Hot Springs, Arkansas - The Spa City

Hot Springs, Arkansas, also known as the Spa City, is a great city! I don't visit there often but when I do I have a wonderful time! There's bathhouse row with the historic bathhouses and shopping. Also the natural hot springs in the area and fountains of warm water. The water is warm because it's cooled down from the average 143 degrees temp. I wouldn't do it justice telling you about the history of Hot Springs in my own words, so if you're interested in learning about the history of the hot springs, of the gangster era and baseballs legends' favorite place to play, then click here to read all about it!

My husbands birthday is during horse racing season and these past few years we've tried to go for his birthday. It's fun and the horses are absolutely beautiful! The weather was perfect the weekend after his birthday so we made our plans. He actually had to attend a conference for a half a day in Hot Springs on a Friday. I took off work, and rode to Hot Springs with him. While he attended the conference, I kept busy by visiting a quilt shop and an antique shop. We got to Hot Springs at 8:00am and I had until noon to shop. The races start at 1:30pm.

I visited Cathy's Quiltin' Square. Of course it was a lovely shop with the sweetest lady that worked there.

Here she is, working on this beautiful wedding ring quilt. She told me a client brought it in saying it had been stored in a box for years. It was quilted and just needed to have the binding attached. The fabric for the binding was in the storage box too! She had attached the binding and was busy clipping the curves in the scalloped edges.

Gorgeous! We spoke about the fabrics in the quilt. There were some feed sack fabrics and we suspected garment fabrics as well. I enjoyed talking with her.

This is the quilt design in the center of the wedding ring block. The top was machine stitched and hand quilted.

Next I stopped at an antique store not far from where my husband was attending the conference. It was huge with lots of booths.

I took photos of some quilts that were there. This butterfly quilt was so cute. It was all cotton except for the background teal-ish color blocks of the butterflies; that fabric was polyester.

I found a couple of signature or friendship quilts. I took a close up of the embroidery; sew pretty.

A Dresden Plate block with signatures in each wedge. Sew cool!

I hadn't seen this type of iron before. Is it a steam iron? But there were no holes in the bottom for the steam to escape, only those notches on the sides.

I left the antique shop and picked up my husband from the conference. We drove to the race track and had lunch there.

Lunch at Silks. I ate their signature corned beef sandwich and my husband ordered the hamburger.

We probably took about 5 or 7 selfies before we decided on one we liked! :-)

These guys on the tractors probably don't get the respect they deserve so I took a picture of them. After each race they are out there grating the track.

I'll close this post with an awesome photo of the horses running!

It was one of those priceless days of shopping, great weather, great day at the races and spending time with my husband.

Have a blessed day!
Gina

A couple of quilt shops in North West Arkansas

Hello and welcome! The first weekend in February, my sister, DeAnna and I were able to spend time together in North West Arkansas. We took advantage of the opportunity to visit a couple of quilt shops in the area.

We stopped at Sew in Heaven in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It's a very lovely shop and I didn't think to take photos while we were there!  Instead, I'll show you the patterns we purchased.

DeAnna bought this great Travel Essentials organizer that includes a pattern for a flat iron or curling iron.

I can't resist tote patterns and purchased Tina's Tech Tote Trio! Three bags in one! They had one made in the store which for me is pretty much guaranteed I'll buy the pattern!

We then drove to Lonesome Pine Quilts in Elkins, Arkansas. What a cute shop and they're only open on Friday and Saturday's!

DeAnna looking at their awesome selection of Batik fabrics!

Sew awesome with the truck in the store. I enjoy it when quilt shops have old vehicles, washtubs, old iron beds, etc in the store used to display quilts and fabric!

They have a lot of gorgeous wall inspiration throughout the store. They quilt for their clients so most of the quilts hanging in the store was made by their clients.

It was also DeAnn's birthday and I was happy to be able to spend the day with her!

Thanks for stopping by. Where have you been shopping lately?

Have a blessed day!
Gina