This Nebraska Fabric Store Fills Its Shop With Colorful Fabric, Thread, And Longarm Quilting Machines For Rent
The parking lot gave nothing away, just a row of plain storefronts and a quiet door in eastern Nebraska. I went in for a single spool of thread and came out an hour later with a head full of fabric colors and a new plan for an unfinished quilt top.
Behind the bolts sat a machine most home sewists only dream about, and anyone willing to learn can rent it. A quick errand turned into the best part of the week.
A Quilt Shop on Portal Road in La Vista
Picture a row of storefronts along Portal Road, the sort of strip you pass on the way to somewhere else. Fabric Bash occupies Suite 111 at 10351 Portal Road in La Vista, a Sarpy County city pressed right up against the southwest edge of Omaha.
From the parking lot, nothing hints at the color waiting inside.
Plain on the outside, the shop turns busy and bright the moment the door swings open. It is a full-service quilt store, stocking fabric by the yard, thread, patterns, notions, and sewing machines, with a repair bench and a longarm quilting machine that customers can rent by the session.
That is a lot to fit under one roof.
Most home quilters finish a top and then face two choices: wrestle a bulky quilt through a small domestic machine, or pay someone else to do the quilting. Here, a third path opens up.
Learn the longarm, book time, and stitch your own quilt from first pass to final thread.
So is it a fabric store, a workshop, or a service counter? Depending on what you walk in needing, it can be all three in a single afternoon.
A Family Team Behind the Cutting Counter
Since 2019, Fabric Bash has been family-owned and run by a mother-in-law and son-in-law team. It is an uncommon pairing for any small business, let alone a quilt shop, and it gives the place a warm, kitchen-table feel that corporate chains rarely manage.
Why does that matter to a shopper? Owners who work the floor tend to know their inventory because they chose it, ordered it, and shelved it themselves.
Ask about a backing to match a busy print, or which thread will hold up on a baby quilt headed for constant washing, and the answer comes from someone with a stake in getting it right.
On a weekday, the rhythm is easy to read. Someone is measuring yardage, someone else is talking through a machine problem, and a renter might be working away at the longarm in the back.
Conversation flows between all three without anyone seeming rushed.
Compared with shops that have been open for decades, this one is still young. Even so, it has grown in a few short years into a full destination for fabric, finishing, and machine care.
Bolts Stacked in Every Shade
Reds slide into oranges, then golds, then a stretch of cool blues that could pass for a prairie sky in late afternoon. Walking the aisles here feels a bit like strolling through a paint-chip display made entirely of cotton, and it is hard to leave without at least one bolt tucked under an arm.
Fabric Bash carries numerous brands and collections, so the prints range widely in scale, style, and color. A quilter chasing a soft, low-contrast palette can find it, and so can someone planning a loud, scrappy project with a dozen competing patterns.
Need a shortcut? Precuts sit alongside the bolts, and finished examples show exactly how a stack of coordinated pieces can turn into a quilt.
Seeing the result in person makes it far easier to picture a pattern than squinting at a thumbnail online.
Big craft chains often scatter quilting cotton among costume satin, fleece, and seasonal decor. Here the entire floor is built around quilters, and the organization shows.
Displays are clean and neat, colors are grouped with care, and pulling three or four bolts together to test a combination takes almost no time at all.
Thread, Bobbins, and the Little Things That Finish a Project
What good is a perfect fabric pull if the thread is off by a shade? Thread choice can quietly make or break a quilt, and the shelves here treat it with the same attention as the fabric.
Cotton thread covers classic piecing work, while polyester brings strength and a bit of sheen. Specialty threads open up decorative options, and pre-wound bobbins save time for anyone who would rather sew than sit winding spools.
Having all four on hand means a single stop can cover both the top and the quilting.
Just past the thread, the notions selection fills in the rest. Sewing tools and small supplies are stocked close at hand, which matters when a project stalls for want of one tiny item.
Patterns and kits round out the mix. A kit bundles the fabric and instructions into one package, taking the guesswork out of choosing coordinating prints, and the Santa Suit Quilt Kit, for instance, ships boxed with straightforward directions.
For newer quilters, a kit can be the least intimidating way to finish a first project and pick up a few techniques along the way.
Wide Backs Up to 118 Inches
Backing is the part of quilting nobody thinks about until the top is finished. A large quilt needs a back far wider than standard fabric, which usually means sewing two or three lengths together and hoping the seams line up.
Wide back fabric skips that chore. Fabric Bash stocks backings in 108-inch widths along with 118-inch options, a size that is uncommon even in dedicated quilt shops.
One piece, no seams, and no time lost pressing seams open or trimming selvages.
How deep does the selection go? According to the shop’s owner, the website lists more than 500 wide backs across the company’s stores, and a healthy share of them fills the La Vista shelves.
Colors and patterns run broad enough that the back of a quilt can be as much fun as the front.
Pair that with a longarm rental and the logic clicks. Load a single wide piece onto the frame, add batting and the top, and start quilting without a seam in sight.
For bed-size quilts, that convenience adds up fast.
One APQS Longarm, Ready to Rent
A low hum, a steady whir, and a quilt slowly filling with stitches as the machine head glides across the frame. That is the scene in the back of Fabric Bash when a renter is at work on the shop’s APQS longarm.
A longarm is a quilting machine mounted on a long table frame. The quilt top, batting, and backing are rolled onto rails and held taut, and the operator moves the machine head over the fabric instead of shoving the fabric through the machine.
For big quilts, that difference changes everything.
Why rent rather than buy? These machines cost far more than a typical home sewing setup and need plenty of floor space.
Renting puts professional-grade equipment within reach one session at a time, and rentals run a minimum of two hours, which gives enough room to load a quilt and make solid progress.
Pantographs are available for purchase in the store. These long printed patterns guide the stitching across the whole quilt in an even, repeating design, a friendly way to get a polished edge-to-edge finish.
With only one rental machine on site, booking ahead is the smart move.
Certification Comes Before the First Stitch
Walking in and firing up the longarm on day one is not how it works, and that is a good thing. Before anyone can rent the machine, a certification class is required.
The class comes in two parts. First is a video component for home study, which covers the basics at your own pace.
Second is a two-hour session in the store, where the lessons turn hands-on and the machine stops being a mystery.
Think of it like a learner’s permit for quilting. Loading a quilt straight, keeping tension balanced, and guiding the head smoothly all take practice, and learning them with staff nearby beats figuring them out alone with a half-finished family heirloom on the frame.
Could a total beginner handle it? The structure is built for exactly that.
The video lets new quilters absorb the concepts without pressure, and the in-person portion fills in whatever the screen could not show.
Once certified, renters can come back whenever a new top is ready. A quilter might piece several tops over a winter and then finish them in a few focused sessions, turning a stack of unfinished projects into quilts ready for beds and gifts.
Finished by the Staff: Longarm Quilting Services
Pieced a top years ago and never quite got around to finishing it? Plenty of tops spend seasons folded in a closet for exactly that reason.
The quilting stage can feel like the steepest hill, especially on a large project.
Fabric Bash offers longarm quilting services for anyone who would rather hand that stage to the staff. Drop off the top, talk through the look you want, and let an experienced operator bring it to life on the machine.
Some quilters arrive with a specific design in mind. Others give the staff creative freedom to choose stitching that suits the piecing, which can lift a simple top into something far richer than the maker imagined.
Clear communication makes the difference. Bringing a photo or sketch of the pattern you have in mind, and confirming details like edge-to-edge versus custom work, helps the finished quilt match the picture in your head.
For busy schedules, this route turns a stalled project into a finished one without renting time or taking a class. It pairs naturally with the wide back selection, too, since backing can be picked out during the same visit.
Sewing Machines on the Floor and on the Repair Bench
An older machine that skips stitches and grinds on every seam can make sewing feel like a chore. A good cleaning and tune-up often brings it back to smooth, quiet work, and that is where the repair side of Fabric Bash comes in.
The shop offers sewing machine repair and maintenance, including deep cleaning and annual service. Brands like Brother and Baby Lock have come through the bench, along with sergers, and the staff will even walk owners through features such as a walking foot while the machine is in the shop.
Unlike mailing a machine off and waiting, local service keeps things moving, and a fast turnaround is a stated goal. Less downtime means less staring at an unfinished project.
On the sales floor, the focus lands on Janome sewing machines and HandiQuilter quilting machines. The shop both sells and services Janome, so buyers have local support long after the purchase, while HandiQuilter models sit on display for anyone dreaming about a machine of their own.
Is it time to upgrade, or simply to repair? Having both options in one room makes the choice easier to weigh with someone who knows the equipment inside and out.
Planning a Visit: Directions, Timing, and Online Orders
La Vista sits just off Interstate 80 on the southwest side of the Omaha metro, so the shop is an easy detour for anyone driving in from Lincoln or the western side of the state. The address is 10351 Portal Road, Suite 111, and the suite number helps pinpoint the storefront as you pull in.
Hours run during the daytime through most of the week, with a slightly longer evening on one weekday and shorter days near the weekend. Schedules can shift, so a quick check before leaving home saves a wasted drive.
Planning a longarm session? Finish the certification first, then book rental time early, since the minimum session is two hours and one machine serves every renter.
Bring the pieced top, batting, and a plan for the stitching design.
Prices sit at a reasonable level for a specialty shop, which makes browsing for a few fat quarters or a single wide back feel manageable. Not near La Vista at all?
The online store ships quickly, and the shop aims to mail orders the same day they arrive.
A Nebraska Quilt Shop Built for Finishing What You Start
Imagine carrying a folded quilt top through the door in the morning and walking out that afternoon with a finished quilt stitched by your own hands. Few moments in the craft feel quite that satisfying, and Fabric Bash is set up to make it happen.
The shop suits a wide spread of sewists. Beginners get patient help, kits, and a structured path to the longarm, while seasoned quilters get deep fabric shelves, extra-wide backings, and a place to finish several tops without buying a machine that would swallow the spare bedroom.
Even non-quilters tagging along find something to watch. A longarm gliding back and forth over a full-size quilt has a hypnotic quality, a little like seeing a giant sewing robot at work.
What about the drive? For anyone in the Omaha area, it is a quick trip, and for quilters farther out, a longarm session plus an armload of fabric makes a full, productive day.
The shop has even hosted renters from as far away as Alaska.
Colorful, practical, and personal, it treats finishing a quilt as the goal rather than an afterthought.
