Meanderings: September 25, 1999

Saturday,
September 25, 1999

Oh, God, I love Kilotex. 1000 square meters of everything a sewing fanatic needs, and all of it astoundingly cheap. Actually, when it comes to fabric I love Sweden -- this country has absolutely tons of dynamite fabric stores, including this little ribbon and trim shop along Hornstull that would give any theatrical costumer an instant orgasm. I've bought more gorgeous fabric while I've been here than any other place outside of the States, and I keep finding more stores every time I go out.

This trip was also a first, in that I took Lyndon with me. He was in search of replacement fabric for a shutter curtain (this long, lightproof thing that's a part of one of his cameras), so I sent him off to wade through the artificial fabrics at the back of the warehouse while I grabbed a bolt of black tulle and started hunting through the offcuts. I love Kilotex's system for selling offcuts -- along with the regular stuff on bolts, they have these huge, jumbled piles of scraps separated into different fabrics that you can just wade through, looking for something that grabs your eye. Once you snatch up all the fabric you want, you take it to the counter and they price it by the hectogram. That means you can get a huge busload of light fabrics for a song -- and I am addicted to sari-patterned chiffon.

So he came away with a few meters of fabric that he thinks will be suitable for the replacement shutter curtain, and I came away with five meters of black tulle, an armful of multi-colored chiffon for overshirts and scarves, a piece of purple nubbed satin and aqua blue chenille-like polyester for dressy tops, a huge, horking piece of thin black rayon spangled with silver flowers just perfect for the costume skirt, and odds and ends for the quilt I'm finishing. Then we went home and I spent eight hours working on the quilt (this is the baby Tumbling Tropics quilt for Lyndon's best friend's son). Which makes me a very naughty girl, because by rights I should have been finishing up this week's story for the story dare.

Um. . .I couldn't help it? The fabric called to me? I was suffering from temporary insanity? There was a tidal wave? Locusts? IT WASN'T MY FAULT!

But the quilt looks really nice.

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