11 hours and 45 minutes of sewing in two days. One finished quilt top.
And I love it. {squeals!}
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I spent a lot of time on the trip to Vietnam capturing the patterns and the details I saw around me everywhere. I have put many of these photos together in a little mosaic for you. The links at the bottom will take you to the original photos at Flickr, where you can view them in their original humongous sizes and read information about where exactly the photos were taken if you’re interested.
Yes, indeed they do! While browsing in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, we stumbled upon a little shop called Vietnam Quilts. It turns out this is a charity organization that provides safe employment and a regular income for rural women in Vietnam. Proceeds made from selling their quilted and sewn projects are reinvested into the local communities for things like education scholarships and health education programs for women. Before we left on our trip to Vietnam, I scoured all the information I could find in order to figure out where to shop for fabric. In places like Hoi An you will see LOTS of fabric in shops, but they aren’t selling the fabric, they’re selling custom-made clothing. I wanted to buy just fabric. In my searching I discovered that there is an entire fabric market in Hanoi. That’s what Chợ Hôm means — Market (Chợ) Fabric (Hôm). It’s a little farther south in the city than most of the usual tourist haunts, at the corner of Tran Xuan Soan and Pho Hue. Map powered by MapPress The fabric market is located on the second floor of this building. I didn’t want to use the flash any more than necessary and it was fairly dim in there, so the pictures aren’t completely clear, but I think you can definitely get the idea.  The whole floor is divided into little stalls, each with a different proprietor, stacked floor to ceiling with fabric.  The stalls are one on top of the other and go back into the dimly lit corners. There are only tiny little walkways between the rows. The walkways are big enough for two Vietnamese people to pass, but a little harder for bigger Westerners!  Also, all the proprietors sit in the walkways, because there is no space to sit in their packed-to-the-ceiling booths! The funniest thing to me was how many of these women were sitting around knitting! The stall below has a prime corner location.  I made my first purchase at this stall — the two pieces of linen she is holding in her left arm. You just tell them what you want to see and they pull it down off the shelves for you. Or if you say you’re looking for linen, they’ll show you which of their stacks are linen. Nothing comes with care instructions, and you have to ask for prices. Prices are probably negotiable, but at less than $3 a yard for linen, I didn’t really care if I bargained!  This was one of the few stalls that did not have the fabrics all folded up, presumably because these silks would be just too slippery to keep in a pile. I purchased a yard of fabric here for a coffee shop friend who said to me before we left, “Bring me back something. A fabulous piece of silk or something.” She wasn’t really being serious, but I couldn’t resist when I saw these. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of the piece I bought for her.  I made my last purchase at this booth. This blue cotton she is cutting, thinking I might make a shirt out of it. I was saying to my husband that I might make a shirt from it and the woman motioned at her wrist (you know — that karate-chop kind of motion that means “this long? long sleeved?”). I nodded yes and she consulted briefly with her colleague, they gave me a once over, and concluded that a meter and a half should be sufficient. Beautiful! Thanks!  It was really crazy hard to make decisions in here, especially since I didn’t have anything particular in mind to make when I went there, and I only had a little bit of space in the luggage (we took only two backpacks total!). Buying this much fabric (I think 7-8 meters) created enough of a challenge as it was. But they had all kinds of wools and knits and cottons and silks. Next time I’ll have a better plan. Next time! Anyhow, here are my purchases (minus the silk).  And I’ll leave you with one last photo looking down from upstairs at the first floor. The first floor had some ready-to-wear things (looked like a lot of kids stuff and t-shirts) and backpacks, as well as a small vegetable market, beauty parlor (below me), and indoor motorbike parking. Crazy crazy place! 
We had a great time on our recent trip to Vietnam!!! In January 2009 we went with a group of students from our undergrad college, and this year we went with a group of alumni. We revisited towns and cities we had seen before, but enjoyed a lot of new activities and meeting a lot of new people. 7. Dinner at Lac Canh in Nha Trang. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos here. We sat outside (thankfully) and for every four people they brought out a charcoal grill and set it in the middle of the table (yes, the tablecloths were full of burn holes!). This was ridiculously dangerous in truth, but a lot of fun. Then they brought us plates of uncooked chicken, pork, fish, shrimp (as long as your hand — HUGE shrimp), squid, etc. that we then cooked ourselves. We also had steamed vegetables and rice. It was a basic local eatery filled with Vietnamese people. Plastic chairs. FILLED with smoke, despite being outside without a roof. The waitresses were dressed unusually for Vietnam in short tight spandex-y dresses that were basically walking ads for San Miguel beer. One of our group said, “This must be the Hooters of Vietnam.” Pretty much seemed like it (though I’ve never been to a Hooters). I would never have gone in this place myself, but it was a great time! 8. Cyclo ride in Saigon. Today for our shop-hop we’ll be checking out Eddie’s Quilting Bee in Sunnyvale, CA. I’m *really* familiar with this store, so I can give the most details about this one. That means that this post is going to be a little bit longer than the others. I also had to create some new categories to help organize things better. Map powered by MapPress This is close to the brand new Target, if you know where that is. It’s also VERY obvious from the street for a change! There is a second floor — don’t forget to go upstairs!  You enter around the back side. This building used to be a bank branch. They frequently have the sales shelves out front on the sidewalk under a tent.  Basic Fabrics: A good selection of all kinds of fabrics in here, though less on the traditional types I’ve noted at some of the other shops. They have a large selection of Kona cotton solids, but they are mixed in with the other colors on the color wall instead of separated out. Here are the three sections of the main color wall. Lots of Kona solids on the top shelves in the second and third photos.    A whole color wall of Asian fabrics.  A whole color wall of batiks.  Lots of dots!  Novelty Prints: This is clearly one of Eddie’s favorite things to buy. LOVES the novelty prints. Here’s an entire wall of novelty prints. There are a lot of children’s prints in here, and animals.  More novelties here, including half-naked sexy cowboys (and girls) on motorcycles, and a nice selection of Dia de los Muertos prints.  This is a whole shelf of mostly what I call “boy” prints. Firetrucks, cars, sports themes, space prints, faux wood, etc.  And a fair selection of kitchen-y and fruity prints.  Designer Fabrics: Eddie definitely likes Amy Butler, but he carries a lot of other designers as well, including Alexander Henry, Kaffe Fassett, Joel Dewberry, Prints Charming, Heather Bailey, Valori Wells, MoMo, Urban Chicks, and Echino. I’ve seen some Red Letter Day, Wild Thyme, Gee’s Bend hand-dyes, and Art Gallery prints. Like most shops, he picks and chooses from lines, rarely ordering everything. But the selection is decent. I’ve never seen any Denyse Schmidt in this shop. Here are two racks of strictly Amy Butler, including some of those home dec solids. (And check out the rack with the Japanese magazines.)   This shelf holds a lot of Amy Butler, as well as several other designers. And that’s Amy Butler’s LOVE on the top right there. Yum!  There are a few designer prints here, and that’s a little Echino on the bottom shelf.  Other Types of Fabrics: A good selection of Minky. Right now it looks like he mostly has the dots, but I’ve seen the plain and the stripey version in there as well.  There is a good batch of flannel upstairs (don’t forget to go upstairs!). And more in the upstairs hallway.  Also upstairs, you’ll find these racks that contain some garment fabrics (see below), but also have the green fabrics — organic, hemp, bamboo. On the right shelf are the vintage reproduction fabrics, and civil war reproduction fabrics on the back side.  Garment Fabrics: Another new category. This is the first shop (other than Fabrics R Us) that carries a lot of garment fabrics. It’s not a huge selection, but covers a lot of the bases. These are all located upstairs as well, but there’s an elevator, and a second cutting station upstairs (just ring the bell)! Jersey, gauze, silk-cotton blends, linens.  Wools, bottom weights, velveteen, corduroy, suede, ticking, denim and stretch denim, various colors of ducking.  Linings, silks, bridal satins, etc.  Sales Section: This is the current sales rack. It’s often twice this size, and they frequently have the sales set up outside the entrance under a tent when the weather is nice. This shop also has a lot of great sales, where fabric is as much as 30%. Sometimes they have everything in the store 25% off, including machine feet. Books are always 20% off. The biggest sale of the year I believe is the sale in January — Eddie’s Birthday Sale (I think that’s hilarious!). I’ll be missing it for the second year in a row because I’m traveling.  Classroom: I’ve taken quite a few classes here, and the classroom setup is very nice. This is the large classroom. They have it set up with that big TV screen for doing overhead shots of guest lecturers who are demonstrating techniques. We had the pattern drafting class in this room with about 10 students and each of us got our own table. Very spacious.  They also have a second smaller classroom. Both of these are upstairs, accessible via elevator for taking up your machine, etc. There are frequently classes going on in both classrooms at the same time.  Batting and Notions: This is yet another out-of-control category for Eddie’s. The bulk of their notions are in a room that used to be the vault (remember, I said this used to be a bank branch!). I can literally spend an hour in here no problem. Every time I look around in here I find some new stuff they’ve gotten in. It’s crazy. Really.    They also have a large selection of thread. Here’s most of it.  Their thread selection includes specialty threads, like silk, rayon, and metallic thread, and those heavy topstitching threads like the ones in your ready-made jeans.  And for you sergers and free motion quilters, thread cones!  The batting selection is pretty good as well, with options for both hand quilters and machine quilters. These are the packaged battings. On the wall on the right you can just see their samples of what some of these battings look like when quilted. Nice!  They also have a selection of batting on bolts upstairs.  Upstairs you’ll also find a selection of buttons and zippers, including specialty zippers for dressy garments, and separating zippers for large bags, etc.  Machines: This shop has been selling Babylock, Bernina, and Viking machines for a while, and has recently started selling Janome machines as well. I bought my Viking here, and to hear my recent story of great service by Eddie, read this post. They do servicing of all these machine brands as well.  Other Items: It’s unbelievable how much stuff they have crammed into this shop. They also sell long-arm machines (Tin Lizzie, I know, but I’m not sure what other brands), and rolling cases for your machines, including those cool Tutto bags.  They have a large selection of books (this is just over half of them, I’d say). I like the racks on the right better for browsing. I find it hard to see what’s on the shelves where they are all overlapping. They carry a decent collection of Japanese magazines and books as well.  They carry a pattern selection that includes Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Pink Fig, Indygo Junction and KwikSew clothing patterns, among others, and they carry the Accuquilt GO! system as well. I’m hoping once I start my new job at Bobbin’s Nest Studio to do a thorough post on what they carry there as well, but for now, this concludes our shop hop of the South Bay. Hope you have enjoyed it!
Today for our shop-hop we’ll be checking out The Granary in Sunnyvale, CA. Map powered by MapPress This shop is in a little shopping center at the southeast corner of Mary Ave and Fremont Ave. It’s set back from the road, but at least the sign actually says “The Granary.”  Basic Fabrics: The highlight of this shop as far as fabric goes is definitely the vintage reproduction 20’s-40’s fabrics that they carry. This is the biggest selection I’ve seen so far (though I know the Beverly’s carries quite a lot as well).   They have the usual color wall, batiks, Kona cotton solids, and traditional fabrics, as well as some kids and holiday prints. I didn’t see any Asian fabrics. Color wall  Batiks  Kona cottons  Traditional fabrics  They carry a fair amount of Moda, including some French General, and they have a lot of precut fat quarters and half yards. That’s the French General on the right.  Designer Fabrics: I saw a little bit of Amy Butler Daisy Chain (below on the left), as well as the occasional Valori Wells or Alexander Henry, but they were mostly scattered about the store.  Other Types of Fabrics: They have a decent selection of flannels.   Sales Section: This is the sales section. I think these were 50% off, which is by far the best sales discount I’ve seen.  Classroom: Their classroom space is in the middle of the store in the back. I’ve been in there when there was a class going on, and it can be a bit crowded trying to get to the items around this space, like the Kona cottons, batting, sales section, and the big magazine rack below.  Batting and Notions: Decent notions wall and a small selection of batting on bolts and in packages.   Machines: This shop does not sell machines. Other Items: The other strong point of this shop, in my opinion, is the books section. It’s fairly large and has a lot more of the kinds of books I might consider buying. They actually carry that Intuitive Color book I was looking for a couple months back. The pattern selection is also fairly extensive.    Next stop on the tour: Eddie’s Quilting Bee, Sunnyvale, CA |
  
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