I Found Heaven!

.... fabric heaven that is.

Five floors of fabrics and notions. Five floors! I swear my heart was racing. I arrived and methodically looked at each floor, dying to grab bolts, but forcing myself to wait until I'd seen everything they had to offer first. My heart rate then rose even more when I realised that I didn't have a lot of cash on me, that the store didn't take credit card and I didn't know where to find an ATM. I made myself sort that out quickly and then returned to shop. And shop I did! I'm very proud of myself for coming home with only just over 40 meters of fabric.

I'm planning on opening an Etsy store in April, just after I return from a brief trip to Australia. That gives me plenty of time to stock up on fabrics and papers to sell as well as make a bunch of new bags, cards and other items to sell. I think I may sell some of these fabrics on eBay in the meantime, it gives me the perfect excuse to go back to the shop again.

Of course, if anyone is interested in any of them, please feel free to contact me.

For now, here's some of what I bought.....

Some gorgeous vibrant fabrics with traditional motifs. Don't you just love that fish on wheels toy in the first one and the babies in a couple of the others!


Some simpler, more subtle fabrics with traditional motifs. The fourth one, black with the spider lily, I'm thinking of going back and getting some more to use with my Amy Butler skirt pattern.




I finally found some fabric with the Maneki Neko, lucky cat. I get a lot of requests for some and haven't been able to get any until now. They also had this print with a black background and another with dark blue.



Some gorgeous, super cute, kawaii fabrics. It's a bit hard to see as some of the prints are small, but there is a sweet Little Red Riding Hood in there as well as a few different Japanese fairy tale prints.



This geisha fabric is just a large single print. It was the only one. I think I might use it as a front panel on a skirt.



The Hina Matsuri, the Girl's Day doll's fesival, is coming up soon. This fabric, especially released for it, is really cool. On one side of the panel are patterns to make softies of the royal couple and their attendants and on the otherside is a print of the tiered steps that they are usually displayed on. It's a big piece so this is an image of only part of it. I grabbed one for myself and one for the eBay store.



I didn't forget about the boys either. They had some really funky fabrics with dragons, shishi lions and temple gardians.

The dragon on this fabric is so large and bold. I think I'll keep this one myself to make a satchel.

These are four different thick canvas fabrics that I snatched up as well. I think they'll make great boy bags. What bags do boys like? My husband has a really cool collection of satchels and other sling bags (I think he may have more bags than me!), but I'm not sure how many guys carry bags around outside of Japan. The fabrics would make some really cool unlined totes, but do boys carry totes?

And finally, last night I started sorting the fabrics. I took each metre, cut it into half so I have one piece about 50 x 100 cm, then cut the other one in half again to make 2 fat quarters, one for me to keep. From my fat quarter, I then cut a little piece and filed it away in a postcard file. It's an idea I got from some one on Flickr and I really wish I could remember who... once I find them again, I'll link them to this post.

Well, I must dash, I have fabrics calling my name......