So excited!

Eek! I just received my birthday gift to me (my b-day is still a while away, but I kindof just let that one go)

Japanese Cotton!!!

I'd been seeing more and more imported Japanese fabrics being used in quilts and other sewing projects as I read my blog list from day to day. I'd done a few Google searches for them, but I couldn't really find anything that matched my tastes and budget. But several days ago, I was reading JC Handmade and she posted a link to this website:

http://www.beesquarefabrics.com/catalog/about.php

My fabric shopping ways as I knew them were over.

Suddenly I had a whole selection of Japanese cotton at my fingertips and I loved it.

The next few days I carefully investigated the entire site to find every piece of Japanese fabric she carried. I found a lot.

After lots (and lots) of hemming and hawing, I finally narrowed all my favorites down to an order that fit within my birthday-gift-to-me budget and after spending a few days tweaking it and making sure that at least a few of fabrics I was ordering would match, I ordered.

I highly recommend this online store. I ordered my fabric late last Thursday night and I received it this afternoon. That's fast. Especially when you add the USPS into the equation!

The fabric arrived clean and packaged in nice plastic bags. I didn't detect any odd smells either.

I ordered all quarter yard pieces, (except for the fleece batting, I ordered a yard of that), and all the fabrics were cut very evenly and straight.

I can't abide it when fabrics are cut at a diagonal and measure 9" at one end and 6" at the other so I was very glad to see correctly cut fabric.

Another great point of the store is that the sale section is quite well stocked. I was actually pleasantly surprised by seeing that two fabrics I had earlier eliminated from my order because they were out of my budget go on sale for about 40% off the day I ordered. I quickly swapped them out for two others and went ahead with my order.

(those two fabrics, with my hand for scale)

I've been planning my projects with these ever since I first perused the website and I decided that my first will be this Drawstring Bag from Pink Penguin (the same blog where I found the Fabric Basket tutorial). Great blog by the way, I've subscribed to it and love keeping up with her various projects.

I think the Drawstring Bag will make a way better portable knitting project bag than my current choice of zip-top bags. I plan on making a few mods to it to make it more "knit friendly" and I can't wait to get started!!!

(seriously, can one get cuter than cupcakes on cotton??)