Upon returning home from Quilt Con last week, I was telling a friend about my amazing morning with Lotta Jansdotter and how much I appreciated and admired her work. No I didn’t get to fly off to her Brooklyn studio for a class- someday I hope to though!!
I love the idea of art on fabric and the way it’s created is fascinating to me. This lovely friend of mine, then proceeded to tell me about this incredible jewel of a textile design house we are lucky enough to have right here in Santa Barbara.
I had known about this place for a few years but had been scared away by it’s extreme “high end” nature. In other words, I simply couldn’t afford to even step foot in the showroom.
Well, they are gracious enough to open their gigantic studio wherehouse once a year for this truly amazing sale!!! I couldn’t pass it up, so I brought my oldest daughter and my fabric loving MIL with me to check it out.
There were giant tables the length of the building that had bolt after bolt of gorgeous handprinted linen!!! A textile lovers delight… and then some!! It was so overwhelming that I just barely managed to snap a some mediocre photos. The ones I did get just show a tiny tidbit of the unbelievable prints and colors they had.
We also witnessed many bolts being rolled. It was interesting to watch. I think some of these women and men must be buying for their own stores- not sure why they would need so much of the same fabric.
Anyway, the nature of this sale, creates a sort of “fabric free for all”, every fabric hoarder for herself!! This was a stretch for me as I’m not a fan of shopping in general, but oh the lengths I’ll go to when it comes to good linen!! Wow, these women weren’t messing around, I mean, ’don’t even think about looking twice at my bolt’ was the prevailing attitude-ha!! ’Just look straight ahead and get to the cutting table and no one gets hurt!!’ :-)
Once everyone had what they wanted though and we found or place in the very long line, it was all peace, love and fabric happiness!!
I took Miss K along with me which is probably what kept me from staying there all day and spending entirely too much money. I was very disciplined and only grabbed a few bolts for cutting. I think I ended up with a 3 or 4 yards. And then we finished off our little excursion with a latte and a croissant!
Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning if you ask me!
~~~karen
Looks like a lovely day ; ) is that Lotta in the first pic with you?
Fortunate Miss K and MIL to be able to tag along and enjoy the day with you and your fabric love. It sounds like a dream day all around! Congrats on Quilt Con.
Wish I had know about the Raoul Textile sale. How did you find out? I can’t believe I missed it again!
What a lovely place to be on a lovely weekend morning ~ especially with your daughter!
I keep meaning to congratulate you on your win at QuiltCon ~ you must be thrilled!
That looks amazing! I hope you will share close up photos of the fabrics you ended up getting I can’t wait to see what you make with them.
Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my face….I love linen!! That looks like a fun outing with your daughter!!
Ditto, Irelle! I always manage to miss this one. Oh well–next year!
Oh! And I forgot to mention–Raven bought me some one year. I would caution against any sort of pre-washing. They really wrinkled up and became stiff. Have fun with them!
Thanks for the tip about washing Katherine!! And yes, next year we really must be more organized and prepared. I found out about this sale like a day, maybe two before…. I think we should plan a MQG Field Trip for this next year!! Let’s talk about it at our meeting tonight!
You lucky girl! Have fun playing with the new stash!
Esther