Korea Trip Part 4: Fabrics I purchased at Happy Quilt

This is part 4 of 4 chronicling my experiences in South Korea. I came back  from a 10 day trip to South Korea and thought I would share some of my experiences with you that tie in with sewing and quilting. Of course, through a quilter's eyes, everything can spur inspiration or remind you of something sewing related. This will be at least a 4 part series.

Part 1: Quiltspirations - quilting ideas inspired by things I saw during my visit

Part 2: A finished quilt I made for a Korean colleague and now a new friend

Part 3: Trips to the Dongdaemun fabric market and Happy Quilt fabric shop

Part 4: Fabrics I purchased at Happy Quilt

As I said in part 3, I bought about 40 yards of fabric from Happy Quilt. They had an amazing selection of quilting cottons and notions. Here is everything I got:

First up Korean textiles. First off, the quality of these fabrics are superb, soft and drape well just as you have come to expect from quilt-shop quality fabrics in the US and elsewhere. The Koreans are rivaling Japan in the cuteness factor. They had a great selection of novelty prints.

The spread.

Horses and sweet elephants.

Amazing sheep- plaid, rainbow, stars, clouds etc. and Russian dolls.

Jars and Robots. If you look closely at the prints that make up the robots you will see a lot of "girly" prints which I think is a fun way to mash up a traditional boy icon with traditional girl prints and colors.

A few florals.

And a perfect dot. The back one is white on yellow so it is hard to see but lovely and subtle in person. I really had to restrain myself from getting these in every color. I couldn't have packed my suitcase otherwise.

 All the Korean fabrics had selvedges in Hangul (the Korean alphabet). Now I am normally not a selvedge saver but you better believe I cut off all the selvedges to use in the future.

Then other fabrics which you can get in the US but not at these LOW LOW prices. It looked like they carried more of the last year's lines which was fun. I picked up a few random fat quarters:

Some great basics:

Just an example of how good the pricing was, that fat quarter bundle of 9 FQs was only $10 (US).

And a few more novelty prints: maps, lightning bugs, hedgehogs, geeky glasses, cross-stitch letters.

I mostly stuck to novelty prints because I thought that would help remind me more of my trip. I have already started using these fabrics and integrated them into my stash so look for them in upcoming projects!

My Unfiltered Sewing Space

Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts organized a studio spotlight series showcasing the creative spaces of some talented sewists/bloggers. I don't have a dedicated sewing space yet but I have lots of ideas for what I want in the future. For now I just sprawl out all over the house. My supplies are creeping into every nook and cranny of storage space. It is happy clutter.

Where do I sew? At the dining room table. DUH. It's not like I would actually ever eat there.

 I make my chair comfy and happy with my VOLE pillow.

 Where do I press? On the ironing table in the middle of the living room/dining room/probably fire escape route common area.

I recently redid my ironing board cover. To see the atrocious state it was in before click here (totally SFW).

My trusty iron wears his battle scars with pride. But he never scorches or spits.

Where do I cut? On the foldout table. It's not just for beer pong anymore! I took it out "temporarily" when I had a few friends come over for a crafternoon and it just stayed out.

I have two giant cutting mats that are just slightly bigger than the table which gives me a huge surface for cutting.  On top I store some of my notions and fabric that is slated for particular projects or stuff that I just got and want to pet. My TI-89 calculator is always at arms reach so I can do some sophisticated quilt maths. I also store (some of) my scraps under the table.

Sorry I didn't clean it up for you. #honestsewingspace

Where do I store stuff?? Wherever I find space. I store batting, interfacing and stuff I don't use on a daily basis in the guest closet. I took over the left 3 drawers of the banquette next to my "temporary" cutting table. They are stuffed with fabric organized by color.

OK. I might have started to overflow into another drawer but it was a drawer that held all of our hats and gloves for winter and it is summer now. This is acceptable.

I also have the bottom half of this little bookshelf. It stores my smaller cuts of fabric, notions and craft books. I keep some of my favorite knickknacks on top. Most are from El Salvador where my hubby is from.

Washi map of Alabama from a good friend :)

I can't wait until I have my own dedicated space.When I do - you can all make me mini quilts so I can decorate. Thanks for stopping by to see my humble little space. Linking up with Elison Lane Quilts. Go check out all the other sewing spaces!

WIP Wednesday - The last WIP with the plus quilt I promise!

This week has been all about taking poorly lit nighttime photos. Let's take a look:

The Sew Positive quilt is almost done! (pattern by Elizabeth at Don't call Me Betsy). 

Last night Sarah at Stitching and Bacon and I had basting/quilting instagram party. It wasn't a competition but I totally won. I am trying out a meandering squares quilting design. It is so hard to break the habit of curves but I think it is looking swell.

I am embarking on a scrap vomit quilt a la I'm A Ginger Monkey. I have no idea how many 2.5" squares I have so far but they are filling up this box quickly.

 I also stocked up on some lovelies! Using up scraps means I can buy mores stuff.

Essex linen yarn dyed flax, natural, yarn dyed denim and yarn dyed black.  

Waterfront Park domino dots. Essential stash builders.

Waterfront Park birds. Also essential.

I am also working on a new baby quilt pattern that I hope to show you later this week. Linking up at freshly pieced.

Fabric Haul

I've been silent here lately. I don't have a real urge to write at the moment. Here is a late post on my latest fabric indulgences. Some from my trip to Atlanta, some happy mail and a gift. My craving for fabric buying has been satisfied for a while.

Atomic dots and math prints

Assorted yardage from Hawthorne Threads when they were having a $4.99/yard sale. Arrested Development made me buy the ostriches.

Notions and things

cotton couture solids for my bed quilt

Kokka, lime raindrops and some glow in the dark skeleton print for a new bag for me. Snagged all this at InTown Quilters in Atlanta

Gifty from Kim. We are both awesome people so we gift each other things from time to time.

Science Fare

I've seen lots of yummy fabrics out lately that cater to the geek in all of us. Science fabric has been available from Spoonflower for a long time but it is nice to see them cropping up in the "mainstream" fabric collections too. I put together a collage of a few of my favorites: 

Atomic dots in white – Atomic bots

Ledger in gray- Architextures
Geekly Glasses in lavendar - Geekly chic
Dark eggplant fibonacci spiral – pants monkey – Spoonflower
Geeky atomic structures blue – zesti – Spoonflower

Spiral bookcase in blue – bookish - Connecting Threads (Not only are these books but they remind me of circular genome maps)

Gene map - aperiodic – Spoonflower

Math in black – Back to school
Robotika circuit board - robyriker – Spoonflower

Avagadros antique math graph – ginanelson – Spoonflower

Atomic orbints orange – robyriker – Spoonflower

Gene splicing – oceana – chris jorge – Spoonflower

A smattering of fabrics

VeloCity by Jessica Hogarth has been on my wish list for a while. I popped on to Etsy to grab some of my favorite prints from the line. 

 I bought them from Jennifer at Tactile Fabrics and had a pleasant experience with her and her shop so I thought I would recommend her. NOTE: This is an unsolicited recommendation and I paid for my fabrics fair and square.

Tactile fabrics has a great selection of modern prints and is actually having a huge winter sale with over 100 prints 25% off (including VeloCity). Jennifer processed my order almost immediately after I submitted and it was on my doorstep a few days later.

But what really sold me is she threw in a good sized scrap of the chevron pattern (see pic above) which I did not order and she wrapped everything up so nice. It was like opening a present. I will definitely shop with her again.

I'll be making some bags with these lovelies in the near future. Have a good weekend everyone!

Giveaway winner

The gods have spoken and the winner is...

Ms. Sarah from stitchingandbacon. Shes relatively new to the blog scene so check out her blog if you haven't. Good stuff going on there. I know my fabrics will find a good home with her.

Thanks to everyone for participating! I had a lot of laughs over the bus stories. I bet some of you were thinking I had a particularly crazy bus story. Sorry to dissapoint you but I just thought of the question at random. My bus adventures usually revolve around me missing the bus as a kid and my dad making me write 500 or 1000 times "I will not miss the bus." It never seemed to sink in.

Let's celebrate my 100th post - Giveaway

EDIT: The giveaway is over. Winner posted soon.

I have been blogging since August and have reached 100 posts yaaaaaay (muppet arms). To show my appreciation for all my readers, I think there is more than one of you by now, I am giving away 8 fat quarters of these lovelies.

 Mod beads, hop dot, blossom, all Westminster fabrics. Great for stash building or just plain hording.

fine print:

1. To enter, leave me a comment telling me the weirdest/funniest thing that happened to you on a bus. Seriously, if you don't you can't win. I'm counting on you to leave me some bizarre stories that will make me look like a crazy person for laughing so much. Feel free to just make it up. 
2.  If you are a no reply blogger please leave your e-mail in the spam free way: (name @ email com). 
3. If you are a follower leave a second comment saying so. 
4. You have until Wednesday January 23rd to enter. I will draw a winner on Thursday with random.org.
5. Open worldwide

Mystery gift

Hey peeps,

I just got some quilting fabric sent to me from NC with no note or return address that I recognize. If any of you are the culprit, thanks! If not, why didn't you send me fabrics!! But seriously I would like to know who sent it so I can thank them.

EDIT: mystery solved and gifter thanked. I am almost as good as Sherlock Holmes.

Thanks,
Marla

Fabric Haul

My MIL is visiting and wanted to learn to quilt. She started out with some placemats in a simple square pattern. One for her and one for her husband. Their bedroom has the big TV in the house so they like to eat dinner in their room sometimes and watch a movie. These placemats will be a great addition to their TV trays. She has the most unconventional way of doing things but it gets the job done.

Placemats WIP

Bitten by the quilting bug she wants to make 10 more placemats for her dining room using earth tones. We took advantage of the fat quarter shop daily deals. On Tuesday they were having 50% off lots of Free Spirit fabrics. This was the result...

This is what we got for her:

Shelby Pretty Little Things Fat Quarter Bundle Dena Designs for Free Spirit Fabrics 

Skyscraper Grand Hotel Fat Quarter Bundle Jenean Morrison for Free Spirit Fabrics    

Free Spirit Designer Solids Orange

Bella Solids Terrain Cactus

Bella Solids Nautical Blue

Nightshade Evening Spider Blossom  

The Birds and the Bees Apple Swallow Skies

  
And she said I could pick up a few things for myself:

Cocoon Ruby Wine Metamorphosis Yardage - to back a baby blanket and my gold and eggplant bee block quilt 

Chicopee Ladder Dot in black and Fuchia

The Birds and the Bees Aquamarine Meteor Shower 

The Birds and the Bees Sunset Lazy Stripe 

The Birds and the Bees Pool Tree of Life 

The Birds and the Bees Mist Lazy Stripe 

The Birds and the Bees Honey Tree of Life 

The Birds and the Bees Cinnamon Tree of Life 

Flea Market Fancy Grey Eyelet 

Aviary Linen White Feathers 

Subtle Designer Solids Fat Quarter Bundle Free Spirit Fabrics 

Bluebird's Song La Dee Da Fat Quarter Bundle Erin McMorris for Free Spirit Fabrics  

Wrenly Christmas Fat Quarter Bundle Valori Wells for Free Spirit Fabrics - I see a tree skirt and advent calendar in my future