shop stop - so cal edition

i got invited to lunch by a new friend from church and took the opportunity of going inland to meet up with her to make a stop at a few more of the so cal quilt shops relatively close to me. i found some really pretty and fun stash-building pieces at the two shops i made it to.

the first place was called "the fabric shoppe" in callibsas. it is a small, stripmall store that had a whole lot fit in to it's little space. there was a classroom/workshop in the very back and a longarm machine someone was quilting on. the fabric collections were nice but not super modern. it's a riley blake, andover, bernartex, batiks, mottled/grunge monochromes type of store, if that makes sense. 

one of the things i really appreciated about it was they had fat quarters and half yards (usually my preference) cuts of many of their fabrics set with them on the shelves. this made shopping so much faster and easier! i didn't have to carry many bolts to the counter because they already had the cuts done.

i selected several low-volumes for stash and a cute green stripe for a binding (top photo).

they gave me a reusable shopping bag that will earn me 10% off future purchases if i bring it back with me on future shopping trips. if i lived here/begin coming back often, this is a shop i know i would use periodically.

my second stop, which was a whole lot further away from the first one than i originally anticipated, was at "quilty pleasures" in simi valley. it was easy to get to right off the freeway. the store and classroom/workshop next door are located inside a large, nice outdoor shopping mall. the center was hit hard during covid and is half empty these days, which was sad because it looks like a fun place. but the quilt shop is alive and kicking, and they have online ordering if you're interested. 

this store had a few more modern fabrics, like tula pink, amh, and a few ruby star society picks mixed in with their batiks and reproduction prints. there was a lot of riley blake again, as well as some tilda and a holiday picks. i'd say it was a pretty wide selection. if i was local, this would be a shop i went to first even though it's farther away from me.

i'm really happy about all the low-volumes i picked up here. i especially love those little golden bees! the red ditsy floral spray is really pretty, too. i had a couple of my current projects in mind when i selected most of these half yards. the greens are for the green irish chain quilt like amanda's limerick quilt i've been collecting fabric for. the yellows, neutrals, and that gold print are for my "sunny crossroads" quilt. i'm going to cut into them as soon i get home!