I recently traveled to Los Angeles and on my must-do list was to make a visit to Michael Levine. If you don’t know of it, it’s a huge fabric store in LA’s fashion district, and as I was to soon find out, it has E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G!!
As I sat in the car gulping down my morning coffee, we first whizzed by this…A GIANT CHAIR!!!!!! I got a quick photo of it as we sped past to our destination. I was a tad perplexed by its random existence (and found out a bit more once we got home), but then quickly forgot as we were on a mission!
There is a home decorating branch of Michael Levine directly across the street, but we were headed into their main store to see if we could find some of my fabric inside. I had briefed The Bub on our mission and he was excited for a treasure hunt.
The store facade is relatively unassuming if you walk by too quickly, but a glance over will reward you with some really fun window displays. I was giddy with excitement as we ventured inside.
Why, thank you!
HELLO!!!! Fabric! Glorious fabric, everywhere! Muahahahaha!!
You can’t quite tell from the photo, but this place is B-I-G and has everything you could possibly want. I wouldn’t mind to be locked inside for a night or two to give myself a fighting chance at seeing a fraction of what they have to offer.
The daunting part of all this was that I was here to see my Timeless Treasures fabrics in their natural habitat, as it were. Up until now, I haven’t had a chance to track down any of my bolts in stores, so knowing they had some of my latest designs made me all the more determined to find them.
I’ll tell you right now that I owe finding them to The Bub. I was a deer in headlights, toggling between drooling over the array of available textiles and then feeling completely overwhelmed that I’d never find my prints. Just look at his complete excitement and enthusiasm at finding “Mama’s fabric!"
A juicy bolt of Black & White Wildlife! What a thrill to see!
The Bub wanted to take all my fabric home and I had to explain to him that we wanted to leave them there for other people to buy, use and enjoy. He wasn’t sure he liked that idea.
And here’s when a crazy moment of kismet transpired. The Bub and I were busy talking when out of my periphery two women came down the same aisle and stopped less than three feet to my left.
Then one said to the other, "Ooooh, look at this bowling print!”
I turned my head and saw this. I kid you not!
There they were, two unsuspecting ladies right next to me, randomly talking about my Kingpin fabric that they had just pulled from the shelf!
I had to snap a photo (albeit a blurry one) because I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. Can you plan timing like this? No, I tell ya, NO!!!!
I couldn’t resist and introduced myself. That’s when I formally met Sandy (left) and Bea (right) from Pasadena, who told me they come to Michael Levine all the time.
“We always know when new fabrics arrive,” said Sandy. I asked if they were quilters and Sandy told me that she was actually there looking for some golf-related fabric for a blanket. She followed that with, “So when should I call you to see when you’ve designed a golf fabric?”
It’s on my list, Sandy, its on my list!
As if seeing my fabrics out in the wild wasn’t enough, having a wonderful exchange like this out of nowhere was the icing on the cake. Sandy and Bea were a complete thrill to meet and chat with.
With two of my fabrics tracked down, I was perfectly happy to depart at this point, as I was on such a gleeful high. I made my way to the front of the store to say hi to the associate who orders the novelty cottons (never got her name, I’m afraid) but alas, it was her day off.
That’s when The Bub got my attention with our third and final find! His eagle eyes spotted my Secret Ladybugs hiding out in a display of Halloween-related fabrics.
A very clever seasonal showcase for this design, I thought. Ladybug costumes are very popular, so good idea, Michael Levine folks! Although Halloween is now over, I highly recommend this project tutorial that I created especially for Timeless Treasures (if you make one, send me a photo of it!).
At this point the fabric field trip was deemed a stunning success.
I desperately wanted to buy some scrumptious yardage to haul home, but there were SO many designs I liked that I knew I needed another good solid hour of uninterrupted-by-kids-squawking time to focus on what my final choice would be.
Sadly, we just didn’t have the time and needed to get going before Mister Baby Pants opted to unfurl all the rolls of ribbon that were within reach. I snapped a couple more (blurry) photos and we headed out for the rest of our day.
Thanks to the folks at MIchael Levine for entertaining us. And for anyone in the Los Angeles area, go check this place out!
It’s a glorious fabric hoarder’s paradise. 🙂