Tales from the Road: New Mexico Fabric Finds

I have been posting photos of my trip to and from Albuquerque.  Of course, being me, while I was there I had to visit every fabric store in the city!  Oh, and I managed to get in a side trip to Santa Fe as well.  All in all I managed to visit four fabric stores, and bought fabric at three of them.  Granted, two of the four were Hancock and Jo-Ann (to be fair I was there for Burda pattern sales...), but the other two stores were independent fabric stores.  Let's start with the good stuff first:

Santa Fe Fabrics

You can visit their website here.  I have to say - if you are in Santa Fe you MUST visit this store!  You aren't going to find a bargain, but you are going to find a great selection of high quality fabrics.  They had everything from silk to wool to quilting cottons, with a nice assortment of specialty fabrics including a large selection of oilcloth.  They also have a decent selection of patterns (some older or out of print) as well as buttons and trim.  I had problems selecting what I wanted - partly because they had such a variety of fabrics, and partly because their prices forced me to be very selective in my purchases.  I would say the prices are on the slightly higher side of fair, but not at all unreasonable for the quality.  In the end I selected two silk charmeuse prints:

Pretty!  And soft.  And pretty.

Nob Hill Fabrics

Nob Hill Fabrics is a small fabric store located close to Downtown Albuquerque.  You can check out their website here.  They also had a nice assortment of fabrics (everything from knits to silk to quilting fabrics), though maybe not as much selection or as many high quality fabrics as at Santa Fe.  Of course, that means the prices were a bit more reasonable as well.  Also, since the selection is small I was able to examine the entire selection and make my purchases within a very reasonable amount of time.  Their store was a bit difficult to find (the door is on the back side of the building complex, so it faces the parking lot, but it does not face the main street), but worth a look if you have the time.  As a side note - they had issues of Burda Style Magazine available for sale, so if you are looking to buy the magazine from a store and happen to be in New Mexico they got you covered.  I ended up buying two fabrics from this store as well:

Left: Teal knit for me (to make a dress)
Right: Horse print cotton to make something for my mum.

Hancock Fabrics

Ok, so Hancock isn't really that exciting, but I do find that there tends to be more variety in their stock from location to location when compared with Jo-Ann, so I still think they are worth a look.  This particular store had an excellent selection of wool/wool blend coating fabrics that I haven't seen at any other location I have visited recently.  They also had a few good things in their clearance piles.  Add in a couple of coupons and I couldn't resist.  In the end I came away with:

Purple and blue wool blends.  The purple is a bit heavier.
Both will be used for some sort of winter jacket.

Bargain fabrics!  Left is a slightly stretch white cotton twill - destined to be a summer blazer.
Right is a plaid poly woven fabric.  I am thinking sheath dress on that one.

All in all I am quite pleased with my fabric finds!  I have been trying to be more mindful of my fabric purchases, but I think of my national fabric purchases more like souvenirs than normal stashing.  It seems better than getting random things that I wouldn't otherwise use.  Do you like to fabric shop on vacation?  Or am I the only one who likes to fabric shop when out of town?  Do you sew up vacation purchases quickly?  Or do you (like me) tend to cherish them a bit more than you should and hesitate to find the exactly perfect project for your special fabrics?  Let me know in the comments!