Exploring Australia - Material Obsession, Sydney

Have you heard of Kathy Doughty?  An American living in Sydney, Australia, Kathy is a quilter, pattern designer, fabric designer, book author, teacher and Sydney fabric store owner.  I highly suspect that many of you reading this have made at least one quilt designed by her. 

Exploring Florida - The Quilt Place + Fabric Fabric Fabric, Rockledge

Exploring Japan - Tokyo's Ginza, Okachimachi and Ueno

When I was in Japan a while ago, I met up with my friend Aya.  I met Aya when she came to my quilting classes in Manhattan and she's returned to live in Tokyo now.  Having the opportunity to see Tokyo with Aya was definitely a highlight of my trip.

Exploring Florida - StitchCraft, Boca Raton

Exploring - American Folk Art Museum, Long Island City

Last week twelve members of the NYC Metro Modern Quilters Guild took a trip out to the American Folk Art Museum Collections and Education Centre at Long Island City, New York.  We wanted to catch the current exhibition before it ends on 30 November 2016 - Painted, Pieced and Padded: Masterwork Quilts From The American Folk Art Museum.

Exploring Barcelona, Spain - A Photo Tour

Exploring Barcelona, Spain - Oyambre

While in Spain at the end of October, I met up with my friend Adelaida.  Adelaida is from Barcelona and a few years ago she spent some time living in Manhattan and became a regular shopper and student at The City Quilter and that's how we met.  We hadn't seen each other for about three years but, of course, as soon as I knew I was heading out to Barcelona we arranged to meet up.

June Progress & News

Did I blink and miss June?!

Exploring Manhattan - Purl Soho & Friends

A couple of weeks ago I met up for the first time with Sarah Craig from Confessions Of A Fabric Addict when she was on a trip to Manhattan.  We spoken via the internet for several years, I love her blog and the charity quilt work she does is amazing.  I'm a regular at her Friday Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? linky party and it was great to finally meet in person. 

Exploring Upper East Side - (new look) Pins & Needles

There was bad news a few months ago for fabric shoppers in Manhattan when Pins & Needles on the Upper East Side suffered a flood.  It must have been heartbreaking for owner Rachel and her staff and she shared her news here on the P&N blog.

Exploring Japan - Tokyo's Nippori Textile Town

Any fabric lover visiting Japan will want to pay a visit to Nippori Textile Town, in Tokyo.

Exploring Japan - Tokyo's Blue & White

Most crafters visiting Tokyo have Blue & White on their 'must do' list; I was no exception.  In fact, I visited twice during my stay but more of that later, enjoy the pictures from my October 2015 visit.

Exploring Japan - Kyoto's Handmade Needle Man

Most sewists researching for a trip to Japan come across stories of Kyoto's Handmade Needle Man.  Almost legendary, his location is reportedly hard to locate with only a few lucky souls finding success at the end of their journey.

Exploring Austin - Stitch Lab

Last week of April I travelled to Austin Texas and as always I was keen to find a neighbourhood fabric shop gem to share with you - wait till you see my pics of Stitch Lab, I guarantee you'll be adding it to your 'must visit' bucket list.

Exploring London - Shaukat, Cloth House & John Lewis

So you're in London and wanting to fabric shop - there are three other stores I love to visit when I'm home that you may want to take a look at.

Exploring London - Liberty 2016

I can't visit London without nipping into Liberty but last time I shared pics with you from inside the store was back in 2012.

Exploring Bath, England - Country Threads

On my recent trip back to England I took the train out from London to Bath to meet up with my friend Vanessa.  Bath was my old shopping ground when I lived in Marlborough, Wiltshire and one of my major interior design house projects was here too, so I know it well.  

Exploring London - The Village Haberdashery

I have spent the last 10 days in England, visiting friends old and new and I even squeezed in time for a bit of sewing.  An internet friend of several years, Trudi Wood, was teaching free motion quilting at The Village Haberdashery in West Hampstead, London so I met up with her and sat in on her class.

Exploring Portland OR - Cool Cottons

We're coming to the end of our tour of Seattle and Portland and it's almost time to get on a plane home but before we leave we've got to make one more stop at another fabric shop we've heard great things about.

Cool Cottons

oh my goodness how cute is the building?  

I was very excited to go inside and take a closer look and stepping in at the front door didn't disappoint.

I was welcomed warmly by Marie and we passed quite some time sharing stories and getting to know each other before I even started shopping.  While we were chatting I spotted Cool Cottons Row by Row above Marie's head, it's super simple but visually really pleasing and a great stand alone piece too.  Portland OR's Annual Precipitation - I think it's one of my favourite Row by Rows ever. 

Time to take a proper look around Cool Cottons which has the whole ground floor of this beautiful building.

Fabrics are organised mainly by colour, I love it, it makes pulling fabrics super easy though some are by collection too. 

There's patterns, notions, fusibles, etc in the light-filled room at the very back of the store.

This section has those imported Japanese fabrics we love, you know the ones Echino, etc.

Solids - yes, please.

This unit is stunning and perfect for displaying these small bolts and more.

Take in this bay full of light and full of fabric, yep this store is just perfect.

I've been really lucky to have met many wonderful people on this trip and meeting and chatting with Marie was the perfect ending.  

I bought a little fabric too, always on the look out for stash staples.

If you're visiting Portland put Cool Cottons on your 'must do' list and say 'hi' to Marie for me.

Cool Cottons
2417 SE Hawthorne Blvd Portland OR 97214
(503) 232-0417
hours: M/Tu/W/F/Sa 10 am - 6 pm / Th 12 am - 8 pm / Su 12 noon - 5 pm
online store / website / blog / facebook / instagram

Permission granted by a staff member to take and blog all photos.

Read all my Exploring Portland OR posts, the first about Modern Domestic, my second about Bolt and finally my Cool Cottons post by clicking the images below:

For details of other fabric, yarn, trim, and notion stores I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my side bar :D

Clicking on an image will take you to a new page of crafty goodness :)

 

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Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

Linky Parties

This post may be linked to some great Linky Parties, always a great source of inspiration too.  If you click through to my 'Fave Linky Parties'  page you can  see where I like to share my work.

Exploring Portland OR - Bolt, Dropcloth and Eb & Bean

The second post in my Exploring Portland OR series is a trip to Bolt.  Bolt is just a few blocks down the street from Modern Domestic (visited in my first post), you can easily walk between the two and there's lots of other great shops and eating places to pop into as you go. 

If there's anything Modern Domestic doesn't have then Bolt will have it and vice versa, so you're pretty much covered between the two for all your sewing needs no matter what you're making.

Patterns,

notions

and trimmings.

There're every type and weight of fabric too.

I picked up a sashiko sampler that matches a smaller one I've already completed and I finished the bolt taking several yards of the softest, silkiest Amy Butler Feather Fans midnight voile.  I also picked up two Dropcloth Samplers - these will be great to work on when I'm on a flight and I have a few long flights coming up again in the next two months including flying to Japan.  

After visiting Bolt I headed off to have frozen yoghurt at Eb & Bean with Dropcloth herself, Rebecca Ringquist.

Rebecca's only recently moved to Portland from Brooklyn and we first met when she became a Bernina Ambassador and came into the Manhattan store where I worked to choose her new Bernina.  After demoing the machines Rebecca left with a 750 and since then she always says I "changed her life" and that is just the best feeling for me - you can read what she thought of her new machine here. 

If embroidery's your thing and even more to the point if you've never done it and fancy having a go take a look at Rebecca's book, she'll guide you through everything you need to know and more. 

I looove the cover - between the graphic lettering tantalising peeps at all the beautiful stitches included inside  - totally inspired and inspiring.

EB & Bean organic froyo was absolutely delish and they also do non-dairy, it's highly recommended

and the artsy decor was very to my liking too, yay to hanging quilts on froyo store walls!!!

Rebecca and I had fun catching up and those Dropcloth Samplers I bought in Bolt - well I got Rebecca to sign them both of course!!!

Bolt
2136 NE Alberta St Portland OR 97211
(503) 287-bolt
hours: M-F 10 am - 6 pm / Sa 10 am - 5 pm / Su 11 am -4 pm
online store / website / blog / facebook / instagram

Permission granted by a staff member to take and blog all photos.

Eb & Bean
1425 NE Broadway Portland OR 97232
(503) 281-6081
hours: noon until 10 pm daily
website / facebook / Instagram

Permission granted by a staff member to take and blog all photos.

Dropcloth
Rebecca Ringquist website / Dropcloth website / blog / facebook / instagram

Read all my Exploring Portland OR posts, the first about Modern Domestic, my second about Bolt and finally my Cool Cottons post by clicking the images below:

For details of other fabric, yarn, trim, and notion stores I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my sidebar :D

Clicking on an image will take you to a new page of crafty goodness :)

 

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.