After a leisurely breakfast I moseyed down Mason Street to Geary, made a left turn, walked past Union Square. My destination – Britex Fabrics. You walk in the front door and the entire right-hand wall, all the way to the back of the shop, is filled with wool flannel, worsted, gaberdine, crepe from Italy, England, in an amazing array of weights and colours – and then you check out the price! Not cheap, but the fabrics are lovely, and I’m looking for fabric to make wool pants.

On the left-hand wall there are plaids and other assorted woolens.

When I arrive, there are few customers and Raymond, one of the sales people welcomes me and we start to kibbitz. He recommends I head to the 4th floor to look at the remnants – lots of good buys he says.

I spend quite a bit of time sorting through pieces of fabric with a very interesting woman who helps me select three cuts of flannel: a navy with a subtle stripe, a dark charcoal, and a black. Then I head down a floor to explore buttons and trims. Hard to choose when you don’t know what garments they’re for; I settle on just 4 buttons suitable for fastening pants.

I next look around the 2nd floor – cottons and silks. One cotton catches my eye – a navy ikat-looking fabric which will go with the quilt I’m working on – I take half a yard. That’s it.

After Britex I cross the street and wander through Neiman Markus, in one door, out another – lovely but expensive clothing.

Next Macy’s – more in my league. But I’m not really interested in buying clothes. What does catch my attention is the wall of running shoes:

Wow, have they become colorful!

After a lunch on my own and a rest back at the hotel I meet up with one of the other women here to learn about fitting patterns. We wander back to Union Square. From street level we see a sign: Needlepoint Inc. We find the entrance, and take the elevator to the shop. I’ve never seen such an array of threads and printed canvasses. A woman is working on a sizable picture of a nutcracker. Her stitching is meticulous.

Sheila and I carry on down Post Street past all sorts of interesting shops – we stop to look at the diamonds on display in a window – they’re beautiful but I’ve nothing to wear them with, and nowhere to wear them so we move along.

An interesting coat – the contrasting fabrics a great idea. I take the photo to add to my idea collection.

And then we look around:

And up:

Lots of old (but well kept) buildings in this part of San Francisco.