Pinch Me

Last week, I was on the phone with my mom, and she casually mentioned a postcard she'd received from Fabric Mart in Sinking Spring, PA. She didn't have the card in front of her, so I got a few disjointed phrases:

Swedish fabric distributor. Cottons. $3.99. Amy Butler.

You know how your cat gets when you open a can of tuna? I hopped online and found fabricmartfabrics.com. No mention of this at all. "Mom! Please go get that card and read it to me. I'll wait." She comes back with the card and reads it to me. Yep, it's true. Fabric Mart bought a bunch of quilting cottons, they're selling them for $3.99/yard, and it includes names like Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Moda, and Kaffe Fassett.

It gets better. I had the next day off.

As we're driving down to the shop, I start getting nervous. "What if there's so much I'm overwhelmed?" I ask Gerry. "What if there's nothing I want?" "What if there are tons of quilters there and they all run me over and buy all the good stuff?" Yeah, I worry a lot.

This is the best I could do at getting a shot of the full store. Look at all that beautiful fabric!

The entire center floor of the shop is filled with cottons. The shelves on the wall hold the fashion fabrics they typically sell. (Beautiful stuff from Vera Wang, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, etc. Check out the website!)

I immediately started building a pile, which I showed you earlier today. You all know by now that I am a MISER when it comes to buying fabric, but this was such a good price for these fabrics, I just piled on whatever I wanted.

The other customers were doing the same. These are OOP (Other People's Piles).

I didn't need to worry about anyone being mean. The other customers were friendly, and we shared some of the bolts back and forth. The woman doing the cutting was also very nice, and we enjoyed some fabric talk about how sometimes you just have to have a piece of fabric, even if you don't ever intend to use it.

This is why Gerry comes with me. He handles the cutting table while I roam, looking for more.

I also got to roam about the place, into the back rooms to see the mail-order operation and even into the basement to see some of the back stock. (Not everyone is so lucky, but I sort of had a press pass, dontchaknow?)

I told this woman she didn't have to be in the picture. She didn't scream and run away, so I assume she was okay with it!

A beautiful wool and cashmere throw. I really loved this, but I couldn't imagine where I'd go with an orange throw.

This is some of their storage space. It's so neat! I've been in some other back rooms, and this is not normal!

They also had lots of Moda jelly rolls and layer cakes for $15 each. I am kicking myself that I didn't grab one. I could have had some fun with all those little bits!

So what did I get? Well, you saw the pile, but I'll be sure to elaborate on that in the coming days. I had every piece of fabric out of the bag on the ride home!