Wednesday 8 April 2009

Desperate Fabric Search

So, after browsing countless online stores, all my local stores and even approaching some quilters I know around here, I am wondering:

Have any of you ever come across quilt fabrics that have the following on them:

  • cheese (I'm envisioning yellow cheese blocks with holes, but at this point anything goes)
  • books - e.g. a row of book spines or open books with text
  • tropical beaches - I want something with blue water, sand, a palm tree, maybe a beach chair or towel. Around here, all I get are temperate beaches with lighthouses. It has to be tropical though. I've come across a couple of prints online but didn't like the style very much.
  • a dancing couple (preferably in South American dress, e.g. tango style)
  • yellow or red tulips (I thought this one would be easy, but so far I've found every other flower on the planet but tulips)
  • windmills (the old style ones, not energy generating ones)
  • divers - with SCUBA tank, snorkel, fins, swimming under water would be nice but not necessary.
If you know where I could buy any of these and could let me know I'd be very very grateful.

Also, if any of you have a piece of suitable fabric, I would love to swap them - maybe I have some fabric that you would like? I only need a small piece (depends on the scale of the print) thanks to the quilt pattern I'm making (based on this quilt). So maybe anything from 5x5" to 7x7" (for larger prints).

I'm starting to be desperate as I'm missing some of the main themes for the character quilt and would like to get started. My friend is planning on moving across the Atlantic this year and it would be a wonderful going-away gift.

Haha, I just realized that it's pretty mean of me to ask for help right AFTER I blog about how generous and helpful quilters are *grins*. I guess Ginny's generosity gave me the idea, really, that I might be able to find and trade some of these difficult-to-get fabrics.

I hope that someone out there has a patch of those fabrics left and would like to trade!!!!

I'm already envisioning how awesome a quilt would be that has such a story of a quest and outside-help behind it; a quilt where I can say: "This fabric came from XY in Connecticut, and this one from Ontario, and this one from France." Ah, just day-dreaming!

8 comments:

Cat said...

Have you tried Keepsake Quilting. They usually have a good selection.

Cat said...

GotFabric.com has windmill favric on sale for .99 a yard.

Heather said...

It seems like our local Wal-Mart always has these types of prints. Have you tried there? Good luck.

Sunshine said...

Hey Cathy - I just ordered the windmill fabric (and 9m of other fabric, oops ;) Thanks for the tip!

Sunshine said...

Hi Heather, I've checked a couple of Walmarts in the area, no luck, but I do go back to all the stores when I can to check for new arrivals, so I'll keep my eyes open!

Sunshine said...

I've browsed keepsake fabrics but didn't find anything yet.

Sigh, I need to find a Canadian shop so the shipping costs aren't equal to many meters of fabric...

Crispy said...

Sunshine, have you tried searching on www.quiltshops.com? Just put in the key words and see what comes up.

Crispy

Sunshine said...

Aaaw, Crispy, I almost wish you hadn't told me! I just placed my second-ever online order, this is going to get really expensive soon!

I did find cheese fabric, just one, but hey. It's too bad that I didn't fall in love with a lot of other fabrics on the site, because the only problem I've found with some of the online quilt stores is that I only need a fat quarter (and that's more than I need) of a fabric I'll probably never use again, so it ends up being about 30$ per fabric with shipping, tax and $ conversion... this will be a dear, dear quilt! But I'm happy I found some cheese fabric, anyway :)