While working on a top secret project 2 weekends ago I had to make an emergency trip to a fabric store I had never been to before. It was about a 30+ minute drive, so I was crossing all my fingers that the trip was going to pay off. O.M.F!!! (oh my fabric in case you weren’t hip to the lingo) Not only was it a hit, it was a GRAND SLAM HOMERUN! In case you live in or around the Charlotte area the store is MaryJo’s and it’s right off exit 21 in Gastonia. It was amazing.
It’s all sorted by pattern and material!
And half the store is upholstery and home decor weight fabric. I am thinking this is going to be for my new kitchen cornice boards!
I didn’t know where to look first but since I had my 3.5 year old with me, Mini Crafty, I had to try and keep the trip on the shorter size. In order to get a little more lookie time for mommy I bribed Mini Crafty with some fabric of her own from which I promised to make a baby blanket for her dolls. I must say that she has some pretty good taste because look what fabric she picked out (and actually stuck with since we had to walk ALL the way around the store before I picked it up to have it cut for us)
It is the GORGEOUS Michael Miller Zoology in Bloom. That afternoon, after I had come down off my fabric store high, I got to work on a simple 20×20 blanket using some white minky dot I had in my stash. Working with Minky Dot is still a big challenge for me since it stretches and and shifts. I actually had sewn 3 sides of the blanket when I had to take my seam ripper to the entire thing since it had shifted so much. Don’t let my clumsiness with Minky Dot stop you from making a baby blanket with it, just use a lot of pins and this is one of the easiest projects you can do (straight line sewing baby!!!). Mini Crafty likes the blanket so much I have seen her carrying it around when she’s not playing with her dolls – so I would say the entire day was a success!
I would love a store like that! I’m just starting my sewing back up now that I’ve gone down to part time. I worked at JoAnn Fabrics off and on for about 10 years and I’ve still never seen that many shades of gingham in one place! I could have fun in there.