Today I visited a quilt shop, Keep Me In Stitches in Largo. It is primarily a Bernina and Baby Lock dealer but had a small selection of fabrics in bright, saturated colors. I saw Cotton&Steel, Kaffe/Rowan prints, batiks, and some great blenders. The staff was very friendly and the shop sported some nice class room space. Everything is shiny brand new, having only opened about a year ago.
I bought four fat quarters. After my big eBay haul last week, I don't really need anything. However, I want to support bricks and mortar stores when I can and I enjoy seeing and touching the fabrics in person. I try to buy at least one fat quarter, so I close my eyes and pretend I'm not paying five times more than I would normally.
The second fabric from the bottom with the polka dots is Cotton&Steel. I've heard a lot about this fabric line so it was interesting to see it "live." The dots are metallic silver and it's very high quality. While I love this teal/peacock color, the rest of the colors in the line didn't wow me, so that's good to know. It's really hard to get true color representation of fabrics through a computer screen.
The flip flops are bright and cheerful and will serve as a souvenir of this shop. Florida is definitely a flip flop kind of place.
I always ask permission before taking photos inside a store. I've seen signs in some quilt shops that prohibit taking pictures of the sample quilts, maybe to keep them from being copied. This photo shows about 80% of the fabric; there's just a little more behind the wall on the right. Love those bright colors! There were also notions on that wall, and you can see the thread display behind the little stool.
