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| We started out here. This is the only shop I had ever visited, but not in this location. |
This post is dedicated to my longtime friend Susie Long in Spokane, Washington. A couple weeks ago while I was on vacation she took a personal day from work to take me shop-hopping all over Spokane. We visited 7 different shops and bought something in each one! I haven't done this in years and it was a lot of fun. Each shop was very different and had its own personality. They had different lines of fabrics and each one had a different way of bagging up your purchases, which was fun. The one way they were alike, however, was that each one welcomed us with a big smile and friendly conversation! We took pictures at each one so please indulge me. We even had to hide out in one while a massive storm came through. We learned later on the news of the huge amount of damage the storm caused in some areas.  |
| This is my vacation stash. Lots of novelty prints with words and lots of reds. |
I learned a little something about the latest trends in fabric. Big right now are big, bold, geometric prints, which I have a hard time with because they really have to be used in BIG pieces. Another trend
continues to be batiks, which I am not really into. The big surprise to me was the trend of OWLS. Really? I thought we let them go back in the 70's.Another big trend is flannels, which I have also not gotten into.
I was looking for any fabrics with words on them. That was fun because Susie had never even noticed these types of fabrics and was just as excited as I was to find one. I was also looking for REDS. True red, like the color of a red crayon. Believe me they are very rare! I also found a couple retro novelty prints that I couldn't resist. They were in a shop that had that retro vibe and we loved it. I also was looking for red-violets and purples for my next project which is scrappy in the color range from red to purple. (More about this in my next post.) Now that I have started this project I realize I missed a HUGE opportunity. I need a border fabric in just those colors to tie it all together and I didn't think to look for one. Now I am frustrated! If anyone sees something with red, red-violet, purples and not much of any other color please let me know. Another fabric I found was one I was looking for several years ago to finish a quilt. I didn't buy it because I ended up using something else and to this day it bugs me. (The quilt was made with reproduction fabrics from Olde Sturbridge Village, which I had bought there and had given up my online search for them.)
