Unbearably Cute...!

Sarah with the linen bag and the skirt.
How could I not smile..?!

(Thanks Kristina for shooting this picture for me!)

Hope you all have a great day :)

Patchwork Fun

Thank you for many lovely comments for my
previous post ;) It makes a big difference
for me to know that someone like you come
to visit my blog. Thank you! Thank you!

I have a couple of patchwork projects
I want to share with you today.



Some of you may recall that I was working on
the quilt. This is how it looks like so far.
Remember I told you that I had 90 blocks for it?
I reduced them to 49 blocks, just because it
looked unbearably busy when laid 90 blocks
out on the floor. I think it is still too busy
but who knows.. A miracle might happen when I
have a wide sashing around those 49 blocks, right?
I'm keeping my fingers crossed...!



This is a little patchwork project I worked on.
I used a pattern in Kumiko Fujita's Patchwork
Pattern 318. It's supposed to be a cute
little basket with a set of jam, but since
I picked the word salt and 50lb. It looks more
like a yacht with big salt bins that just
arrived at the dock or something. lol.



Here is a block I made for Kerry as a part
of Ringo Pie patchwork bee. The theme for her
was "collecting/hoarding" I decided on milk cartons
to reflect on my hoarding problem with them. Before
I got into this sewing world, I was crazy
about making soap, which I might have mentioned
too many times here by now. lol, Anyways,
this is to showcase my milk cartons with
some soap on the right side. (The top one
is wrapped up and ready to go!)



No I don't have milk cartons in different
languages, but it would be really cool if I did!
The one on the left side is supposed to be
Japanese strawberry milk. The middle one is
a Swedish word for milk. (Once again, I am
pretending to know European language!)
And the one on the right is clearly, 2% milk.
Why 2%? I was really surprised when I first
saw 2% or fat free milk in America for the
first time. It didn't make sense to me, since
you can't find milk that is that low in fat
in Japan. So to me, adding '2%' to the milk
carton increases American-ness, therefore,
the diversity in this block. I am not sure
if Swedish milk is sold in cartons, but
let's say it probably is for this purpose. lol.

Thank you for stopping by again ;)
I hope you have a lovely day!

Stitch Fall 2010

Hello everyone! It's been a long time, hasn't it?

I'm sorry I had been away for such a long time.
I never meant to be gone for this long
but life has taken over a little. I feel like
there are too many things I want to share today.

I could talk about how nice it was to have my friends
over from Japan and to visit lots of places
with them like Napa Valley. I could talk about
how much fun it has been to be a part of the
Ringo Pie flickr group that Penny of Sewtakeahike
and I started with super creative folks. I could
also talk about fabulous surprise packages I have
received in the past few weeks. And I could talk about
how my sewing projects have been progressing, but you
know what,I think I need to make this post short
because I have to finish up this post before
this little boy who's taking a nap wakes up.

Ok, so let me focus on one topic today.
How about me talking about the new Stitch
magazine that came out very recently?!



I am super duper lucky to have my projects
published in the magazine again!!!



These are made for the theme of the magazine
called "One yard gifts to sew in one afternoon."
Yay, so they can be made if you have just one
yard of kona fabric (that is usually available
at local craft shops like Joann) and some
small fabric scraps and interfacing in your hand.
I think this project gave me a great chance
to use up my fabric scraps that I truly love.
I would like to thank erica of Crafty Blossom
who had given me the fabric I used for "G"
for Grandes (meaning 'big' in French) and
Mary who had kindly shared with me the feedsack
I used for "S" for Petites (small in French).
Moyoness is medium in French if my online search
for these words was successful. I thought about
using Japanese words for them but they aren't nearly
as pretty (大　中　小） -----> ouch!
so I pretended I knew some French.



This is a linen bag that was also for the
one yard theme. And once again I want to
thank erica because her fabric appears
at the binding of the side pockets ;)
Erica, I am just in love with your fabrics
in case it's not obvious, lol.



I picked Joe's niece's name Sarah to embroider
on the pocket because I think her name is so adorable
and I knew that this bag would look very
good if a pretty girl like her carries it.
I am sending this to Sarah tomorrow. Kristina,
remember to send me a picture of her with this bag!




I must say that Stitch keeps blowing my mind
with just really unique projects and interesting articles.
There are so many great projects that made me itch,
but if I were to pick my favorite, I'd have to
select this plaid curves table runner by Kevin
Kosbab of Feed Dog Designs
who also made the fun slip cover on this
Stitch issue! How talented is he?

Oh and I had been wanting to share this with
you! I had a great pleasure being interviewed
by Stefanie Berganini, one of awesome Stitch
editors. If you are a little curious about
my sewing life and have some time to spare,
would you be so kind to take a little look
at my interview which you can find here in
Stitch's new blog?

Thank you for taking the time to read
this post ;) I'll be back soon :D

Have a great rest of summer
(or winter for some of you ;) )