Yesterday, two bee-mates and I hightailed it out of Maryland to cross the river (Potomac) and into the country of Northern Virginia. A friend, Susan Miranda (and NeedleOnFull customer), sent me a text two days ago that her UpCycle Shop - https://www.upcyclecrc.org/ got a windfall of beautiful quilting fabric and notions from a lady who passed away two weeks ago. Susan thought the fabric would benefit me and my "side" business (I spend hours creating T-shirt quilts).
Susan was right! The fabric was lovely, and the rest of her shop was amazing. It is filled with inspiration, including art supplies, fabric, glass, glassware, and so much more. They offer creative workshops for kids and adults, and UpCycle has the friendliest staff to help all who enter. According to the website (link above),
UpCycle Creative Reuse Center is an Alexandria, Virginia-based nonprofit that connects creativity and conservation by providing a resource center for reuse materials and a creative making space for the community.
At UpCycle, we rethink the traditional notion of waste by collecting cast-offs from our community to serve as creative materials.
Between the three of us, we spent nearly $600! But fabric is not cheap. Today's best-quality fabrics run between $10 and $16 per yard! UpCycle had the best quality fabrics, too. I can use 6-12 yards of fabric with each T-shirt quilt I make. Some purchased fabric (the yardage) will help out NeedleOnFull terrifically.
Check them out if you live in Maryland, DC, or N. Virginia. You might love the offerings that change daily.
We all walked out of the UpCyle floating on air, er, fabric! Ha!
Once home, I spread everything I bought on the dining room table. I then did an old-fashioned spreadsheet (on yellow fools-cap) and listed every item purchased. I had three pages of notes. I also looked everything up on the retail value, and my $298 investment was approximately $1925 worth of merchandise. And by the way, I have a new stash of 118 yards of fabric (a bit more with the bundles of fat quarters and half yards).
My creative juices are flowing once again.
bSoleille!
Terri
