Tricia's Discount Fabrics

I get a lot of visits for those of you looking for Tricia's Discount Fabrics from a previous post back in 2009 so I thought I'd do an update since she doesn't have a website for this wonderful store. PS. If you're listening Tricia and want to take the plunge into the web my offer to help is still open. Give me a buzz at Happy Bobbin.

This is definitely a store you want to check out! She has an absolutely jam packed store which is a true delight, but sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by the choices. I keep forgetting to photograph the store itself, but In My Neck of the Woods blog has done just that and if you want to see any of these larger, head over to her blog.

This is only a fraction of what is to offer. The warehouse style building has two huge rooms and a smaller side room filled with fabric. It is literally wall to wall and organised not only by colour, but there are seperate sections for novelty, asian inspired, historic reproductions and a full wall of batiks. Tricia is always friendly and happy to help you find what you're after if you need help. She also has many local groups and teachers using the other rooms there for classes and workshops, so ask her about that if you're interested.

Her prices range from around $16-30/m but most fabric you will find is around the $20/m mark. I've found this is generally cheaper than other quilting stores and she has such an amazing range!

Find her opposite Castle Plaza, just off South Road in Adelaide, South Australia. Her address is: Tricias Discount Fabrics, 11-13 Price St, Melrose Park, SA 5039. She is also just around the corner from a Spotlight if you wanted to kill two birds with one stone!

Her opening hours are currently mon-fri 9-5, sat 9-3, sun 11-2.

Just about every project since I found this shop in 2009 has fabric purchased from her in it. I recently purchased the gorgeous Australian animals fabric for my latest project and I'm sure a few of the other fabrics I pulled out of my stash for it came from her shop too.

You won't be disappointed by her range or her prices and it is definately worth the trip even if you are a bit further away. I have to drive about 40 minutes to get to her store, but I never come away empty handed!

Quilt Show 2010

New to the Stash

Today I went to the local annual quilt fair and I want to say first that this year I had a GREAT time! Long time readers might remember that last year I had several negative experiences of people not wanting to talk to me. This year I happily avoided the stalls who didn't want to know me last year and after a happy hour looking at the stalls only ended up spending at one stall.

Once again I want to do a general gripe about prices. I saw one stall with fat 1/8ths for $10.95 each... What the? Please tell me none of you actually pay this price!? That works out to over $80/m and I'm pretty sure printed cotton is not made from spun gold! The other pricey fabric I saw was japanese imports that were $32/m... sure they were nice and I was tempted, but ebay is there for a reason! Honestly quilt stores, you have to get more competative!

The fabric that I did purchase was all from my favourite stall which I think was Patchwork with Gailb from Victoria. I imagine her store is a little like Tricia's Discount Fabrics here in South Australia - every fat 1/4 was $3.50 so I spent $50 there! That is how you turn over product. You make it affordable!

What price will you pay for fabric?

My price range is $12-16/m for printed quilters cotton. Under this is a bargain (I've got some for $2/m sometimes), but up to $20/m is acceptable if it is something special. Up to $8/m for flat colours as I can often get a reasonable range for as little as $4-5/m regularly. For fat 1/4s I calculate what I pay based on the price per metre. So that means I will generally only pay up to $4 per fat 1/4 as per my rule with printed quilters cotton.

Now on to my wonderful chats. Yes! People talked to me this year! My first win was talking to a lady who made an amazing quilt with extremely fine applique and hand quilted it as well. She had used batik which is thinner than quilters cotton and she gave me a small piece of batik fabric to take home (I didn't buy any because I need to research my prices as all the batik fat 1/4s were $8 or over that I saw)

A batik weave is tighter - more threads per square inch which means it doesn't fray as readily and you can clip it up to 1/16 from your seam when doing needle turn applique. It is also thinner than quilters cotton so it is not as bulky and can move around tighter corners easier.

She also said DONT IRON your applique! ...but my book on applique says press! Next time I won't be ironing during or post applique and see how it turns out!

My other highlight from the day was discussing a quilt with a couple of ladies while pointing out the flaws and that it didn't matter because all of us would still be more than happy to have such a beautiful quilt in our homes. Then we were talking about whether the quilting was human or computer directed and I recommended they check out the work of Leah Day because it could also be done on a domestic machine!! I hope they follow up my recommendation and check out her website.

All in all, a great 3 hours spent at the quilt fair this year!!

Rotary Blades

Rotary Cutter Blade

I know when I first used my rotary cutter I fell in love with how easy they are to use and how quick they make cutting your pieces. I have a 45mm standard Olfa rotary cutter and earlier this year I realised how dull my blade had become. I don't know what it is like in other countries, but here in Australia it cost me $10 to purchase one replacement blade.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a pack of 5 on ebay for barely more than I spent on one!! I knew I had to see if the seller was up to scratch.

Well if you use a rotary blade, Birdbrain Collectibles and Scrapbooking is a seller you should add to your bookmarks! I ended up buying a couple of things from her as she responded to my questions within the hour. Generally I am happy if I get a reply by the next day, so I was astounded by her prompt and polite service. My package of goodies arrived in a timely manner. I purchased a pack of 5 rotary blades which should last me a while yet.

She informed me she doesn't carry all stock all the time, however she does seem to have a regular supply of rotary blades in her store so I am sure she will keep getting them in if people keep buying them.

She sells in packs of 5, 10 or 15 and between her prices and her amazing service I am sure you will be pleased.

Search for Backing

Quiltaholics, The Parade Norwood

Day five (or is it six?) of extreme heat hovering around 40°C and I have slowly but surely been working on the cat quilt. Last night I hit up Spotlight for the batting and quilt back, but alas... they were out of blue in the wider width. This morning I ended up having to trapse all over town looking for a backing.

Sue's Sewing World is the only quilting shop I was aware of in my area so I headed there after my local Lincraft also failed to supply quilt backing in the colour I desire. I was amazed to see that the Chocolate Print I purchased at Tricia's was selling for $22/m there. Tricia's definately has some bargains, though Sue's stocks a range of sewing equipment and is a machine service centre as well.

The lovely lady at Sue's Sewing World recommended I try Quiltaholics and gave me fantastic directions. At least I have a car with airconditioning!

Quiltaholics is another store like Tricia's in which you walk in and then don't know where to start looking first. I knew I was there for a purpose and that I couldn't afford to look too much or I would spend too much money so I didn't look at any of the prices. I did notice they had a basket of beautiful William Morris fabrics among other things, so I will have to go back later when I can afford it! The lovely lady helped me to find the quilt backing I wanted and it was only a couple of dollars more expensive than what Spotlight normally stocks, so I was happy with the price. The helpful friendly faces mean I will definately be heading back to this store soon.

I've added both of these stores to the South Australian Map so it will be easy for you to find these places too.

As for the cat quilt, I have added another cream border all the way around with blue borders to finish it off. The top will be approximately 49", which is a little under my initial plan of a 60" square quilt, but meant I could buy a cot sized batting which is 50x60" at only $24.95, which is quite a saving.

Quilt Fair Reflections

Japanese Fabrics from the Quilt Fair

I ventured out to the Craft Fair in South Australia today and phew.. so many people! I must admit that while the eye candy was everywhere, the prices were a bit of a shock to me. I am usually all for quality over quantity and believe that since time is the most expensive thing to me, there is no point putting in a lot of time into a piece of art or craft if cheap materials will let it down in the end - ie. I don't want to end up thinking : "I spent 50 hours creating this... what I pity I didn't spend the extra $20 instead of buying the cheap stuff."

Quilt fabrics are such an absolute rip off (gets on my soap box)... For a simple pattern in a couple of colours there is no way 90% off the stuff I saw today should have been selling for more than $15-20/m... Most of it was around $7-10 for a FAT QUARTER! And people were paying that!

I must admit that I did buy two pieces of material that I thought were a bit rich... The geisha's pictured above were $7.50 for a fat quarter (ie approx $30/m), and the blue dragonflys were $8.70 for 30x110cm (ie approx $30/m). The other 4 fabrics were $3.50 per FQ (ie approx $14/m... much more reasonable!). I did think that since I had spent $20 on parking and entry that I wanted to come away with something.

I took quite a few photos in the display area, however unfortunately there were signs everywhere saying that I was not to publish any of the photos so I can't share my favourites with you. I found it interesting to study a few different pieces and see if I could tell how they were put together. It has given me a heap of ideas, and most of my photos turned out ok so I can remember what I saw. Now my mind is overflowing with possibilities!

I also wanted to find out about quilt shops and groups in my area, however I found that most stall holders were not hugely forthcoming. The Quilters Guild left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth after I patiently waited for a lady to finish enthusiastically talking to one lady, who then skipped past me to the lady behind me, and when I tried to ask her a few questions she was quite abrupt. I think a young 20-something is not the kind of clientele they are generally used to.

It wasn't all bad though as I had a lovely chat with one of the staff members in the exhibition hall early on, and I came across a couple of lovely stalls, including the ones that I purchased a few items at, and I will list the links at the end.

So there you have it folks! Three jam packed hours, and then my claustrophobia in crowds got the better of me, but it was a great morning!

Kimono Girls and Dragonfly

Be Be Bold (NSW) - Specialising in Japanese Imported Fabrics... had a lovely range and I spoke to a very nice man who was very helpful and suggested that if anything isn't on the website to email and see if they have it in stock anyway. I purchased the blue dragonfly fabric from this stall.

Patchwork with Gail B (Vic) - Amazing range of fabrics and they stock over 9000 bolts of fabric most of which is $14/m or less! Lovely stall holders who were very friendly and you can't go past their value for money. I purchased 4 fat quarters from this stall.

Logans Patchwork (NSW) - One of the larger ranges of oriental fabrics that I saw and some lovely packs and patterns. I purchased the geisha fabric from this stall.

Patchwork By Sea (SA) - I was smitten with one of their block of the month quilts, but alas, you couldn't take photos in the stall area. They have it on their website however - Longevity Symbols. It is even more stunning in person and the lady at the stall was very nice. They also had a stunning range of William Morris fabrics which were reasonably priced so I will have to check out their shop one day soon.

The Quilt Basket (SA) - I think this was the one that had heaps of nice panels and the ladies were quite nice. I can't remember why I grabbed their card (I had reasons! lol), but I only grabbed cards from the stalls that made a good impression, so check this one out too!

Tricia's Discount Fabrics

Note: I've posted an update on 25th March 2012!

Cooking Fabric (click to enlarge!!)

I took a drive to the other side of town today specifically to check out a highly recommended fabric store... and trust me when I say this is not a store you want to visit with an empty wallet!

Trisha's Discount Fabrics is a wall to wall quilters delight, which also caters for dancers and theatre groups. They have the most impressive range of cotton and flannel print sorted by colour for your convenience, and the store owner is absolutely lovely and helpful. Happily they are also moving to a bigger premises just after Christmas, so that will be well worth a look as well.

Their current location (until 26th Dec, 2009) is 23B Furness Ave, Edwardstown in South Australia which is just off South Road near Castle Plaza. The price range of most fabrics were between $12-20/m, but all were high quality quilters cottons including a great range of imported brands. They also had too many fat quarters to count all for $2.50 each.

Chocolate print (click to enlarge!!)

Their new location is just around the corner which should be open early January and I was told they plan on getting in even more gorgeous fabrics when they're settled into the new store near the end of January. If you are in South Australia you should definately check them out at 11-13 Price St, Melrose Park, South Australia.

Their trading hours are 9am-5pm Monday to Friday, 9am-3pm on Saturday and 11am-2pm on Sunday. Check out their gorgeous range of novelty prints. That is the section where I found the two beautiful examples that I just couldn't leave without.

The Chocolate print above is actually going to be used as the border of a skirt. The blue and green cooking pattern is probably going to turn into something quilted... I got the last of that bolt! I don't think the photos actually do them justice. They are such beautiful fabrics in person!!