Cool Place Alert: Cool Cottons

If you're one of those people who collects and hoards beautiful fabrics, well . . . there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. But you could use another place to get your cloth fix, so check out cool cottons, at 24th and SE Hawthorne.

Cool cottons, as the name implies, is all about woven cottons in an astonishing rainbow array of prints. Quilters will find much to sigh over here, but these are also excellent cottons for bags, skirts, and home decor.

Oh - and also, a growing selection of high-quality canvases.

I absolutely love the atmosphere of this store. The space is a big old house, formerly used as an art gallery. There's lots of natural light streaming in through the windows (even on gray days), and room upon room of fabric bolts, arranged by color. You just wander and discover.

Nothing makes me happier than walls of color like this. Well, nothing except buying more fabric.

Cool cottons is also a great place for cool tools. For example, this Therm O Web Vinyl, which irons a waterproof coating to one side of your favorite fabric. Ooh! Lunch bags and totes and backpacks!

The store is co-owned by Pam Oakes and Marie Ritten, who met some years back while working as airline reservations agents. They would bring their quilt projects-in-progress to work with them, and chat about "Wouldn't it be great to own a fabric store?"

Well, now they do, and they love to share their passion for quilting. Many's the time that I've been in the store and watched them helping a customer choose just the right fabrics for a new quilt, spreading bolt after bolt out on this big table and eagerly discussing the pros and cons of each one. If you have questions about quilting, Pam and Marie are so friendly and helpful.

. . . Speaking of which, Marie once showed me an applique technique that changed my whole outlook on applique. So unbelievably simple, and such perfect results. Stop in and ask her about it. And tell her Sister Diane sent you.