Thursday, February 25, 2010

Sewing in Seoul

Now that my new sewing room is set up, I've been busy. I'm loving my new space!

I've made a dozen blocks to exchange as friendship blocks for the quilting group. I still need to write my name, date, Seoul, Korea and my home state on the blocks. They will then be traded with the other members of the quilt group to be kept as a reminder of each member.
I'm also working on a Kwik Krazy Quilt. I like to make quilts that are more of a mish-mosh of fabrics and what I consider "funky." I really like how the blocks are coming together.
Here are the first 12 blocks.
Now I need to go make some more! I will continue to share as a progress with this project. I also need to get to work on my quilt exchange block. I need to create a block that reminds me of Korea. The Krazy Quilt block kinda reminds me of Korea... kinda crazy and chaotic.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

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.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

It's Snowing...Off to Dongdaemun

It's pretty cold out today and people are a little crazy because it is snowing, but weather can't stop us from hopping on the subway and heading to Dongdaemun. Each time I go there (this was my 3rd time) I feel more comfortable and slightly less lost. It helps when I go with people that know where to go too. My mission today was to look for home decor fabrics to cover the dining chairs. I wasn't too successful. I think I need to wait until the sofa and lounge chair covers get here to make any decisions. I did see some awesome fabrics though.

Today, I set out to buy some fabrics for my mom. She is making a quilt for a teenager. I tried to get a variety of bold colors.
For myself I bought just a couple of yards to go with fabrics I already have.
I also bought this really cute measuring tape. It has both inches and centimeters. You pull the legs for the tape to come out and then push the nose and the tape rolls back up. I thought it was cute.
That's all for today. I'm off to try and stay warm!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Goodies from New York

My mom is the best! She went to the local maple farm and had a TON of small sized packages made up and sent to us to use for a house warming party or as favors when we go to someone's house. She also made me a really cute Valentine wall hanging, which is awesome since I don't have any decorations right now. We are still waiting for our stuff to arrive in Korea.
I can't wait to share all of these awesome New York goodies! They are delicious! Thank you Mom!!!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

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.