Bad Girl Elaine (my mom!) and I had to make a quick trip to Albuquerque, NM to take care of some business.

Southwest Decoratives and Kokapelli Quilting Company

We left Tampa on a Saturday morning and had a delightful flight, transferring in Dallas. I’ve done a lot of traveling but I had never been to New Mexico before. As the plane was descending into Albuquerque, Mom was convinced there was nothing there and we were landing in the middle of the desert. You fly over a mountain and whoosh, there you are!

A male friend of ours was in town and had offered to pick us up and spend some time with us over the weekend before we left Monday. He had a rental car so he was our hero. He asked us if there was anything special we wanted to do. I quickly replied, “visit a quilt shop” while Mom blurted out, “visit a casino, of course!” Now, she loves quilting and fabric…her sewing room is evidence of that! I just think she loves casinos and the slot machines a little teeny bit more. And who can blame her, she usually wins! Unfortunately, she didn’t pass that gene on to me.

Mona and Mary-Jo McCarthy

It was getting late in the afternoon and we figured we had time to visit one quilt shop. I handed Mom the Southwest edition of WRBQ’s Showtime Quilters Guide & Directory, turned to the Albuquerque listing, and told her to choose. We were pleased to see five listings. Hmmm, how to choose? Mom chose Southwest Decoratives and Kokapelli Quilting Company because of their unusual name. We punched the address into the GPS system and off we went!

We got a little lost because the GPS system didn’t seem to know there was a new housing development nearby and was trying to route us through even though there was no through road! A quick call to the store and a friendly voice on the other end of the phone guided us around the neighborhood and to the store. Thank goodness for GPS systems and cell phones!

Mom and I were totally wowed when we walked in the door! The shop was large, well lit, very organized, and chock full of POTENTIAL quilts!! The samples on the walls were beautiful and we hardly knew where to look first.

CJ, Mary-Jo, Elaine

Then we spied the smiling face of owner Mary-Jo McCarthy. What a gracious shop owner…she made us feel welcome right away. We explained we were from the Bad Girls Guild. I guarantee you that no quilter in the world could enter her shop and leave without being a very Bad Girl! The fabric just cried out to us.

Mary-Jo gave us a tour of the shop and the area where they do long arm quilting and mail orders. The history of her shop is phenomenal…she began her business as a mail order company 17 years ago and opened her retail shop 10 years later. With 10 years of being on the web, she was one of the first shops to take the cyber leap. That’s quite an accomplishment when you remember what the internet was like 10 years ago.

I must confess I’ve never thought of myself as a southwest style kind of gal. However, the quilt sample called Tree of Life Angels really caught my eye. I was delighted to find out the pattern was free and I quickly snapped up the accent fabrics to make my very own version.

Mary-Jo has such a variety of fabrics, patterns, and notions that there is certainly something for everyone. I saw a lot of things that I don’t see here in Florida…that’s the beauty of visiting quilt shops while traveling.

Elaine loves her Quilters Directory

We met staff member CJ Shije, a Zia and Acoma Pueblo native. CJ is a trained potter but also enjoys working with the beautiful fabrics in the shop. We definitely see Bad Girl potential in CJ!

I’m sure that Mary-Jo and her shop is a shining example of all the quilt shops in the area. She gave us a nicely done brochure called “A Quilter’s Journey”…a listing and map of all the Greater Albuquerque and Central Northern New Mexico quilt shops. If only we had time to visit the rest…well, maybe next time. We’re definitely going back!

So what happened to our friend while we were having our fabric frenzy? He politely oohed and aahed over the quilts for a couple of minutes and then remembered that we were conveniently near a large tavern. We found him happily watching a basketball game…probably among some other men waiting for their quilting women! So a note for you Bad Girls making your way to this shop…maybe you can bribe your Bad Boys with a cold beer. It would have worked for my Bad Boy if he’d been with us.

So did Bad Girl Elaine make it to the casino? Of course! Did she win? Of course! She looks at it as having more money for fabric. And even though our stay was brief, we did notice that Albuquerque is full of culture, history, special events, and friendly people. We highly recommend it as a vacation spot.

Mary-Jo and CJ…thanks for the memories. We promise we’ll be back one day and we’ll also visit the rest of the shops. Keep being bad!

Check out the website for Southwest Decoratives at www.swdecoratives.com. The link to the free pattern is http://www.swdecoratives.com/pdf%20files/Tree%20of%20Life%20Angels.pdf  You’ll definitely want to order some of the beautiful focus fabric.