When in Nome ...

... Support the local economy

While we never got close to Nome, Alaska on our recent cruise, we quilters made our best effort to support the local quilt shops in the towns we did visit!  Generally speaking, quilt/fabric shops in the cruise ports are geared toward tourist traffic with a lot of Alaska-themed offerings, whether it be batiks, panels, patterns, or kits, and many of the shops had the same things.

Bears, Caribou, and Moose batiks

Dall Sheep and more Bears

DH and I arrived in Fairbanks too late in the evening to shop (dinner at 10 p.m.)  Our next stop was Denali National Park; I passed on a shop that advertised "fleece" but I heard it had some fabric, too.  So on to Anchorage.

The Quilted Raven is a very nice shop in downtown Anchorage that is open on Sunday!  And they made special arrangements to open early so that we could stop in before our train left for Seward.  I was determined to get some of the dogsled batik that the shop had used in a row-type quilt.

Mushing - the official Alaska state sport

Too cute!  This shop had mostly batiks, both themed and plain.  They had a nice selection of patterns, panels, and FQ packs.  I also picked up a couple of their Row-by-Row license plates.

Once we boarded the ship, our first stop was Haines.  The closest shop was in Skagway, a 45-minute ferry ride so I missed that one -- not because I didn't have the time, but the ferry was already fully booked.

Our next stop was Juneau where Changing Tides Quilts was an easy walk from from the dock.  It didn't have a wide selection, but they had gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and added a gift to our purchases, in addition to a discount on fabric.

B/W prints to go with an Aboriginal panel

The last stop was in Ketchikan.  We were told the Whale's Tale was "at the end of the pier."  What they didn't say was "The END of the PIER" at Berth 1; we were at Berth 4, nose to stern with 3 other ships!  Undaunted, DH and I made our way uptown in a drizzle and it was well worth the effort.  This shop had a bigger selection of traditional quilting cottons so I picked up a few yellow and gray FQs to go in my king-size quilt.

If you are ever shopping in Alaska, tell the owners of these shops that they were approved by Libby in Tennessee.