Slot Machines, Yarn and Fabric. Vegas Baby!

Our family recently embarked on the most fantastic trip to Las Vegas to help celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.  60 years!  There were 14 of us that went, including my two girls, and it was really refreshing to look at Vegas through the eyes of a six and eight year old.  What had in the past seemed seedy and insidious became fascinating and sparkly all over again.  It didn't hurt that the view from our hotel room at the Bellagio looked like this:

Anyone that says Vegas isn't for kids is only focusing on the parts of Las Vegas that are specifically not for kids, and of course there is plenty of that, but there is so much there for kids to love.  To start with, our hotel had five pools, that in itself would have kept them entertained, but there was so much we wanted to do we couldn't even fit it all in to the four days we were there.  We managed to make it to see the lions at MGM, the four story M&M store, the girls' first Vegas show (the Elvis Cirque de Soleil, which was fantastic), the show at Fremont street and the art museum at our hotel that has Picassos and Renoirs.  It was the first time that I have gone to Vegas and actually not been ready to go when it was time to leave.

Another Vegas first for me was taking the time to search out some yarn and fabric stores.  Las Vegas has some really nice ones!  My mom, aunt and I ventured out to see what kind of yarn stores you can find in the desert and we were not disappointed.  Our first stop was Knit Vegas, which at about 20 minutes from the strip was the farthest. 

The shop owner was very friendly and spent a great deal of time discussing which yarns would work with a project my mom was buying yarn for and as a bonus they were having a sale.  I bought two skeins of sequined yarn that I wouldn't normally purchase at regular price and while checking out we learned that the fabric store (Nancy's Quilt Shop) we had planned on visiting was going out of business. 

A quick search on the car GPS showed another fabric store only four miles away, so in continuing our adventurous spirit we headed in that direction.  The fabric store we were randomly led to was Quiltique and it was probably the nicest quilt shop I have ever been in, and I have been in a heck of a lot of quilt shops!

(This picture shows about a fourth of the shop, not including the Bernina side or the classrooms, and of course my mom picking out fabric.)

The fabric selection was huge and modern, there were a ton of samples made up to go with thier great selection of books and patterns and to top it all off the second half of the store was a Bernina dealer.  As I waited for my aunt to check out I paused at these Anna Maria Horner fabric covered chairs and really pondered how I could fit them in my luggage to take home. 

I bought Sandi Hendersons' new book there, which is so great it deserves its own post, while my mom found the backing for a quilt top she had just completed and my aunt gleefully found needles for her machine and a whole stack of fabric.  This quilt store is a must for quilters visiting Las Vegas, and only about 15 minutes from the strip.

After a break and some lunch (that heat really takes it out of you), we continued on to the Wooly Wonders yarn store.  This is a tiny yet well stocked little store only four miles from the Bellagio and is a perfect place to go if you have run out of yarn for a project or need a knitting fix.  They have open knit Saturdays and there were quite a few people hanging out in the shop knitting and chatting.  I managed to find a skein of sock yarn that I couldn't go home without and my mom got some gorgeous merlot colored fiber from their collection of spinning supplies.

We found plenty of great places for our Las Vegas fiber adventure, but if you know of somewhere else that shouldn't be missed be sure to leave it in the comments!