Quilt Shop Tour: Cotton Creek Mill Here I am back to share another quilt shop tour with you. Kelli and I stopped here on our way home from the Elton John concert. This shop, Cotton Creek Mill, is located in West Branch, Iowa. Neither Kelli nor I had ever been there before. It was a cute little shop out front but let me take you inside. The girls at the Neal s in Muscatine had told us we had to stop there. They just expanded. Well we took their advice and stopped. I started my journey through the shop with my camera open and snapping pictures. If you ever do this, it s always polite to ask the owner first. Most people like it as
I m basically giving them free advertising for writing this blog post BUT there are others who are way over protective and think people who take pictures are stealing their ideas. This shop was fine with pictures. I loved the colors in this display. The shop has fabric and sells Bernina machines.
There is a awesome rustic-folksy feel to the shop.
I love the openness. A few things were displayed high but most low. Kelli had to take this in. She s stitched many of the Crab Apple Hill designs not this one though.
Isn t this cute? I miss working on small projects. bring instant gratification. They
Kelli was focused on finding BATIKS!! She was in this are most of the time during our visit. She was looking for mystery quilt fabrics. The shop had great architectural features brick here!
I don t see Civil War reproduction fabrics used a lot in the shops in my area so I was really happy to find some here.
and don t forget the 30 s prints.
I really liked the staging of the shop. nicely and not too cramped. Things were displayed
There was a section of baby things with a touch more modern but mostly is was darker fabrics.
I resisted this large selection of good neutrals. There were several fabrics that had words and I ve been collecting them but I resisted.
We hadn t been in the store before so had no idea what the new addition was and what was old. I think that means it
was a very successful remodel. It was fun to look around. The store was busy the day we went. We even saw two people from our area. They had been to the Elton John concert as well and were shop hopping their way home.
Here is Kelli s stack of fabric that she picked out quarter yard cuts was what she wanted! I do the same thing!! While we were waiting to get the fabric cut, I continued to roam. I saw this book and would really like to try this technique of raw edge applique.
I am going to do a 1-5 rating.five being the best-i m going to be stingy with my fives. This is just my impression on the day I visited and took pictures. Warm and Friendly: 4 The shop was very busy Selection of Goods: 4 Neat and Organized: 5 Parking: 4 Cozy and Cute: 5 Outside Appearance: 5 The only thing I didn t like about the shop was that there was a class going on. The class room was out in the open and it was hard to know where the boundaries were..and remember I was being so good, well while I was waiting for the fabric to be cut I roamed back to one of the displays in one of the pictures above and ended up breaking the bank.
UGH.but the good news is, I love what I bought. to stop by tomorrow and see what that was. You ll have Remember if there was something you want more information that you saw in the pictures, please don t contact me, contact Cotton Creek Mill quilt shop by following the link provided. Stash Report: Little Red Hen Yesterday I did a quilt shop tour of Little Red Hen in Muscatine, Iowa. WOW Kelli and I loved the shop. In my book, the perfect shop. If I ran a quilt shop, this is the kind I would strive to have. I really had a great time there. I felt like so many of their projects were me meaning things I d want to make and have in my home. Here is what I ended up buying.not fabric!
In the center of the haul is a book One of the gals in the shop designs for the shop and she makes some awesome stuff. It s all in a book. What I love is that there are quilts, wool projects, punch needle and a wide variety of things in ONE book. Here s a little preview of the book.here s the bee themed wool mat. Here a bee pincushion LOVE!
This quilt sure will be a good way to tackle some scraps!
Here s another project from the book.
Kelli loved this pillow also in the book.
I ve scoped out my laundry room hoping for a spot to hang this
Here is another shop exclusive design. It s a pincushion oh my..it s so cute. I wanted to buy all of the pincushion patterns but I settled on this one. Kelli bought the fall book. in the photo below? out!! See all of the projects pictured All of them are in the book!! Check it
In all seriousness.kelli and I wanted to make almost every project in the book. The punch needle project was wonderful too!! Oh my I wish there were more time in the day. to do it all!! I want I did buy the kit to make the Thanksgiving Alphabet seen in the photo below Kelli did too.
I love all of the projects I have to look forward to. I ve gotten a little better at asking myself, will I really love the project in 10 years before I buy patterns or quilt books. Even with fabric and this type of designs, things go out of fashion so will I still love this if it s not in fashion. Every time I said yes.so I broke the bank and bought several things. What a whirl wind of a trip! Can you believe that we have two more quilt shops to show you!! Stop by next Saturday for the quilt shop tour. Kelli and I both HIGHLY recommend Little Red Hen in Muscatine, Iowa. It s a must see store!!
Quilt Shop Tour: The Little Red Hen Today I m continuing on the shop hop Kelli and I took when we went to the Elton John concert. Hen in Muscatine, Iowa. Today s stop, The Little Red Driving to the shop was interesting. A couple times I asked Kelli if she was sure if she had the GPS programmed correctly. She assured me that she thought she did. We kept driving into what seemed a more and more residential area. Then it stopped and brought us here. Hmm. We didn t really see a sign. Were we in the right place? We got out and ventured closer. The house had a sign on the front door that indicated to use the back door. We still weren t sure we were in the right place. Hesitantly we opened the door and were VERY warmly greeted by the person at the counter.we were even greeted by name. The person said, WOW, look. It s Jo and Kelli! I looked at Kelli and Kelli looked at me. The lady looked a big familiar and they she told us that she had seen us at the truck show we did in Muscatine everal years ago.
We chatted a bit and then started looking WOW. They have a WIDE variety of crafts. Here is the punch needle section.
They have all sorts of different threads. The cabinet they store the thread in are awesome.
There is a barn attached to the house with a gift shop/floral shop in between.
We turned the corner and saw this AMAZING!
The room was huge. Kelli and started to make our way around. Immediately Kelli and I both LOVED this Thanksgiving Alphabet! Notice the #15 on the piece?
Well if you look below, there are kits and they are labeled. It was easy to grab the kit we needed. This is the nicest, well thought out system that we ve ever seen in a quilt shop!!
The Little Red Hen publishes their own books. Kelli and I were in love with the projects in this book. There are 14 projects all fall themed. They range from quilts to wool mats, to punch needle to the monster bags behind Kelli. Everything you see in the photo is in the book. There are 14 projects in all.
The displays were cute and easy to access.
They have also published other books. project was in the summer book. This cute Laundry Room
as were the other projects in the above and below photos. They die their own wool here. How fun!
Kelli made a beeline to the quilt on the wall in the photo below. She thought it was wool but those cute little center blocks are cheater cloth that was fussy cut. It fooled me too. Would you have been fooled?
There were LOTS of samples in the store and I love samples. I loved the muted colors in the quilt below.
Here is another book they self published. flags and Fourth of July. book. How cool is that? This one is all All the things shown are in one
Check out the cute Halloween towels. They had a big display of pincushions. bought patterns for them all!! I wish I could have
For the pet lovers, they had these. Everywhere we turned there were things we liked.
The one below was precious.
Kelli and I covered the big barn room so then we went back to the house yep. section. There was more to see. Here s the baby
and the section for embroidered towels.
I wasn t teasing when I said the house was full too.
There was a Christmas room.
We really liked the displays.
The house part was more crowded but not bad. much to look at. There was so
My apologies. of the shop. The lighting wasn t as good in the house part Adequate for shopping but not photo taking.
Kelli found the cutest dachshund fabric.
I had to snap a photo of the sign. Anger is only one letter short of Danger How true!!
In the front porch of the house was the batik section.it was slim pickings but that s okay. All the other areas of the store were plentiful. It s actually a good thing as there were no batiks for me want to buy that means I could spend my saved money on other goodies. I ll tell you what we got tomorrow in my stash report. Kelli and I loved these little towels with just a little embellishment. Does anyone know how they would launder? I was tempted to get the pattern but didn t as that make me nervous.
We loved these primitive pincushions.i always see tatting pieces and the like at thrift stores. What a great way to use them. We were told the pattern was a Cheri Payne pattern but no longer is available. Anyone know where we could find one??
We were in this shop WAY longer than we ever intended. It was so fun though.so fun. We were inspired and excited about quilting and handwork as we left. In fact there was a clothing store we had intended on stopping at on our way home and Kelli said, I don t care about clothes mom. to make all of the things!! That s my girl!! same way. I just want I felt the What fun and inspiration! If you want to see even more about the shop check out their website. They have also put together a video showing off the store. You can find that here on Youtube. I am doing to do a 1-5 rating system.five being the best-i m going to be stingy with my fives. This is just my impression on the day I visited and took pictures. Warm and Friendly: 5++ Selection of Goods: 5 Although the batik section was small, I can t discount the wide variety. Neat and Organized: 5 Parking: 4 Cozy and Cute: 5 Outside Appeal: 2
We will make a special trip to come back someday. What a great shop. Since Country Threads closed, I ve not had a favorite shop. I think this one just might be the favorite. As will all quilt shop tours, if there is something that you see that you like or want to order, please don t contact me. I can t help you. Contact the shop. This is the link. Quilt Shop Tour: Neal s Vacuum and Sewing Center Remember when Kelli and I went to see Elton John in concert and stopped at all the quilt shops. Well here is our review of Neal s Vacuum and Sewing Center in Muscatine, Iowa.
When we first walked in we wondered if we were in the right place as there were lots of vacuum cleaners and sewing machines but not a lot of fabric. Then we started seeing cute projects..
Really cute projects.
and then we were greatly by a VERY friendly staff. They explained that the store was split into different areas and the fabric was in the fartherest room. We went in and checked it out.
The store was neat and organized. Kelli is here posing by a quilt pattern she bought likely a year ago, but never bought the fabric. This day, she bought the jelly roll to make it! Check it out.
The had lots of cute baby blanket samples made up. I was checking them out as Buck and Lora s baby is due in December I ve made no quilt to date. They aren t finding out if it s a boy or girl so I m treading water on this quilt.i don t know what to do. This is a cute ABC quilt. pieces and cutting to It s done by layering the quilt make it chenille.
We loved the idea to put the baby muslin with minky binding. They had a nice selection of both types of fabrics.
The flannel section was nice as well.
Don t forget the generous sale rack!!
Kelli had something in mind and started hunting minky.
The farm in the center we both LOVED!! REALLY LOVED!! It s a minky fabric with farm and it s definitely gender neutral. She was determined to make a mini baby blankie with some and was hunting for some coordinating fabric.
While she was off doing that, I was exploring some more. had an awesome Kona selection. The Grunge fabric selection was good too. They
That s when I saw this CRAZY chicken fabric. LOVE, LOVE. Oh my. LOVE,
Don t call the shop and asked for any, I cleaned out all they had. I have no idea at all what I m going to do with it. NONE. All I know is I loved it and someday an idea will come to me. I took it all as I didn t want to regret not getting it AND the girls said if I cleaned the bolt off.40% off!! Whoot-Whoot!! Yes, I was taking it all. The staff was super fun and very helpful. our time here. LOTS!! We really enjoyed As we were checking out I noticed the fun toy sewing machine display.cute right?
As Kelli and I were driving away, both of us commented on how nice the ladies were in the store. So nice. I think the welcome you get when coming into a shop really sets the tone for our shopping experience. These ladies ROCKED! I am going to do a 1-5 rating.five being the best-i m going to be stingy with my fives. This is just my impression on the day I visited and took pictures. Warm and Friendly: 5+ These ladies rocked! Selection of Goods: big shop. 4 The shop had variety but it wasn t a Neat and Organized: 5 Parking: 4 Cozy and Cute: 4 It s small so space is limited. Outside Appearance: 4 If we are through Muscatine again, we ll stop. the same ladies are working. We sure hope P.S. Any suggestions with my chicken fabric? tomorrow and I ll show you what else I bought. Stop by