Craft Shop in the United States: Michaels

I just recently spent a week in New York City. I didn't have much time to go around but made it a point to visit at least one craft store. I decided to visit Michael's since my Mom had visited the same shop when she was in Virginia a few months ago.

The branch I went to was located in bustling 6th Street. I'm always excited when I visit a new store so I rushed in and promptly looked for the sewing section. There was the usual sewing materials - rulers, pins, scissors, fabric cuter, buttons etc.

Thread. I love that they had a lot of DMC thread options.

There were not too many fabric options though...

But there were lots and lots of yarn.

Quilting magazines and books were available too.

There was a lot of fabric paint too and inexpensive shirts and bags you can customize.

Ribbons and a nice section for weddings.

Finally found some colored fabric pens.

If you get bored just go to Michaels and I'm sure you'll find something to do. Aside from crafts, there was also a section for baking, frames, decorating, some toys, woodwork, and for scrapbook folks there was a lot of stickers/tapes/paper.

Hubby would've loved the stamp selections.

The friendly cashier was happy to hear that it was my first time to visit Michaels and said they do have a wide selection of stuff. I'd probably come back if I wanted to try other crafts. The mini-embroidery projects were quite interesting. I was so tempted to buy.

Hand Quilting Tips and Tricks

I've now been quilting for almost 2 years now. I started to spend more time in Singapore (and away from my family) in 2015 when I moved teams so I had to fill up my evenings with something that would help me de-stress. The last time I quilted was 20 years ago and most of the time my Mom would finish my projects since I found it difficult to put the bias and attach bag handles. This was something I forgot when I started to quilt again so I had to learn by myself. Thanks to the many resources available online and quilt books my friends gave me I learned a lot.

Here's a few things I learned and re-learned in the last 2 years:

1. Plan your project - I normally get inspiration for my projects by reading quilt books and magazines. I've started to make a list of projects I want to do, but I decide on whatever I feel like doing at the moment. Once I decide what to make I start by plotting the project on a math notebook. I do this mainly to know how much fabric I need to cut and what other materials I'd need (i.e. zippers, buttons etc.).

2. Set a cutting day - before I embarked on my Christmas project I set a full weekend just to cut all the fabric I needed. It's also less messy when you cut stuff one time big time.

3. Making your quilt less clumpy - I never had formal training so I had to learn and unlearn stuff as I went along. I noticed that sometimes parts of my quilt would be clumpy. I read that it's better to sandwich your project by putting loose thread on it. I used to use pins which made it clumpy.

4. Use tiny clothespin for holding bias - better than using pins! This also helped make the wadding more evenly distributed across the quilt.

5. Needles do affect the number of stitches per inch - I've been trying hard to make my stitches evenly distributed per inch. The tiny quilt needle does help in making the stitches more even. I use different needles though and realized that they affect the size of your stitches (especially if you use thicker needles). Try to stick it out with the recommended quilt needle.

6. Iron before sandwiching your project - one of the reasons why my earlier projects ended up clumpy was because I didn't iron it before I sandwiched it with wadding. I bought a tiny iron and it's done wonders to my projects and have been handy in making bias too.

7. Use the right wadding - I had no idea there were different types of wadding since they only had one type in Manila. I read up more about wadding when I saw that there were many types in Spotlight. I like using the thicker one although it's easier to quilt with the thinner ones. I've yet to try the bamboo type though.

My 2017 Quilt Projects

2017 has been an amazing year of discovering techniques and experimenting on new projects. I took inspiration from reading quilting books, magazines and checking out stuff on Pinterest. I watched a lot of YouTube videos to learn tried and tested techniques for hand quilting and I watched a few free classes on Craftsy. I wanted to learn how to machine quilt, but the tiny sewing machine I bought in Melbourne didn't work properly. I'll give myself probably six more months before I go into machine quilting since I still enjoy hand quilting a lot. I also feel I still have a lot more to learn.

Most of my 2017 are personal projects, mostly bags, pillow cases and I embarked on a Christmas project which I haven't finished yet. Here's what I managed to make this year:

January

Finished my Christmas 2016 project in early January.

February

Made a Wonder Woman bags for two friends.

March

Storm Trooper laptop sleeve for my son's new laptop.

Made a new Yoda bag for myself.

April

Pillow cases for home.

May

Traveled to Australia and bought quilt rulers!

June

Made a gigantic bag for traveling.

August

Made this prototype make up bag for Christmas gifts.

September

Was traveling a lot so was only able to make bias for my Christmas project.

October

Cool blue bag which I've been using at work.

November

Finished half of my Christmas gifts.

December

Bag for Mom.

My cat bag.

As they say, practice makes perfect. I learned a lot from the different projects I made this year. I'll blog about it later. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  

Buying Fabric in Korea: Gwangjang Market

A few weeks back I visited Seoul for the first time. My friends put together an awesome tourist-y itinerary and they included a visit to a local market to find fabric made in Korea. After a super fun morning at Namsan we headed to Gwangjang Market to try out local food (and where locals eat). There were fabric shops already near the entrance of the Gwangjang Market, but my friends said there was an area designated for fabric in the market.

After lunch we headed to the second floor of the market where the fabric stores were located. The area looked a lot like Divisoria where you can have wedding dresses made. The area had multiple stores offering hanbok dressmaking services. There were a few shops that offered ready to wear hanbok (about KRW220,000 for each).

The shops only had fabric made in Korea. Most of them were silk fabric ranging from KRW5,000 to 18,000 per yard. The shop keepers were very surprised that I only got a yard of fabric. They probably though I was making a hanbok for a baby.

The fabric was amazing and really beautiful. I will have to think long and do a lot of research to use the fabric I bought for quilting (I don't think they use it at all for quilting but will see).

I found the fabric market to be very different from other places I've been to. Mainly because they only offered fabric made in Korea which made it really unique. The fabric I think is also created mainly to make hanbok so it would really be challenging to create a quilt out of it. It will probably take me a lot of time but I hope to make something beautiful to give respect to the fabric. 

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.