Today for our shop-hop we’ll be checking out Eddie’s Quilting Bee in Sunnyvale, CA. I’m *really* familiar with this store, so I can give the most details about this one. That means that this post is going to be a little bit longer than the others. I also had to create some new categories to help organize things better.

**Please note that I didn’t do a thorough inventory of each of these stores, so if I say I didn’t see something, it doesn’t mean they definitely didn’t have it, I just didn’t see it.

Web site: Eddie’s Quilting Bee. You can also shop online with them at Born To Quilt.

Location: 480 S. Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale, CA, at the corner of Mathilda and Olive Ave.

This is close to the brand new Target, if you know where that is. It’s also VERY obvious from the street for a change! There is a second floor — don’t forget to go upstairs!



You enter around the back side. This building used to be a bank branch. They frequently have the sales shelves out front on the sidewalk under a tent.



Basic Fabrics: A good selection of all kinds of fabrics in here, though less on the traditional types I’ve noted at some of the other shops. They have a large selection of Kona cotton solids, but they are mixed in with the other colors on the color wall instead of separated out.

Here are the three sections of the main color wall. Lots of Kona solids on the top shelves in the second and third photos.







A whole color wall of Asian fabrics.



A whole color wall of batiks.



Lots of dots!



Novelty Prints: This is clearly one of Eddie’s favorite things to buy. LOVES the novelty prints. Here’s an entire wall of novelty prints. There are a lot of children’s prints in here, and animals.



More novelties here, including half-naked sexy cowboys (and girls) on motorcycles, and a nice selection of Dia de los Muertos prints.



This is a whole shelf of mostly what I call “boy” prints. Firetrucks, cars, sports themes, space prints, faux wood, etc.



And a fair selection of kitchen-y and fruity prints.



Designer Fabrics: Eddie definitely likes Amy Butler, but he carries a lot of other designers as well, including Alexander Henry, Kaffe Fassett, Joel Dewberry, Prints Charming, Heather Bailey, Valori Wells, MoMo, Urban Chicks, and Echino. I’ve seen some Red Letter Day, Wild Thyme, Gee’s Bend hand-dyes, and Art Gallery prints. Like most shops, he picks and chooses from lines, rarely ordering everything. But the selection is decent. I’ve never seen any Denyse Schmidt in this shop.

Here are two racks of strictly Amy Butler, including some of those home dec solids. (And check out the rack with the Japanese magazines.)





This shelf holds a lot of Amy Butler, as well as several other designers. And that’s Amy Butler’s LOVE on the top right there. Yum!



There are a few designer prints here, and that’s a little Echino on the bottom shelf.



Other Types of Fabrics: A good selection of Minky. Right now it looks like he mostly has the dots, but I’ve seen the plain and the stripey version in there as well.



There is a good batch of flannel upstairs (don’t forget to go upstairs!). And more in the upstairs hallway.



Also upstairs, you’ll find these racks that contain some garment fabrics (see below), but also have the green fabrics — organic, hemp, bamboo. On the right shelf are the vintage reproduction fabrics, and civil war reproduction fabrics on the back side.



Garment Fabrics: Another new category. This is the first shop (other than Fabrics R Us) that carries a lot of garment fabrics. It’s not a huge selection, but covers a lot of the bases. These are all located upstairs as well, but there’s an elevator, and a second cutting station upstairs (just ring the bell)!

Jersey, gauze, silk-cotton blends, linens.



Wools, bottom weights, velveteen, corduroy, suede, ticking, denim and stretch denim, various colors of ducking.



Linings, silks, bridal satins, etc.



Sales Section: This is the current sales rack. It’s often twice this size, and they frequently have the sales set up outside the entrance under a tent when the weather is nice. This shop also has a lot of great sales, where fabric is as much as 30%. Sometimes they have everything in the store 25% off, including machine feet. Books are always 20% off. The biggest sale of the year I believe is the sale in January — Eddie’s Birthday Sale (I think that’s hilarious!). I’ll be missing it for the second year in a row because I’m traveling.



Classroom: I’ve taken quite a few classes here, and the classroom setup is very nice. This is the large classroom. They have it set up with that big TV screen for doing overhead shots of guest lecturers who are demonstrating techniques. We had the pattern drafting class in this room with about 10 students and each of us got our own table. Very spacious.



They also have a second smaller classroom. Both of these are upstairs, accessible via elevator for taking up your machine, etc. There are frequently classes going on in both classrooms at the same time.



Batting and Notions: This is yet another out-of-control category for Eddie’s. The bulk of their notions are in a room that used to be the vault (remember, I said this used to be a bank branch!). I can literally spend an hour in here no problem. Every time I look around in here I find some new stuff they’ve gotten in. It’s crazy. Really.







They also have a large selection of thread. Here’s most of it.



Their thread selection includes specialty threads, like silk, rayon, and metallic thread, and those heavy topstitching threads like the ones in your ready-made jeans.



And for you sergers and free motion quilters, thread cones!



The batting selection is pretty good as well, with options for both hand quilters and machine quilters. These are the packaged battings. On the wall on the right you can just see their samples of what some of these battings look like when quilted. Nice!



They also have a selection of batting on bolts upstairs.



Upstairs you’ll also find a selection of buttons and zippers, including specialty zippers for dressy garments, and separating zippers for large bags, etc.



Machines: This shop has been selling Babylock, Bernina, and Viking machines for a while, and has recently started selling Janome machines as well. I bought my Viking here, and to hear my recent story of great service by Eddie, read this post. They do servicing of all these machine brands as well.



Other Items: It’s unbelievable how much stuff they have crammed into this shop. They also sell long-arm machines (Tin Lizzie, I know, but I’m not sure what other brands), and rolling cases for your machines, including those cool Tutto bags.



They have a large selection of books (this is just over half of them, I’d say). I like the racks on the right better for browsing. I find it hard to see what’s on the shelves where they are all overlapping. They carry a decent collection of Japanese magazines and books as well.



They carry a pattern selection that includes Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Pink Fig, Indygo Junction and KwikSew clothing patterns, among others, and they carry the Accuquilt GO! system as well.

I’m hoping once I start my new job at Bobbin’s Nest Studio to do a thorough post on what they carry there as well, but for now, this concludes our shop hop of the South Bay. Hope you have enjoyed it!

Today for our shop-hop we’ll be checking out The Granary in Sunnyvale, CA.

**Please note that I didn’t do a thorough inventory of each of these stores, so if I say I didn’t see something, it doesn’t mean they definitely didn’t have it, I just didn’t see it.

This is another shop that didn’t want me taking photos of the quilts, but it was impossible not to get some in the shots, so I have blurred them out when I couldn’t crop them out.

Web site: The Granary.

Location: 1326 S. Mary Ave, Sunnyvale, CA.

This shop is in a little shopping center at the southeast corner of Mary Ave and Fremont Ave. It’s set back from the road, but at least the sign actually says “The Granary.”



Basic Fabrics: The highlight of this shop as far as fabric goes is definitely the vintage reproduction 20′s-40′s fabrics that they carry. This is the biggest selection I’ve seen so far (though I know the Beverly’s carries quite a lot as well).





They have the usual color wall, batiks, Kona cotton solids, and traditional fabrics, as well as some kids and holiday prints. I didn’t see any Asian fabrics.

Color wall



Batiks



Kona cottons



Traditional fabrics



They carry a fair amount of Moda, including some French General, and they have a lot of precut fat quarters and half yards. That’s the French General on the right.



Designer Fabrics: I saw a little bit of Amy Butler Daisy Chain (below on the left), as well as the occasional Valori Wells or Alexander Henry, but they were mostly scattered about the store.



Other Types of Fabrics: They have a decent selection of flannels.





Sales Section: This is the sales section. I think these were 50% off, which is by far the best sales discount I’ve seen.



Classroom: Their classroom space is in the middle of the store in the back. I’ve been in there when there was a class going on, and it can be a bit crowded trying to get to the items around this space, like the Kona cottons, batting, sales section, and the big magazine rack below.



Batting and Notions: Decent notions wall and a small selection of batting on bolts and in packages.





Machines: This shop does not sell machines.

Other Items: The other strong point of this shop, in my opinion, is the books section. It’s fairly large and has a lot more of the kinds of books I might consider buying. They actually carry that Intuitive Color book I was looking for a couple months back. The pattern selection is also fairly extensive.







Next stop on the tour: Eddie’s Quilting Bee, Sunnyvale, CA