Location: Sacramento, California
Shop:       Fabric Garden
Owner:    Jill
Website:  www.fabricgardenquiltshop.com

Sacramento is the capital of California, and it's just north of the middle of the state. There are just under a half million people in Sacramento, about the size of Seattle (my home town). But just over an hour away is San Francisco Bay area with over 2 million.

One of the few quilt shops on our tour, but well worth the stop. Jill just opened Fabric Garden last May (Cinco de Mayo, to be exact), so she's getting ready to have her first anniversary (yay!). For a store that's less than a year old, I never would have guessed how young they were with as well stocked as they are.

There's something happening every day of the week in this place, whether it be a kid's quilting class, or maybe a 'sit & finish' day, the calendar has something going on every day they're open. Lots of fabrics and some great accents, including plenty of ribbon.

Quilting, one more hobby I don't need but would love to start. Whether you've new to quilting or not, this store has a lot to offer. Absolutely everyone that works here can help you in your projects and steer you in the right direction.

Next stop: Bakersfield, California

Location: McKinleyville, California
Shop:       Knitter's Lane
Owner:    April
Website:  http://knitterslane.com/


Home to 15,000, McKinleyville is about 90 minutes south of our last stop, Crescent City. 90 minutes of Highway 101 which runs along the north coast of California. Very, very cool. I've spent most of my life in Seattle where we have the Puget Sound, not at all like the coast. The immense power in the waves and how they sculpt the beaches is amazing. We had the coast on our right and the giant redwoods on our left. I'm going to look forward to this drive next year.

Just off Highway 101, Knitter's Lane is in an old motel. The single story kind that surrounds the parking lot. Walk in and you can see their counter, knitting table, knitting couch, and accessories such as knitting needles and books are in what used to be the main room. There's two rooms off to the side that used to be the bedrooms. Now they hold lots of fiber.

Unlike a lot of the other stores I've been to, they had a nice supply of ribbon.

The store used to be a scrapbooking store, with stamps, papers and ribbons. The only thing that stayed when yarn came in was the ribbon.

April has owned the store for a year and a half. Prior to that, she was a stay at home mom who frequented the store. When her son and husband talked about adding a daughter to their family, she was okay with that as long as she had four legs. Now she's a proud dog owner with an extremely friendly dog who's too friendly to have in the store. Darn.

We have taken a few days off while visiting friends in Blue Lake, California. Blue Lake is located about 20 miles from the coast along the Mad River. They have an extremely loud air siren that goes off at 8am in the morning. Our friends neglected to tell us that and my husband assumed it was a Tsunami warning siren. He kinda figured out that since the town wasn't panicking, he should probably relax. In fact, our friends slept right through it.

Next stop: Eureka, California  -home of the Carson House