Another quilt for Maddie

This quilt was supposed to be Maddie's first quilting project - but it didn't end up that way. I cut up all these black and white fabrics last summer for Maddie to make into 9-patches. We hauled her sewing machine and the fabric up to my mom's house where Maddie sewed for about 2 minutes. She said the machine was pulling everything to the left and was too frustrating to deal with. After she came home, I finished the blocks and then whacked them into disappearing 9-patch blocks. The pink sashing has a black swirly design in it.


The kids and I are up in Tennessee visiting my parents and my sister and her family. We are hoping to have a girls' sewing day (or two) while I am here - but it is difficult to keep 5 kids happy for very long when it is almost too warm to play outside. I suggested we duct tape them up and stick them in a closet but no one else liked the idea!

Last Friday was my birthday and I got to spend it having my very own shop hop with two of my quilting buddies. They both took the day off from work and we took off for Atlanta. We were able to go to five different quilt stores. I collected lots of beautiful blue/grey/green batiks to make a quilt for my bed. Nina won't be surprised by the color but she may be surprised by the batiks! I also found several pieces for my stash that were priced too good to pass up. I bought some fabrics to make the kids each a pillow case. Ian is soccer themed and Maddie's is a white back ground with a line drawing of a map of Paris. What excited me was that Le Madeleine was on the map! We were in Paris when Stacy spotted the Le Madeleine metro stop and fell in love with the name.

Here are the quilt stores we went to in case you want to check them out:
Sewn with Love - Newnan, GA - no web page yet
Tiny Stitches - Marietta, GA
In-Town Quilters - Decatur, GA
Stitch-n-Quilt - Mableton, GA
Red Hen Fabrics - Marietta, GA

Can I ask you all a question? How would you react if a store employee came within a hair of accusing you of changing the price on a bolt of fabric? One particular store made up there own little one yard bolts of fabric. My friend came across one that was marked $2.99 (with a $5.99 crossed out) - both written in Sharpie marker. When she took her pile of goodies to the counter to pay - the employee looked at the bolt that was mis-priced for a good two or three minutes. Then she said, at least three times, that they never have fabric for $2.99 a yard. She continued to be very short and curt with my friend. Either tell us that she is going to have to charge the correct price or give her the $2.99 and let it go - but stop being rude. Needless to say, we won't be going back there again! Yes - it is one of the stores listed above.

Does anyone have any fabric store suggestions in the Atlanta area or in the Nashville area? Where is your favorite place to shop on-line?