Quilter/Knitter Photo Contest: Let the games begin!

Wow, I'm thrilled that so may of you want to play along with the photo contest! Let's do it!

Above is my 'before' photo (as you may have guessed).

Photo Contest Rules:

1) If you want to participate, leave me a comment.

I'll assume all those that commented on my last post are already participants, but if you haven't commented yet, please do so I can add you to my list.

2) Take a 'before' photo of either a finished project or a project that you are working on now. Your project should be something handmade (ie. quilt block...knitted item...clothing you are making...etc). Post the photo on your blog or flickr. It's the honor system, so try to restrain yourself from reading my rockin' photo guide before you snap the 'before' photo.

3) Read, follow instructions, and gain inspiration from my Blogger's Guide to Photography: your pictures will rock in 10 painless steps.

4) Take an 'after' photo and post it to your blog or flickr. I want us all to have at least a few weekend days to shoot photos, so I'll check back on your progress on Monday night Pacific Time, March 23rd, so finish your photos by then. Leave me another comment when your 'after' is posted so I can check it out!

5) If you play, you'll have a chance to win a fat quarter of the above fabric that is designed by me and produced by Spoonflower. I'll randomly choose the 2 winners out of all those that participate, so good luck!

Photo contest - interested?

I finally wrote the beginnings of the "Quilt Blogger's guide to Photography - your pictures will rock in 10 painless steps".

Before I post it up, I got to thinking that it might be fun to host a little photo contest.

In order to participate, you would take a 'before' photo of a project you're working on before you read the guide, then post the photo to your blog or to flickr.

It wouldn't even need to be of quilt blocks, but it could be of a clothing project, or a knitting project. It could be any hand made project actually.

Then, you'd need to read my 1 page guide to improve your photos, and after reading it take an 'after' photo of the same subject. Then you would need to post your 'after' photo too.

Let me know if it sounds like fun.

Quiltmania Magazine

I suppose I couldn't pull a fast one on you. My last post was of course a picture of binding - and as Amy guessed, it is for my sister's baby quilt. Well done rock stars.

You are well aware that I would not miss a single issue of Quilts Japan or Patchwork Quilt Tsushin.

Since there are only 6 issues a year of each of these, it's easy enough to keep up, and I'm really glad that I don't have to collect any other magazines.

That was until I bumped into Quiltmania.

This magazine is so beautiful. It's discusses all the cool Japanese quilt designers and is in ENGLISH! Yes, sports fan, this is basically a Japanese quilt magazine that can be read by mere mortals like you and me.

Lucy, of Quilting with the Past Blog, is a recent contributor to the magazine. If you haven't had the pleasure of visiting her blog please go see her beautiful quilts.

Thanks for turning me on to the magazine Marianne.

If you want to subscribe, you can call around to your local book store and pick up a copy. Inside the copy you can sign up for $56. I think that's the best deal I've found so far, it looks a lot more expensive to get a subscription from Amazon.

Brain Teaser and zillions of cool links

OK Braniacs: Got an idea of what the above is a photo of?

I'm sure some of you can guess it!

Our little almost 6 month old got his first cold and is really suffering, so think a happy though for his quick recovery...poor little dear.

If you have not seen this video/song by Oren Lavie on you tube, please look at it - you WILL smile. I beg you to view it. Just beautiful.

I cannot resist giving you guys some info that I gathered while at Stitches West. Even though I'm not really a knitter, I learned of some cool shops out there:

Asciano Fiber Art Tools: This booth was scary amazing beautiful tempting. They specialize in hand crafted (read works of art) tools such as knitting needles, crochet hooks, drop spindles. All to DIE for. So, if you need a gift for that knitter/crocheter in your life, or if you're married to Ms. Quilt Otaku and you have no idea what to get her for her next birthday...this shop is a must check out.

Toots Le Blanc & Co.: If Yoko Saito could knit, she would love this shop. All natural colors, muted, taupes, awesome yarns. Really beautiful and classy.

Sheila & Michael Ernst: These guys make BEAUTIFUL glass knitting needles. So artistic that you won't drop any stitches because you'll be busy looking at your needles with admiration.

Carolina Homespun: Not much that the booth didn't have, but I got some adorable little tiny crochet hooks from here - called "Hook/Point 'Wanda' "

Serendipity Spinners: A local spinning guild in San Jose. I have no idea how to spin yarn, but they seemed eager to teach anybody interested to know, and meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month 10am to 4pm in the San Jose History Park, 1650 Senter Rd. under the big oak tree. Sounds like fun.

Stitches West 2009

Stitches West 2009 is a knitting convention that is on this weekend very close to my house in San Jose, California. My buddy Sharon and I will be off to check it out tomorrow morning.

My quilting friend Marianne already went, and said it was super cool. Thanks again for visiting Marianne, and for the sock yarn! Perhaps there are more socks in my future.

I did actually finish the sock (photo above) after taking the sock class at Green Planet Yarn and spending some quality time with a knitting book. I'm still wondering what an SSK is....sigh...I will never be a 'real' knitter.

For all you Dear Jane Quilt addicts, and you know who you are (ahem, Lynn of Craft Sew) - check out Purl's sale on Dear Jane fabric. At 40% off who could resist?

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Today is Fat Tuesday - the day before the start of Lent - a season in which Catholics often give up something ie. coffee, sweets, diet coke...I'll be giving up all of those three. Think I'll make it to Easter without cheating?

Here's another fabric design that I made with my fav new buddies at Spoonflower.

Being able to design your own fabric and have it sent to your door is such an awesome pleasure.

My one concern with their fabric is - will it stand the test of washing and UV and time in general? I suppose the only way to answer that is to make a quilt with it.

Chalk another project onto my to do list.

In case you feel the urge to applique a tulip quilt, please visit Samsy and check out the adorable block that she just made. Love it!!

Hand Dyed Fabrics

The above is a picture of a quilt that was hanging up at PIQF last year, I did not make it, but I drooled over it and photographed it a couple of times. The quilt maker took a class from the owner of Primrose Gradations.

Primrose Gradations used to be my favorite vendor at PIQF. Each year I would visit their booth and scoop up pieces of fabric large and small.

Their colors are awesome, and really were 'my kind' of fabrics.

I made a baby quilt for a friend's baby using exclusively their fabrics.

Until now, I thought that they were out of business, but it looks like you can buy their fabrics online! Yip-eee!!!

I'm dying (har har har) to take a class from them on how to dye fabric. Maybe some time in the future. They don't live all the far from my in-laws.

Christening for our little one

On Saturday, we Christened our baby son. He was an angel and did not even cry a tiny bit when the water was poured over his head.

So many friends and family members were here to celebrate with us, that the weekend was one of the nicest on record.

I managed to do a tiny amount of knitting on my sock, but that was all in terms of creative work for the weekend since lots of other cool things were going on.

I must say that Blogger is making me a bit nuts by not letting me left justify my text. Perhaps a sign that I need to go to bed.

Let me leave you with a link to some beautiful paintings by Duane Keiser. He has a very interesting project to paint 1000 tiny paintings. They are pretty affordable and tiny and adorable. I'm thinking of saving up to get one...in any case, enjoy.

Wouldn't it be fun to make 1000 tiny quilts? I think I'd settle for finishing 100 of them!

Spoonflower

Of course, the fabric from my last post was designed by me!

Spoonflower, for those of you who don't know, is a web site that allows you to upload your own designs and they make fabric out of them. I had so much fun playing around with the colors and the dots.

I took some color samples from an antique quilt that I ran into, and used those colors in the dots on the fabric that I designed. It was a unique color combo, one that my mom really liked, and I thought it might make some interesting fabric.

I do love the results that I got with Spoonflower's fabric printing service, but I will mention that they do warn you that they don't have a 'true black' color. I think my design would have been better had I stayed away from using black all together.

My in-laws gave me a giant gift cert to use them for Christmas, and I'm only now just getting around to doing a few more designs.

Anyhow, the above tiny quilt is something I picked up for less than $10 at our church antique sale last weekend. Score! Another addition to my doll quilt wall.

Olive fabric

Oh, thank you for having so much faith in me, but I will confess that the baby girl's quilt is NOT done!!

I started to quilt the border in a really elaborate pattern, and it didn't show up well with the busy border fabric, so I'll be taking it out before I do anything else.

But I just got this new fabric shown above. The colors are from an antique 1840's quilt, but the pattern is hip and modern.

Any ideas on who the brilliant fabric designer is? Hint...hint...

Happy Groundhog Day

Today is Groundhog Day, and like the movie, I sort of wish it could last forever. Tomorrow is my last day of maternity leave.

Last Saturday I became the Godmother to my beautiful niece. I was sweating a bit in order to get her baby quilt finished before the big event,

Think that I finished it in time? Take a guess!

Suzuko Koseki Quilts

Suzuko Koseki publishes quilting books in Japanese, and also designs fabric.

She has a background in fashion, and was a student of my favorite Chuck Nohara. You can get a bit more bio info on Suzuko here, as well as see another one of the books she has published.

The lovely and talented Mrs Schmenkman posted about the above book by Suzuko Koseki and I ran off to Yes Asia to pick up my own copy. ISBN 4140311495.

This is the first time I have used Yes Asia, but it worked out very very nicely, and I would certainly order from them again.

The book has mostly pieced flower designs for small quilts and bags and things. Very very pretty. I really want to make some of these blocks.

The end is near....a sigh and a tear

The only other time I have felt this sad was when my maternity leave ended with our first son.

Next week is my last week off with our new baby, and I will confess I am a little more blue than usual.

I love each peach-fuzzy hair on his head, each teenie toe nail, each giggle and each fat fold. The last few months off have given us some incredible time together, and I have fallen in love.

My only comfort is something I learned with my first son. Even though you take them off to babysitting, they don't forget who their real mommy is.

I will do my best to enjoy this last week of fun with both my sons, and return to my job (which I actually do like very much) next week.

So what's a girl to do to cheer up?

Alex of Moonstitches also posted a wonderful slide show of the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2009. Thanks Alex, and to all, please do pop over and enjoy her photos.

Kathie pointed me to Sew Unique Creations for Ecology Cloth. Mine just came in the mail. Now to plot what to do with it!

And lastly, for some quilty inspiration, I was looking at Susan McCord's Quilts. They are stunning.

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2009

Each year in January I hope and pray that I can go to the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival. I have yet to actually make it there; however, I will not wallow in agony.

No, no....no need to cry. We have the talented and generous Jennifer of Moving Hands Blog to thank for her awesome images and the incredible images on Flickr.

If you are a quilter, or an artist, or just a human being with a pulse...you MUST view these incredible photos. They are so inspirational. Jennifer, I cannot thank you enough for capturing these quilts so beautifully.

As you can see above, I am still working on learning to knit. This is my first attempt at a sock.

I spent my trip to Yosemite with a friend that said, "You know, you can buy socks, right?"

Yeah, thanks.

Yosemite in winter with kids

After several days of rest in Yosemite, I have discovered that it is indeed possible to enjoy some winter fun, even with kids along for the ride.

My husband and I used to be crazy wild ski bums. We would try to get up to the snow as often as we could.

Once the kids arrived, we did much less of it, but it turns out that Yosemite is a cool place for kids in winter.

We ice skated in the shadow of Half Dome on the outdoor rink. Check out a cool picture of it here...I hardly had a free hand to skate let alone photograph this place. That was probably my favorite part. We did some sled runs in Curry Village Toboggan Hill, as well as on the golf course at Wawona. Fun was had by all.

On the way there and back I made some progress on a sock I'm am learning to knit. Pix soon, I promise.

2009 Resolutions

I cannot believe it's already half way through January, and I still have not posted my resolutions for 2009! Here goes:

1. Find my desk again under all the clutter

2. Finish my Baltimore Album quilt (see un-done resolution from last year, ahem)

3. Make progress on the baby books / scrap books for my boys - oh, how I have procrastinated on this one, or at least get my sister to make the pages for me.

4. Finish quilting the quilt tops that I have waiting in the wings (house quilt, plaid quilt, antique quilt, and niece baby quilt).

5. Work out with my husband.

6. Do something cool with my hair. I think a cut is long overdue.

7. Write up a Do's and Dont's of blog photography to inspire folks to take better photos of their crafts for the greater bloggy good.

8. Knit a pair of socks. Yes, that would be 2 of them. Not just a half of one with a bunch of holes in it. No, the goal is 2 wearable socks.

9. Enjoy being a working mom.

10. Contine to eat local as much as possible, and use our CSA at every chance we get.

In other news, I don't think I can resist getting some Ecology Cloth to try with my quilts. Kathie mentions it's on sale!

Food Wars & Japanese Baby Quilt

As a make some progress on the hand quilting party of the Japanese Baby Quilt for my little darling niece (feverishly trying to finish it before her Baptism later this month), I wanted to share a photo of it in my quilt hoop.

Most of you either have or at some point had a picky little eater in your house...and I want to put some feelers out there for ideas of what to do.

I've tried covering things with ketchup, cutting things into cute shapes, bribes, games, and frankly I'm a bit out of ideas.

How does one get a 3 year old to eat something else besides mac and cheese?

If you have any brilliant nuggets or idea gems for me please do pass them along. Also, if you know of some good books that helped you, I'm not beyond a trip to my local library to get some help here.

Thanks in advance and best wishes for veggie and meat eating from noodle central.

Hand Quilting = relaxing

I'm having fun quilting my dear sweet niece's baby quilt these days. I will admit it isn't the most speedy process, but it is so relaxing that it helps me fall asleep quicker at night.

The photo above is the back of the quilt. I think it looks kinda cool with white fabric and red thread.

Today is "Little Christmas" when the 3 wise men visited the infant Jesus. Traditionally, my mom would give us a small gift to close out the season back when we were kids.

I thought that was a really sweet tradition, so I gave a little book called Balloonia to my son in order to carry it on. My husband surprised me with some Burt's Bees lip gloss (rockin!) as my little gift.

While I was in the mall today I ran into these rain boots by Tokidoki and I immediately fell in love. So Japanese-superflat-inspired and cute. I didn't try them on for fear I would buy them.

Let them eat cake

Traveling by car from the bay area to Orange County in Southern California is certainly an interesting undertaking with two kids. They were both on their best behavior, but it takes us about 10 hours instead of the 6 that it once took back in the days of yore.

It was a wonderful visit, and seeing our family & friends at Christmas was so awesome. On the way home we stopped at a little town called Paso Robles, on the central Californian coast. We discovered this amazing bakery called Two Little Birds Bakery, and fell in love. Amazing coffee and the red cupcake is worth fighting over. We met the girls who own it, and they were so very charming and didn't mind a bit when we did a little nursing off in the corner.

Also in Paso Robles is a quilt shop called Wine Country Quilting. We had a few moments to check it out. It was very friendly, although none of the fabric was what I'm personally really interested in, they had a lot of popular American designer's fabrics there.

My favorite surprise gift of this Christmas? It had to be my gift certificate to Purl Soho. Thanks Ray and Jen! How did you guys ever know that I would love that? Perhaps it will fulfill my craving for some alphabet fruit fabric!

What was your fav surprise gift this year?

The road is paved with good intentions

Looking back on 2008, I did have a humble list of 10 things I resolved to do during the year.

If I only accomplished 60% of them, am I operating at less than passing marks?

Maybe I'll implement a bell curve and say that I am doing OK since most people completely ignore their New Year's resolutions.

Either way, here's how I stack up.

2008 Resolutions and status report:

1. Devote more time and energy to our family (my favorite thing to do, this one is a gimme).
Status: Done. Duh, I produced a baby! If that doesn't cover the energy part, I don't know what does.

2. Finish my sister’s Dear Jane Dear Hannah wedding quilt (this will be a HUGE stretch)
Status: Pathetic. I will admit I hardly touched it all year, sorry sis. You were bumped for the baby quilts (above). You know that's a much higher calling.

3. Fine tune my humble little blog, have a freebee section of patterns and handful of some small things in a little shop section.
Status: Done. My amazing husband even helped me register a domain for my blog, www.quiltotaku.com, which I have aspirations to flesh out this year. Gosh, I feel another resolution coming on. I have so many ideas!

4. Write in permanent ink on my Baltimore album quilt blocks.
Status: Zilch. I am still too chicken to write on my blocks. Maybe I'll get up the moxie soon.

5. Hit the gym more.
Status: Sad, but can I pull the "I was pregnant" excuse and promise to repent in 2009?

6. Do something special for our house that it well deserves (new light fixtures? Paint the scary ugly kitchen?)
Status: Done. New light fixtures help out a lot.

7. Become a certified quilt appraiser
Status: Getting there. I realized it takes several years before you can get certified, so I'm well on my way by having appraised many quilts this year.

8. Attend at least 2 major quilt shows, photograph them, and post comprehensive flickr sets for all to all enjoy
Status: Done.

9. Be more green: seek out a CSA source for our family, grow more of our own food in the garden, and make an effort to buy locally as much as possible.
Status: Done. We used Two Small Farms all season, and are already signed up for next year. This was one of the highlights of 2008 for me.

10. In another environmentally friendly vein - Keep my over 10 yr old, 115K+ mile, beloved car even though it’s totally impractical doesn’t have a trunk and only holds 4 people.
Status: Done. I have even been known to happily cram my husband and two kids in there with me on rare occasion.