I decided it was time to take a tour of the quilt and fabric stores in my fair city of Calgary. Some I have been to before and some where entirely new to me.
First stop on the tour was My Sewing Room. This store is located on Macleod Trail and is the biggest one I travelled to. I have been there many times as it is one of the places that I frequent. The staff is friendly and is able to take some time to help you coordinate fabric or help you find the best fabric for your project. They also carry a wide variety of notions and offer classes galore. Their store is organized in fabric lines and styles. For example they have a Flannel section, Halloween, Batiks, and Christmas sections to name a few. If you are looking for colors and values it can be a bit tricky there, but it is worth the trip.
Second on my stop was Sewing Sensation. Unfortunately, they do not have a website that you can browse. There are two locations in the city, but I’ve only been the SW store. One half of the store is sewing machines and sergers and the second half is their fabrics, and notions. Against the one wall they have their fabrics organized from light to dark colors, so if you are looking for colors and their values it is a great place to come to. They also have underneath the shelves in mini shelves a good selection of fat quarters. On the middle shelves around the room are specific fabric lines. Sewing Sensation is one of the only places I went to that carried a wide variety of charm packs, jelly rolls and layer cakes.
Next I headed to Along Came Quilting. It is housed in the industry part of the city, which made it a bit tricky to find, but there was ample parking. It is a clean store which looked very neat (neat as in tidy), which is something I appreciate because some places are not so tidy. It was my first time in the store and I was very pleasantly surprised. It seemed to be organized in color value, with a section devoted to batiks and flannels. The classes they offered caught my eye as well and I would have loved to sign up for one of them but the class was already underway. I’ll have to keep my eye on the schedule for next time.
After driving across the city I ended up at Traditional Pastimes. It is a cute little shop and I enjoyed my visit very very much. The ladies were so kind to me, they took me on a tour of the store showing me all the special features of the store, how it is laid out, what wonderful classes and projects they have been working on, and took me to their classroom area. They were so pleasant. I LOVED all their cute kits and could have walked out with about 15 of them. I restrained myself – but it wasn’t easy at all. There were two of their clubs that I desperately want to be a part of but have to see if I can make it work – have to ask Nate actually.
Finally, I drove to Lakeview and saw Out of Hand. I was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff in there. Where ever I turned there was something in front of me. I’m not sure what their order was like, but there was fabric all over the place. The lady who was working was helpful when I asked for advice on a project because I heard they specialized in hand stitching. I think I will have to take another trip one day, maybe making it my only trip so my brian doesn’t go on overload.
I hope you enjoyed my Calgary Quilt Tour and if you haven’t been to these shops, please check them out.
Take care,
Sew What! 