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My husband had to go do some filming at a plant near Portland, OR for his company, so of course I wanted to go. Before I leave town I like to get on the internet and find the “fun” things to do, or find the “odd” places to see. Well, I found they have the nation’s largest fabric store there, and since I LOVE material it was top on my list to go see.

We left Tues. morning (driving) and got there around noon, had lunch, checked into Hotel, dropped off hubby at the plant, waved and kissed him goodbye and off I went to Fabric Depot to see this place.

According to their website they have a one and a half acre building, with 20,000 fabrics in stock! As I pulled up into the parking lot, I was glad that my husband said it would be about five hrs of filming, because looking at the size of that building I knew it would take me that long to get through it. As I walked through the doors, first thing I noticed were carts the size you would find in a grocery store which immediately made me do a quick check book, and savings total in my head. Big store + Big grocery cart= Lots of money.

I was a little disappointed when I realized that only part of the building contained materials. Most of the building was used for the internet sales, and warehouse. Plus, they also had a large area for their classes, and machine sales, but, there was still a lot of looking I could do.

I had a project in mind of something I want to try. (I’ll show you in another post.) Finding that perfect piece of material is part of the fun of the hunt for me. As I was going up and down the aisles of fabric, looking and feeling each one as I passed, I noticed a man holding a few bolts in his arms looking carefully at different colors and patterns. We were actually looking at the same bolts so I asked him, “do you quilt?” He replied “yes”. “What are you working on?” I asked. He pulled out this piece of paper where he had drawn out a quilt he wanted to make. Then on a clip board he showed me quilt patterns he had pulled off the internet with similar patterns to his quilt showing me how he wanted to do the 12 months of the year with the colors from each month blending into the next month block. He pulled scraps of material he wanted to match for his color scheme. After he had shown me all this I asked what he did for work, and he told me he was a retired policeman. His wife was going on a trip in a few days and he wanted to be all ready to start that quilt when she left. What an interesting man. He was so sweet. He walked me over to areas of the store to show me places to look for my own project. (He knew that store, name brands, and where those name brands were in the store!) He even allowed me to take a picture of his project in the making too.

Standing in the line to have my material cut I noticed the cutest little couple you ever saw. I asked if I could take a picture, and of course they agreed. It was mentioned they had gotten engaged on Valentine’s Day. When I saw the “rock” on her hand I knew it had to make it into the picture. As we were visiting, they informed me they had a Face Book page with pictures of them on different holidays, including Valentine’s Day when he proposed. Go to: StevenMonkey-Shine to become a friend and check out these pics.

After leaving the store I started thinking about the people I had just met. Gordon the retired policeman, who was making the quilt. Karen, who with a friend named Paula came up with these sock monkey outfits, and then using them in different parts of the store. Karen had told me how successful these little outfits had become to the point they now have made a book with the pattern to dress these monkeys. Both of these people went out of their way to help me, and share some of their talents with me. Yes, the store was big, and had a lot of things in it. But for me, it was Gordon and Karen that made my trip to Portland.


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