TOGA, Day One: Shopping

I have sung the praises of Mary Jo's Cloth Store on this blog before, and I will undoubtedly do it again.  Not being paid to do so, boo hoo.  They could pay me in fat quarters.  Are you listening, Mary Jo?  Is there a real Mary Jo? 

The sad thing is that back in the day (and back in the day I lived in Baltimore) I used to know of many fabulous fabric stores near me.  Now there is ONLY Mary Jo's, and a 3 hour drive is not near.  So I don't go there often, but on the other hand that frees me to spend as much as I like when I do get there.  Or so I claim.

Want to hear something else sad?  I was in Joann's a while ago, and the customer in front of me asked the cutting clerk a question.  The young woman replied "I don't sew and I can't help you."  Pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Joann's, the fabric store with employees that don't know how to sew and can't help you.

and DON'T tell me to patronize my local quilt shop, where the fabrics are the highest possible prices and the clerks are snooty. 

Need hoop skirts?  Mary Jo has them. 















Need sequined organza?  Ditto

and here's a sign that absolutely cracked me up.  My SIL is a Methodist minister. I wonder what she wants for her next set of robes, fur or burlap!
 
You can also find:

• swim and dance wear fabric
• home dec
• fleece
• knits
• oilcloth
• Pro and college team themed fabric
• Lining, interlining, interfacing, and fusibles of all descriptions
• notions and tools of all kinds
• and everything else.  really.

of course I went for the quilting cotton, which is about 1/3 of the whole enormous store.

You want to see what I bought, don't you?  Of course you do, you are reading a quilting blog!

 Civil War repro fabrics for an upcoming block exchange

 Stripes and dots for an upcoming quilt

 Dragon scale fabric.  Well, that's what it looks like to me.  And someday there
WILL be a dragon quilt.  I bought a LOT of this.  Love it, knew it would not photograph especially well.  Trust me on this one.

 Two flamingo fabrics because you can never have too much flamingo fabric.

 Some classy African ladies.  I collect fabrics with images of women.  Don't have the slightest idea what I will eventually do with them. 

 Sewing themed fabric.  Surely I don't have to explain.

 Street scene from the early 1950's, when I was a tiny tot.  There's a quilt coming with topographic maps and aerial photos of places I have lived and/or loved, and various fabrics that will also tell the story of my life.  The images are mostly printed.  One of the printers eventually recovered but the other one never did.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.  Printers + fabric = a really, really bad idea.

yes, I have said this before.  I feel pretty strongly about it.  I could buy 3 or 4 vintage sewing machines with what it costs to replace a printer.



The ultimate haul of fabric, including some not pictured above and, not including all the toys and tools, mostly mundane replacements or upgrades of fascinating things like thread, scissors, etc.

I did branch out and buy two sizes of yo-yo makers.  Will they sit in the studio forever, keeping the needle felting tools company in their lonely drawer?  Or will I actually use them on that bin of recycled silk shirts?