Trip to Kejt - a Fabric Wholesaler in Poland

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Time for another road trip. This one was years overdue. Rachael and I wanted to go there back in 2017, I think it was, when she and her husband were visiting…but never made it.

Never mind. Old story. Don’t really like what happened that day that caused us not to make it. Don’t want to think about it.

 

Anyway, I finally made it to Kejt - a company here in Poland. By the way, when you are reading this, Kejt would be pronounced “Kate”.

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I had wanted to go to this store last fall, but because of COVID and winter - we didn’t make it. Then, they shut down to the public and only did things via shipping.

I called them on Monday and asked if they were open to the public again. The lady who answered said “Yes.” So, we went. My husband was working on a project, but when I asked him if we could go, he said, “Sure!” and he washed his hands, changed clothes and we went. It took about an hour and 40 minutes to get there - but we were there by 11 am.

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A lady showed me the pallets and bundles of fabrics. Lots and lots! Upstairs we started with what they call the ‘children’s fabrics’ - though much of it isn’t really children’s - it is just the 160 cm width - which makes the single bedding. She called a worker who did the heavy lifting and as I indicated that I wanted something, she had him put it on the cart. I’m glad I had spent some time on the internet looking at their site, checking out what they had available.

I was able to get these photos when she left me to go get a guy to help with the bundles. You can see the rolls can be HUGE!

The main reason I really wanted to go was because when I dealt with them over email, it took FOREVER to get a reply and then it had to go back and forth, back and forth. Inevitably I asked for something that they didn’t have and it took a day to get that reply back. Then I would ask for something else and it repeated. They don’t have very good inventory control, IMO, and don’t always know what they have. The best way is just to go and look for yourself.

The receipt I got.  It’s certainly not detailed.

The receipt I got. It’s certainly not detailed.

The receipt you get at the end only shows the ‘greige goods’ and lists how many meters you buy. It is no wonder they don’t always know what they have. The workers just need to go and look and see what actually leaves the warehouse.

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I say that they don’t always know what they have because, specifically, this cars fabric, I asked for last year, and they told me they didn’t have it with a blue background, so I bought it with yellow. I preferred the blue - and I FOUND it (it was the last big bolt) sitting on a shelf just waiting for me! I felt like I hit the jackpot!

Generally speaking the bolts are 50 meters (54 yards) but sometimes they are bigger bolts or smaller. I didn’t actually examine each bolt as I pulled it out - and a couple of them were smaller than I would have preferred, but it’s fine. I know where they have it! And if they are out if I ask for more via email - well, they will have something else.

After I paid for everything, Mike and the guy loaded it all in the truck.

We then found a Burger King and ate (we don’t have one at all close to our home here in Poland). Then we (Mike) drove the hour and a half home.

We unloaded and this is what we have!

I ended up with 26 DIFFERENT fabrics - 28 bolts because I bought 2 of one print and 2 of solid light beige because they were smallish bolts.

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I was specifically looking for something for little girls including tween girls, and boys.

I already had farm and cars and soccer so the boys’ situation wasn’t as dire as the girls. So for the girls, this is what I ended up getting.

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I also bought these with the boys in mind - and the tigers, obviously, could go for young people as well - or even adult men. I like it, so could be for the couples also. I already still have green/brown camo - so I’m okay with the teen boys. The only thing I need for them are tops. I’m kind of stumped. I could make more of the solids with the shadows - something that turned out to be quite popular with the guys.

 
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I had run out of the beige - or cappucino and brown - had gone through it quickly with all my Big Fabric Haul charity quilts, so I beefed up my solids by getting brown and light beige.

The two other solids I bought were red and blue. I had needed these two colors for probably two years now. I’ve wanted to make up my Spiderman panels - but needed more red and blue so I could do them. I like to do a few each year. No matter how many I make they will all be taken, so I’m trying to do some each time I have a give-away but not all of them. It kind of spreads them out.

The long solids - red and brown are 220 cm or 86” wide!

The long solids - red and brown are 220 cm or 86” wide!

But what I had needed the most was more ‘pretties’ for the backs of the big quilts that Fran has made or other people who have given me tops (thank you if you have!). I’m trying to finish up 52 of them this year. So far I’ve quilted up 14 of them, but that leaves me still needing to do 38 more - just of the ones from Fran. And I was out of any ‘nice’ backing fabric. I wanted something pink this time as I have a lot of tops that had pinks, reds, turquoise and such in them.

To me, this bottom fabric is the perfect one for ‘tween girls. I think they all love those colors!

To me, this bottom fabric is the perfect one for ‘tween girls. I think they all love those colors!

These large-ish prints are perfect for backings!

These large-ish prints are perfect for backings!

My selection was limited - actually nonexistent. I had already used up the purple and green/turquoise butterflies that I had gotten before. I got another bolt because it was such nice fabric. I really added to this section of my collection. I’ll use these up quickly however. Each of the big quilts takes 5-6 meters of this fabric, so a bolt of fabric will ‘back’ 9 or 10 large quilts. When you are doing 50 BIG ones at a time (+ 70 small ones), fabric goes fast.

Then I got a few ‘folk’ fabrics I’ve not had before. They are here.

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I also picked up two polka dot fabrics - both a bright red and a very nice pink. Each of these are large bolts - one 100 meters and one 95.

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On thing I didn’t get was very masculine fabrics. They just didn’t have anything I wanted. I suppose the best was that tiger fabric or the fun car fabric - not the childish one - but the cooler looking one.

All in all - it took til about 5 pm to get it all in the house, unpacked, and put away.

I was able to save all the heavy duty plastic bags they packed the bolts in and will see about reusing them. I’ll probably use them to fill with extra batting trimmed off pieces that I will then give away to be used by someone else. I really hate to toss when others can use something!

So…that was one genuine “fabric buying trip”. While it wasn’t as exciting as when my sis and I have gone in the states to wholesalers, because I had to buy so many yards/meters at once—at least I was able to go!

At the end of the day, I was tired - that’s a lot of hauling. But satisfied. This will set me up for quite some time!


Note: This fabric buying trip took place in Poland. These are fabrics I have here - not Rachael. Please do not write us at Quilted Twins or ask for them. It’s just not practical to send it to you.


Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Thanks for coming along with me on my quilting/sewing journey!




Becky Petersen14 Comments