Our Las Vegas FARTs (Fabric Acquisition Road Trips)

[dossymae]

My mom and I went out to Las Vegas last week in search of quilt shops. While we stayed in downtown Las Vegas, we didn't put even a penny in a machine, but instead put all our pennies to our FARTs. We were able to go to quilt shops in Nevada, Utah and Arizona and had a blast. I'll go through the shops we went to, but I think that we're quite spoiled here in MN with some really great quilt shops.

Day 1 we went to 3 shops in Las Vegas:

• Sew Little Time-This shop was mostly a sewing machine shop, so they had very little fabric.
• The Christmas Goose-This shop is the one in Las Vegas most similar to MN shops. They had a lot of fabric that was more traditional.
• Fabric Boutique-This shop was pretty small. They had just moved to a smaller shop, so there wasn't a lot of selection. They had a ton of paper piecing patterns which were really fun to look at.

Day 2 was our first FART to Pahrump, NV to The Quilted Dragon. This one was in part of the owner's home. It's not a shop that I would choose to go to again, but it's the only one in the area.


Up next...Utah!

[dossymae]

Day 3 we headed up to Utah and made it to 9 shops. The Utah shops were definitely our favorites:

• Stitching it Up in Cedar City, UT-This was a cute little shop.
• Main Street Quilt Cottage in Hurricane, UT-We really liked this shop. It's not very big, but the view out the front door was amazing.
• Quilted Works in St. George, UT-This shop was huge! They had lots of modern fabric and great patterns. Their Row by Row kit was super cute and somehow ended up in my suitcase. They also gave us a list of all the area shops which was really helpful.
• Ben Franklin/Ace Hardware in St. George-This one was a bit odd for us, so we had to go. I think my husband would have loved a fabric store that also sells hunting supplies.
• Quilt N Sew in St. George-This shop was pretty small. We weren't really fans of it. When we walked in, it was really dark (which I understand because of the heat) and there was an odor that we couldn't place.
• Scrap Apple Quilts in St. George-This was probably a tie for our favorite shop in St. George with Quilted Works. It was a big shop with lots of selection. They even had packages of 6 fat quarters for $6 each. I may have ended up with a few of those.
• Superior Threads in St. George-Holy Moly! This was overwhelming! You walk in and they just set you free in the warehouse. We didn't even know where to start. They also have tons fabric. It was pretty amazing to see it all.
• Clover Patch in Santa Clara, UT-We were told by a few different people that this one wasn't really worth going to, so we had low expectations. We LOVED this shop! We have a huge fabric outlet at home and this was a smaller, much more organized version. We decided that if we lived in the area, it would definitely be our first stop.
• Simply Quilts and Crafts in Mesquite, AZ-This is a pretty new shop. We thought that it was really small and they didn’t have much to offer.

Whew! All that was just in one day! Next up…Arizona!

[dossymae]

Day 4 we headed down to Arizona and hit 4 shops:

• JonAli in Lake Havasu City, AZ-This was a fun shop. We talked to the owner a little and she is also from MN, so it was fun to chat with her a little. They are featured in this month’s Quilt Sampler along with the shop that’s only a half mile from my house.
• A Material Obsession in Lake Havasu City, AZ-This shop was a decent size with lots of patterns.
• Fabrics Unlimited in Fort Mohave, AZ-This shop wasn’t huge, but all of their books were 25% off. This meant that the newest version of the Quilter’s Travel Companion had to come home with me. Once I got home, I had the binding cut off and got it 3 hole punched and put it in a binder with all my other quilt shop info.
• Connie’s Quilter’s Hide-a-way in Kingman, AZ-This was a smaller shop with a lot of selection. It’s right off of Route 66, so there was a lot of Route 66 novelty fabric which was fun.

Day 5 was our last day and we had one more shop to get to in Henderson, NV. Well. We were sooooo glad that we made Quiltique our last shop or we would have had a tough time having fun at the other shops. This shop was amazing! It’s huge! We had to walk through twice to make sure we got to everything. They have a huge selection of fabrics and precuts. They even had the Moda scrap bags which we’ve never seen at a shop before. Everything is so well organized. They had lots of kits that were reasonably priced as well. This shop is definitely a “must see” shop if you’re ever in the Las Vegas area.

In all, we ended up traveling 1,200 miles and visited 18 shops. It was such a fun trip and now we need to find a new area to explore. Please let me know if you have any questions about the trip!

[verenaerin]

Are you bankrupt?

[ceiliam]

glad you got to see all the fun stores . I am in St George and get to see all their wonderful shops and love quitique in Henderson a must stop when in vegas

[Sasha Anzures]

omg sounds like such a blast!!!!! now I have to find time and money to go visit some of them!

[Jean Sewing Machine]

And did you have to buy another suitcase to get all of your treasures home?

[dossymae]

It was actually a pretty cheap trip. We requested the smallest car with the best gas mileage and only spent about $125 on gas. We also had to be good with our purchases because we only had carry-ons and we're each going on a cruise in 2 weeks that we need to save pennies for. We just really like going to the different shops and seeing what they have to offer.

[verenaerin]

It was actually a pretty cheap trip. We requested the smallest car with the best gas mileage and only spent about $125 on gas. We also had to be good with our purchases because we only had carry-ons and we're each going on a cruise in 2 weeks that we need to save pennies for. We just really like going to the different shops and seeing what they have to offer.

That's such a great attitude, perfect for a vacation. Thank you for documenting your trip, it was very interesting. You sound like a fun gal to travel with!

[Meghan Plamondon]

Gotta love Farts! Sounds just great!