The Goddesses and Me

The Goddess of Textile Shopping
So I sent up a prayer to the Goddess of Textile Shopping and she delivered big time -- that is, if the Goddess of Laundry comes through for me, too.
For several months now, I've been looking for large prints with flowers and birds; bugs and frogs would have been nice, too. After shopping in nearly every local fabric store and a few online, I concluded that I should be looking at interior decor fabrics.

The Jackpot
I hit the jackpot today when I went to the Exeter Handkerchief Company, which is now managed by the third generation of the same family. When I first discovered this store 30 years ago, it sold garment fabrics and interior decor fabrics. Now a days, it focuses exclusively on home decor fabrics. The first two floors of their sprawling building offer dozens of upholstery and drapery fabrics. They have gone beyond just showing fabrics on bolts, and also show them on vertical displays to suggest fabric combinations and possible trims.

I found lots of yummy textiles. Every thing on the first two floors is marked down but it's still beyond the usual prices found on quilting fabrics. Some of the fabrics were in colors that would not work at all, and other were the wrong scale. Once I saw all the large prints together, I realized my project could not use gynormous prints.


The Third Floor
I headed to the "remnants" on the third floor, and found hundreds of fabrics on tubes -- some suspended and many more just stacked on shelves. On this floor, nothing in particular spoke to me, which is too bad since everything is $8/yard -- except on Tuesdays, when it's $5/yard.

In the End
A fabric by Braemore Textiles (on the fist floor) kept calling my name, so I bought one repeat -- 3/4 yard. That's all I need for a few fussy cuts.

The Goddess of Laundry
Now I'm saying a new prayer. All the fabrics are supposed to be dry cleaned. Since they cut the fabric generously, I will cut out a chunk, zigzag the edges, and toss it in with my regular laundry after saying a prayer to the Goddess of Laundry. I'm hopig for the best, because I am in love with these colors and these sweet birds. Doesn't that first bird looks like he's wearing a tie? I think it's the band of color around his neck. Click on the photos for a closer look.

The text in the selvage says they used reactive dyes.According to this link, reactive dyes are pretty colorfast, so I'm hoping for the best. I'm hoping it's a cotton. What do you think?