Sunday, September 7, 2008

A Shopping We Shall Go

Posted by Strlady at 10:32 PM 0 comments
On Labor Day weekend I took advantage and scheduled my first ‘expedition’ to the quilt shops of the area. A co-worker of mine could not stop raving about The Cabbage Rose Quilt shop and since it’s just 30 minutes away, this was my first stop.

I was quite surprised with the location of this place. This quilt shop was featured in American Patchwork and Quilting’s Quilt Sampler and I had certain expectations on it’s layout that really were not met when I found the place. Maybe because I visited on Labor Day the location looked deserted and the street actually looked like an abandoned warehouse should be there. The outside was dirty and the inside dusty but that is where the disappointment ended. The place was packed with fabrics. It had fabrics that you didn’t know you wanted to buy. It also had one of the largest batik selections I have seen in person.

Now I will clarify that statement with the fact that it had a lot of fabrics and there was something for everyone. This is not necessarily a good thing if you are looking for something in particular, but if you are not sure what you are looking for, it’s heaven.

I tend to compare this with an avid reader of Romance novels (like myself) walking into Barnes and Noble looking for a title. The B&N next to my house has soooo many books but their Romance selection is poor, while Borders has a better selection of paperbacks and the Audiobook selection is terrible compared with B&N.

I was looking for some Ivory prints with a more yellowish undertone than grey. Very specific. I was also looking to see if I could enhance my pastels but again with a particular undertone. I took a good sampling of what I had at home and with my sister, Jessica’s help I did good and found myself something to get me going.

Here is what I had at home:



and also:



I picked up these two for the leaves and the border (love the stars on the border Tan):


The Ivories were weeded down from about 6 to these that complement each other:



and then I ran into a line from Buggy Barn (love, love, love their stuff) and a few other ‘pastel like’ colors:



In total the prices were not bad for a quilt shop ( $8.00 – 9.00 / yd) but not as affordable as some shops you can find online. The thing with buying online when you don’t know what you’re looking for is that you cannot really appreciate the colors and with so much out there you can spend HOURS looking at all the shops. But if you do know the line you like (like me and that Buggy Barn line) you can drop by your favorite online store and pick it up and more affordable prices.

Well now I have the fabric in hand but before I even contemplate starting that project I need to fix some pants for Jessica.



She leaves for hurricane alley (Florida/Bahamas) with her friend Michael on a Disney cruise Thursday morning. Hopefully Hurricane Ike has cleared out by then and they can enjoy themselves.
 

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