LA Fashion District

When I was in California, I met up with Ingrid whom I met at the CQI retreat last year (CQI is the Crazy Quilt International Yahoo Group). We went to downtown LA to visit the renowned (at least to some crazy quilter enthusiasts) Fashion District. I just thought I'd share some photos of this shopping district. I didn't have my camera (thought I'd have enough trouble carrying my purchases), but Ingrid graciously let me use hers. There are, seriously, store after store after store in block after block of fabric, beads, lace, and trims. You could take a week to go through them all if your budget could withstand it. We only had a day and so missed many of the shops, but one day I'll return!

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.