RJR Fabrics Tour

 

Richard & I had an opportunity to tour the RJR facility in Torrance. What a thrill! 

Floor to ceiling bolts & rolls of luscious color! You may have noticed - I'm kind of into that. ;)

 

Just as Lili started our tour, 

the President & Vice President of the company, Rick Cohan & John Durnell, 

walked around the warehouse with a rosebud & balloon for each employee for Valentine's Day! That's something you don't see very often.   

Then we started looking around at the eye-popping beauty!

 

 The batiks arrive from Indonesia on rolls, & must be double rolled on bolts at the plant.

Here's a pallet of new naked bolts, ready for action.

This is how they cut perfect fat quarters!

 

It's a beautiful place. How nice to see Jinny Beyer's quilt every day when you walk in to work!

Thanks, Lili, for a nice morning. It was great meeting you, your bosses (who said she actually runs the place ;) & learning about your RJR operation.

Hoffman of California

So we had the opportunity to visit Hoffman of California's headquarters last week. 

That was quite an experience!

Hoffman has been making gorgeous batiks & tropical prints, as well as cotton prints for quilting & clothing for 88 years.

You can read about the company's history here:

http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=68

The warehouse has a gazillion surfboards hanging up high on every wall,

because the Hoffman family is filled with surfing legends. You can read about their 

surfing legacies here:

http://www.surfingwalkoffame.com/culture/Hoffman.html

http://www.surfersjournal.com/journal_entry/phillip-flippy-hoffman-1930-2010

We saw pallets stacked high with beautiful bolts ready to ship, & rolls ready to be wrapped on bolts.

 

 

 I loved watching these guys turn the rolls of luscious fabric into bolts ready for our shop!

These ladies were busily cutting & stapling the samples together.

They have a cutter just like (sort of) like our paper cutter at school to cut & pink the pieces before attaching them to a cardboard header.

The offices are even decorated with quilts & surfboards.

What a beautiful office to work in!

Each year, Hoffman creates a specific fabric line for their Hoffman Challenge, celebrating its 25th Anniversary. The Challenge started with 94 enthusiastic quilters, and now the number of entries has grown to more than 700.

Categories include pieced, appliqué and mixed technique, clothing (wearable art), accessories, 

and dolls - something for everyone! 

The top entries are grouped into traveling collections and visit quilt and fiber shows, seminars, quilt shops and quilt- and doll-makers guilds nationwide and in Canada.

Read more about the Challenge rules here:

http://www.hoffmanchallenge.com/

And of course, you can order your Challenge fabric, Anisa, from Calico Mermaid!

http://calicomermaid.enstore.com/browse/challenge,hoffman/1?menu=challenge,hoffman

Thank you, Hoffman Family, for your hospitality & so many years of beautiful fabric!

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open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 10-6

Thursday 10-7

Sunday 1-5 

 12% off 

books, patterns, panels, thread

2 yards for $12!

all 45” bolt cotton fabric

(excluding flannel)

     one yard minimum cut      

may not be combined with any other offer

in shop only

Merry Christmas from all of us 

at Calico Mermaid!

Autumn Wishes

So here we are, it's still over 90 degrees outside, & we're wishing fall would hurry up.

 We have a ton of gorgeous fall fabric in now. If the temperatures would just give us a bit of a break, all would be grand.

 Northcott Gingko

 

 

Memorial Day Weekend Sale!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday
May 25-27, 2012

All regularly priced yardage 25% off

(in shop only - free shipping on all web orders)

Springtime in the Valley Quilt Show

So now we're packing up for the San Joaquin Valley Quilt Guild Show in Fresno. I'll share something very personal...I'm not fond of packing. We just packed for the retreat last weekend, & now here we go again.
But it's so exciting to plan out what to take. We can't possibly take everything in the shop, so the decisions are tough. We're taking a lot of batiks, some new panels with their coordinates, some cute new kid prints, & several new collections with their free patterns. I'm even prepared for Fresno's new Modern Quilt Guild. I have some kits packed, some gorgeous batik rolls, & some sweet new 10" cuts & rolls.
It's hard to know what everyone will want, & try to guess what other vendors won't have. I don't want to take the same stuff everyone else takes. So I'm wandering the shop, filling boxes with a variety of stuff that may or may not be right. It's such a disappointment when a customer comes up at a show & asks for something that I left back at the shop. "Why, yes. I do have that. But it's back in Porterville."
Oh well. It will be fine. It will be lots of fun. Especially after the UNpacking & set up are finished. (And before the packing up to come home begins.)

The best part of vending at a quilt show is meeting so many new people. The other vendors are always very nice to us newbies. We learn a lot from watching them work. Some of them do this every week, & they have it down to a science. You can bet they aren't blogging tonight about how they don't know what to pack! They're very kind & helpful answering our dorky questions, too.
The folks who run the show are always so nice to us, & we really enjoy all the new friends we meet. So far, every show has brought us new friends who come to visit often. I love seeing them again at the shop.
If you're in the area, check out the show here: http://www.sjvqg.com/. And when you come by, be sure to say hello. We won't even make you help pack. ;)