walking distance and there was, and it well worth a couple extra steps to find it near City Hall in downtown. The shop was full of wonderful fabric and patterns and great quilts everywhere. I stumbled upon a small sale basket of fabric at $6 per meter (Canadian) - that's just under $6 a meter US since the exchange rate that day was $1.08 CA to $1.00 US. Most of the fabric in the shop was anywhere from $12 to $16 per meter Canadian. I thought that was a little pricy in comparison to most US quilt shops but i'm sure taxes and the such play into that. The shop keeper was friendly and she informed me that there are over 3,000 quilters in the greater Victoria BC quilters guild -- OMG - did she say 3,000 members -- YES she did! My jaw dropped. Lot's of quilters all over that part of Canada!

I picked up a couple meters of sale fabric, found a fat quarter of balloon fabric and a great eagle pattern made by a local artist Shania Sunga.

Quilt Alaska in Skagway, AK

Well if one quilt shop is not enough, here is a second just a couple doors down from Changing Threads. Quilt Alaska was awesome - they had a bunch of colorful quilts hanging around for your eyes to be drawn into. I loved this shop and spent as much time as I could there before it was time to continue in our visit with Skagway for the day before our Princess cruise ship would depart. This shop was crammed full of fabric and patterns and an extremely friendly counter of ladies that loved to chit chat and were just friendly. Now one could get very used to living with those blue skys, fluffy clouds and mountains in the backdrop -- but i'm sure when winter comes, you probably wouldn't want to be there full time.

I walked away with a few pieces of this and that and a couple patterns too!

Changing Threads in Skagway, AK

It was like gold mine - Skagway, AK not only had one but TWO quilt shops to visit - be it both shops I believe are owned by the same person/company but each shop was a bit diferent - Changing Threads caters to the needleworkers and knitters with lots of wools and yarns to select from but a great selection of quilt patterns and lots of fabric too! I had a great time visiting this shop and fell in love with some great fabric rather quickly!

This is what I walked away with - some cute russian doll fabric, totem poles, a little wilderness batik and some graphic northwest native design fabrics as well.

Totally love the Barbara Lavallee fabric called "The Quilt Shop". She has a bunch of different fabrics and some really fun quilt patterns too.

Silver Thimble Quilt Shop - Ketchikan, AK

Our first offical port on our 10-day Alaska cruise was Ketchikan - lovely little town with lots of tourist shops and lots of wilderness too. I spotted this little shop when I saw a sign in the second story window of a building - had to check it out -- upon entry, they had quilts hanging everywhere in the center of the mall - it was great!

And I walked away with a pattern and a small kit -- Just loving the Native Indian designs.

Like stepping back in time at Cliff's Variety in San Francisco

Cliff's Variety in the Castro of San Francisco was a true gem! It was like stepping back in time to visit a variety and hardware store that had just about anything you could imagine. I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this shop and low and behold what else do they carry but Fabric!!! YES! A small but very lovely selection of fabric, ribbons, buttons and embellishments that just are like candy to the eyes. Of course I lied when I said I would only buy fabric at one store on our trip to San Francisco, here we were two or three days in and I'm buying more - but I was good, and I only bought two pieces of fabric, one lovely rooster design and the other a Japanese print -- yes, i'm on a Japanese fabric kick lately.

Stone Mountain & Daughter Fabrics in Berkley, CA

I went to this fabulous fabric/quilt shop in Berkley, CA when we were there for a few days prior to our 10-day Alaska cruise from San Francisco. I made a deal with my partner and our friends that I would only want to go to ONE fabric shop while we were in the San Francisco area for 4 days --- I kept my promise but I sure did enjoy this shop. It had a great selection of quilting cotton as well as a really nice selection of imported fabric from Japan - I was DREWLING! I had to contain myself a little though because I could have easily blown a whole lot of dough there but I didn't. Here are some shots of the store - love their button department - look at that cool sign made from buttons!

Lots and lots of Japanese fabrics!!!!

The place was packed for a Saturday afternoon!

And here are my purchases of fabric - lots of great Japanese prints that I just fell in love with - and one holiday print.

This was my regular cotton purchases, some fun holiday panels, another red fabric and some asian print too.