Where do you get your fix? - Independants

Peppermint Stitches:

This little shop opened about a year ago and I only found out about it at the Stitches and Craft show earlier in the year. It is situated on Sylvan Road in Toowong and is run by a mother and daughter (I believe). Now this store has wall to wall fabrics - literally - they are everywhere you turn, and not horrible rolls of it either, but the neatly packed rectangles that quilting fabrics come in. Most of the fabrics look to be fairly contemporary quilting patterns with Amy Butler, Heather Bailey etc getting a good showing. They are priced between $22-26 (AUD) per metre and you can purchase as little as 20cm widths (great for crafters). Also they have a billion fat quarters. To be honest my main criticism is that there is so much that it's overwhelming and the fabrics looked to be grouped by designer, not colourway. This is great if you know what you're after - but having things in colour groups can be visually easier to navigate  - but that's just my preference (I'm old and get confused easily). Peppermint Stitches main focus looks to be quilting and cross stitching/embroidery. There are a few patterns for bags, some craft books, and some classes on quilting and cross stitching. All in all - the service was very friendly and I'll definitely be crossing the river often to wade through the huge range of fabulous fabrics.

Gardams:

I remember when Ewan Gardams was on the Queen Street Mall (I told you I've been around a while). It was on several levels and was an Aladdin's cave of fabrics, apparently it's been in operation for over 70 years (no, I'm not that old)! They then moved to Adelaide Street, and for the most part was OK - over the years I have picked up some great fabrics, but things started to slow down, the 50% off sign annoyed the hell out of me and only ever applied to a small section of fabrics - which I think actually never sold so were in fact the same fabrics on sale for the past 5 years. Anyway, I digress, Gardams stocks mainly higher end fine fabrics and recently moved to Indooroopilly (down the road from Spotlight). Staff are always friendly and helpful and will cut small slithers of fabric off rolls, staple them to a card and write the details down for you! Splendid!

Sckafs Fabrics:

Inside Indooroopilly shopping town - bottom floor - Myers end. This place has been around forever it seems. It sells dress making fabrics on rolls, buttons etc, etc, etc. Fondest memory was being taken by a friend (you know who you are) to a special sponsored night that promised secret techniques and unusual stylings, but basically involved showing a lovely group of seated ladies how to embellish a plain T-shirt - by bedazzling the bejesus out of it with rhinestones, lace, sequence etc. We then got to eat cubed cheese and drink weak cordial - awesome. I did manage to buy some lovely cotton fabrics though.

Others that I know of but have not visited:

Patches (Indooroopilly)

Tangled Yarns (Newstead) - wool/knitting

Funky Fabrix (Mitchelton)

plus  heaps of quilting stores that seem to be tucked away in the outer suburbs.