Shopping Locally

I have been in Oklahoma this past week with my daughter.  We were looking at University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.  On the say to OSU, we made a detour in Oklahoma City to visit Oklahoma Quilt Works.  WOW!!  What a cute shop.  It was in a strip center that had unique stores all around and no visible chains except for perhaps the Jimmy's Egg next door (A local breakfast chain I am thinking).  OQW had lots of fabric and everything that I wanted to see; Anna Marie Horner, Amy Butler, Brights, & solids.  (I am planning a houndstooth quilt and want to use solids.)  My daughter and I liked that they had lots of samples made out of the collections and I was really mesmerized by a quilt that had a circle theme and was made our of primarily polka-dot fabric.  I love polka dots.  They seem very happy to me!  They just add a lot of zip to your quilt projects. 

Well the employees at Oklahoma Quilt Works were like bright yellow polka dots ----- very helpful!!  They sent us to a restaurant to eat at which coincidentally,  was a one of a kind, jewel of a restaurant.  Here   is the link for Nicolette's Raspberries 'n' Creme. It was a chic little bistro with delicious food.  I had the fish tacos and my daughter had a chicken sandwich on fresh foccacia.  Yummy!!

This is the funky ORIGINAL chandelier that was hanging over our table.  I thought that the brush fringe made it tooooooooo cute! 

Some more originality that made me happy!!  Iron napkin rings that were the same vintage of the chandelier.  Fresh Flowers!  Each napkin a different color and colorful dishes with the same vibe of Fiesta Ware.

I cannot say enough about how important it is to visit and shop at brick and mortar stores.  It means a lot to me that I can go to these stores and actually touch the fabric.  Even though ------ in my last post I referred my readers to an on-line shop that sells Guterman thread inexpensively, I support my local shops.  The Quilt shop that I frequent;  The Quilter's Workshop, is a great place to go.  Their site is Here.   Sam and Diana of TQW a Mother/Daughter team have made this a creative place to learn and tweak your skills. I will be sharing lots of the quilts that I have made with Sam's patterns and you can look for them on their web-site. 

Bottom line ------  I value being able to shop local.  Keep your local stores in business because these are what make up the flavor of your town.

On the topic of thread

Sew - I was reading some blogs today and I read one that seemed to have good information.  She suggested buying "cone" thread because it has more thread rather than buying thread for quilting and fashion sewing.  It was cute because she called the cone thread "Biggie Size"  like we were watching Sex and the City.  Well the Biggie Size or Maxi-Lock thread like they sell at the big box sewing stores is quite a deal compared to Gutermann.  The problem is that it is meant for a serger, and not a sewing machine. The serger uses three or four threads at a time and it has to be a finer thread.  This is simply not meant for quality construction and if you are going to invest in fine fabrics for your sewing you need to buy "good" thread too. 

I can hear you now!  Why oh why are all of the good deals not really good deals?

I have a source - Sew True!!

http://sewtrue.com/

They have Guterman at a steal of a price and you can buy theirs in a 5500 yard cone for $16.50.  They also have the 1100 yards for only $3.50.  They are never out of the basic colors like some other shops and they are quick to ship.  Hopefully you will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to purchase your thread on-line.

Have a fantastic sewing weekend!!  What are you doing?  I have the Dallas Quilt Show sponsored by the Dallas Quilt Guild.  I am looking forward to photographing some really yummy quilts with my new Canon Rebel.