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Yes, quilters – I’ve been in touch with this dear lady and friend of the podcast. I hope you’ll remember Teresa Vargas from two previous podcasts. Teresa owns a quilt shop in San Jose, Costa Rica — El Jardin de la Abuela (My Grandmother’s Garden, or the Garden of my Grandmother). Teresa sent me an email, asking if I was going to be in L. A. while she was going to be there. It was a long shot, but it just so happened that the answer was YES! After doing a lecture and workshop for the San Fernando Valley Quilt Association, I met up with Teresa in L.A. and spent two lovely days together. We had a great time, as usual. Teresa is one of those friends where you pick up your friendship where you last left it – and it doesn’t skip a beat. I seized the opportunity to do a podcast interview with her in our hotel room, complete with sound effects from the busy, busy street below.
We spent the day shopping and eating, and the next day, shopping and eating — just like old times! We hit some quilt shops and the mall and threw in some ice cream sundaes as well. Here are the quilt shops we went to: Piecemakers Country Store in Costa Mesa This is the quilt shop that is famous for its Quilt Calendars like this:
They have been in business as a quilt shop since 1976, possibly the first in California. They still look like the country mercantile that they were the last time I visited, twenty years ago. They have hordes of new, fresh fabric, while keeping the country feel.
Sew Modern in Los Angeles.
They’re open on Wednesdays from noon – 8, and we’re so glad because we went at 7:00! Oh, Sew Modern, how much did we LOVE shopping at your store?! The shop space is compact but oh so beautifully designed and filled with the color of yummy fabrics. Teresa and I had a wonderful time, collecting for future quilts — and it was easy to do. They have dressmaking patterns,
a cozy conversational area
and longarm service. If you’re in L.A., you want to go here — trust me. See the rest:
This is how they advertise their classes and events — isn’t this cool?
Lovely solids — they carry all brands – and colors, which is super cool. They had this lovely little quilt on the wall:
So I looked for the background fabric (you can never have too many lights):
The next day, we went to Northridge and ate at Brent’s Deli — a fantastic place to eat. It’s much more than a Deli and Yelp reviews give it a solid 5 stars. They have a 12 page menu, that has 4 pages of breakfast options, which they serve all day. Quilters gotta have the strength to shop, and here is where we went next:
Candy’s Quilt Worksdoesn’t appear to have a website : ( but here is their contact information :
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(818) 349-7397 |
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Candy’s is on Reseda Blvd., a busy street, and they have parking right at the curb in front, and then behind the store – don’t miss the drive way, it’s right after the sign above. The very best part of Candy’s is this:
What you’re seeing is a wall the length of the store that is BATIKS… nothing but batiks all shelved by their color family. Oh, but wait — walk to the end and turn the corner, and you will see the rest of the batiks wall which runs the width of the store. Oh yeah — 2,000 bolts of BATIK fabric heaven. This is what I left with:
wouldn’t this make a beautiful summer dress, or maybe one of these retro beauties?
I actually made one of these beauties back-in-the-day (as my kids say) with a real batik fabric. What I would give to have that fabric today, but I have no idea what became of my caftan). I found this very pattern on Etsy (no longer $1.00 by the way) and I’m going to make myself one very soon. Stay tuned! I also found these lovely batiks together:
…which remind me of the fabrics I used for:
cover of the book you’ll find if you scroll up, and in the upper right hand corner ; )
But I digress… Candy’s has about 5,000 bolts of fabric in her store. Batiks just happen to be her specialty. The ladies there are friendly and helped us find the nearest mall, another quilter’s necessity.
Teresa always brings me lovely gifts from Costa Rica, and this is what she brought me this time:
Teresa made this lovely journal cover for me. She knows that I love journals to design my quilts in, glue fabric swatches in and write the steps of quilt construction for my patterns in. I love this and will think of Teresa every time I use it.
A quilter can never have too many cups to keep pens and markers in, and this one was designed by one of the girls who works in El Jardin de la Abuela.
After I left Teresa, I traveled to Santa Barbara and visited this lovely store:
I had 20 minutes here… not even close to enough time — ever. I want to have the luxury of spending 3-4 hours here so I can see everything and contemplate what I want. The best thing is that they have all of the Japanese quilting magazines. Luckily, Super Buzzy has a huge online presence and SHOP.
The next day, I went to this lovely shop:
and, I found this:
I was looking all over for this fabric in L.A. and finally found it at Birch! They also have an online presence and Shop, which is Fabric Worm. Ever since meeting Lizzy last month and being ultimately inspired by her, I want to make a dress out of her fabrics. I brought home a pattern from Sew Modern and didn’t realize that this is the very outfit I want to make with Lizzy’s amazing Natural History fabrics. Kind of fun, huh? (Okay – so I just realized that I didn’t get enough of the Pearl Bracelets fabric, so luckily I can order it from Fabric Worm ; )
Please let me know what you want to hear on upcoming podcasts — I’m listening to YOU!!
Until next time…
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