On a Christmas trip to Paris with my daughter, I brought along some cut pieces for hand piecing, a first attempt to fill in empty travel downtime with quilting.
On trips to the USA every two years, I found myself gravitating toward quilt and fabric shops. With a limited budget, I tried to stretch it by going to factory outlet shops whenever possible, and fishing out suitable cottons from the remnant bins, including the upholstery section. Stationery shops too became pilgrimage sites for rulers, very short and very long, various types of pencils and markers and plastic sheets. Thrift shops and garage sales too were favorite hunting ground for fabrics, magazines, books on quilting. My very patient husband would sit and observe the women who bought fat quarters, made careful yardage selections from bolts, and other things contributory to quilting.
There was a fabric and quilt shop called In the Beginning located near the veterinary clinic run by my sister on Lake City Way in Seattle. It was a building fully occupied by the shop, lots of parking, and a few feet away from the clinic. It was so sad for me when they closed for good, in 2005, since I spent a lot of quality browsing time there and bought my first quilting essentials there. They continue the name, concentrating with their own line of prints, extremely popular for floral lines and blended prints, nation-wide. I still have some of the flyers for patterns and the fabrics from their range. (see photo above, from their web site. Some of these are available free online at their web site, www.inthebeginningfabrics.com. Their range of fabrics, always a pleasure to browse and buy, is widely available at many fabric stores.
I bought my first rotary cutter, an Olfa 45 mm in 2004. What a difference! I also bought my own dedicated dry iron and ironing board. Pressing is really so much an integral part to add quality, as I found the hard way.
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