Getting to know Yoko Saito, in English!

I finally finished quilting the funky quilt that I made using antique blocks. The blocks were made around 1890. I set them with some modern repro-ish looking fabrics, and quilted away. The blocks look like they have arrows in them and with the feathered quilting inside I'm thinking of calling the quilt "Feathered Arrows".

My thoughts on binding are that maybe a cute and funky print would really spice it up even further. Susan agrees it's a good idea.

Susan, one on the knit nite girls, has an incredible sewing bag that she created completely from Japanese taupe fabrics. Drop over and check her blog out if you have time, her work is 100% perfect and beautiful.

And speaking of Japanese taupes, Yoko Saito just launched her Japanese quilting web site in English. WOW is really all I can say about it. It's so great to learn about her, her quilting, and all of her new fabrics and books (finally without some funky babelfish translator). Thanks Mona for passing the link along!

My favorite page of this web site is the Catalog of Student Work publications that comes out every year. It's an awesome collection of photos of all the quilts her students made that year. I have a couple of these, but not all of them. If shipping were not so expensive, I think I would order the couple I'm missing.

Halloween - a global holiday!

I've been many places on this amazing planet, but I've always been right here at home in the good old USA during Halloween.

Maybe that's why I assumed (wrongly!) that it's a global holiday where kids all over the world put on their scary costumes that mom made...or was too busy to make and just ordered online this year.

My German friend reminded me that it's pretty much an American thing. That made me feel sad for all the rest of the kids, and so lucky to live here.

Our 4 yr old is really looking forward to it, and our pumpkins are carved and ready to go.

We visited Uesugi Farms and came home with around 8 pumpkins. Wow. Pony ride was a big hit.


So I finished quilting the mini quilt I was working on, and I also finished my Mom's birthday gift knitted scarf (I still don't really know how to knit) so pictures of those coming soon.

Meanwhile, re-falling in love with the funky Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen) remix on the Romeo and Juliet 10th anniversary remix album.

Totally in love with the art of Leah Giberson - groovy. Her work will some day grace my walls.

Knit Nite

I started a weekly knitting night with some girlfriends, but I don't knit!

What in the world was I thinking? Well...that I could use the time to quilt of course.

Perhaps I should confess that I do think about knitting a lot, even though I basically just buy yarn and put it in a basket.

The quilt that I'm quilting is only about 30 min shy of being fully quilted so perhaps my next post will include a picture of it 'done' before the binding gets on at least.

I found some more PIQF quilt show pix posted here. Oh, and in my last post, that cathedral windows quilt was designed as a giant picture of a tree frog. Seriously! It's a frog! Is that not the coolest ever?

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2009

PIQF 2009 has come and gone and I am a little sad that it's over.

The show was pretty good this year and I had a huge amount of fun.

I had the extreme pleasure of assisting Cindy Brick as the quilt appraiser for the show, so I got to see a lot of awesome quilts and learned a huge ton from her. She is really an incredible appraiser as well as quilt judge and quilt restorer. If you ever have the chance to meet her and have an appraisal done, I would highly recommend it.

After my day of appraisal assisting, I spent the next day running around with my camera and doing a little shopping. I didn't get a lot of things, but I did pick up a few cool items.

The quilts at the show were of course the real fun. I took tons of pictures for you (of course) but since there were so many quilts I only photographed the ones that I loved and the ones that I had time to run around and see. There were so many more awesome quilts that I wish I could have taken pictures of all of them.

That being said, if you did not get to go, please enjoy my flickr slide show:

PIQF 2009

Oh, and if you are new around here, I've been posting these quilt show photos for a while. Check out 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 if you like. (that ought to keep you busy!)

I have found 1 other set posted so far this year by GoDutchBaby here.

The above photo of the cathedral windows quilt has a very special twist to it - do you get it? The quilt is so beautiful in person and was made by Leigh Cabell from Denver Colorado.

Are you ready for PIQF 2009?

Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) 2009 is well underway and started already yesterday.

I'll be there all day tomorrow assisting the conference official appraiser, Cindy Brick. I'm so excited to meet her as she is such an expert in crazy quilts, and historic quilts in general. It is very kind of her to take me as her assistant and I cannot wait to get more appraisal experience under my belt.

I used to HAVE to visit PIQF in order to see my friend Mariko at the Azabu-Ya booth, but she is no longer doing shows. I will miss her dearly, but will be on the look out for other cool shops this time around.

Pinwheels should be there, and there is always something good and taupe-y to see in their booth.

Oh, and my friend Rebecca has a quilt in the show this year (#1111) so be sure to check it out if you have the pleasure to attend.

Clues in the Stitches

Have you ever looked for clues in the quilting stitches?

Can you decipher this deep and meaningful clue?

Ok, well...I wanted to post just a little something light on this rainy Wednesday.

Oh, and check out the tutorial/giveaway over at Mairuru - how to use up some tiny scraps and making something very cool and cute.

Brain Teaser: Who is this superwoman?

Ok, the above photo is of somebody you probably know. Got any guesses you brainy folks? Could it be Madonna? Lucinda Williams? Patricia Clarkson? or.....maybe somebody I ran into at AQSG?

And the 2nd part of the brain teaser is an acronym that I recently became aware of: "WAF"

Any guesses on what that one means? If you have no idea, ask your husband, he probably knows.

Meanwhile, I am hand quilting up a storm on that quilt top I mentioned back in August. Out of 9 blocks I have 6 quilted and hope to have them all done this weekend. Lofty goal, I know.

I'm also thanking my friend in Singapore for emailing me DVD's with Yoko Saito videos. Working on viewing them as they have a different country code on them than the US and will require a bit of fancy work to view. Thank you Mona, I'll let you know as soon as I figure out how to watch them.

Also, to drool over, is the incredible dress that Karyn made over at Make Something blog. She used Nani Iro fabrics (to die for, seriously beautiful).

American Quilt Study Group Seminar 2009

I had the extreme pleasure of spending some time at the American Quilt Study Group (AQSG) seminar last week.

I sat in on a really incredible lecture on Amish quilts by Julie Silber and Janneken Smucker. They are both so expert the field that I was wishing their session was twice as long.

Another highlight was a lecture by Sandi Fox. If you don't have her books yet, Small Endearments is probably my favorite.

I'm already wondering how I can get to the seminar next year.

The vendors they had were awesome. I bought the quilt top above and plan to quilt it.

If you have any interest at all in antique quilts, AQSG membership is something you might want to check out.

Bite your tongue

Our little 1 yr old was running and bit his tongue yesterday. I hope it recovers soon as it is making him one grumpy little guy. He's not digging the nursing sessions as a result so I will confess to also being one unhappy camper.

I was reading some back posts over at Hand Quilting Stitches blog by Sara. Her bag in the style of Yoko Saito is in progress and oh so beautiful.

In order to cheer up a bit, a stopped over at superbuzzy and picked up some cute fabric to possibly whip up some curtains for my kitchen. I will come clean and also admit that I got some yarn too.

Oh, and a quick question for you - does anybody out there have this book: Patchwork Style by Suzuko Koseki? It seems like it's in English from the cover. I'm very intrigued.

Apple Picking and The Winner Is...

Thanks for entering Annie Smith's awesome online, global quilt class give away.

The random number generator picked out comment #9, so it looks like the happy winner Cheryl! Send me your email address - note: mine is quilt(dot)baby(at)hotmail (dot) com and I'll pass it along to Annie so she can enroll you.

I'm sure you'll find Annie's class pretty awesome.

We went apple picking yesterday and had a blast although it was super hot and towards the end we were ready to drink our fresh pressed juice and head home.

Ages ago I made a little apple quilt for a fellow blogger, and I've always toyed around with making another one. Guess I'll be adding that to my ever-growing-to-do-list. It certainly is growing much faster than I can mark things off.

Making a pie is starting to bubble up on that list.

And getting one of these split ring keys is on my list now too.

Quilt Class Give Away: from Annie Smith

My friend Annie Smith is not only an amazing woman, a famous podcaster, and an incredible quilter, but she also teaches classes in her global online classroom over at Quilting Stash Classroom.

She is offering a free seat (!!!) in her awesome online class "Quilting 101" as a give away to some of her favorite bloggers and it looks like you'll be the one to benefit from this contest.

Annie has an intro video posted here talking about why this class is good for beginning, intermediate, and advanced quilters alike.

Want to take quilt classes in your jammies? Well, now's your chance.

In order to win, submit a comment here and I'll pick a winner by random on this coming Saturday night. Polls close at 10pm Pacific time.

I'll pass your name along to Annie, and she'll hook you up.

Each lesson she does includes video instruction. How killer to take time to watch your class 'whenever' instead of having to show up in person? Sweeeeet.

Oh, and the above block is of course another Liberty of London birthday signature block I did for my niece. I'm ahead of the game, this one is for next year.

Falling into the iFold

I've finally done it. Taken the plunge. I'm the proud (and maybe terrified) owner of a new iPhone.

I originally thought, wow, this thing could really distract me from my quilting. That was only until I downloaded two new apps for it - QuiltFab and QuiltRef. They are really cute little iPhone applications that allow you to calculate how much fabric you need for the backing of your quilt or the binding you need to put on. Gee, handy.

Got a fav iPhone app? Please pass it along to me, the new kid on the iBlock. Meanwhile, I'll be here playing Stairway to Heaven on my ocarina.

The quilt block above is the 1st birthday signature block for our baby boy. He's a sweet and adorable little 1.

4 + 1 Kid party

Our kid party was a big hit according to the kid crowd. Our older son turned 4 and the baby turned 1 .

We had this awesome puppeteer, Peter, come, from PT Puppets. He was super entertaining, super professional, and the show was so great that most of the photos I took of the kids watching it include several mouths hanging open. Highly recommend him if you are in the bay area.

It was our first real 'kid' party, as all the other parties we have really thrown have pretty much been for the adults. Kids had a good time, so I guess I was worried over nothing.

Above is another 'in progress' photo I took of the party favor gift. Any more guesses?

When I read this post by Orange Flower Sketchbook I ran to my knitting needles and tried to finish the scarf I am making for my mom. I of course did not finish it today, but I am so so so tempted to try knitting lace after seeing that post.

And for those of you who are fans of the TV show Project Runway, did you know that Jay McCarroll (season 1 winner) has now designed a line of quilt fabric for Free Spirit? How cool is that!

Birthday Party: Party On!

Our boys birthdays are over and I must say that I'm a little sad since the preparations for the kid party and all the hoopla of the fiesta itself was such a huge blast.

I will have to give you a party brain dump in my next post.

Some of you asked a couple of questions about the birthday crowns.

I used Timtex or Peltex inside the two layers of felt in order to give the crown a lot of body and stand up to the battering it usually takes from my kids.

C&T publishing has everything you could want to know about Timtex in this blog post. Peltex seems to be another version of the same material - which is just thick interfacing.

I don't really prefer one or the other, I've used both in different crown's I've made and they both work well.

And to answer your other question, yes, I did make the crown adjustable by putting some simple ties in the back. Thought it would be more comfie than elastic, and with the size of my kids' heads...you never know how big they will actually get!

My mom was here last weekend and brought some goodies from Purl Soho for me. You gotta love these Lorna's Laces Shepherd Striping Sock Yarns for 40% off. Score! Thanks Mom.

Princess 1st Birthday

Today was the first birthday of my darling niece.

I made her a birthday crown (similar to the one I made for my husband and other family members).

She was amazing, adorable, and perhaps the sweetest 1 yr old baby girl on earth.

The crown pattern is from Amanda Soule's book "The Creative Family". A really excellent book, if you don't have a copy yet, it really is time to get one.

What Could I Be Making?

Is the suspense killing you?

Could this be a gift for the kids that are coming to our birthday party?

Might it be the coolest thing ever?

May it cause you to want to come to our party?

Would you like a clue? Ah, I guess you'll have to wait...

I had dinner last night with my friend and film maker Kathleen. After eating already way too much we decided to go totally nuts and visit the candy store. Oh such a bad idea, but oh so much fun.

The film she made called Discmen made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my chair. Her adorable husband is one of the star actors. It's rare to see grown men take their spandex so seriously.

Calm Before the Storm

With all the upcoming kid birthday celebrations, company coming into town, and general hoopla soon to be coming our way, we did the only practical thing last weekend.

We decided to ignore the reality that we have plenty of preparations to do, and take a family vacation at the beach. The little surfers above are my sweet boys.

We visited an awesome seahorse exhibit at the aquarium and even saw a pretty insane marine mammal quilt that is shown just outside of their cafe. Really cool that they have their own quilt featured. I found a picture of it on flickr here - sorry I forgot to snap a shot of it myself this time.

Flotsam is now our new favorite book. I think we'll be reading it at storybook time on a nightly basis for a while.

I've been working on a special surprise gift for kids coming to the birthday party. Stay tuned for the big reveal - assuming I finish it! (sweating beads here)

Have you seen this post by Lucy at Quilting with the Past? Her little windmill doll quilt is simple adorable.

Decorative Kid Party Invitation Envelopes

We are having a puppet themed birthday party this year.

In my usual micro-detailed fashion, I wanted to make the party invites super cute.

I ordered them from Tiny Prints - these guys really have an awesome selection for just about every occasion. It's the 2nd time I've used them, and I'm still really impressed.

Instead of just writing all the addresses on there, I wrote them with some funky hand writing and had my almost-4-yr-old color in all the 'holes' of the letters with pretty colored pencils.

Cute, right? Fun way to involve your kids in addressing the invites when they are too young to actually write all the addresses.

In other news, last night I went to a lecture at my quilt guilt (SCVQA). Lecture by Melinda Bula was entertaining, and her quilts were very beautiful.

I think she uses a fusable technique to make these giant floral quilts. Very Georgia O'Keefe looking. Bright colors. I had seen the quilts all before when I attend the quilting in the garden quilt show in Livermore last year.

Quilt Appraisal: More study time for me!

As I mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of antique quilts and quilt appraisal in general.

My hope is to someday become an AQS certified quilt appraiser. So far, I have been getting some practice, but it has been a bit more slow going since the baby arrived. I'm getting back in the swing of things - starting now.

Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) - a huge and really nice quilt show - is coming to my home town in October.

At the show, Cindy Brick (AQS Certified quilt appraiser) will be there to appraise quilts. She is taking me under her wing as her scribe, so I'll be volunteering to assist her the day during the show.

Really looking forward to learning more about how somebody else does appraisals.

Cindy's web site is an insane wealth of information. She has all these articles published here.

Ones I really loved were on best way to store a quilt, washing and caring for your quilt, and what to do with an old worn quilt.

Oh, and yes I really did cut into my Liberty fabric collection. The above block is the 1st birthday signature block for my darling niece.

I will confess that cutting into Liberty fabric is like taking a small slice into heaven itself.

Birthday Signature Quilt: 4 yrs old

I whipped up this number 4 block so folks at my son's birthday party can sign it and write a message on it for him.

You can see the 1 block that is done already with signatures, an early version of the 2 block, and the blank 3 block featured in previous posts.

I'm starting two new quilts just like this. One for our baby who is turning 1 year old this year, and one for my favorite baby girl on earth - my niece. She'll be 1 as well.

For the girl quilt I'm going to use my collection of Liberty fabrics. Yes, sports fans...I'm going to actually CUT them. I think I deserve a drum roll or something here.

Anyhow, I applique the numbers down on 8 inch sized blocks, and ask all the party goers to sign their names with a little message for the birthday person of honor. In total there will be 16 blocks. Hopefully it doesn't become too embarrassing before that age. Do you think we'll make it that far?