Fabric Shopping Online Can’t Do This

Yesterday I went to the quilt shop. Ostensibly it was to pick up a few coordinating fat quarters for a wedding/house-warming gifts I had in mind but in reality, it turned out to be so much more. I didn’t just find the fabric I was looking for, I found beauty, camaraderie and inspiration.

We all know you can find endless fabric online – its easy and convenient – but only in the quilt shop can you lay bolts next to each other, pile up fat quarters side by side and really get an appreciation for what those fabrics will look like together. You can also juxtapose fabrics from different lines, something which is technically unworkable online. I’ve tried assembling a weird matrix of windows, I’ve even tried cutting and pasting screen grabs into one document. There really is no substitute for sampling laying the fabrics next to each other.

The quilt shop has another precious resource you can’t find online… people! The people you run into at the quilt shop are the nicest lot. They will inevitably ask what you are working on and then when you tell them in excruciatingly drawn-out detail, they are genuinely interested in every last tidbit! Try doing that with your Significant Other. Quilt shop folks will also empathize with you regarding whatever quilting challenge you may be facing, in my case, a recent stroke. Finally, someone who understands how I really do need to be able to use that rotary cutter for an hour at a time and no, I can’t just “do something else”.

Finally, any trip to the quilt shop comes with something else you’ll never find online and that is: real live quilts… hanging everywhere! I have to call specific attention to the popular Exploding Hearts quilt, designed by the friendly and talented Laura Piland of Slice of Pi Quilts. I must have seen this pattern 200 times online. It’s very popular and seemingly everywhere but I’d never seen one in person. In my local quilt shop it was made up in a red colorway of Kaffe Fassett which really made it mesmerizing. It almost looked like it was on fire. I was also surprised at how big the quilt was in real life, another attribute which you just can’t get a feel for online. I do not know if I would have the fortitude for all of the hourglass blocks required, but after seeing in in real life, I think I just might!

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Please join us here every other Wednesday for another fun, fiber-filled installment of By the Yard. You can read more By the Yard® at www.bytheyardcomics.com and check out the NEW By the Yard 2023 Calendar for Quilters!