| History
Blue Island started in 1996 with a desire to provide a unique & different selection of high quality fabrics to the quilters in the Santa Barbara, Goleta and Carpinteria areas on the central coast of California.
The first store was actually in the back of a camper shell on a small pickup truck. With a business license and tax permit in hand and the fabric safely tucked into plastic bins, the "fabric truck" would make house calls.
It soon became evident that a real store location was required and the search was on. We settled on a small 10’ x 60’ space located in the Magnolia Shopping Center. Blue Island Quilts opened in mid-1996.
In 1997 Blue Island started to bulge at the seams, more space was needed. In 1998, the space next door became available, and we were able to double the size of the store. We finally had enough room to start teaching classes and carry more fabric and notions.
Over time, we became known not only for our special look and products, but also for our unique and personalized approach to teaching. We had a number of customers that came on a regular basis from hundreds of miles away to take classes. Several months ago, we started looking for a location better suited to our changing needs but were unable to find an appropriate new place before the end of our current lease. We also had a large number of out of town customers who wanted to purchase from us online.
So, here we are with a bright new online store (we had actually been planning it for some time but we wanted to surprise everyone!). We are continuing to evaluate new locations, and hope to have a new retail location offering classes again, perhaps by late summer. In the meantime, we've just gotten the kick in the seat that we needed to really get our online store up and running. There's lots of work to be done in adding inventory, so new items are being added on a daily basis. We hope that you will visit us often, and with our new online store, you will be able to continue to enjoy the "Blue Island" look, no matter where you are located!
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