International quilt shops

Last week I was telling you a story about being in a far away country. . . Mexico. (more about that in a second).

It actually reminds me of when I was in Scotland, driving the perimeter of the furthest northern island of Skye, so remote that every few miles, you'd see a house





or a castle

or a sheep

or a quilt shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WHAT?

 yip!  out there in the middle of REMOTENESS, was a quilt shop!  (read about that back here)

So last week in Mexico City, while I had my nose to the ground, taking these pictures for free motion quilting ideas, like this

and this (see blog post)

all of a sudden when I looked up, I saw this Quilting Studio

yip, in the middle of this ancient, magical village, San Angel (in a suburb of Mexico City) . . . 

I love the Mexican influence in this quilt shop

stairs

The owner, Silvia, gives daily classes and speaks English.  

She says that the quilting industry is exploding there in Mexico City just like it is here in the states  . . . aren't her quilts beautiful?

she is a modern quilter at heart, look what's on her design wall

 While I was there, Zen Chic's newest line, "flow" arrived in a box.

(and that's what I bought, of course)

 Silvia even has the hq sweet sixteen!!!

 these friendly employees cut my fabric

 here is the information for this fun quilt shop.  Thank you, Silvia!!

Tell your uber driver you want to go to:  (that's for you, Ramona;)
Juarez No. 2, San Angel in Mexico City.
Spend the afternoon in this magical old neighborhood.

mendocino pincushions

Sometimes when you're doing something tedious

like cutting out 488 quarter circles (that's only 1/2 of them!  and it took me HOURS)

do you ever get a sudden uncontrollable urge to bolt as fast as you can and create the image that just popped into your mind's eye?  

especially if it involves mendocino?   Oh my yumminess!!!

 out in stores now.  hurry while supplies last.  (I'd just order it online if I were you :)

varsity plus in gray

stats:

38 x 42 washed.

fabric - varsity by sweetwater

batting - Winline 80/20

quilting is organic straight line

The colors in this sweetwater line are very similar to their "reunion" line, remember those fabrics?  tanner reunion,  reunion at midnight  and  raggy squares, yea, I think we all went a little crazy on that line.  I still have a dresser full of it, for the future :)

Several posts ago, I talked about a new binding method.  My quilting friend, Christine, introduced me to this new modern look. 

 There are so many reasons to be in love with this modern binding . . .

 If you look close, you will see that the binding is stitched down (with gray thread) in a running stitch.

This quilt is bound in turquoise, very similar to the binding color.  Either the contrast or the same color thread look nice . . . home made.  

binding tools:

(I used those surgical scissors this week to pull out stitches, eek! . . . purchased at market)

even with a thimble, I still feel like I need to use these for gripping the needle.  I wear them on my thumb and index finger and the thimble on my middle finger.  That's just my preference, it's so individual.

Have you seen these darling tulip packages in the quilting stores?  their marketing is brilliant . . . them and Target.


They have a large eye, they're warp resistant an run smoothly through the fabric.

 I use Gutermann's hand quilting thread from the big box sewing store.  It's thick and sturdy.

linked:
finish it up friday
frenzy friday
fabric addict