Retail Therapy in Bend, OR

I decided to go on a mini shop hop in Bend, OR yesterday. The call of shopping was greater than the call of staying in the hotel room all morning.

The first store I visited was BJ's Quilt Basket. This store was by far my favorite. The store is wide open and filled with any fabric you can imagine. Quilts adorn the walls. There is a good-sized classroom. I purchased this Quilt To Go Kit. This is one of many small kits they sell. The kit makes an 8" x 10" quilt that can be slipped onto an acrylic frame. The kits come with the fabric, including backing. I can't wait to get home and make mine. I also bought some purple fabric for a quilt I'm planning for my MIL. If I lived in Bend, this store would be my LQS.

My next stop was Sew Many Quilts. This store was a little hard to find. It's in the back of a small business strip mall and there is no sign on the road. This store has three big rooms, two filled with fabric and one classroom. The fabric selection was great. The displays were nice. The staff was friendly. This was the first store where I have seen Aunt Martha transfers so I bought a package of chef transfers.

Next stop was Pine Tree Quilting. This store is in the downtown part of Bend. Parking was a little tough, but doable. The store is not large and she did not have a lot of fabric. She was very nice and we chatted a little about the weather in Bend, OR.

The last stop was Mountain Country Mercantile. The second I walked in the door I was assaulted by the smell of cats and/or dogs. Now, don't get me wrong, I like animals, but I don't like to smell them when I'm shopping. There was a lot of fabric in this store. Two large rooms, plus a large classroom in the back that also had a wall of sale fabrics. There was an upstairs area that I didn't investigate. I walked through the whole store, but the smell was so overwhelming that I can't imagine ever going back there. I did find the other pattern in the photo above. It's hard to read but you have the option of stitching "For Maid Service, Push The Button, If No One Answers Do It Yourself" of "For Laundry Service, Push The Button, If No One Answers Do It Yourself".

Here are the fabrics I bought. I've loved the jello fabric since I saw it on-line some time ago. This is the first time I saw it in person and I couldn't resist it. The purple fabric is for MIL's quilt. The black fabric has colorful hearts on it. That fabric and the yellow fabric with tulips will take residence in my stash until I decide what to do with them. I bought the green fabric and the cherries fabric thinking I'll make a tote bag for my MIL. She once won an award for her Cherry Pie and is still well known for her pies. This will make a great bag for her to take to the Farmer's Market.

Last night DH and I went out for a "date night". The concierge at the hotel recommended The Blacksmith Restaurant in downtown Bend. What a fantastic restaurant. DH and I like to order Chef's Tasting Menus and we were pleasantly surprised that they offer one and you can specify what you like and don't like. For me, that meant I could say bring on the steak and hold the seafood. We had six wonderful courses, each one better than the previous one. It took us two hours to enjoy dinner. We even got the chef to autograph the menu. I suppose you're wondering what we had. Here's the menu:

• First Course - Watermelon Salad - mixed greens topped with minted goat cheese, watermelon and basil pesto.
• Second Course - I had steak adobo and DH had haddock and scallops in a Pinot Noir sauce
• Third Course - A small pasta dish with house-cured salami, onions, fennel, roasted tomatoes and pasta. This course was very, very yummy.
• Fourth Course - Pork tenderloin on white beans with grilled nectarines and prosciutto on grilled radicchio
• Fifth Course - Sliced Top Sirloin with Fried Potatoes with a truffle oil reduction.
• Sixth (and final) Course - an Almond Tulle Cookie Cup filled with fresh berries topped with a lemon sauce. Very light and refreshing.

Now this reads like a lot of food, but each plate was about a third of the size of a regular portion. That combined with the timing between each course you were able to enjoy each selection without feeling stuffed. I'd go back there in a minute.

Come back tomorrow for more installments on My Summer Vacation. Tomorrow we will be driving back to Portland by way of Dallas, OR and a visit to Grandma's Quilting Attic. I'm excited for that shop.