Quilting Shops in Australia: Lincraft

I made it a point to visit craft shops whenever I travel so I could compare the fabric produced locally. I was happy to find out that quilting is a common hobby in Australia. This meant they have several craft shops locally which sell quilt materials. I immediately searched for the biggest one.

Lincraft is one of the most popular craft stores in Australia. They have several branches across the country. I visited the branch in Sydney and Melbourne. The fabric available were the more common ones so I focused my time in checking out accessories.

I went to the branch on York Street and was happy to see that they had a huge floor area. My husband and son went with me and they immediately went to the toy store. I spent about an hour exploring what Lincraft had to offer for crafters.


Rulers


The first thing I checked were the rulers. They are very expensive in Singapore and thought it would be cheaper to buy elsewhere. I've been doing everything manually since that's how my Mom taught me. I have a collection of homemade patterns I use. This means my edges are not accurately sized. I've yet to learn though how to properly use the rulers and will probably take lessons on Craftsy. I picked up a "Circle and Scallop Ruler" and a "Measuring Gauge". I told myself I'll invest in the bigger rules once I know how to use it.

For those still learning how to quilt, I previously surived without these fancy rulers with an ordinary school ruler. I'd use old plastic folders and thick cardboards to create patterns. It was useful for simple squares and triangles. I still only hand quilt, but I'm now taking some online lessons to learn how to machine quilt.


Fabric

As I mentioned the fabric selection was just very basic. I like kawaii fabric (character fabric/cartoons etc.). The selections were more appropriate for dress making than quilting, but they had a nice selection of fat quarters. The price though is cheaper than in Singapore.

Lincraft has a great selection of lace and it's arranged by color! Other shops don't have these much selection.

Lincraft had a gazillion yarns in different sizes and much cheaper compared to Singapore. I sometimes crochet, but don't know how to knit. I have a friend though who creates awesome crochet projects so I got her a couple of yarns. 

What I really appreciated at Lincraft was the wide variety of craft books available. I get a lot of inspiration from leafing through books, Pinterest and following quilters on Instagram. I ended up buying a couple of books that were on sale.

Of course, various other sewing knick knacks were available like these sewing kits. They didn't have too many options though.

Fabric glue which is unheard of for me. In my country there's only Elmer's glue which you can use for any craft item.

Beads! I know where to get these at very, very inexpensive prices.

Fortunately managed to keep myself form buying more scissors! Like my Mom I just absolutely need to have scissors in every room.

Thread! So far, same price anywhere I go.

Of course, several shelves dedicated for painters.

I'll probably need this in a few years!

I also visited Lincraft in Melbourne, so the photos above are a mix of items from their Sydney and Melbourne branches. Here's how the front of the store in Melbourne looks like.

Quilting Shops in Tokyo: Yuzawaya

I have very bad sense of direction and oftentimes get lost. I was on my way last week to check out a couple of shops in Ginza when I took a wrong turn and ended up on the wrong side of the street. Well the reason why I got lost was because I was checking where Yuzawaya was located in Ginza. I was reading several blogs about fabric stores in Tokyo and Yuzawaya was a top recommendation.

I had decided to head to Ginza that evening to check out the Uniqlo with 12 floors and an art supplies shop. I was quite frustrated that I couldn't find Yuzawaya on Google Maps and that's when I made the wrong exit. I had to catch my breath when I emerged on the street, only to realize I was on the wrong side. I was quite hungry and decided to check if Ginza Core had an restaurants. I was surprised to see the "Yuzawaya" signage on it.

I immediately checked the building directory and found out that it was on the 6th floor. I excitedly took the lift going up and found heaven in Ginza.

I spent about an hour in the shop. I combed through each of the aisles and I was happy to note they had fat quarters of Japanese fabric available. The area nearest the lift housed all the notions you need for your sewing projects -- thread, zippers, buttons, patterns, needles, scissors etc. For quilting they had a variety of wadding available. I found awesome bag bottom boards as well -- something I couldn't find in other shops.

The back area housed different types of fabric. What interests me whenever I visit craft shops in other countries are the locally made fabric. Japan has a lot of lovely print fabric. I was so glad they had fat quarters available since one meter can sometimes cost at least JPY3,000. They also had kawaii fabric -- mostly cute cats -- which I couldn't resist. Sadly though they did not have any anime or Western cartoons fabric (they have a lot in Nippori Fabric Town). I still ended up buying a few fat quarters.

On the other side of the shop had endless types of beads and other usable craft knick-knacks. They also had a nice variety of bag handles (I like making bags!) and the clay aisle made me really curious about trying it out eventually.

Yuzawaya is like Lincraft in Australia. Some items were pricey, but they had a lot of beautiful fabric. I had to reel myself in. Before I paid the staff kindly encouraged me to get a membership card (JPY500) so I would get a discount. She immediately gave me discounts on the items I bought and it saved me a lot of money.

I promptly added Yuzawaya on Google Maps and later on discovered that it was closed 2 years ago for renovation. The pin was marked closed. No need to worry because it can be easily found now - Yuzawaya Ginza.

Quilting Shops in Tokyo: Tomato

I mentioned in a previous post about my visit to the Nippori Fabric Town that I was only able to visit one shop -- Tomato. It's the biggest fabric shop in the area. If you're coming from Nippori Station it's on the left side of Nippori Chuo Dori street. It's fairly easy to find since it's five floors worth of fabric goodness.

Before I went to the main shop I made a detour to a smaller Tomato shop that had everything in it on sale. I managed to buy fabric at just 100 yen per meter/yard! I went crazy and bought a lot of backing material since it's much cheaper than what I buy in Divisoria in the Philippines. I was also able to purchase wadding with backing at 200 yen per meter. They had a wide variety of fabric on sale. What was interesting to me were the Japanese fabrics.

I thought the detour was already THE Tomato shop and I was ready to go back to the hotel. I was ecstatic when I found out that it was just a tiny "sale" shop and that the main shop was just a few steps away. I was awed with the endless bolts of fabric from the entrance. I didn't know where to look first! Here's what they have floor by floor at Tomato -

1F - Discount Floor; 2F - Knit Floor; 3F- Luxury Fabric Floor; 

4F - Cotton and Character Print Floor; 5F - Patchwork and Bag Floor

After quickly going around the ground floor I headed straight to the fifth floor where all the quilting fabric is located. My eyes feasted on the available Western and Asian fabric organized by type and color. It will make you dream about having your own fabric room! I had already splurged on purchasing backing so I held back in indulging to purchase new quilting fabric. 

It was in the fourth floor though that I gave in. They had a gazillion kawaii fabric. Star Wars, Hello Kitty, Pooh and famous Japanese characters like Gudatema, Doraemon etc.. I wanted it all! But they were one of the most expensive per meter so I controlled myself from going crazy. 

After going around the fourth floor a couple of times I just browsed through the third and second floor to check out what was available there. I ended up getting a few things from the first floor since there were a lot of interesting fabrics. 

I hope I would have time to visit Tomato again when I get a chance to visit Tokyo. 

How to get there: head to Nippori Station (I have details here).

Quilting Shops in Tokyo: Nippori Fabric Town

I've been visiting Tokyo fairly often lately and I finally got to check if there were any great fabric shops. I did some research and found out that if you have very limited time there's one must go-to place for craft makers in Tokyo -- the Nippori Fabric Town. Everything for your sewing need is available there and at very affordable prices.

How to Get There

I used Google Maps to find my way there, so from wherever you are coming from within Tokyo just get yourself to the Nippori Station which is on the Yamanote Line.  After offboarding the train follow the exit path to the South Gate.

Go down the stairs.

Cross the street and turn left. You'll see the Cozy Corner shop.

Turn right after the shop. You'll see this signage.

Then cross the street.

Turn to the right and just go straight. You'll start seeing dress shops and fabric shops.

What You'll See

I only had about two hours to go through the Nippori Sen-i Gai (Fabric Town) so I just targeted to go through (from to to bottom) one place. There were many different shops that offered a wide variety of fabric. There's fabric for sewing clothing, curtains, making sofa covers, quilting, lace, gowns and even leather and there was a lot of notions as well. There were also sewing machine shops, both for home and industrial sewing.

I would suggest spending at least half a day at Nippori Fabric Town so you have enough time to browse through the many different shops. Also best to bring a large bag (or a bag with wheels) if you intend to purchase a lot of things.  A map of the textile town is available here. Shops are usually open until 6pm.

I spent all my time at Tomato. I'll post a bit more about that later.

Let's Talk About Quilting Thread

There's a different type of thread used for quilting. When my Mom taught me how to quilt when I was in high school she used to buy thread from Divisoria. The brand was J&P Coats. Compared to the usual ordinary thread, quilting thread is a bit thicker and has a nice sheen to it. I was always in a hurry to finish piecing together my projects so I could move on to the quilting part. Quilting is challenging because you have to try your best to stitch consistently.

When I took up quilting again two years ago I tried to look for the brand my Mom always used - J&P Coats. Surprisingly I couldn't find any across Asia. It's either they stopped manufacturing quilting thread or it's no longer distributed in Asia. I've found an alternative that's more or less the same - Gutermann Creativ. I love that they have thread available in many different colors. I so far only buy the hand quilting thread, but they also have machine quilting thread available.

My friend Mary said that the sickness of crafters is collecting many variants of materials. I've had to keep myself from buying different colors of thread. I've so far kept to the primary colors. I have so far finished several spools of black and navy blue. So far I rarely use green and yellow.

What about you? What brand of quilting thread do you use? What's your favorite color?

*Tip: In Singapore, Gutermann Creative quilting thread is cheaper at Art Friend than Spotlight. Colors though are a bit limited.