Mendels Quilt Shop Supplies on Haight Street Since 1958

Mendels, at 1556 Haight Street in Haight-Ashbury, has sold fabric and craft supplies since 1958, and its cotton prints and 100 percent cotton solids make it the quilt shop stop for the western half of the city. It is open Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and the city added it to the Legacy Business Registry on March 27, 2023. Expect paint, yarn and costume fur in the same narrow room.

Mendels has stayed on Haight Street since 1958 as a family-run supply store, through the 1960s and every wave of boutiques and vintage shops since. It calls the Haight storefront the heart and soul of the business, and that same room works as the shipping department for its website. Quilt and needle-arts directories still list it under its longer name, Mendel's Far Out Fabrics.

The store's Legacy Business listing describes it as a one-stop shop for crafting, art, knitting and fabric, and that breadth is the point. A quilter can buy cotton, batting-adjacent felt and a tube of Golden acrylic for a fabric-painting experiment in one trip, which no dedicated quilt shop in San Francisco offers.

The fabric side carries a wide selection of cotton prints, 100 percent cotton solids, felt, a selection of stretch fabric, oilcloth and other vinyls, plus what the store cheerfully calls a herd of faux fur and a whole bunch of shiny stuff. For piecing, stick to the cotton solids and prints; the solids in particular are useful for sashing and backgrounds when a print-heavy stash needs breathing room.

Fabric is sold by the running yard, 36 inches long by the full bolt width. The minimum cut is half a yard, and after that you can buy in quarter-yard steps. Many fabrics drop in price when you take 5 yards or more of the same color, so a quilt back bought in one cut costs less per yard than the same amount split across two prints.

Felt is the other quilting reason to come. Sheets and yardage of felt make easy appliqué shapes because the edges do not fray, so a beginner can cut circles, leaves and letters and stitch them onto a cotton background without turning under a seam allowance. Pair the felt with a cotton solid from the next shelf and a skein of craft yarn for decorative running stitches.

Skip the faux fur and the shiny lamé unless you are making a costume, which plenty of customers are. They are fun to touch, but they shed, slip and stretch under a walking foot. Oilcloth is the exception worth a look for quilters: a yard makes a wipeable cover for a sewing table or the lining of a project bag.

Beyond fabric, the shelves run through glues from Elmer's, Aleene's and Beacon, polymer clay from Sculpey and Premo, Golden acrylics, Gamblin 1980 oils, Royal Talens watercolors and pads from Strathmore and Canson. Knitters will find yarn from Lion Brand, Patons and Red Heart with needles, crochet hooks and felting needles nearby.

The costume and dress-up corner holds makeup, hats, masks and other pieces for building an outfit, and it explains why October brings so many shoppers with no interest in quilting at all. If you only need a spool of thread or a half-yard of solid on a late October Saturday, come right at 10 am, before the costume crowd fills the aisles and the cutting counter.

Online orders come with an option to buy swatches, small 1 by 3 inch pieces to check color and hand, and the store offers up to 5 of them free. Each swatch order also brings a coupon code valid for 30 days. For 20 yards or more of a single fabric, Mendels says to email sales@mendels.com about an additional discount.

Returns need prior authorization within 30 days of shipment, and cuts under 2 yards cannot be returned unless flawed. Unwashed, uncut fabric gets a refund minus a 20 percent restocking fee, or store credit minus 10 percent; store credit never expires. In the shop, the simplest rule is to hold the bolt next to your project before the cut is made.

Large orders are cut as continuous lengths where possible, so 4 yards arrive as one 4-yard piece rather than four separate cuts. The store notes one exception: thick, bulky furs may be split across pieces so they ship without crushing. For a quilt back, ask for one continuous cut at the counter, too, since a seam in the middle of a backing is the main thing a long-arm quilter will grumble about.

The Haight and Ashbury corner, the most photographed street sign in the neighborhood, is a short stroll from the shop. Muni's 7 Haight-Noriega runs along Haight Street, and the 33 Ashbury-18th and 6 Haight-Parnassus stop nearby, so it is easy to arrive by bus and leave with a heavy bag.

Walk west toward Stanyan Street to reach Golden Gate Park and Amoeba Music, the giant record store at the end of Haight, or climb east into Buena Vista Park for views over the city. Vintage clothing stores along the strip are worth a look for worn cotton shirts, which many quilters cut up for scrappy blocks. If Mendels does not have the coordinated line you want, City Made Quilts in the Excelsior specializes in full designer collections.

Mendels is at 1556 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117, email sales@mendels.com. Monday through Saturday hours are 10 am to 6 pm. Many products in the store are not listed on the website, so if you are after a specific item, email the shop with the color or brand before making the trip from across town.

The website sells gift certificates and swatch sets, which help when you are matching a color from home before a visit. Fabric widths vary from bolt to bolt, with the faux furs at 60 inches, and each width is printed in the online item description, so measure your quilt back before choosing a fabric.