Today I had another adventure in shop hopping with my friends Barbara and Patty. As usual, Barbara (blessings on her!) was our driver.

The weather was a bit hotter than I’d like but no worse than is average in this area for late July – low 90s in temps, fluffy white clouds in blue skies, warm and humid breezes.

We had scheduled a pretty long day this time – Barbara picked Patty and me up around 9:15 a.m. and drove us north of Baltimore to the office of her orthopedist (she had a surgery follow-up appointment). After that, we drove (all praises to the developers of GPS!) to Boho Fabrics in Sparks, MD.

None of us had been to this shop before and we had a bit of difficulty finding it in the light industrial slash retail complex where it is situated. The single ‘clerk’ there was very pleasant but a bit distracted as she seemed to be just opening the shop.

Boho is a garment making fabric store (the only one I know of now in the Baltimore region). They did have a small selection of quilting fabrics but the shelves were lined with bolt after bolt of dressmaking and decorating fabrics. They had a goodly supply of sewing notions and books and a very large selection of vintage dressmaking patterns (at premium prices).

I bought some fine diameter sewing machine needles but passed over a couple of books that were catching my eye. Of course, got my MidAtlantic Shop Hop passport stamped. 🙂

We went to lunch at an Outback Steakhouse nearby next – tasty … but I wonder if mainstream Aussie food is as spicy as what OS serves. 🙂 I had boneless pork chops with broccoli and sweet potato on the side – yummy!

After lunch we drove south and (I think) west a bit to Domesticity Towson. Patty and I were just there last week … but I like the shop and was happy to buy more this time. 🙂 More lovely Wonderfil brand perle cottons, in variegated colors this time. Also a charm pack (5″ squares) of the prints from the dragon fabric collection.

I think I have decided to make some kind of 3 yard quilt with my dragon themed prints. 🙂 That should be big enough for a sofa/lap quilt, eh?

Domesticity in northern Baltimore City was our next stop. I rarely go there as it is considerably outside my usual travel lanes and parking is painful (for me). Somehow the streets in town seemed more rutted, potholed and bumpy than usual to me today. shrug.

Patty found yet another dragon print from the same collection as last week’s for me – red dragons (larger) on a white ground this time. I bought two yards of this one, too, to add to my sofa quilt. (Excited about this project:)

Our next stop was scheduled for Happy Hour Quilts in the Falls Road mill area down in the north-center of Baltimore city. The roads went from bumpy to gruesome (well, by Maryland standards – maybe as bad a those in Pennsylvania, really:). I’ve been to this shop several times and enjoy it. Nice people, pretty things to pet and buy.

Again, I focused on embroidery at this shop – bought some more threads, a nice assortment of linen 12″ squares and some bird designs for playing with later. Jo Avery, whose work I really enjoy, has been making fabric books for a while and I think I might try making one somewhat like hers … and maybe I’ll tinker with some improv embroidery a la Karen Turner, too.

By the time we drove right through the middle of downtown Baltimore and out the south side on I95, I had to cheer. My poor body felt bumped and jumbled by the traffic and road conditions. I think Barbara and Patty were glad to be done with city travel, too.

We got home around 3:30? or so. I was so tired, I laid down in my comfy armchair and took an hour’s nap when I got home (after finding another big cold glass of water:). The rest of my day has been somewhat lazy – a FaceTime phone chat with my daughter, reading, and catching up on my YouTube video subscription assortment for today.

I am hoping to spend some time tomorrow on sewing for a change … and petting, sorting and putting away my new purchases.

🙂 Linda