i love to shop for fabric. and fortunately for those of us with a fabric addiction, there are several online fabric shops that offer some of the latest designs and hippest patterns at reasonable prices. in this week’s bird*buzz, i’m going to tell you about my favorite online fabric shops and offer some tips for shopping for fabric online.

aside from thrift stores and the local SCRAP, i purchase most of my fabric online. i do love fabric stores, but i don’t have time to get out to them as often as i’d like, so shopping for fabric online is perfect for me. one of my favorite online fabric shops is cia’s palette. their selection isn’t huge, although it is growing, and i have never visited this shop and not found something special. for example, right now they are carrying the new line of denyse schmidt fabrics. they also carry most of the whimsical heather ross prints, and great japanese prints.

i also love repro depot fabrics. the best thing about repro depot is their gorgeous selection of big, bold, colorful modern prints and mid-century reproductions. they carry both lighter cottons and heavier linens and barkcloths for upholstery.

if you love coordinated collections, then the fat quarter shop is for you! they have beautiful pre-cut collections for purchase. i just got an amy butler collection and it came so beautifully folded that i almost don’t want to use it! they are also carrying the new denyse schmidt line, which you can buy in a coordinated bundle or individually.

and, finally, there’s equilter. what’s amazing about equilter–besides the fact that luana rubin started this shop in her basement seven years ago and that she donates 2% of all purchases to charity–is the selection. it’s enormous. and there is something for everybody. to navigate equilter, it’s important to know what you are looking for or have a lot of patience. i have found some amazing stuff on equilter. scandinavian-inspired prints, large contemporary prints, and cool novelty. i love to use their search engine to see what they’ve got. i’m known to type “trees” or “wood” or “dots” or “modern” just to see what falls into those categories. and sometimes what comes up is pretty awful (to me), but i rarely shop there without finding something delightful. their selection is always changing and growing. and each package comes personally signed by the person who put it together for you with a color receipt so you can check your order. i love equilter.

shopping for fabric online is not the same as shopping for fabric in a regular store. so here are some tips:

:: read the description next to the thumbnail. it’s hardest to gauge the size of the print. usually shops will tell you the size of the swatch that the thumbnail represents. get out your ruler if you have to and picture the real size in your head. that way you won’t be as surprised when you open the package and the print is bigger or smaller than you’d hoped for.

:: make sure you really want a whole yard. most online fabric shops, except shops that sell fat quarters, will sell you nothing less than a half yard. some will only sell by the yard. to pay attention to what you are ordering before you make the commitment.

:: check out what’s on sale. equilter is having a huge sale right now and have some great prints available for around $4.00 a yard!

:: check the return policy. most do take returns, but there is a limit to how long you can keep the fabric before you return it.

:: if you have questions about the color, thickness, durability or washability of the fabric, email customer service and ask. it’s important to treat this transaction in the same way you would if you were shopping in a store. since you can’t actually see or feel the fabric you are buying, good shops should do their best to help you know what you are purchasing before you put down your credit card.

:: if you are looking for a particular print, check all the major fabric shops before you buy. prices can vary and there are frequently sales on particular prints or collections on some online fabric shops.

enjoy your online shopping!

Valerie Goodwin took an unusual path to becoming a fiber artist. She is a professor of Architecture at Florida A&M University and has (amazingly) only been quilting since 1998. The design principles found in both disciplines inform her university teaching and her quilt workshops. She makes quilts inspired by maps/aerial views of landscapes and cityscapes, real and imagined. Some are quite literally city grids, others more abstract. Most of her works, including the dazzlingly detailed architectural quilt above, are small-scale or minature.

From her website : “Her work as an artist uses architectural elements such as built form, city grid, mapping and composition as a source of inspiration. These pieces are part of a continuing investigation of ideas that focus on geometrical relationships, patterns and ordering principles found in architecture. Her work conveys these ideas abstractly, through the use of collage, layering, transparency, density and improvisation.”

Wouldn’t you just love to live in a space she designed?

Kwytza Kraft is a company that makes household products from recycled, single use chopsticks, which is a big waste problem, particularly in China. It is estimated that 25 million trees and bamboo plants are used annually in single-use chopstick manufacturing in China. Kwytza Kraft collects chopsticks from restaurants, santizes and pressure cleans them, and then turns them into everything from lampshades to furniture. I think that if I saved and cleaned all the disposable chopsticks I used in a few months, I might have enough to construct a lamp shade, or perhaps a cd rack, how about you?

Making-do is having the ingenuity and creativity to not see an object for what it is, but to see the many ways it could be used. It takes a certain kind of respect for not-wasting things, and having the intelligence to not assume you have to buy something for a use, but knowing you can make it.

I’ve seen some great ingenuity, and admire it… like ‘how did you think of THAT?’ I wish I was better at it! I would not only like to strengthen my ability to ‘do more with less’, but also support people who are. When I was in Cuba, I saw amazing examples of how people had customized, refashioned, reconditioned and repaired many items that would be thrown away in more affluent countries. In many ways, they are living more intelligently. See images of reinvented objects at Designboom and Formula 1 cars made from little glue bottles

“In Cuba, objects are reinvented every day in ways that transcend basic recycling. A telephone becomes an electric fan; a plastic bottle, a taxi sign; a squeeze toy, a bike horn.”
From Viva Recycling at Fast Company

“Cubans value their objects. No matter how old or new you are - no matter how big or small, dull or shiny, sleek or clunky - there’s sure to be someone who wants you. Who needs you. Who maybe can’t do without you. As an object in Cuba, you are essential. Nondisposable. Indispensable… Say that, by a stroke of luck, you catch the eye of a Cuban with some need to fill (or just some time to kill). He or she discerns some special quality in you - some hidden purpose, secret potential, deeper meaning - and brings you back to life as something else.” Originally from Philly.com

In Osaka, Adam Yoshida writes about the homeless people in his area. “‘Osaka Homeless: Lessons in Sustainability from the Invisible Caste‘ “. I love his perspective that these people are living sustainably, intelligently. They don’t need handouts or pity; they need real help in changing the political situation in Japan.

The homeless around my area maintain gardens, and live a much more sustainable lifestyle than you or I or any average person. …The city officials are kicking out the very people who are living more at harmony with the landscape and urban environment than any other segment of the population… It’s the homeless people, the ones who live in these commons, who pick up after the visitors after they go home. It’s the homeless people who “Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse” other people’s refuse to make or maintain their shelters

It’s easy to go and buy the fabric, the new materials, and not consider the environmental costs of that. Thiftcraft (by Hillary Lang) is dedicated her searches for ‘previously owned’ fabric.

Cardboard boxes are one of those nice kinds of left-overs to use. They are so purposeful. My friend made an apartment block for her cats out of smallish stacked cardboard boxes. She cut out doors and windows- and holes between the boxes so they could move from room to room. It is in front of a window, so the upstairs of the cat-apartment block gets some nice sun for them. The whole thing is big enough that the top serves as a handy table. Oh yeah, my sister once made a cool play house for my nephew out of a big box.

But searching online for inspiration, I find some of the ‘recylced crafts’ ideas are a little… tacky… is that OK to say that? I’m going to be nice and not link to some of the things I have seen online. it’s probably because the material itself is not very nice to start with. What do you expect from a stack of old VCR tapes?

Some ideas for reusing commonly thrown away materials:
Keyboard keys somehow integrated as ‘fabric’ for a bag
Purses made out of candy wrappers
Slightly creepy stuffed animals turned inside out
This page lists “Things you can do with…”