Stephanie, Beverly and myself (from right to left) went a-hunting for “the complete shopping experience” here in our home town, Wichita, KS.  From curb to cash register, we wanted to feel that, as customers, we were inspired, encouraged and excited about the shop we were in.

Often when traveling, we have those experiences, but sometimes forget about our own backyard.  Delano District of Wichita is a delightful place to shop and so we spent the afternoon visiting this area.  For lunch, we ate at a lovely cafe, called The Palette Bistro, at 613 Douglas.  We loved the painted chalkboard and chalk art!

The food was fresh, the salad crisp, the fruit sweet and the dessert was delicious.  We all loved the presentation of the food, the atmosphere of the cafe and the special care of the menu.

Every shop has a “feeling”, an attitude, if you will.  We asked the independent business women how they would describe their business in one word, as we informed them we were blogging about our experience.  Cindy, owner of Sew Much (shown in the shop window with me) describes her shop as “the unique fabric boutique”.  Each time I have visited, she is working on an new display or checking in new product!

Sew Much carries silk, wool, cotton, linen, knits, patterns, notions and more.  The shop has a young, vibe, with a wonderful selection of Amy Butler decorator fabrics.

There is a wonderful variety of fabrics for making garments of all types and Sew Much also offers garment sewing classes.  I couldn’t get over the pom-pom fringe and oversized rick rack in every color!

Cindy carries my Cute as a Button Baby Jacket pattern.. I like seeing how it looks made in a variety of fabrics.  Here she shows it in corduroy.

Visit Cindy at 535 W. Douglas Ste. 130 or online at www.sewmuchonline.com.  There are two entrances for convenient access, as additional parking is behind the building.

Just steps away you will find Material Girls Quilt Shoppe at 535 w. Douglas, Ste. 140 (where you can also enter from the front or the back door)!

Owners, Jo & Jan will have a grand opening Sept. 10 & 11th with refreshments and door prizes.  The shop has a fresh, modern feel, with fabrics to suit any taste.   I encourage you to visit!

Very well done, ladies!

Material Girls describes their shop as “a unique quilting experience”.

Visit their website to find out about fall classes.

We found our way to Twist Yarn Shop at 607 W. Douglas where I ran into Diane Moos, who is a wonderful crochet artist.  She and several of the employees were refreshing displays and were hard at work.  You can visit Diane on Ravelry.com by looking up GracePlease to see the wonderful crochet dolls she has made.

Twist is full of fantastic selections of yarn, patterns and notions for knitters and crocheters.  Shelly has been getting in inventory daily!  If you love fiber, this is the place for you!

Here you will also find classes for all skill levels and clubs that meet regularly in the comfortable work area Shelly has set up.  KS My Stitch Crochet Guild , a guild my sister, Stephanie and I are all members of meets the third Monday of every month at Twist for programs, show-n-share and refreshments.

Bungalow 26 shop owner, Kelsey Metzinger visited with us about her weakness for “products”.  She carries wonderful candles, soaps, lotions.. all the spa goodies we like to spoil ourselves with.

Kelsey describes her shop as eclectic, with a Soho downtown vibe!

Each of the shop owners has done a wonderful job with their displays, store windows and had a unique selection of products to chose from.  We were impressed with the cleanliness, the friendly smiles, the helpful inquiries.  Each of the shopowners should know the appreciation we have for the hard work well done!  Retail therapy accomplished!

My fabric swatches came!  We have been working with Benartex Fabrics to design this wonderful line and up ’til now, it’s been on paper.  This week, the girls and I got to see the prints on fabric for the first time!

We squealed, we oohed and we ahhed.  There were fabrics everywhere!  It just looks so beautiful!  It has been such a pleasure working with Benartex on this project!  I just  could not be any happier with the colors, the detail and how quickly this has all happened.               

We each have our favorites already!  Look at all the choices!  This purple and green argyle fabric is darling.  I can’t wait to get yardage of thes fabrics and start sewing models for Spring Quilt Market!

I am working on a free downloadble quilt pattern to use with the new line.  Seeing the fabrics all together like this makes the combination of colors/prints  for the design easier.  This alphabet fabric comes in two color ways, one more suited for boys, the other for girls.  It also has numbers and punctuation symbols!  I can’t wait to personalize a quilt with a name.

I had the opportunity last weekend to join my friend, Lisa of Picket Fence Quilts (here in Wichita) at her annual quilt retreat.  I got the fabric swatch samples earlier in the week, so I took them with me and had a chance to make a couple of small projects.

The pattern I used was Little Scraps from This & That.  It was agonizing trying to sort through my odd shapped swatches and then CHOSE the combination to use.  I wanted to use them all!  The project was fun and I added some lavender inside to make the notebook holder freshen my purse.  I made one for Steph and Bev.

Faux Crochet Granny Square fabric!  I have displayed this baby afghan Tamara Gonzales, my sister made and carried it to market after market – finally it made it’s way into my fabric line.  Tamara really did a wonderful job on the stitches and her work really looks lovely in cotton cloth.  Check out Tamara’s blog with Leisure Arts, Tamara’s Take  for all kinds of crochet ideas.

All I can say is that I am so excited, so grateful, so pleased!

While we rested, Tiffany shook her head that she couldn’t believe she wasn’t wearing or carrying one of the products she sells – and faster than you know, Steph was emptying out the junk bag Tamara had and offered it to Tiffany to carry.  It was close to the end of the day on our last day there and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for one of our distributors to carry our product!  Tamara couldn’t believe we were going to get all her stuff squeezed into our already full bags.

  Thank you, Tiffany for your kind words, getting the bag back so quickly and being such a sport.  We enjoyed the laughs and friendship!  Thank you, Tamara for being an even better sport and giving up your bag at the last second.  Shameless self promotion? – You betcha, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

And sometimes a girl has to take stuff away from her sister.  Tamara did an awesome job detailing our trip and has some fun photos of herself with all the celebrities we saw at market.  Check out her posts.

I know in the quilt shops, customers are more often than not making gifts for children, grandchildren and loved ones.  The wonderful sewing notions, beautiful stacks of fabrics and soft yarns grab the hearts of us sewers!  How fun to see them on sweet note cards. 

Each set comes with three of the same card, matching envelope with stitched address label, and three button card tags.  Send them with the gifts you make or give them to your sewing and crocheting friends!