Anyway, we didn't leave the three grandchildren that we take care of all the time behind. Joshua, Keira, and Justin went with us. Roger and Ron are big Ford truck enthusiast and they had a Ford Truck Meet at some members super nice garage. They were very impressed with it, like I am with Joy's sewing room. A place for everything and just gorgeous.
The older four of the grandkids are good friends and always have a blast when we get together. Of course, Uncle Ron always has big plans for them and this trip was no different. One trip they had Mentos and Diet Coke rockets. This time he had built some kind of contraption with balls and polls and they had a fantastic time. Then he turned on the water sprinklers and handed out super soakers and they all had a good time, with Justin entertaining himself in a bucket filled with water.
Kids ages are 11, 8 1/2, 8, 6 1/2, and 2. Heather and I took all of them for ice cream cones while the guys were at their truck meet. As we sat at Braums amid two teams of junior high football players, I looked over at Heather and commented, "You realize these people think all of the kids are yours." A look of shock came over her face. I thought she was going to get up and start telling every table that she was only the mother of the two dark headed ones. It just cracked me up!
When the guys got home, we still had time to visit her local knitting store, The Knitting Nook. What a lovely place. This is the second or third time I've been there with Heather, but they greet me and help me with things just like they do Heather, who is a frequent customer/knitter. They were having a "Yarn Tasting", which was a trunk show for Cascade Yarns. They had dishes set up on all of their display tables. Beside each dish was a set of knitting needles and on the dish was one to three balls of yarn. The idea was that you could pick up the needles and knit a row or two or three so that you could try the yarn out. What an absolutely wonderful idea. Heather and I both fell in love with one yarn, but, of course, they didn't have it in the store, but ordered it for us plus some extra because after we showed interest in it, others came up and wanted to try it. Oh, they were also giving away door prizes and both Heather and I walked out with free yarn and a pattern. That was a pretty cool trip to a knitting store. I forgot, they had a table full of food, as in cookies, candy, and brownies that were really tempting, but we both resisted since we had ice cream cones earlier.
But now I must talk about the sad part of my weekend. Friday I checked my email and had an announcement of a Whine and Cheese party being held at my favorite fabric store which just happens to be in Tulsa. The party was being held on Sunday, which was unusual since they aren't normally open on Sunday. Yeah, I could go. But, boo hoo hoo, it is the beginning of their going out of business sale and they wanted to give their loyal customers a chance to get what they wanted before the general public. Since I was in Owasso, which is just next door to Tulsa, there was no doubt I was going. I would have come up just for it if I wasn't in Tulsa. Debbie and Nancy are just two very special people and I really hate to see them close their doors. I had an email from Joy immediately after and she was as shocked and heart broken as I.
It turns out that with the economy and the fact that there isn't the strong interest in sewing they just weren't making it. Okay, the interest is coming back, but it is mainly in quilting or from people that buy cheap fabric at Hancocks or JoAnns and have no idea how lovely it is to sew really quality fabric. They don't value their own time. Yes, good fabric is expensive, but it is a pleasure to sew and wears so much better than the cheap stuff. I order a lot from the internet, too, which is another problem for the local fine fabric stores. Actually, if I wanted fabric from Cloth Merchants, I did order over the internet, because I am a hundred miles from them. I paid shipping costs and sales tax as well as the price of good fabric, because it was worth it.
The lesson to me is to value the fine fabric stores. There is one in OKC, but it is across town from me in an area that I seldom go to. In order to patronize it I will have to make a special trip to shop there. My time is very limited and just don't know if I will make the time to go there. I also don't like the way it is arranged. I find it hard to find what I want there and even the people that work there admit that they can't find fabrics.
Shall I take my limited amount of sewing time and go to the local store or do I shop on the internet? If we each find two or three special stores on the internet and support them wouldn't that do almost the same as shopping at the local store if they carry fine fabrics?
So, what shall I do? I am really feeling heartsick over Cloth Merchants. How do we keep the fine fabric stores in business, whether they are local or on the internet? I didn't teach my girls to sew. Neither had an interest. I learned to sew, because it was just part of being a woman, I thought. I still have a hard time understanding how a home can be maintained without at least one sewing machine in the house. How do we encourage our girls and even our guys to learn to sew and to value fine fabrics? Has our society become too much of a disposable/throw away society to value time spent working with fine fabrics?
I'm thinking I can make a point of buying fine fabrics whether they are at my local fine fabric store or from two or three internet stores that I like and can establish a relationship with. I'm also thinking that I can take the time and try to find the patience to teach my grandchildren to sew. That patience thing is the hard point as they tend to bring out my anxieties when they are in my sewing room.
As you can see by the picture above, I bought my share today to help Debbie and Nancy clean out the store. At the very front are four pants weight fabrics. The print to the left on the back row is a fraternal twin to the fabric Joy made her AND jacket from. The next three are beautiful knits, the middle one even has sequins. Then there is a turquoise linen and a pink linen for tops. Lastly is a red print with large flowers that looks more like Joy than me, but I've drooled over it a couple of times before, so I decided I was going to buy it today. There is one other fabric that got cut off from the picture and it is a grey and tan Liberty of London print. I also bought three spools of thread and a package of interfacing.
Fare Thee Well,Cloth Merchants. I will miss you dearly.
Hugs, Phylly
WOW! I should have had you get me some of everything you got! Love it all! Did you say everything was 20% off? Don't recall. I need to do a blog post myself. I am quite behind.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Joy