Mini Shop Hop!

Rolls of fabric at The Needle Shop!

Today Emily and I went on a little mini shop hop - as a reward for making it through the week.The Chicago school teachers were on strike for a week and a half (ending mid week this week) which means that I went from settling into "back to school" routine (having some time to myself) back into craziness and uncertainty at home. Finally we have that all sorted out, the teachers have returned to school and Allie is so happy to be back. On top of that I'm happy to finally have one free morning off! So today Emily and I made use of it by wandering around a couple fabulous fabric shops!!

First up we went out to Vogue Fabrics in Evanston. Emily had never been there before so we took our time and checked out all the different areas of the shop. We had fun playing with tulle, helped another customer pick out replacement fabric for a skirt (for a messed up dress for a wedding that's tomorrow!), and we fell in love with silk. 

Tulle!!!

Vogue sells Dupioni Silk - in a couple dozen colors. It is radiant and vibrant and the texture is great! We were pretty much in love. After drooling over the bolts and the color card that the sales clerk was using to cut orders... she mentioned "we have a box..." lol 1/2 yd pre-cuts of the discontinued colors. We picked out a couple to share. I can see these finding a place within some quilts. I wonder how it washes though. I'll have to test it to see. :) 

After we spent an obscene amount of time in Vogue (there's a lot to look at!) we made our way to The Needle Shop. Now The Needle Shop is really the destination on this trip for me. I love that place! The owner Rachael was there while we were in and I have to admire her since she picks the best fabrics for the shop - very "me" fabrics! We spent a long time in The Needle Shop too - it was really fun shopping for fabric with another quilter. I don't think I've ever shopped with anyone else before - lol. We checked out the various fabrics/patterns/books. Snagged a couple swatches, and came home with lots of pretty fun fabric! 

Another note about The Needle Shop - they have a deal going on on Yelp this week where you pay $15 for a $25 gift certificate. Pretty awesome. So we both went in there with a gift certificate in hand - it was fun spending some money on fabric "just because." I'm usually a project buyer - I'll go buy only what I need. Instead this time I came home with a yard each of two colors of shot cotton (I wish I could get a good picture of the color variance here - it's amazing), some Anna Maria Horner Field Study, and another print just because it spoke to me. lol. On top of all that, it was nice to shop locally, in person, and with a friend. 

A box full of yummy!

We were going to stop in at Quiltology too... but we ran out of time. We rushed back to my neighborhood and stopped at Superdawg on the way! Yum! Just enough time to get home and eat before Allie got off the school bus! What a life! :)

My purchases: AMH Ribbon, Dupioni Silk, Kona Curry, Michael Miller "put a lid on it," AMH Field Study, Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons.