Oksewnsew

Cool beans, Ice...hope you're pleased with them. I got a Hummingbird pc and it is just beautiful.. I washed it/dried and it's with the coordinating pcs, ready to do something with...lol I just finished moving and where??? is my sewing room? Just about had it set up/ things in it's place and, (what cud I do)? my daughter & grandson has to stay for a while...She's been living in Corpus Christi and things not well, so moving back here she needed somewhere til she can get a place! So she is parked in my sewing rm and gr'son is in craft room! It'll all work out, sooner than later, I hope..lolo

wesing

Thanks everyone for the comments and especially @Oksewnsew and @Iceblossom . I’m even more tempted now but will wait for Iceblossom’s report.

Iceblossom

First report -- no fabric yet. But ordering was easy, and they have a nice easy UPS tracking system that shows my package should probably get here today or maybe not until Monday, but it was super easy to track the process of order in/filled/out.

I opted out of emails and other than the confirmation of the order, have not gotten any more. That's a good thing! My friend Barb in Arizona got super excited when I had her go to the site, loved some of the lines and that she can get anything as a quilt back. I got a 'coupon code to share' with my order which I have given to her.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm getting with my "mystery" package in terms of yardage. That will be part of the next report/pictures. According to their info stuff is "prewashed' but I will cut two of the pieces into the same exact size and self pre-wash one and compare it to the other in terms of size, also I will have washed/unwashed pieces of the fabrics to compare with each other.

Is strange for me to be looking forward to doing some laundry - but I am! We should have a fabric in hand post this coming week.

Oksewnsew

I really hope you like what you get, and washes good. I hate recommending something/someplace and then it turns out not what I recommended, on anything...but I was very pleased with all I have ordered from them, and yes, I am picky.. Fingers crossed, Ice....

Iceblossom

Woohoo, just came. The Mega store sent me updates when package was out for delivery and now that it has been delivered. No other emails so far which I appreciate.

This is what I ordered as the floral option, it was an additional 5.99 I think for the shipping UPS from Georgia to Illinois.
https://fabricmegastore.com/products...-fabric-bundle

The picture shows the fabric fresh out of the package. 5 pieces of varying size. Haven't measured yet but maybe some yardage is cut in half from quilt back size? only seeing some selvedges. Remember that I am cheap and don't typically buy fabric at full price but am ok for the cost and what I got. One piece is the Girly Grunge my friend Barb liked, one is I think from the Hummingbird line from Oksewnsew. The two mushroom pieces are cool because I'm sort of planning a project involving mushroom fabric, if they don't work with that project some of the ideas I'm floating may be better suited to them. Smell and feel are fine, right now I'm not overly sensitive to sizing and products but I think even sensitive people can handle this fresh out of the package.

OK, the big questions -- (and remember again, this is the pre self-wash report)

Is the fabric flimsy?? I'd say it is quilting quality. It is not a heavy thread or weave, not is it as fine as what I would consider batik fabric, there is minor warp/woof thread texture. I switched to American Made Brand solids a couple years back because it suits some of my overall goals better. It was finer and silker than Kona and did take some adjusting, but I'm adjusted now. This will work with the AMB solids. It is certainly well above the level of Joann craft level holiday fabrics. Hand does not show when under the light prints. If I ordered it not knowing what it was, I'd be fine with it. Other people maybe not so much. I'll be sending a test envelope to Wesing (once I get the address, and will be happy to hear the thoughts from his household.

Print quality: I think the printing is great. Before engineering, I started my career in advertising and have pretty high standards for printing. I've gone through a lot of reviews and the site and I think some of the dissatisfaction here is from a couple of things. Ok, the eyes aren't sharp as they once were but the printing seems sharp, not fuzzy or out of focus, and well defined and the colors all in the right places.

One, I believe the images used to sell the fabric are the same pixels used to print the fabric. But when we look at the computer screen the fabric is illuminated and saturated, and reacts differently to ambient light than the matte opaqueness of being on fabric.

The print texture of the grunge fabric makes the fabric look grungier/flimsier, but that is optical. Seems to be the same greige goods as the rest of the pieces.

Two, a lot of complaints were more about the the scale of designs. Most of the designs are on 4" repeats mentioned in the text descriptions, you can also see it in the folded yardage picture. That translates to about the size of your palm. I imagine this has a lot to do with the sweet spot between the software they use and the printer. When you order a back, it is still the 4" repeats, just tiled across, they are not a correspondingly larger design. I imagine if the public creates a demand for that, the designers/technicians would be glad to oblige if the hardware/printer could oblige.

Ok, so down to the laundry room with me and the fabric. The post-self-pre-wash is coming

Oksewnsew

Those are pretty pcs... I serge around the raw edges before washing...I always do that & wash for any fabric - then press if necessary and wrap around my comic boards. That way when I go to pick stuff out, it's ready to go. I do hope you're pleased with the new fabric..

Iceblossom

So far so good! Was just about to go out and get some color catchers as part of the tests

The overcasting is a good idea but one I usually skip. For this wash test, I am basically cutting fat quarters and washing one (plus the rest of the fabric) piece and leaving the other fat quarter as it came to do a comparison.

What I took for selvedges is just the end of the print run and go width-wise and not down the edge. Selvedges are thin and narrow, print goes all the way to the edge. Even without them/trimmed off the fabric is a good 44" wide.

Oksewnsew

Cool beans..

Iceblossom

Ok, so measurements first -- I received 5 pieces in my mystery package. Each was a generous half yard, some pieces were wider but they were skewed -- still there was a solid 18" if I trimmed both sides down. Width was a consistent 44" usable. (picture 2)

I have done it before, but since I am doing product research I got a couple different color catchers, the Shout and Carbona versions and put those in for the prewash. I prefer to wash my fabric along with other laundry, most of which should have been stable/non reactive to the color catchers. In the light load, there was no cast off. In the dark load, there was a tiny amount of cast off color. At least one of the t-shirts in there was a new wash, so hard to say. There was no noticeable color change between the washed and unwashed pieces.

There was a reasonable amount of fraying, it did not shred or otherwise loose character, nor was there noticeable shrinkage. (picture 1)

I grabbed some pieces of fabric from my current project to compare the back side. You can see the narrow selvedge Mega fabric. The rusty bottom piece I got this year from Shop Hopping, not sure of the maker. The weave and weight are almost identical to the Mega, but you can see the thick wide selvedge. The middle piece is a gold embellished Asian Hoffman print from 10-20 years ago. It is a similar weight as the Mega fabric, the weave and threads are slightly finer but not much. The top orange fabric is also recent from my Shop Hop. I feel it's weave and threads are similar to Kona cotton. Is slightly different feel/weight from the Mega but they can certainly work together. (picture 3)

Final report: I am satisfied with my purchase, and will put this fabric into general stash and use without reservations. The mushroom fabrics I may be able to use early next year. If you like a particular pattern, I'd say go ahead and get it, making sure you understand the scale of the design. Sadly for me, as we already know, other than research I am cheap and find it hard to buy fabric at full price from anywhere.

But this is my idea of fun. I've got my quilting group today and will drop by the post office and send a sample to Wesing -- we can get his take in a week or so

Oksewnsew

I'm so glad they turned out for you, I always hesitate recommending things for fear it doesn't work. Like you, I hate paying full price for fabric... It has to be something really special for me to pay...lol My son and I recently moved, was about to get to set up my sewing room, and my daughter & her son HAD to move back (from Corpus Christi) and had no where to go, sooooo, guess what? Had to set her up in my 'sewing' room, grandson in craft room! SOOO, hopefully they can find a place soon, grandson got a job really quickly and daughter works as an answering service. All I can do is wait. I could set up machines on my dining table and sew, but still getting used to the move then having someone here all the time.. .lol It's just hard having someone around all the time when it's just been the 2 of us for years.. But she had no place else to go..It'll all work out, eventually. ;o)