Indulgence / Retail Therapy

SoCal fabric and supplies, Sept. 2009
SoCal fabric and supplies, Sept. 2009

I spent last week in SoCal doing a little bit of Grama wrangling/triage with my mom. If it isn’t abundantly clear, I was away from my sewing machine. The only fiber work I did was work on a bit of the hand stitching of Beach Town. After thinking about it, I may pull out what I did and redo it. We’ll see.

I was able to visit two quilt shops and a Borders. I don’t usually buy the Where Women Create magazine, but I am a Mary Engelbreit sucker and love her stuff, so I couldn’t resist. The editor’s note in this issue is WONDERFUL! I am going to send a copy to some of my good friends. I think they will appreciate it. I also really liked the quotes included with each artists’ piece.

Usually I prefer to buy magazines at local shops, but Borders really does have the BEST selection I have seen lately. I was able to look through 5-7 quilt magazines there as well as a plethora of other art and craft related magazines. I wasn’t enamored with the current Quilts and More mag, sadly. Very dull colors and uninspiring projects.

I also found that the two quilt shops I visited no longer carried magazines. Both owners said magazines just weren’t selling there. Sad. I would like it if Amazon sold just issues of mags rather than subscriptions. I would buy an issue or two of various mags once in a while if it weren’t such a pain to do so. I am thinking I need a subscription to a house magazine. I really mis House and Garden. House Beautiful seems to have improved somewhat.

One of my favorite shops is called Treasure Hunt in Carpinteria. It is located at 919 Maple Ave in a little house. The decorations are fun, cheerful and adorable. They have fun and cheerful fabric, a nice staff and other craft related items, like Collage Pauge from Traci Bautista. They have a room full of yarn for you knitting types, kid craft items (more Crayola brand stuff than I have ever seen in my life!) and a room of supplies needed to finish your works like frames, etc.

The red dot fabric and the cherry fabric with the yellow background will be an Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote.  I plan to do a trial run with some Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy fabric first, though. I want to see how the pattern works before I use my precious combo. If the pattern doesn’t work for me, I will make another one of the Eco Market totes. Stay tuned for that project.

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

2 thoughts on “Indulgence / Retail Therapy”

  1. Nice fabrics! Looks like a Mary E. homage right there…
    The new tote pattern looks very cool, the more pockets the better.
    My LQS is the same these days, they only carry Quilting Arts and Quilter’s Home. I had to go to Borders to get Stitch. Too bad!

    1. Yes, you are right, I think about the ME homage. I am thinking about buying more of the yellow and green paisleys. I wonder why people aren’t buying magazines anymore? The economy is a factor, I am sure. I wonder if people are really reading less?

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