Easy Street Mystery Quilt Part 4

Ready for Step 5. Somehow, cutting up all this fabric is not making much of a dent in my stash. To see what everyone else is doing, please go here.

Of course, that does not keep me out of the stores. I visited a new shop in our area this week. Janie Lou is owned by two sisters and patrolled by a little flea of a dog, Lilly. She is a three pound energetic ball of Yorkshire Terrier fluff. The sisters have mostly operated out of their homes, setting up booths at quilt shows around the country. Tired of the grueling 14-16 hour days at the quilt shows, plus all the traveling and setting up and taking down of booths, they have opened a brick and mortar store on Manchester Road in St. Louis, MO. The shop has a definite modern vibe. I completely fell in love with a collection of Free Spirit fabrics, "Seventh Wonder" by Parson Gray. The designer behind this line is David Butler, whom some of you may recognize as the husband of Amy Butler, another wonderful fabric designer. So much talent in one family! I bought some of each fabric that Janie Lou had in the shop. Take a look:

 These fabrics will make a fabulous understated, sophisticated quilt. I am picturing the fabrics paired with a great solid. Which reminds me that Janie Lou also has a great selection of Moda Bella solids. I had read about this line, but had not had the opportunity previously to see the actual product up close and personal. They have a lovely, fine texture and are less "thick" than Kona solids. I will definitely be using them in future projects.

In the company of several friends, I also visited Batiks Plus this week. They are primarily a mail-order, online outlet for Hoffman Bali Batiks, although there are also other products on offer. McKenna Ryan patterns, fabrics, and kits are available as well as patterns by Judy Niemeyer and Jacqueline deJonge ("Be Colourful" patterns). While my shopping companions maxed out their credit cards on yardage, mindful of my newly organized closet and resolution to use what I have, I got away with a lovely pile of batik fabrics from the remnant bins and one Bali Pop (okay, cut me a break here, it was on sale -  a REALLY good sale). The remnants were all nice sized pieces and since I do a fair amount of applique and scrappy quilts, they will get good use.

Batiks Plus is open by appointment only, but the owner, Cookie, and her trusted companion, Buddy, the black lab, are very welcoming. It is truly a treasure for fabric lovers and mostly flies under the wire here in St. Louis. This is due to its mostly online presence.

As if this wasn't enough quilty fun this week, last night was the December meeting  for Thimble and Thread Quilt Guild. The speaker  was the prolific and talented Teajuana Mahone, who blogs at TeaQuilts.

The number and variety of quilts that Tea produces is overwhelming. She is an excellent teacher as well and is definitely not afraid of changing up a pattern or technique if it doesn't suit her needs. I have seen her presentation three times and have not seen the same quilt twice!