The Loot

I was able to slip away during my lunch hour at work today to make some purchases. The "Happy Quilt" man was set up in the on post hotel for the morning. Here is my loot!
I'm loving the availability of all the Riley Blake fabrics. I think it pink, peach, white and orange quilt may be in the mix. I'm getting spoiled. I won't know what 'real' fabric prices are like after our tour here.

Again, would you eat this?
Yes, he did eat the fish. Don't worry - not the whole fish, but still...Yummy?!

New Workspace

Our stuff has finally arrived in Korea which has me bouncing with excitement because this means I can SEW! I've been in fabric heaven, but with little outlet. Tomorrow, I will be sewing! I have turned into one of those military spouses that can unpack and set-up house in what seems like a flash. Friday at 5 pm we were in a heap of boxes and packing paper. Saturday at 5 pm we were headed out for dinner with a fully intact apartment, all boxes gone and pretty much everything set-up. I need to purchase a few odds and ends, and as we live here I would like to purchase some furniture; but, for now I'm most excited for my NEW WORKSPACE!

I started with this blank room.
My work table is set-up so that I can cut fabric from 3 sides. I love have the cutting mat as my table. It makes my life a lot easier when trying to make things precise. The mat has cutting measured for 58" x 33". It is a nice size work table. The white cubes are from Target. They store sewing and scrapbooking supplies.Look at all the beautiful storage under the table and the large workspace.

This picture is standing behind the work table looking back at the other wall. My cubes for fabric storage are almost full. I Think I will probably have to think about more storage solutions for fabric soon. I like to fold my fabric so all the pieces are the same size. This makes storage MUCH easier!The last part is the AWESOME closet. I did give my husband one section of the closet for his Army gear, but I'm more than happy to share. The white drawers in the first cabinet store scrapbook paper and thread. The grey bins have 1. batting, 2. parts of uniforms that have been cut up for Bags From The Heart and 3. Finished items to sell/ give away & works in progress. I like that I have space to store all of my sewing machines, so that if I want to just scrapbook, my sewing stuff can be out of the way and vice versa.
I can't wait to start creating in this awesome new work space.

Happy Quilt Warehouse

I met up early this morning with six ladies from the quilt group. We loaded up into Poncie's "houpde" and headed south to visit Happy Quilt's Warehouse. The warehouse is about 1-1.5 hours away depending on traffic. We were lucky to have more than 6 passengers in the van because we could take the bus lane. This was a great thing because there was a lot of traffic! So on with the post...I think today's adventure may best be described with lots of pictures.

This image is looking in to the right side of the warehouse. There are piles and piles of bolts of fabulous fabrics. Down the middle there are rows of 2 yard pre cut packets. Each packet has 2 yards in it. 44" wide yards are 3,000 won or about $2.60 per yard, and 60" wide yards are 4,000 won or about $3.50 per yard.

This next photo was taken standing in the back of the warehouse. If you look carefully out the door you will see a second warehouse. Yes, that smaller warehouse was filled with bolts too! You can pick any fabric you want and they will cut it in 1 yard increments.

They had a couple sewing machines there as well. I'm not really sure why they are there. There were some samples of things made with the warehouse fabrics, but that was all.

I wonder where you may have seen this fabric before?

Here are some pieces that I bought today to coordinate with the brown swirly piece I bought 2

weeks ago. I am really loving Riley Blake fabric designs.

On the shopping trip to Dongdaemun last week I bout the two Vera Bradley prints. This week I found the border that goes with the prints. I also bought the border to Bali Blue because I have the fabric matching that border as well.

Bali Blue Boarder for Vera Bradley

I don't think I can live in asia and not acquire some Asian fabrics. I really like the lanterns, so I found some other Asian inspired fabrics to coordinate. I think I will need Ideas on what to make with this.

I also bought some almost comic book like fabric. I thought it was really cool. I think a quilt made with this should possibly be titled "Hip."

The quilting group is going to do a block exchange. The blocks won't have to be done for a few months, which is good considering

my sewing machine isn't even here yet. The group picked out yellow and blue to use for the blocks. We can supplement with other fabrics as needed. I really like the yellow and blue fabric. It has metallic in it and almost ribbon-like patterns. It is very asian-eske. The block theme is meant to be "Memories of Korea."

I found this funny cow print fabric that I couldn't pass up. I thought it was hilarious. I'm not sure what I will do with it, but seriously, could you pass this by with a straight face?

Mr. Han, the owner of Happy Quilt is such a pleasant man. He will pull out bolts of fabric for you and is happy to have our business. It may be because all of the Americans go crazy and buy a ton of fabric like there is no tomorrow, but he is still a wonderful man. Depending on how much you buy, he always throws in some fabric for free. Usually it is 1-2 free fabric packets per purchase. That's 2-4 free yards of fabric that would be $10 in the US, so for me that's a great deal. Today, however Mr. Han was VERY generous and gave our whole group a box of "freebies." We didn't know what was in the box until we got back to base, but when we opened it we were amazed. Usually is is just scraps, but this box had yards and yards of fabric. No Scraps.

I picked out this dress model print for 1 of my free packets and the matching solid was found in the "freebie" box.

Also in the box were some large flower panels. I got a couple of them. They would make great Euro-Shams of lounging pillows.

The fabrics below obviously don't coordinate, but they were my other free picks. I can't complain with free!

So we have been in Korea a month today...look at all the glorious fabric I have collected in a month. Just to think I have 35 more months that I can accumulate more! Did I mention, I love Korea?

That was a pretty long post, but aren't you glad there are so many pictures of fabric! Now if just for my sewing machines to arrived, I would be set.

Why Bags?

I sometimes wonder why I am slightly obsessed with sewing bags. I don't really fancy making clothes, blankets, or other sewn items. I generally stay in the realm of handbags and accessories. I think my desire has been a part of me since I was very small. I always had a ton of bags and I still do!

When I was young I was involved in many things; ballet, soccer and skiing are just a few. Each of these activities required a specific outfit or gear, so to make life easier my mom designated a bag specific to each activity. Ballet had a ballet bag, soccer had a bag, and skiing had its own too. Each bag was perfectly proportioned to the activity it matched. My ballet had a separate compartment for my slippers to keep them easily accessible and enough space to hold a change of clothes for afterward. I played soccer for roughly 18 years and with many different teams, so needless to say, I had multiple soccer bags over the years. I would often be playing soccer all weekend long so my bag would have different compartments to keep things separate for each day. My soccer cleats even had their own compartment, so my things wouldn't get dirty. Finally, my ski bag. This bag was probably the most magnificent bag possible. It could be slung over my shoulder, held my boots and all other items (I was a downhill racer, so I had a lot of stuff), but it allowed me to keep track of all my items. Each bag I owned also proudly donned my name (first or last). I love having my name on my things, maybe because in the US it is difficult to find ERIKA spelled with a "k" but I also think it is because it labeled that bag as my responsibility.

I think the details and purpose of the bags I had at a young age inspire my bag designs today. I try to think about their use and make their design fit their purpose. I like to personalize the things I create to match the person they are going to. This is sometimes difficult when I don't know much about the person. I don't like to be "tied down" to specific details, but I like some loose guidelines.

Okay, so maybe you didn't need to know all that information, but utility and personalization are my inspiration. I think I need to thank my Mom for that!


One of the popular styles of bag. It can be used for a diaper bag, scrap tote, day-to-day bag, gym bag, overnight bag, school bag. The possibilities are endless. The bag's name is Marjorie. Named after my great aunt who stood the test of time living to be 103 yrs and an incredibly wonderful woman.

For more styles check out my webpage: www.bagsfromtheheart.com