# Tuesday Morning



## ouijian (Apr 21, 2011)

Well, after reading about all the great yarn buys at Tuesday Morning, I went there to investigate. There wasn't any yarn that piqued my interest, but I managed to find some really nice fat quarters. Sigh. One of the clerks walked by as I was petting the fabric and said she loved it when the fabrics showed up. The two sets of fat quarters I bought were really cheap but I noticed immediately that these are fabrics being sold in the stores here in Seattle now! What a deal.


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## janie48 (May 18, 2011)

Tuesday Morning is soooo fun to shop, between the yarn that is unique for area to baby items, and bedding, you get a broad spectrum of goodies. Glad you had fun and got a goodies or 2.


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## disgo (Mar 2, 2013)

ouijian said:


> Well, after reading about all the great yarn buys at Tuesday Morning, I went there to investigate. There wasn't any yarn that piqued my interest, but I managed to find some really nice fat quarters. Sigh. One of the clerks walked by as I was petting the fabric and said she loved it when the fabrics showed up. The two sets of fat quarters I bought were really cheap but I noticed immediately that these are fabrics being sold in the stores here in Seattle now! What a deal.


Your fat quarters are bolt ends and used to be in a basket at all the Hancocks you used to have for a really cheap price. There are no deals anywhere since they all need to make a profit to survive. You may think you are (which is what they are planning on) but in searching around even my friends would marvel at how I could undercut even Walmart by shopping founder's day sales at Freddies for much better quality.


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## ouijian (Apr 21, 2011)

I beg to differ Disgo. My fat quarters may have been cut from bolt ends, but I know for a fact that this fabric is being sold right now in a high end store in Seattle for $12 a yard. In fact, I bought some of it last week. I paid $10.00 for a pack of six fat quarters. You do the math and then tell me I got a bad deal.


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## KarenSK (Jun 7, 2015)

I found Deborah Norville knitting needles in small sizes at the Tuesday Morning store near my office. They were $3.49 to $3.99 each. Bought small sizes between 32" & 47" long in sizes 0, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, & 3. Thought it was a good deal. Had gone in to see if they had yarn like some other posters had found. No yarn of interest but did not leave empty handed.


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## ouijian (Apr 21, 2011)

Oh dear. I may need to go back!


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## run4fittness (May 22, 2011)

The closest one is me is still too far away to make it worth my while.


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## ouijian (Apr 21, 2011)

Kirkland?


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## WindingRoad (May 7, 2013)

ouijian said:


> I beg to differ Disgo. My fat quarters may have been cut from bolt ends, but I know for a fact that this fabric is being sold right now in a high end store in Seattle for $12 a yard. In fact, I bought some of it last week. I paid $10.00 for a pack of six fat quarters. You do the math and then tell me I got a bad deal.


You got a bad deal because the $12/yard is overpriced.


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## Jaevick (Feb 14, 2011)

Our local Tuesday Morning is like a junk store and always a disappointment. As far as the fat quarters, if YOU think it's a good deal then it is. Ignore the snippy people.


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## betsyknit (Apr 4, 2013)

Tuesday Morning is hit and miss (I've found fabulous yarns and sometimes nothing to peak my interest - pretty much like any discount/resale store). My only question is: what in the world are fat quarters?


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## jan m (Jul 5, 2011)

betsyknit said:


> Tuesday Morning is hit and miss (I've found fabulous yarns and sometimes nothing to peak my interest - pretty much like any discount/resale store). My only question is: what in the world are fat quarters?


When the Tuesday Morning in this area has yarn at all, it is undesirable--black or navy, ugly colors, weird textures, or--if a decent yarn sneaks into the lot--merely one skein of it. I check the bin without any expectations--have never been disappointed.


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## Malsy37 (Mar 21, 2011)

I love Tuesday Morning! Have 2 stores nearby. One North and one South about equal distance from my home.
I don't always find something each visit but sure do love looking!
:thumbup:


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## chinook (Apr 25, 2015)

Hmmm...reminds me how long it has been since I was in TM.have to arrange a trip down the hill...never thought about finding yarn there!


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## elmobird2 (Sep 10, 2012)

Jaevick said:


> Our local Tuesday Morning is like a junk store and always a disappointment. As far as the fat quarters, if YOU think it's a good deal then it is. Ignore the snippy people.


Jaevick....I see you live near me....I live in the suburb of Oregon. I had visited the Tuesday Morning out in Perrysburg a few years ago & thought the same as you. Then I discovered the TM on Rt 20 in Rossford...a big difference. Very well organized & not at all like the first one I visited. I believe it's located by the Target store or down from it.


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## sewlj (Mar 2, 2011)

A fat quarter is a piece of fabric measuring 18 inches by 22 inches it is called that because it is a quarter of a yard but is cut in half lengthwise from a half yard piece of fabric instead of widthwise.


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## jeanne63 (Mar 14, 2014)

jan m said:


> When the Tuesday Morning in this area has yarn at all, it is undesirable--black or navy, ugly colors, weird textures, or--if a decent yarn sneaks into the lot--merely one skein of it. I check the bin without any expectations--have never been disappointed.


That sounds like the one near me. Mine is a junk store...unkept, over priced and nothing to even peek my interest. I drive right on by.


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## jeanne63 (Mar 14, 2014)

jan m said:


> When the Tuesday Morning in this area has yarn at all, it is undesirable--black or navy, ugly colors, weird textures, or--if a decent yarn sneaks into the lot--merely one skein of it. I check the bin without any expectations--have never been disappointed.


That sounds like the one near me. Mine is a junk store...unkept, over priced and nothing to even peek my interest. I drive right on by.


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## KittyMomma (Dec 12, 2012)

WindingRoad said:


> You got a bad deal because the $12/yard is overpriced.


Good cotton quilting fabrics are running $10 to $12 a yard now. I was recently at a quilt shop that always has good prices and they are charging that for some lines. Cotton prices have been rising the past couple of years. I don't buy fabric at Wal-Mart, want fabric that is quality. If I am going to put my time into a quilt, want it to last. Guess that makes me a fabric snob.


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## disgo (Mar 2, 2013)

ouijian said:


> I beg to differ Disgo. My fat quarters may have been cut from bolt ends, but I know for a fact that this fabric is being sold right now in a high end store in Seattle for $12 a yard. In fact, I bought some of it last week. I paid $10.00 for a pack of six fat quarters. You do the math and then tell me I got a bad deal.


There is no math involved at all in remnants, as they are considered scrap in business terms. How I got my Arrow shirt material for 15 cents a yard to make an $18 dollar and up shirt with the same identical fabric in the ones on the rack. You will never save since they are supposed to sell below wholesale and you paid marked up wholesale so they came out ahead and not you. The only time one might get ahead is when a line sells out and you happen upon a remnant/bolt end/mill end of that fabric to make something that no one else can now get and even then you are merely saving a few cents. I know some fabric sellers in the garment district in NYC that would love for you to come into their shop. I am not familiar with your Tuesday Mornings as I have been gone from Seattle now over 8 yrs. The one here is worst then the worst hoarder place on TV and you are lucky you can get through let alone find anything. As NIL says you take your life at risk of being buried in the rubble which is not savings at all. If you can imagine all the stuff in the store you went in stuffed into a former Christian greeting card store that had one shelf along a wall in a very narrow twelve foot wide strip mall shop--YIKES.

Having done business in Seattle for many years I can give you the inside scoop. They are selling the fabric, but that does not mean that the bolt they just ran low on got tossed. For those of us in the business I would go around to all the fabric stores back then (Nancy's Fabrics on top of Queen Anne being the best as she and her mother and I became good friends and did business together a lot and if you remembered the place it was by no means a "standard" fabric store) and get the last bits of yardage left on bolts before they started making fat quarters. Quilting did not take off until after I had closed my couture business for a few years.

My friend and I (both in the couture business) would also go to Pendleton in Washougal and Jantzen in Portland a lot and stock up since even with business licenses and warehouse discounts (no sales tax in OR) we still came out way ahead. We were so well known the manager would give us our own personal clerk/cutter so we would spend the entire day when mill ends were being brought in of the production line and get the yardage needed to match the same fabric in the seconds garments there to make complete Pendleton suits for less than a quarter of the retail and have the identical suit on the rack at Frederick and Nelson for our customers to buy at half price. It was Nordstrom opening in their father's shoe store that put a stop to our business since people could charge and then take back garments/shoes etc.

You will find the business model for Tuesday Morning is no different then Kohl's, TJ Max, Big Lots and all the factory outlet malls around you. There is no guarantee they will have anything you want but by getting you into look you are then like the display departments in all the other stores entrapped to consider getting something else. It is the way they all do business. Hancock was at least up front about it and many times you could get the extra yardage you might need beyond the remnant by just pulling the full bolt off and paying regular price for that small amount which let you still come out saving. The cutters and cashiers knew me well for that reason and would even shake their heads on the deals I would get.

Thank goodness we still have Hancock's here in Spokane and they still have a huge table of remnants and bolt ends to select from.

Unlike quilting, I can cut garments to save even more fabric then most so I was always ahead of the game. When Frederick & Nelson was the first to sell Ultrasuede and by the inch ONLY there was less than a quarter inch of scrap with my method of cutting--I used the perfected sloper for cutting and since it had no grain it was just a matter of wedging pieces more like jig saw pieces to get the most out of the fabric.

So you decide you want to fussy cut your fat quarters--where is the savings now?


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## itzzbarb (May 21, 2011)

I too, got beautiful quality fat quarters from Tuesday Morning at a great price. Since I have been sewing for 55 years, I feel I am qualified to know good quality fabric from junk. TM also has some pretty good prices on knitting notions/needles at times. The yarn, well, I have not found any worth buying. It is usually ratty from being handled and overpriced.


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## disgo (Mar 2, 2013)

KittyMomma said:


> Good cotton quilting fabrics are running $10 to $12 a yard now. I was recently at a quilt shop that always has good prices and they are charging that for some lines. Cotton prices have been rising the past couple of years. I don't buy fabric at Wal-Mart, want fabric that is quality. If I am going to put my time into a quilt, want it to last. Guess that makes me a fabric snob.


I am shocked :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: 
Is that all printed fabric is going for now days (shows how long it has been since I bought fabric of any sort). When I closed up my couture business in '80 I was paying the outrageous price of $3.75 a yard for plain muslin and that was IF I could find any. That of course was before NAFTA that allowed cheaper cottons and viscose/polyamides into the US market. What is sadder is that cotton like electronics should be coming down in price as all sorts of nefarious makers have developing countries growing cotton that only oil can be a by product from--you can't eat cotton. And now they use the whole plant and not the long stapled boles of Pima that the US growers developed and controlled for hundreds of years. At least the poorer grade cotton can grow almost anywhere so more food producing land is not being used up.

Price by the way is no guarantee of anything let alone quality. It has been that way since merchants set up their shops--buyer beware.


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## itzzbarb (May 21, 2011)

Not everyone is near, or has the opportunity, to shop as selectively as others. Ladies, enjoy your Tuesday Morning fat quarters and get on down the road.


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## WindingRoad (May 7, 2013)

jeanne63 said:


> That sounds like the one near me. Mine is a junk store...unkept, over priced and nothing to even peek my interest. I drive right on by.


Ours is gone because people around here won't pay for over priced junk. LOL


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## WindingRoad (May 7, 2013)

itzzbarb said:


> I too, got beautiful quality fat quarters from Tuesday Morning at a great price. Since I have been sewing for 55 years, I feel I am qualified to know good quality fabric from junk. TM also has some pretty good prices on knitting notions/needles at times. The yarn, well, I have not found any worth buying. It is usually ratty from being handled and overpriced.


I paid 75 cents a piece for them recently at our up scale junk store.


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## WindingRoad (May 7, 2013)

ouijian said:


> I beg to differ Disgo. My fat quarters may have been cut from bolt ends, but I know for a fact that this fabric is being sold right now in a high end store in Seattle for $12 a yard. In fact, I bought some of it last week. I paid $10.00 for a pack of six fat quarters. You do the math and then tell me I got a bad deal.


I got some for 75 cents apiece. Lets see. 75x10= $7.50.


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## betsyknit (Apr 4, 2013)

sewlj said:


> A fat quarter is a piece of fabric measuring 18 inches by 22 inches it is called that because it is a quarter of a yard but is cut in half lengthwise from a half yard piece of fabric instead of widthwise.


Thank you!! I have never been a quilter or seamstress so had never heard of that.


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## ouijian (Apr 21, 2011)

Back after a short hiatus. So, I actually found some Elsebeth Lavold silk cashmere blend yarn in a lovely robin's egg blue and enough for a scarf, at the Kirkland WA store. I have also found good yarn for weaving scarves. So, there are a few bargains to be had, but in general I agree that the store has gone downhill. Alas, we shoppers don't have much choice. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I am always looking for a bargain, due to being retired and on a tight budget. I do not have the expertise in the garment industry to recognize a truly good bargain, so I rely on multiplication and I suppose ultimately the benefit is in the eyes of the beholder.


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## disgo (Mar 2, 2013)

WindingRoad said:


> I got some for 75 cents apiece. Lets see. 75x10= $7.50.


Well put. That should be the regular price. If a fat quarter is not cut in your presence like all fabric should be, then you are getting an "end" remnant etc. But this comes from too many years of being in business and before. I have been more than fortunate to have experienced all the levels of fabric sales and qualities. Why with the assistance of a class peer in design that was from NYC to shut down a very nefarious shop in the newly remodeled Public Market area in Seattle that was taking advantage of the new tourist crowd and the locals that thought they knew with all their experience what fabric was which.

So that gives TM a $2.50 profit which in their business model is a lot of profit. They work on a very low profit margin by making up for it with bulk from companies that are losing profit by holding onto such items.

ouijian, please do not feel I am singling you out. You have every right to be excited like I am when finding some glass dishes at a ridiculously low price (like Fostoria goblets for 50 cents a piece and although in neglected dirty condition in the thrift store with my cleaning process turned out to be in mint condition--Burien Value Village). Just take into account, please where you are finding such deals. Do you not think they are enticing you in being its Kirkland? What if it was a TM in White Center or old Burien? Would they have the same? What value is it to someone in Black Diamond with no car?


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## ouijian (Apr 21, 2011)

Oh, I do not think you are singling me out. Quite the contrary. Your posts are quite enlightening. I don't often hear a perspective such as yours. Carry on Disgo.


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## sewlj (Mar 2, 2011)

75 cents for a fat quarter means that it comes out as $3 a yard. A bargain!


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## disgo (Mar 2, 2013)

sewlj said:


> 75 cents for a fat quarter means that it comes out as $3 a yard. A bargain!


Fabric doesn't work that way. Anything on a bolt or even better roll unfolded (folded bolt fabric should be reduced) because if you worked in a house of design you never use the center fold. When ever you cut you have now created a remnant since you no longer have the looms continuous warp from which to work from. Weavers can tell you about how the tension of the warp is affected each time you cut so not cutting is done until the entire pattern is chalked on.
If you chose to otherwise then you are using manufacturing methods and get the same results as they do--RTW. If you are going to have long periods between fittings then you can add as needed since you are going to do a final fitting anyway before completing the project. Sounds like a lot of fuss but the end products show the difference. Since fitting is no longer an option most people do not know what to look for.

You also never fold fabric to do double cuts nor use pins to hold down a pattern. Your cutting shears (not scissors) are made to be held at an over 45 degree angle when taking long full blade cuts--even around curves you do not stop. With folding and pinning etc. you have increased the garment in all dimensions which is some very tailored or fitted garments is critical especially with bias and true bias. One pin can draw up 1/8th inch or more depending on the direction you put it into the fabric and the amount taken up. It is the main reason why home sewers are not happy with their end result. You can play with the seam allowances like those with knitting needle sizes but that is not the best practice. In woven fabric place the stiff sloper or fitted sloper pattern (that has been corrected in the closest weight fabric possible and thus the use of muslin which comes in weights like yarn) on the fabric. With a yard stick you get grain alignment but do not move the pattern--you lift it. Once one grain or bias you then use weights at the corners or long edges and chalk around the pattern with outward lines for the clips for construction (the notch on a printed pattern) and tailor tack the dots (make sure to palm pound the stitches before clipping them from the needle threads). When chalking you do like cutting with a 45 degree angle UNDER the edge of the pattern. You do not move the pieces until the very last and lift only once using grain. In couture you pick up only the pieces as needed for that step of construction and no pressing seams open leaving the two pieces as flat as possible until the last press steps. In manufacturing that is when you can do your serging.

Quilter have learned all of this the hard way and that is why the rotary cutters and templates/rulers etc. they all use. They have even figured out that folding/rolling over issue in making seams and many talk about it frequently.


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## sewlj (Mar 2, 2011)

This is why I quilt and do not make clothes


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## ouijian (Apr 21, 2011)

Great information Disgo.


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## 121008 (Sep 15, 2014)

I LOVE Tuesday Morning! I can always find the coolest things there, and I have found a lot of yarn there that I liked! Too much!! Haha! &#128521;


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## kjcipswich (Apr 27, 2015)

betsyknit said:


> Tuesday Morning is hit and miss (I've found fabulous yarns and sometimes nothing to peak my interest - pretty much like any discount/resale store). My only question is: what in the world are fat quarters?


Cloth squares pre-cut for quilting.


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