We spent last week in St. George at my in-laws again, and I did get a lot of quilting done (more on those later). I took several projects that I wanted to finish by the end of the year, and ended up needing little pieces of this and that to complete them. Sherry and I went on a whirlwind tour of the quilt shops in the area, had a great time, and I thought I'd share a bit about the shops I visited. If you're not interested in the blow-by-blow, skip down to the pictures of the Wynn Las Vegas.
Lazy Daisy has been in St. George for a while, and it looks like this little shop in a house (very much like what you'd see in Utah Valley) is going more boutique and less fabric. I still love the owner and her taste in high-end baby gifts.
Quilt Works is nearby L.D., and has more of a Northwest quilt shop layout; lots of standard wood fabric shelves that let the fabric display itself. Her samples were fun, she had old fabrics I needed, she gave me chocolate, had lots of odd sale fabric, what more can I say. Fun all around.
Mormon Handicraft has been moved temporarily to the other side of the same parking lot. Looks like they're ramping up their fabric inventory. They had the usual suspects plus some fun lines I haven't seen up here. Spent the most money here.
Ben Franklin is no more. Sadly, it closed and is being turned into a furniture store. Those sales couldn't last forever I guess.
My most favorite find, and now one of my favorite quilt shops was Scrap Apple Quilts in Bloomington. This shop specializes in buying what everyone else missed. They were very modern, but did have a good section of traditional navy and forest greens. Lots of batiks, lots of Kaffe Fasset, lots of contemporary designs in fun colors. I wanted it all. I spent $16. It was after Mormon Handicraft, what can I say.
Also during the week I got to escape my kids (thanks Owen & Sherry!) and meet Paul at his T-Mobile conference in Las Vegas. They were staying at the Wynn, which opened four years ago, and its sister resort, Encore, opened in December. We are definitely going back again someday. The colors were all so beautiful, it was very high end and classy, and the food was excellent. We ate dinner (in the middle of the night) at Switch, a restaurant with walls and ceiling that switch every few minutes to a new decor and new music. Plus, the rooms start at $139, a steal for Vegas luxury. I highly recommend this resort.
I kept walking around with my mouth open wondering why I loved the place so much, when it hit me. Everything was dark green leaves, two-toned neutrals, and these butterfly mosaics. It was a quilter's dream come true! Whimsical, yet classy. You can tell years of experience went into this resort.
Lately I've been making entire quilts out of one line. This is the designer's dream come true, but can feel limiting to my own creativity. But I just can't help it. Some of these lines are so great, and there's a lot of design diversity. This quilt came from another hated charm pack. This fabric is Simple Abundance, by Bonnie & Camille for Moda, and I used a free pattern for a table runner online as inspiration.
This fabric is Sheri Berry Christmas, currently in stores. She also designed the Trick-or-Treat Street fabric I loved. I made up a simple pattern around a charm pack. Those charm packs, what a racket. You feel like you're getting something special when you impulse buy it, but you're just getting a quarter of what you need to make a decent sized quilt. I also tried out some new Moda rick rack. It feels velvety and supposedly doesn't roll after washing. Once I get this bound I'll put it to the test. 
The center of this quilt (small red stripe border) was a pillow cover on a huge pillow I made a few years ago. I envisioned my son sitting on it to watch movies. That never happened, I need a pillow on my bed, voila. A baseball quilt for my other son's Christmas. I'll put minky or chenille on the back for him. Most of these fabrics are baseball prints Tracey and I collected over the years, so they're out of print, but the large white border I just bought and I love the little baseball men. Reminds me of Field of Dreams, and thinking of Kevin Costner in his glory days is always a good thing. 
