The Weekenders: Arts & Crafts

  |  January 10, 2014

 knitting

One of the many dreams city folk have about having a place in the country: get more space.  It could be outdoor space for kids or pets to run around, or for gardening.  It could also be for indoor space.  Space for having friends come visit, do yoga at home, store your collection of vintage radios, or to do arts or crafts projects that are often hard to find space to do when you have a 500 square foot apartment in the city.

Luckily we have several bedrooms in our house, so we’ve recently been considering converting one of them from a bedroom into an office/workroom.  I’d like to have a place I can set up my sewing machine and a place to store fabric for sewing and reupholstery projects.  Mr. Sticks wants to be able to frame photos and have a quite place to write screenplays.  I’ve also started knitting (I’m trying to be productive with all of that time I spend on the bus), so I need a place to keep all of that yarn.

I’ve been searching for arts and crafts stores nearby to supply us with the raw materials we need to at least contemplate starting these projects.  And when I was planning my wedding this summer, I spent a lot of time looking for fabric for table coverings and accents that we needed for barn decorations.   I found several stores in our habitual shopping areas that so far have served most of our needs.

In Kingston, there are two (that I know of) chain craft and fabric stores that I’ve been to a few times:

Michael’s is a chain store that has almost everything  – except they don’t carry fabric.  Painting, jewelry making, knitting, flower arranging, cake decorating.  And if you have kids that are into the rainbow loom bracelet making, they have those too.  They don’t have a really fantastic supply of 100% wool yarn, but they do have some.

Jo Ann Fabrics is primarily a fabric store, but also has crafting supplies similar to Micheal’s.  They have a fairly decent selection including some upholstery fabrics, quilting fabrics and yarn.

For smaller local stores, I’ve also found two that I can recommend:

Also in Kingston (up route 28) is Style Fabrics.  I went there this summer shortly after they had moved to this location.  I was looking for some basic un-bleached linen or muslin fabric, which they didn’t have, but they did have a nice selection of other fabrics, much of it for quilting and non-clothing projects.

One of the best fabric stores that I’ve found is The Patchwork Co. in Windham.  The focus of this store is also on quilting, and pretty much all of their fabrics are cotton and jersey, but they have some of the most amazing prints I’ve seen, and they are very active in the fabric design community.  If you are a quilter (which I’m not – too much work!) you should definitely check this place out.

Lastly, if you need painting, drafting or office supplies, check out Catskill Art & Office Supply.  They have stores in Woodstock, Kingston and Poughkeepsie.  They also do custom framing if you don’t want to spend the time and skill, or if you don’t have the space to frame art on your own.

Anybody have any other suggestions or ideas for arts and crafts stores in the Catskills or Hudson Valley?

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