I recently spent some time in Arizona visiting family.  I had the use of a rental car so I visited some quilt shops in the area.  Although there are 14 shops that are members of the Maricopa County Independent Quilt Shop Association, I did not get to them all.  After all, I need to save something for the next trip, right?

The first shop that I visited was, A Quilters’ Oasis (www.aquiltersoasis.com)  I have been to this shop a couple of times before on previous trips.  This shop has doubled in size since my last visit.  I have been watching the improvements on their blog and it was very exciting to see the changes in person.  My purchase here was a Bunny Hill Designs redwork pattern called, Raining Cats & Dogs.

When I asked the local quilters what quilt shop was their favorite, I got back the response, “3 Dudes” from more than one of them so I had to make it out to Phoenix to visit that shop. (www.3dudesquilting.com)  Thanks to my son’s navigation, we made it across Maricopa County from Mesa, through Tempe, and into Phoenix.

The displays of quilts inside 3 Dudes was incredible!  If there was wall space, it was covered with a quilt.  This is a photo taken from inside the shop.  I just loved the quilt on the right.

My purchases from 3 Dudes Quilting included 1.5 yards of this fabric from In The Beginning Fabrics by Jason Yenter called, Southwest Beauties and this pattern called, Spicy Spiral Table Runner by School House Quilts.

Once we were back in Mesa, I dropped my son off at my parents’ and ventured out on my own to two local shops:  Mulqueen’s (www.sewshop.com) and ETC (scrapbooks-etc.com).

Mulqueen’s was a bit hard to find but definitely worth it.  All fabrics at Mulqueen’s are $6.95 per yard and they stock all of the Kona solids.

I found the gold fabric below (Who comes to Zinnia’s Garden by Jacqueline Paton for Red Rooster Fabrics) at Mulqueen’s and the green fabric below (Dimples by Gail Kessler) at ETC.  I will be combining these two purchases with fabrics that I already have at home to make the placemat and tablerunner set from the pattern, Trading Post by Elizabeth Anne Quilt Designs.  I purchased the pattern on line from Southwest Decoratives in Albequerque, NM.

I found this southwest inspired batik at Mulqueen’s and yes, batiks are also $6.95 per yard! I have plans to turn this piece of yardage into some sort of bag/tote.

ETC is actually a giant fabric and scrapbooking store.  Along with the fabric above, I purchased a purple coloured scrapbook album for scrapbooking our daughter’s wedding pictures.

And finally, no trip to Mesa would be complete without a stop at the Marketplace.  (mesamarket.com)  At the market, I purchased the following fabrics from a quilt fabric vendor.

I bought several yards of La Celebracion designed by Greta Lynn for Kanvas Studio to use as backing for my Mexican Tiles quilt top.

I also purchased these southwest themed fat quarters.  Fabric designs in the southwest theme/style are getting harder to find so when I saw these, I thought I should be picking them up to add to my collection back home.

On Saturday, January 18, my Mom and I joined up with the quilting group from my Mom’s park to attend, Quilt Fiesta!–the Tucson Quilters Guild 36th Annual Quilt Show.  Of course I did not leave the vendor’s area empty handed.

I purchased these fabrics from Desert Stitchin (www.desertstitchin.com).  I plan to use these fabrics to make the GE Designs’ pattern, Strip Stacks.

I have a love for the Giant Saguaro Cactus and I was on the hunt for a pattern to make my own Saguaro quilt.  Although I saw several Saguaro inspired quilt patterns, only one had the simple clean lines I was looking for.  This pattern is part of a row quilt called, Coyote Country by Hummingbird Quilt Studio.

I am now home from vacation and anxious to get started on making quilts from these patterns and fabrics!