I left my Heart in San Francisco......!

The Ribbonerie - San Francisco

The Ribonerie was a lovely ribbon store on 3695 Sacramento Street in San Francisco. The girls who worked here were the nicest of all the stores I went to and their ribbons were to die for. YUM! Best of all were the basket of 3-4 inch remnant pieces for 5 cents and the large trunk full of remnant ribbons for anywhere from 10 cents to a dollar. Of course you could buy anything you wanted by the yard - Mikuba was high on my list along with some vintage pieces. She had lovely stamens that I had to pass up. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of this store and put the ribbons away thinking I'd already taken a picture, but this store's worth the trip and we found parking right across the street. This is saying something since parking is a bit of a premium in San Francisco.

Laci's in Berkley, CA

I wasn't going to go to Berkley, but my SIL wanted us to pick up a breadmaker for our neice at a friend's home there and I found we were awful close to Laci's, so my dH paced the sidewalks while I shopped. (-; It turned out alright since delaying our arrival in LA saved us from rush hour. I was awful good here and hardly purchased anything.

Phebie's Needle Art Corner - Claremont, CA

Ingrid wanted to show me a little shop she frequents, Phebie's Needleart Corner in Claremont, CA, and it turned out to be a jewel of a store. I managed to get some brazilian embroidery supplies and some vintage jewels. I will definitely go back to this store because it is so close to my SILs.

Berger Specialty Beads - Trim Expo in LA

I hooked up with Ingrid in LA and we hit the fashion district in LA. We had a great time shopping together and ate lunch at a little Iranian diner. It was nice to have someone who knew the area show me around. I didn't bring a camera, but did take some pictures with Ingrid's camera so you will have to see if she blogs about them. We spent WAY too much time in Berger Beads, but it was definitely worth it. The bottom picture shows what I got there with the exception of the lace which I got from another store. We also went to Bohemian Crystal and Trim Expo, but I'd pretty much spent my limit and wanted to save some for San Francisco. I did get some trims at Trim Expo (top photo).

Michael Levines in LA

This LA store in the fashion district had lots of trims for great prices. They had TONS of fabric too, but I wasn't shopping for fabric. (-;

Britex Fabrics in San Francisco

While in San Francisco I walked down the street from our hotel in Union Square to shop at Britex Fabrics. There are four floors to this wonderful store, but my favorite was the 3rd floor where there were yards and yards of vintage and new lace, ribbon of all kinds, and buttons galore! Do you think I had fun shopping? (-; They also had fancy fabrics on the first floor, decorator fabrics on the second floor, and remnants on the 4th floor. I bought a few remnants, but not many. I found some Hannah silk that matched a few of my planned projects, some ribbons, and a small piece of vintage lace with a fisherman on it. My Dad was a fisherman and he taught me to fish, so I plan to put this on my memory quilt in his section.

Muir Woods in San Francisco

I recently returned from vacation in California where my husband and I took a couple of days to visit San Francisco. The first spot we stopped at was Muir Woods where immense Redwood trees take up their residence. My husband and I agree that this is our all-time favorite place to hike. Here is a picture of one tree that doesn't really do it justice. Do notice the people at the bottom of the tree so you can judge the size of these beautiful and striking trees. You can click on the picture to enlarge it, then click on it again to enlarge it further.

Hummingbird to Stitch

For my stitching pleasure. (-;

Paint dying ribbon

I bought this earring holder off a lady for $1 at a flea market. I don't know what I thought I was going to use it for, but I finally figured it out this weekend. I added nails at strategic points around the frame and used it to hold my ribbon while I painted it with dyes. I got this idea from a book called "Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible" by Joan Gordon. It was fun and I like the variegated look of the ribbon. The ribbons need to be wet to get the variegated effect. I painted the entire ribbon first with water then with a light color. Then using a darker version of the same color, I just touched the edge of the top of the ribbon and the dark dye would run into the light creating interesting effects. I used both silk ribbon and white rayon seam binding. The silk ribbon was 13mm and is the purple ribbon in the photos. I also tried 4mm silk ribbon and it worked fine (not pictured). The green and yellow ribbons in the photos are the white rayon seam binding.