Out of Print Prints
The rest of the Thanksgiving trip was fine; we had a relaxing day at the Airbnb on Thursday before braving the crowds on Friday. I was feeling optimistic as my mother, sister, DD#1, and I headed for University Village, because traffic was light and shoppers seemed cheery. A few hours later, though, we got caught up in a mess on our way to see DD#2 at the Nordstrom where she works. Someone had driven up onto the sidewalk and hit a pole on the access road next to the mall, shutting down that road for several hours. I ended up dropping everyone off and going to fuel up the car. By the time I got back, traffic was marginally better but still not great. There is nothing to do in those situations but be patient and avoid contributing to the problem. We managed.
Saturday was my mother’s 78th birthday. Because my birthday is so close to Thanksgiving, we often end up celebrating together, but none of us could remember the last time we were all together for my mother’s birthday. My sister and I treated her to dinner at a lovely French restaurant. They both flew home on Sunday and I headed for Spokane.
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Fabrics go out of print just like many other items (yarn, patterns, books, etc.). I have learned that if I find something I absolutely love, I should buy as much of it as I can. We’ve all heard stories of a bolt of OOP fabric selling for some outrageous price in eBay. Ever since Joanns stopped carrying many designer prints and switched to a house brand (a dumb idea, in my opinion, but I don’t run the company), it’s been a lot harder to find specific fabric designers, especially in my neck of the woods. Occasionally, I’ll visit a Joanns that has a stock of older prints. The store in Moses Lake, for example, which has only been open for about two years, has some fabrics I haven’t seen in quite a while. I picked up the last of a bolt of Tim Holtz fabric in the entomology print. Our store hasn’t had any Tim Holtz fabric for several years. And I ran across some of this Quilter’s Showcase fabric, which also has been out of stock at our store for a long time:
(Not the best representation of the colors, but I do love the print.) I had a yard of this fabric and used it for the Mary Apron class I took at The Quilting Bee in Spokane last February. Alas, that was the class where the pattern was full of errors. I ended up wasting quite a bit of that original yard of fabric because the pattern said to cut each piece 17” long when each piece only needed to be 10” long. The leftovers went to the scrap bag, but I was a bit annoyed. When I spotted this at the store in Moses Lake, I bought what was left.
I haven’t been to Missoula lately to see if it is still open, but there was a quilting store there that had so much back stock of fabric that some of the bolts never had their plastic wrapping removed. It has gotten rather ridiculous in recent years. New fabric lines used to come out once or twice a year. Now, some fabric manufacturers are releasing new lines once a quarter, and smaller quilt stores have a hard time rotating inventory that quickly.
The last time I was in Spokane, I picked up a fat quarter of this fabric at Sew E-Z, Too, a fabric store north of downtown:
Don’t ask me why, but I think it’s charming. I’ve discovered that fat quarters are a good way to see if I like a fabric. If I buy a fat quarter and then decide I should have bought yardage, I’ll look for a supplier. I could have ordered more of this online, but I popped into the store when I went through Spokane last Tuesday. They still had it, so I bought a yard. I think it’s going to end up being a quilted cover for one of my sewing machines.
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I spent Tuesday catching up on paperwork, cleaning and organizing, and running errands to stock up on feed for everyone, husband included. And then I had a moment of anxiety when I realized that there are only three weeks until Christmas. Yikes. It almost always sneaks up on me anyway, but this year, with Thanksgiving being so late in November, I am way behind the curve. It’s time to manage expectations:
No one is getting a quilt from me this year.
Some of you will get handmade gifts. You may get them AFTER Christmas.
I did wrap half a dozen presents yesterday—bought throughout the year—so YAY ME.
Going back to work will throw a wrench into the works, but how big a wrench remains to be seen. It is one of those strange paradoxes that when I have a lot of free time in my schedule, I am less productive. Having to work a couple of hours a day will no doubt help me to better prioritize some of my activities.
I went down to the organic market Tuesday to pick up some veggies for a salad and to drop off a supply of business cards. I noticed how nicely the owner had displayed my aprons! They were in a basket with the apron ties done up in fancy bows, and a hand-lettered sign to indicate that they were done by a local maker. The local paper did a profile on the store this week if you’d like to read more. (And from the small world department, the Mary Jo mentioned in the article is the sister of my computer guru, Greg.)