Pink Castle Fabrics and My First Dress!

A few months ago, Pink Castle Fabrics expanded their online store into a REAL store!!! They opened their store in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is about a 20 minute drive for me from my home.  I was SO excited when I found out about it, because I have been visiting fabric stores in this area, and I haven't found one where I'm overwhelmed with happiness. Now I have a Local Shop where I can visit and check out the fabric in person. There is another big fabric store in Ann Arbor, but it was a giant batik store, and I was super disappointed when I found that out. Instead of bright solids, the fabric looks waterpainted. Not my look at all. I desperately wanted a store where I can learn how to quilt and sew and improve my skills.  You can only get so far by teaching yourself!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE their fabrics.  They have a huge shop of bolts, precuts, and what's really cool is they have Blogger's pick out bundles to sell.  I love going in and checking out all the new bundles that they have just put together!  What I love the most, are the boxes of stray fat quarters and fat eights that haven't made it into a bundle of their own. It's SO awesome to pick through the boxes and find some gems that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten my hands on! (And they are super cheap which is a bonus for me!)  Last week I was able to pick out a FQ (fat quarter) of a newly released line called Briar Rose (by Heather Ross) that everyone is going nuts for.  I only wanted a little piece of the collection to put in my stash and hoard away.  

This is my favorite print: 
Isn't the Mom Bee awesome?!

It is a really good line, but I have a hard enough time deciding what I'm going to do with the collections of fabric I have! My first quilt top I have made has similar colors to Briar Rose, and Nordika (Art Gallery Fabrics) (by Jeni Baker/In Color Order) came out at the same time and I would choose that fabric over ANY fabric every made. Art Gallery Fabrics makes the best fabric I've ever seen and touched. It's so soft!

I actually bought the whole Nordika FQ collection with the coordinating solids and 2 yard of my favorite print, in hopes that will be a dress or a skirt!

Tulip Vines in Licorice

 Isn't this the best?!! It will look great as a dress or skirt all year round in the the summer or winter depending on what I match with it!

Whimsicol Tide Panel

Whimsicol  Mist Panel

I LOVE these Whimsicol Panels!!!! When i learn how to make the Staple Dress, I am definitely going to try to make both of these in the pattern. I have so many plans for this dress!

So this is what I'm going to learn in ten days:

April Rhodes: The Staple Dress

It's going to be a really basic dress pattern so I will be able to learn how to fit a dress to my size, and make the proper adjustments, and I haven't been this excited in a long time!  Plus there are SO many different kind of wonderful dresses that have been popping up everywhere.  You must look at them!