This might sound a little overly dramatic and it’s intended to be because drama can be so very much fun. I shopped on Small Business Saturday #smallbusinesssaturday for the fun of it. I don’t need fabric, but I love it so what the heck.
Shop 2: Colchester Mill Fabrics – Colchester, CT for my local peeps this is a small version of Hartsdale Fabrics with some fashion fabric, home dec fabric, yarn, quilt fabric. Friendly staff, and sewing machine repair. They do have crafty stuff including chalkboard paper. I need this! (Melissa when you read this I have an idea to bounce off you for the magazine) Wandering around a shop to listen to what speaks to my soul is fascinating. While I didn’t get any Christmas fabric the rounder of red and silver/gray caught my attention. There is something nostalgic about the color scheme, like a childhood memory of the silver tinsel tree in the corner of the living room decorated with chains of red and green construction paper, and cranberry and popcorn.The fabric was tempting however, when I revisited the rounder, not so much.
The solids and batiks are situated near each other. I seriously contemplated a few American Made Brand – but couldn’t remember what I had at home so left those. The batiks though, that’s a different story entirely. So I’m getting fabric cut and one of the ladies asks what I’m going to do with the fabric. . .shoulders shrug, hands lift up and the question is asked, “I have to do something with it?” Which had the desired effect of a laugh. I offered the gal who asked, and her friend a quarter yard of the fabric if they purchased something. You can take the woman out of the quilt shop staff, but she’ll always enable customers, quilters any chance she gets because it’s fun.
I did answer the question a little more directly, I might hang the batik on the right above on the wall because I love it so much. It’s inspiring, it simply makes me happy. Right now I have some fabric samples by Valori Wells on my wall, three different colorways. By hanging it I get to enjoy it and figure out what, if anything I might do with it down the road. This suggestion gave the gal behind the counter some ideas for the white, bare walls of her sons apartment. Just a little something to add some fun and color.
The light batiks from Hoffman simply spoke to this quilters heart. With my back to basics trend in piecing right now my gut tells me these may be involved in a couple of quilt remakes. I’ve been wanting to remake a favorite quilt for our bed and I’m not one to make the quilt exactly like the first time around. Even doing step outs is kind of challenging for me.
I visited this place years ago and they’ve painted and refreshed the place. The walls are white giving the fabric pride of place, there are good samples around. Staff, warm, friendly and helpful. Lots of quilt samples around and some fun stuff overall. Some coming in on their day off to shop for their own quilts.
Shop 1: Christie’s Quilting Boutique
Meeting facebook friends is always fun! Christie is sweet, enthusiastic and her shop is simply adorable! As of last week she is now a BERNINA dealer. Christie really loves her local fabric designers: Jennifer Paganelli, Kate Spain, and Denyse Schmidt showing their current fabric lines with great enthusiasm. Both Kate and Denyse teach in the shop. There are also classes for kids.
I picked up some Kona solids and these beautiful fabrics from Jennifer and Denyse. 
Christie had a small tote with a few things inside for her first 20 customers. I was one of the 20 so check this out! There’s a mug inside as well.
Here’s a better shot of all of the fabrics from Christie’s shop. I love the fabrics, her enthusiasm. Christie carries the hardware for bags and totes. I was able to pick up some d-rings to make either a couple of totes or key rings. Not sure which yet, but oh the possibilities.
So as I build my stash and share it with you. The possibilities are endless. That’s the fun part of building a stash – the possibilities. Oh I long to say something beautiful and encouraging about growing as quilters. But I think I’ll say simply, whatever you do…have fun. Quilting doesn’t need to produce a lot of angst. But it does. As I’m beginning to quilt again and I mean really quilt I feel the anxiety of what putting these quilts out into the world will be met with. The work is interesting to me again and I long for it to be interesting on a grander scale. I will have one piece ready for next week that I’ll probably be binding it on the plane to Chicago, as I do, because the last minute is always the perfect deadline.
Happy Quilting friends!
Teri
