The vendors' tent was a bit of a disappointment in a way. It was just as vast and loaded with sellers as I recall, but all the fabric was mass-produced ... nothing was handmade and everything was cotton. No handwovens, no mud cloth, no true batik, no bark cloth, no embroideries, no tie-dyed or block-printed damasks, no flannels. And in every booth all the fabric was pre-cut into fat quarters and jelly roll strips so not of much use to somebody wanting to do anything other than specific types of patchwork ; certainly wasn't expecting anybody to lug in entire bolts and cutting tables but there did used to be more one and two metre lengths of entire widths of fabric on offer and of course all the handmades were whatever sizes came off looms. One vendor from Saskatchewan was the exception ... they had half metre cuts of printed batiks (at an "any 6 for" price and also ... wonder of wonders ... three metre cuts for use as quilt backs. Haven't opened mine up yet but the sign said these were all 118" (that'd be the three metres) long and 102" wide (a little over 2.5 metres). Usually only upholstery fabrics are sold in that kind of width, so had to grab one of those (was 10% off when I got to the till ... bonus!) Even if this turns out to be two narrower lengths of three metres, I'll still be happy 'cause it's pretty and was a good price.
So the final score: one three metre cut quilt back, six half metre cuts (two of which are duplicates to give me a full metre of that colour/design), and a package of of metallic threads. :-)
Into the past
