Quilter’s Ranch, Tempe, AZ

An unexpected gem in our quilt shop visits, the Quilter’s Ranch shop in Tempe, Arizona (www.quiltersranch.com) surprised us.  It was very easy to find thanks again to Google Maps.  HA!  We found several things to purchase but the coolest thing to me was they had a huge selection of long-arm quilting machines.  Set up!  I imagine they were by Bernina as they had their signage all around, but I really didn’t verify that.  I have been thinking about getting a long-arm machine – I have NO idea how much they cost, so it was just nice to see them.

Courtesy of Quilter’s Ranch

The store didn’t have a huge selection of fabric, but we did find some chalkboard fabric.  They had it labeled as Chalk Cloth and they had two different projects made with it (both pictures of these finished items are from Quilter’s Ranch).  The fabric came with a free pattern to make one of the display items.  What they failed to mention, and it is very important to note, is that chalkboard fabric has to be pretreated before it is used.  If you are interested in using this fabric you need to cure the fabric before the first use by:

• Lay chalkboard chalk on its side and rub the entire Chalkcloth surface in an up and down direction
• Then rub it across the surface side to side covering completely again
• Clean with a damp cloth and let it dry
• Repeat these three steps again, and once it has dried completely the second time it is ready for use

I would not recommend washing this fabric so keep that in mind as you select your project.  The fabric is waterproof and some laundry products may leave a residue so the chalk will not work well.  You may use a warm iron on the reverse/wrong side of the fabric but not on the front, and I would use a size 80 needle.  You need to use chalk or chalk markers – NOT permanent markers.

This looks like such a fun material to use in a school setting, or another idea I have that I will share later.  I would love to hear what ideas you have for this fabric . . .