Sunday Stash #296 – Quilting Queen
On this week’s Sunday Stash, I pay homage to one of my new favourite queens: Quilting Queen in Penrith! This is a new to me quilt shop (how is that phenomenon even still happening?!) but heavens to Betsi is it a grand one! Fit for a queen, indeed!
You would think with a quilt shop name like Quilting Queen, I would be a regular visitor, right? Folks, this was my first visit! ::gay gasp!:: “How could that be?” I certainly asked myself, as I stepped through the doors last week. Grandma Sparkles and I had stumbled across it while working our way through a 40°C / 105°F heatwave along the high streets of Penrith. Let me tell you, it was a wet t-shirt contest for all the wrong reasons! Once inside and cooled down, I let my fabric freak flag fly, and dove right into all of the bolts upon bolts of fabric.
Upon first glance, the shop was heaving with a well-curated and organised range of fabrics, notions, patterns, and treasures to discover. Once I had my bearings, I sat my bag down to get to work! Because you know, fabric shopping is a marathon, not a sprint. (Look at me using sports metaphors!)
With multiple fabric brands represented, a whole wall of solids, batiks, Civil War Repros, colour-coded bolts, B&Ws, another wall on sale, fat eight and fat quarter baskets, pre-cuts and notions galore, this quilt shop seems to have it all! Then there’s the workshop area which is just about as big as the shop itself. It was a very well curated collection, which understandably left me a bit shocked as to why I had never seen it before!
As I perused my little heart out, I decided I needed to find some more fabrics for the next iteration of my Lava Lamp quilt. Have you heard about the #LavaLampAlong? This new quilt is going to be a black and white version, and I’ve been curating a bundle from my own stash as well as the occasional quilt shop purchase. Quilty friends watch out, I may want to raid your stash too!
It hadn’t even occurred to me to find zebra print for a Lava Lamp wallpaper until I was walking the aisles of Quilting Queen. There before me was no less than six different zebra prints to choose from! In the infamous words from The Devil Wears Prada, “It’s a tough call. They’re so different.” I was racked with indecision, so ended up buying two versions. One verges on novelty and the other takes inspiration from the zebra print. I feel like I’ve seen actual wallpaper nearly identical to both, so they may both be used in my upcoming quilt.
In addition to the medium value prints above, I also hunted down these low volume, black and white prints. I love how illustrative and hand-drawn they are. The Sarah Watts Cotton + Steel Tinies on the very left would be especially useful for a kid’s room Lava Lamp. Plus, you can never have too many low volume fabrics, right? Right?!
As I could never pass up a good sale, this thrifty Quilting Queen found these Art Gallery fabrics reduced to $5 per meter! Honestly, I should have bought more because they would both make wonderful quilt backings. I think I’m still in my yellow and pink era, so these may work together, or become cushion backings. As I sit here staring at this photo, I’m inspired to make a Molli Sparkles Lava Lamp block with them! I can already tell I’m gonna get so distracted making this black and white version!
While I was there, another amazing thing happened: I met Annette, a teacher at Quilting Queen. We got to have a chinwag about quilting and this gorgeous Christmas tree quilt she made. I love it because it says Christmas without being a giant slap of red and green. It’s so much more festive with multiple colours and sizes of trees. I just had to get a photo of us together. Grandma Sparkles loved seeing the Molli Sparkles affect.
Upon leaving with my purchases, I remarked to the owner, Vesna, “I’m just gonna have to come here and hang out, fold fabrics and gossip about all the quilting queens.” To which she replied, “The kettle’s always on.” If you haven’t been here yet, it’s time to put on your crown and visit Quilting Queen!
What a beautiful store. And a lava lamp in “only” blacks and whites ? — now you have me thinking. My “real” one is navy blue with magenta “blobs” floating through it
From all of us quilting queens out here I want to say Molli we love you, we love your posts, we love your enthusiasm, we love your creativity…quilt on!
Such a fabulous find. That would absolutely warm my heart to stumble upon a treasure trove like that. Hopefully one day soon I’ll get to NSW and pop this place on my list.
My local book library isn’t this big! Can I just “rent a shelf” to take home and stare at? sigh. Thanks for the eye candy!