Trip to Kejt here in Poland (Pronounced “Kate”) - Fabric Buying Trip
I had been thinking about this trip for a while.
This company has a website and I spent quite a while looking at the possibilities I might have to buy. In fact, I made a file folder with pics of what I wanted. I thought they might be out of a lot of what I wanted so I made sure there was plenty to choose from.
The fabrics here tend to not be printed with the precision that we like in the states - it just doesn’t have the detail.
As such, I spend a lot of time searching their website for things I like AND that I think will work well for what I need as backings for these charity quilts.
This company is located in a town in Poland called Radom - about 1.5 hours from our house.
Since I have so.many.tops to do, I need to restock my fabrics that I use for the backings.
Years and years ago I used up a lot of my lesser than fabrics for backings for these quilts. Then I used up pretty much all of those fabrics and didn’t want to keep buying second hand pieces for them.
Then I realized that if I didn’t piece the backings, but used a single piece of fabric, it would be faster (and reversible) and I can get plenty of charity quilts done while at the same time giving myself time to do my own more creative projects.
I do still have some from my last trip but I have used up almost all of children’s backings - and most of the general ones for the adult ones (I still have some folk fabrics). Since I’m thinking the prices will all go up in the new year, I wanted/needed some more backings now - before the weather gets any worse OR the price goes up any higher.
I took that Spiderman panel because I have about 20 of them to finish up and I wanted to remind myself to get some coordinates for it! Through the years I’ve had so many of these panels that in the past I’ve used up my coordinating colors.
So, we got up and left reasonably early. Kejt opens at 8 am but we didn’t need to get there that early.
I needed an hour or and hour and a half to go through the warehouse and pick out fabrics. I had a list with me to remind me what I want to buy.
I also had printed out the pictures so I could show the lady who walked around with me and wrote down as I say what I want.
Then a young man picked up the bolt, told her how many meters are on the bolt and put the bolts in a pile.
I started out by going to check out the solids since I needed black and white - and was determined to get those first. Thankfully they were super well stocked. In fact, they were probably the best stocked from any other time I’ve been there. I had a bit of money (!) with me this time, so I was grateful! You have to pay with cash at this place. I think regular businesses who order and get orders, probably pay with bank transfers (like an echeck).
Most of the places in the warehouse I couldn’t get photos of simply because I didn’t think about it AND I was with a couple of their employees so I didn’t feel free to. Plus, it was so crammed full and the aisleways were dark and a bit cramped, so didn’t make for any better photo taking than what I got. I was glad I had already decided pretty much on what I wanted.
They may have let me take photos had I asked, but I decided to just focus on what I was choosing and looking for.
Here is one of the piles - I was told I had two more piles in other parts of the warehouse.
While I was paying for it, Mike loaded it into the back of the pickup so I wasn’t able to get great photos of that part.
The back end of the pickup truck was full.
By the time we got home - it was dark. Once again - Mike and I brought it into the entryway of our house - as my living room is full of charity quilts!
I did get quite a few solids this time including black and white, ecru, sand, and light brown, turquoise blue, royal blue, denim blue, a sage green, grass green, hunter green and a burnt orange along with yellow.
Then I got prints that I wanted for the back of these children’s quilts and adult quilts. I am tickled with all that I was able to get. I am so grateful that Mike was a trooper. We got home and unloaded by about 4 pm and it felt like it was bedtime. Having it dusk at 2:30 and dark by 4 adds to that!
At a future blog post I will carefully show you each of these bolts - as I am tickled with them.
I do not have time before I wanted to share this post with you to bring all of these into the living room and get proper pictures of each of these about 40-50 bolts. I do want to show them to you - and no, my sis has even more beautiful fabrics, with a lot more detail in the print. But, I am doing the best I can to choose nice fabrics with what we have available here in Poland.
Please do not ask me for these fabrics - my sis does not have these for sale - these are located HERE in Poland.
One thing I have heard moms tell me is that they really like animal prints - so I did end up with quite a few of those.
I will take pics at another time. Today we have a guest in from the states and I don’t have a time or place to place them on the living room floor, unpack them all and take photos. I actually want to do that - but…not yet.
Thanks for coming along with me on this journey! Have a great day wherever you are reading this.
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