Heading to San Francisco for Valentines

My dear friends are celebrating their Silver Wedding anniversary on Valentines day next week.  As I was one of the bridesmaids in their wedding, I’m packing the family up and heading to visit them in San Francisco for the party.  While I did live in the city for a short time, that was half a lifetime ago… so it’s hard to decide what all we will do while we’re there.

I’m looking now for a few good options on the fiber or quilt frontier in the Bay Area to explore.  I was very sad to hear of Kasuri Dyeworks of Berkeley CA closing several years back.  I still have some of the remarkable fabrics I purchased from them.  I also just missed the Museum of Craft and Folk Art (SF) which closed at the end of 2012.

So here are some options I’ve found:

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles  This sounds like a good prospect, although the upcoming exhibits don’t really sound like they are totally up my alley.

The Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles (Berkeley)

Art Fibers Fine Yarn (San Francisco)

Dharma Trading Company Store (San Rafael)  This may be a bit too far, but I love buying my dyeing supplies from Dharma.

Anyone have experience with any of these places (positive or negative) or have a place in the San Francisco Bay Area that they’d highly recommend?  I’d love some guidance and promise to share whatever I find!

/2 Comments/by
2 replies
  1. sophie
    sophie says:

    I like your list. Dharma isn't that far if you have a car and definitely worth the trip. I never appreciated just how nice it was to live 20 minutes away from that place and be able to drive over and pick up dyes, talk to dyers and check out everything else in the store.

    It's been more than a decade since I lived in the North Bay. If I were going back for a visit, I'd add Britex Fabrics in San Francisco and Stonemountain and Daughter in Berkeley (not far from Lacis) to my list. If you have any connections and could arrange a behind-the-scenes visit to the Textile at the DeYoung, I would recommend it. I once spent a heavenly afternoon peeking into hat boxes at some of the wonderful antique hats there.

Comments are closed.