Monsters for my Monsters

My sister is quite the creative seamstress.  

She brought these little monster toys with her when she visited us.  They are her handmade creation for our boys.

Each of them contain several tiny toys and a bunch of clearish beads.  They come with a 'find me' card (in upper left side of the photo) that has pictures of all the goodies inside.

You can spend hours trying to find all the little trinkets.  It really held the attention of our kids and is a quiet, portable, and adorable little game.  

Maybe I'm giving away too much information here, but I think that even my DH likes to play with them. 

If you're having a long weekend like we are here in the states, I hope you're finding interesting ways to entertain yourselves.  

I'll be here feeling for the pearl inside of one of these monsters.  It's almost impossible to find!

For You (for me)

It's that time of year again for me:  Birthday Season!

My sons have their back to back birthdays in the next couple of weeks, so creative preparations are well underway.

I like to get them little treats, but I do have a hard time buying some of the branded toys they love (ie Cars2 movie stuff, angry bird dolls, etc).  I figure, well...it's my house, and they leave their toys all over it so...may as well have some toys that are nice to look at (read: NOT sponge bob).

In comes the "For You" toys that are in reality "for me".

Note: the vast majority of their gifts are actually for them, but in the confessional booth of my blog here, I am coming clean to you. 

Sometimes I  get them toys that I WANT!

Have you ever done that?  Come on...admit it.  You have, right?  Have you given your husband a new shower head for his birthday, because you know he'd install it for you? 

Please tell me I'm not alone here!  What's your most famous For You (for me) gift?

Ok, so here's the scoop:

1)  Fagus toys, available at Nova Natural Toys.  I didn't get any new ones this year, but it's hard for me not to.  For now I am restraining myself, but the truth is that I like to play with them.  Who knew I would be into toy trucks?!

2)  The tiny wooden village above as seen at B Kids blog is something that also falls easily into the "For You (for me)" category.  I had it shipped from the UK.  Wooden T.O.T.S was very willing to ship to the U.S. so that made it easy and affordable.

3)  After the olympics, who could resist the urge to have their own mini wooden toy play set of London?  Muji Online will help you fulfill your dreams of visiting London and bring it to the palm of your hand.

Modern House Quilt: Block 12 - the big YEAH/BOO!

Does finishing an awesome project make you happy or sad?

For me, it's both:  Yeah!  and Boo !!! at the same moment.

I'm thrilled to final finish my final modern house quilt block, but at the same time I'm so that it's all over.  

Seeking out the houses, choosing them, finding them on the map, creating patterns based on the inspiration homes...it's hard to believe the design process is over.  

This house is on a hill in San Francisco, and has a tree growing out of the middle of the house for decoration.  I found that to be a unique design element that helped it make the cut for inclusion in the quilt.

I have some time now to work on the next modern objects block.  I'm already planning colors and fabrics in my mind.

Pick-A-Winner

The fine art of removing something gooey from one's nose is at times a popular pastime for the company I keep.  My kids, of course, not my husband.

When I saw this knitting bag that looked silk screened by hand in the craft market we visited at Kyoto University, I could not resist it.

Just as I was going to try to pay for it, the shop keeper smiled at me and stuck his finger in his nose.  It was hilarious, and the cartoon image could not have captured his spirit more.  

Not often that you come across the glorification of digging for nose gold.

There is even a video on how to refine your skills (there's a video for everything out there, right?), my favorite being the 'Pick and Lick' methodology.

Alright, well apologies if I grossed you out.  I suppose there is an element of rude in here somewhere. 

Does this kick my blog out of the 'G' rated category?  I doubt it. 

Getting a little older this week, so trying to embrace my inner child.  Not a birthday ending in a zero...but that is now only around 364 days, 5 hours, and 32 min away.  But, who's counting?

Your Own Personal Forest/Pincushion

Foxtail Creek Studio has captured not only my heart, but my pins and needles too.

I have almost finished the final block in my modern house series, and this mini-forest was by my side for the final lap of applique.

There are some final touches of embroidery still to do, but I'm excited to see the final result of this block and looking forward to starting to put the quilt together.

We are excited to have some family visiting us from out of town this weekend, and planning to maybe ice skate, maybe visit Happy Hollow.  All good fun for kids in San Jose.

Under the umbrella topic of cool things you sometimes bump into:  

• Peapod Fabric's:   Indigo, historic textiles and an antique village in Japan

• Humble Quilts: a red and white feast for the eyes

• Famous quilt fabric designer Anna  Maria Horner teams up with Alabama Chanin:  wow.

• Invisible bike helmet:  having falling off my bike recently (not hurt, just clumsy) this looked cool - no bad hair!  At ~$600, not sure I'm their target customer, but still a creative invention.

• Rainbow cakes:  So popular these days, would love one on top of a pin.

A Pot to Quilt In

Every good little hand applique nut needs silk thread in billions of colors in order to match her fabrics.  I have been doing applique for a long time, so you can imagine that I have a good sized collection.

I was finding thread spools all over the place:  in various pouches and bags, rolling around my desk, in a couple of decorative bowls.  It was getting hard to find the right color when I needed it.

Coincidentally, I recently picked up a vintage modern pot (for cooking!!) from my new favorite Etsy seller - MonkiVintage. 

I used it to make noodles a couple of times, but when my collection of applique thread was attempting to take over the house, measures had to be taken.

Is storing your thread in a cooking pot a little strange?  Is attaching a wool felt magnet you made to the side of it in order to act as a mini pincushion even more odd?

Well, I'm "otaku" after all, so I guess that explains it.  

I recently read this funny article on the living spaces of hard core otaku.  I'm not sure I'm this nerdy in fact, but I do really really love to quilt!

Modern House Quilt Block: Heartwood Home

I don't usually show the 'full final' photo of my modern quilts blocks on my blog, but this time I could not restrain myself.

This is the 11th block in a series of 12 blocks that I designed and created for my applique class at A Verb for Keeping Warm.  We meet there on the 3rd Sunday of the month.

The great jazz pianist Dave Brubeck lived in this house in the 50's and it was designed by architect Bev Thorne.  I took inspiration from this home that is in the Oakland hills, and designed a block to honor the amazing way it just hangs over the property, suspended by steel beams supporting it.

The house doesn't look exactly the same as the quilt block, but I tried my best to capture it's spirit as best I could.

In other quilty news, if you're planning to apply for a slot to display your quilt in Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF), better do it quick.  I think the end of the application window will be coming up in a couple of weeks.  The quilt show itself is in October.

If my modern house quilt was complete, I would certainly enter it.  I'm on the fence about trying to put my niece's quilt in.  It isn't finished yet! 

The Party's Over: Back to School

Hard to believe summer is ending here and school is on the menu starting tomorrow.  We found out who is in our class this year.  Lots of old friends are back and a special friend or two got moved to a different class.

Change is never easy, if you're 6 years old, or 30-something like me...it's pretty natural to experience at least a little upsetting of the applecart.

Anyhow, stick to what you know and love to get through times of flux, be they working on your piano homework if you're a kid, or quilting away if you're a quilting addict...it seems to help quiet the mind.

Eating a bunch of macaroni and cheese for lunch the day before school starts didn't seem to hurt either.

I got the above Japanese tops at San Francisco shop, General Store.

Their goodies are pretty hard to resist, including:

Teapot by Kaico - simple, functional, perfect for 2 or 3 people by designer Koizumi Makoto.

Wooden spoons - by Jonathan's Wild Cherry Spoons -   Fun to cook with.

Bags by Doug Johnston - if you never needed a knitting bag that looks good, or a bag to tote around a small quilting project, this IS the bag to end all bags.  I'm using mine to hold knitting right not.

If you're missing watching the Olympics like I am, check out this awesome Union Flag.

Low Hanging Fruit

We got new neighbors on one side of our house this year and they have not been as diligent about trimming back their nectarine tree.

Gosh, that puts about 200 nectarines growing on my property, what a bummer.  There's only one word for that:

Yum.

Cobbler?  Pie?  Jam? Grill them?  Other creative ideas? 

Meanwhile, I'm quilting away these days.  More hand applique - the final modern house block.

Hope your weekend is as fruitful as mine is.  (Hee hee, I know.. I just couldn't resist the pun, sorry!).
 

Olympic knitting, and the continued saga of what not to say to a woman / your mommy

I decided to try and get through a very small new knit project during the summer Olympics this year. 

The games had so many amazing moments.  I think my favorite was when gymnast Aly Raisman got the bronze medal after Bela Karolyi encouraged her coach to protest her erroneously calculated balance beam score.  That was just incredible.  Good thing Bela was watching out for our team!

The cowl I made (if you don't knit, a cowl is bacically a neck warmer!) is from Joelle Hoverson's book "More Last Minute Knitted Gifts" and is called Soft As A Cloud Cowls.  If you knit it out of pure cashmere, as I did, then why yes - it is that soft!

Hoverson's other books are also really super, including one on quilting.

It didn't take too long to make because it is a very small project, but I was glad when it was done.  Working with skinny lace weight yarn makes for slow progress.

My least favorite moment of the Olympics came last night during a conversation with my three year old son who I adore as much as any mother has ever adored her son.

While watching track and field, women getting into the starting blocks for a sprint, he points at one of the runners:

him:  Mommy, I like that one.

me:  Oh yes, I can see why you like her best, she is very pretty.  I wonder if she will win a gold medal.

him:  She's much prettier than you are.

me:  Well, she's certainly at least 10 years younger than I am, and she basically works out all day long, so I can understand why you would think that.  Still, it isn't polite to compare how women look.

Sigh, the acquisition of manners can be a life long process for some. 

To those of you out there who consider yourselves every so slightly less fit than Allyson Felix, you're in good company.

Thank goodness for early bed time! 

Liberty of London quilt fabric: Lifestyle

When I heard that Liberty of London was coming out with a line of fabric specifically for quilters (over at Diary of a Quilter), I got pretty excited.

When I learned that Purl Soho was having an anniversary sale with 20% off everything, I figured it was a good time to pick up a few small pieces on sale.

The fabric is branded as their "Lifestyle" line, and is indeed in quilting weight.  Off the bat it was quite funny to feel their fabrics in anything besides the silky light base that I am used to, but I think it will be fun and interesting to work with.  

The base they used is quilting weight, but we all know there are various levels of quality in quilt fabric.  I found their fabric to be of high quality, with very clear designs.  Each piece had several colors used (more colors is more expensive to produce of course).  

In the deep recesses of my heart I was hoping that it would be really affordable when I first learned they were creating it...somewhere around $10-$12 per yard.  At Purl, it is $18.40/yd, which I'm sure is the going rate.  

Still it's half the cost of their original base, but my dreams of buying yards and yards of it have shifted to...how about a doll quilt?

See their latest line of super fine (old school) fabrics here:  Tana Lawn.  For me, I think the new fabric is cool, but my love affair with the original is far from over.

 

The Cure for the Common Pincushion

You don't have to go far to see beautiful wool pincushions.

My current favorites out there in the universe include:

• Ring pincushion: this would be useful for hand piecing and hand quilting
  
  
• Flower covered: Wooly Fabulous has an incredible sense of design on her creations that include zillions of flowers.
  
  
• Gustav Klimt inspired:  like it fell out of 'The Kiss'
  
  
•  Tiny universe:  how about a couple of trees growing by the river.  If this doesn't relax you while you sew, I don't know what will.
  
  
• Asian inspired: Spincushion created some floral ones and also some that look like the three little pigs and big bad wolf!
  

 
My latest creation is a 'pin donut' from some wool felt that I picked up in Yoko Saito's Tokyo shop, Quilt Party.

Want one?  Got 20 minutes to spare?  Here we go:

A drinking class with a 3.75" diameter opening can be used to trace a circle on the wool felt. (cut 2 pieces, front and back) 

After marking the wool felt and cutting it out, I used green sashiko thread to do a running stitch in a small ~1 inch diameter in the center of the two felt pieces.

Then, create another round of running stitches about 3/4" from the outside edge of the felt circles, but while creating this, stuff the little 'moat' you created (between both sets of running stitches) with some wool felt fiber.  I have wool fiber around because I like to spin yarn, but you can get it easily online.   

Put a cute button in the center, dress it up with some glass head pins (mine are 1.75" long), and enjoy!

These would make cute gifts for quilting friends, right?

Reflections on Japan: through the eyes of a quilter

I have said many good things about Japan already, and of course encourage you to visit there.

A few parting thoughts from my trip there before I turn my eye back to the projects at hand (hand quilting the baby quilt!!), and the current creative irons I have in the fire here in the California bay area....

Japanese Candy: web link

Very close to the famous knife shop Aritsugu (in Nishiki Market, Kyoto), there is a candy shop that sells all sorts of amazing hard sugar candies.  They have the most delicate flavor on earth and are a real treat.  I am not sure what the name of the shop is since all their signs were in Japanese only.  

The flavor is ever so slightly cherry and maybe vanilla too.  Anyhow, if you figure out how to get more of these over the mail, I'd love some.  It's probably likely I'll have to go back and find more on my next trip.  Their sticks are so tiny!  It feels almost civilized to eat one in public as an adult.

Yuzawaya in Kichijoji:

I had been to Yuzawaya here about five years ago, and although the train station is the same, the physical location of the store has been changed.

I didn't realize that initially and I was wandering around inside of the shop wondering if I was it a different, smaller version of the store I had been to before.

I would say it is still worth a visit, but it is closer to the U.S. version of JoAnn's fabrics, vs. a shop dedicated to quilting.  

They had some very unique items though, so certainly worth a look around.

I liked the 'made for Japan only' Liberty of London fabrics with Hello Kitty motifs.  They were so adorable and happy, I got a couple of very small cuts of them.

I also liked the 'tie-dye' looking fabrics meant for Hawaiian quilting.  I have always wanted to play around with those, so I got enough to make two or three blocks.

The Red Thread blog has a great post on how to get to their new location.

Tokyo Tree:  I tried to get tickets in advance so that we could check it out, but it was sold out for many months.  This is on my list of places to visit next time.

 

Old School Photo Booth

I spend the day in San Francisco, California recently and ran into an old school photo booth from 1947. 

We were at this lab called Rayko checking out their photo classes and darkroom rental facilities.  Such a cool place.  If I lived in the city, I would love to play in the darkroom there.

In their lobby they have a traditional photobooth from 1947 that goes through something like 14 different tanks of chemicals in order to give you a traditional wet-processed photo strip.  

If you are in the neighborhood, it's about as much fun as you could possible have for $3US.  Warning:  1 strip my not be enough for you!  We made three of them!!

Address and directions here.

Quilted Hexagons: English Paper Piecing

Tiny pieces of fabric: got it.

Teenie hexagon pieces of paper for the backing:  yup.

A thirst for sewing extremely small whip stiches on fabric pieces less than an inch tall:  yes!

Ah the joy of detailed hand work.   The hexagon pieces are 8mm or .31 inches on each of their 6 sides.  Is that possible?  I guess it is.  Gee this flower is pretty small.

I've been a fan of hexagons for many years.  Back in 2007 I made a small hex quilt out of batik fabrics.  Remember when those were so popular?

I will confess that I made an entire quilt out of batiks.  Such wild colors.  Hard to resist their charms.  Resist...you get it?  Har har...sorry, a little quilt humor. Moving on.

There are a lot of cute hex quilts out there.  I love this little butterfly one that I saw on flickr.   I'm not sure where I'm going with these, but probably not an queen sized quilt.  Just a little fun for now.  Maybe I'll applique it down on something.

I have one more wrap up shopping in Japan post to put together for you, but I think it's probably the final one.  

Meanwhile. anybody watching the Olympics out there?  What's your favorite sport?

Oh, and a quick note to those of you who are so kind to comment on my blog:

I was getting a lot of inappropriate/spam (not quilting related) comments before I turned on more heavy comment filtering.  If you comment, I will read it and approve/publish it usually within 24 hrs of when you leave it.  Thanks so much to all of you patient and generous folks out there.  If you have your email address connected to your profile, I try to write back as much as time allows.

Quilt Shopping in Tokyo: Quilt Party - Yoko Saito's Shop

Quilt Party is perhaps my favorite shopping stop of the trip.  This should not surprise you if you read my blog regularly, since I'm perhaps Yoko Saito's biggest fan.

Getting there is something like a 40 min train ride from Shinjuku station with a very short walk from where the train stops, only really a block or so.

There is a small sign in front of the shop that will guide you inside.  It looks like this:

It was a big thrill for me to finally see a Yoko Saito quilt in person.  I have seen this quilt in photos many times before but standing in front of it was so much more moving than I was expecting.

The ladies who work at the shop were extremely helpful and although their English was not completely fluent, they were excited that I was visiting there and they put 110% of their efforts into helping me and communicating with me.  It was very special.  I told them I felt like it was my birthday or something because visiting the shop was such a long-time dream of mine.

I was not there to pick up a lot of fabric, but I could not resist a few small pieces.  They have a big area of small cuts where pieces are slightly less than fat quarters in size, but they are arranged by color, and a lot of them I have never seen in the U.S. for sale. 

There was one very small item that caught my eye for several reasons.

It was a coin purse:

I could not figure out how you could cross stitch on top of quilt fabric.  The shop manager introduced me to some plastic cross stitch mesh that you lay over any quilting fabric, make your stitches, and then remove later with tweezers.  Brilliant!  This stuff allows you to basically cross stitch a small motif or an initial pretty much anywhere.  I used to love cross stitch, and doing a small bit of it to personalize something sounded like a lot of fun to me.

Here's a view of the inside.  There is a zipper that goes all the way around, and there are plastic 'button' pieces inside both of the clamshells.  I got supplies to make a couple.  

I have been collecting books of Yoko Saito's student works for years and was still missing several of them.  I found the ones I was missing while I was here, so that was a big treat.

You can see the latest released book third from the right in the book stacks on the shelf below:

More on the works of Yoko Saito in previous posts I have done here (including info on her books).  

If you end up in Tokyo, it won't be a waste of your time to visit her shop, that's for sure!

Contact info here.  

Address:  272-0034 Active Ichikawa 2F, 1-23-2 Ichikawa, Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture

Walking directions from Ichikawa Station in comments on Quincy's Big Adventure blog post here.

Quilt Shopping in Tokyo: Blue and White

If you are in Tokyo, and you love textiles or quilting, you probably already have Blue and White on your short list of places to visit.  This is the first time I have been to this magical place, and I was over the moon for it.  

By the end of this post you might be green (or blue?) with envy that you weren't there with me.

The shop has been around for ages, and there is even a book about Japan and these colors written by owner Amy Katoh called Blue and White Japan.  It is located in the Roppongi area of Tokyo, official web site here includes address and hours.

I was inspired by several design elements found in the garments and bags for sale.  
 
My favorite technique was the running stitch in thick thread, sashiko weight, mostly using either white or indigo dyed hues.   

Below is the sleeve of a jacket that was completely covered in this stitch.  The designer used the thread to make 3D cone shapes coming out of the garment.  It was just incredible.

Here is a full view:  Amazing, right?

You can see this stitch in handles of bags and a vest in the photo below.  I loved the blue bag here.  Inside of it the lining was made of antique kimono fabric.  I have never seen handles like this for sale (natural twig, split in half with holes drilled for fabric handles).  I would love to make a bag like this:

Pockets were also embellished this way (below):

Just looking in the window is a beautiful sight:

 

I hesitate to put this last photo in of me standing in the middle of the shop complete with hairdo courtesy of 90% humidity and 85 degrees F, but still having a ball anyhow:

Blue and White is on the radar for my next trip.  It might be a while, so in the meantime, post some photos if you end up stopping by there!

Applique Party: this weekend - be there or be [ ]

Ok, so it isn't exactly an applique 'party', but I am teaching hand applique at A Verb for Keeping Warm on Sunday 7/22/12 at 2:30 pm in Oakland, California.

If you need an excuse to come and learn to be an expert at hand applique, or you just want to spend some relaxing time with inspiring people in a beautiful shop...come and join us.  Beginners, advanced folks, and all those in between are welcome.  Sign up's are a couple of mouse clicks away!  Do it...they will hardly notice you snuck out for a couple of hours.

The above photo is a teaser of our Modern Houses block this month (#11).  I love the way this one turned out, it's called the Heartwood Home.

I was initially not sure how easily it would translate from the real extreme 3D qualities of the house to a quilt block but I'm tickled pink (or tickled taupe?) with the final pattern and block. 

If you live on the other side of the globe or can't slip away to join us this month, I hope that somewhere this weekend there is a bit of hand work in store for you.  You deserve it, after all.

Kyoto Flea Market: Chionji Temple

Once a month, there is a flea market bazaar at the University of Kyoto, Chionji Temple.

You can find information on it here and here.

Wouldn't you know that I was there on the day that it was happening (15th of every month).  Lucky us that my DH discovered this gem.  

There are all sorts of goodies there that are hand made by local artists.  It is a craft extravaganza really.  My biggest issue was that most of the items for sale are tough to travel with.  

Some of the ceramics were incredible, but didn't look like I could make it home easily with them.  

My favorite storefront was Conasyuu & Ribbon where small sewing items along with decorative pin toppers were sold.  Soooo super cute!  "Kawaii" in Japanese.  Below:

There were hand spun yarn balls.  They all looked like single ply yarns, so I didn't pick up any but they were beautiful and the proprietor was spinning yarn there in the booth.  Below:

I could not visualize a way to fit one of these adorable chairs into my luggage, so I didn't purchase one, but there are many teddy bears in my home that would shed a tear over this.  Below:

After we left Kyoto, we took a bullet train to Tokyo and the rest of our adventure was there.  Many super cool quilty hang outs there as well.  I'll cover those in an upcoming post.  As I depart from the topic of Kyoto, all can really say is - how soon do I get to go back?

A parting snapshot my husband took of me in the gardens on Heian Shrine, Kyoto.  I think this was my favorite spot on the trip.

Japanese Sewing Box

Under the weather a small bit this week, fighting and winning finally.  Gathering energy now after lots of rest this weekend.

Should I confess that my new Japanese sewing box is more like sewing "boxes"?

Well...the little one really is little.  I will weight it to prove how little it is.

The medium one is also quite little, I swear.

When in Japan, picking up just one more teensie tiny sewing box to slip (read: cram) into the luggage...well, let's say it's the kind of small indiscretion that cannot be avoided.

The above box came from Misuyabari in Kyoto and is the 'large' size. 

I've been using it while working on finishing up my Modern House Block #11 inspired by Bev Thorne's Brubeck House in Oakland, CA.  I'm a little sad that this little quilt is soon drawing to a close from the design/blocks perspective, but I'm looking forward to design and creation of the border so I suppose I will hold back the tears for now.

A few more shopping posts coming up on both Kyoto and Tokyo later this week.