Hello 2010!

Oh my poor neglected blog!  I hope you forgive me... I'll give you lots of photos!  I have been really busy, but I have been sewing!  I knitted a  blanket for Chris' parents, and my sister and I sewed placemats and napkins for my mom.  Both were very well received. 

Lucy made it through Christmas with minimal torture from her human parents and received lots of toys and kisses.  Lets just say she was pooped.

      

I've also been sewing all the quilting bee blocks:



But perhaps most exciting of all, Chris' mom's friend's friend had an unfinished cathedral window quilt that needed a home, and I am the lucky one who received the box!  Look at all these goodies:



Recently I have been trying to catch up on my Green Tea and Sweet Beans block of the month.  I will update with photos of those blocks soon!

City of Angels

So a couple of weekends ago, I went down to LA to watch the World Baseball Classic. It was a fantastic experience. It was AMAZING how spirited the fans were! We were rooting for Japan, and they won! Chris caught a baseball. We were sitting in the South Korea section (by accident), and we had made posters, but since we were so outnumbered we didn't use them. Thank goodness, because those posters prevented the baseball from rolling out of our aisle!

We stayed at my cousin's house in Santa Monica, and when I wasn't at a baseball game, we were eating or looking for fabric shops. Here is my loot for the weekend...

From F&S Fabrics, I got some yardage of bamboo knits for shirts and dresses, scraps (25 cents a piece) for Dear Jane, another bobbin saver for my featherweight, and some rickrack to make some napkins.

From the Sewing Arts Center in Santa Monica (GREAT store), I got some fabrics for my Dear Jane, and transfer paper so I can make those ornaments I never finished last year...

And best of all, I got to raid my cousin's scrap pile! I see more Dear Jane blocks! Thanks Cousin!

NaBloPoMo: Day 20

Working on a new project...

But did you know that Erin Michaels has a new fabric line coming out for Moda? I'm so excited!!

Shop Hop by the Bay 2008

This past weekend was the Shop Hop, and it was my first year participating in it. We left behind this cute face

and went on a road trip. We spent the weekend down in Asilomar, and it was beautiful there. Here are some shots of Asilomar

It was cold and super fun. I haven't been tidepooling since grade school.

So the main event was the shop hop. We made it to all the shops, including the museum. I didn't have any projects in mind, so I didn't buy much. Our original plan was to take a photo in front of every store, but we forgot at the first few stores and scrapped that idea. There were a total of 13 stores plus the museum, and each stop would give you a charm for a charm bracelet. Very cute. Unfortunately, our last stop was the museum and they were out of charms and bracelets, so we have a lot of loose charms for now. We'll be watching our mailbox.

All in all it was fun, and I'll definitely do it again next year. Here is the tired pup face after we returned. My parents had a party when we were gone, and Lucy was exhausted from trying to get everyone to play with her...


And just because they're pretty, here are some flowers from my visit to the Filoli Center last friday. I think it's funny that I don't really like purple, but I LOVE lavender. I especially like the flower (plant?) in the bottom left corner. Reminded me of fabrics like this one and this one

In Stitches Sew Along: Sept/Oct Patchwork Bag

This bag is the original reason why I bought this book. When flipping through the book, I immediately noticed this bag. What's not to love? There's patchwork, quilting and it's big enough to fit everything I carry around everyday. I was so excited when it was announced as the Sept/Oct project. Like usual, I procrastinated and waited until the last 2 weeks of October to start the project. To my surprise, I finished it in one weekend. I think making the Weekender Bag prepared me for how many steps these Amy Butler bags can take.

Since it took me so long to start, I got to see what all the other bloggers said about this bag. Everyone seemed to like how it was turning out, and that it was actually looked like the bag in the book. No wonky corners or stuffing the bag with clothes to get a boxy shape.

I decided that this bag was going to be loved. I went out and got Amy Butler's Nigella prints to make this bag. And I really do love this bag. I made the patchwork the same as the suggested sample in the book. I love the fabric and I really like how it turned out.

Of course, bags are meant to have pockets. So I added one.

Even better, I've already used it twice! :)

Simple Quilts are so hard!!

So with making a quilt in mind, I had bought 1 meter of 6 different, coordinating fabrics. Since some of these fabrics are pretty large scale, I wanted to do a simple quilt pattern that would allow you to see the fabrics. Well playing around with Microsoft Photo Editor and Powerpoint (my computer is having trouble running Photoshop) here is what I got.

We'll call this #1. Based on one of Maritza's doll quilts

#2 - Loosely based on the Half Moon Bay quilt I did

#3 - Who doesn't like squares and linen? I guess like looks like another one of Maritza's too!

#4 - similar pattern found here by googling "simple japanese quilt". Actually, I like their original pattern quilt a bit...

#5 added on after I added the link for #4

So what do you think?

Japan Goodies + more

Wow it's been a long time since I've been back, and I still haven't posted my japan goodies! (Sara, if you're reading this, some of these fabrics may make their way into your mailbox... let met know if there is one that especially catches your eye!) My cousin kindly reminded me that it's been forever since I've posted... so here we go!

Some new fabrics. The green one is destined to be a Japanese bandit hankerchief for Chris. The flowered one will probably be a shirt for me, and the last two most likely will turn into a quilt someday...

Cute fabrics. I've seen a lot of these on Superbuzzy. My favorite is the alligators.

Chris wanted me to make a Japanese quilt, but all of my fabrics were too modern for him. He selected these ones for a more Japanese-y quilt

And here are more goodies! The dragon is the mascot for the Chunichi Dragons, who we rooted for at the baseball game in Nagoya. The deer bag and the owl coin purse we bought in Japan because I was sick of carrying a backpack around looking like a tourist... I love them both!

Here are some fabrics I bought from a fabric store that is closing soon. The Kaffe Fasset one will probably become a One Block Wonder quilt. Hope it looks nice! I almost feel bad cutting up the fabric because it is so beautiful...

And lastly, here is my completed embroidery for week 2 of Crafty Daisies' learn to embroider! Hurray!

Indonesian Fabric Run

My parents just went on a whirlwind trip to Indonesia for my aunt's 81st birthday. They got me some fabulous batiks while they were there. I'm super excited for these, and can't wait to make a dress or two out of them.

I have been looking through The Crafter's Companion, and there are a couple projects I'm super excited to make. Once my WIP list goes down a little. Here are some examples of the finished projects: tissue box house, fabric basket

Joel Dewberry

I was looking at buzzville and her travels to the Quilt Market in Salt Lake City when I noticed she posted about Joel Dewberry. I had never heard of him before, but apparently he's a new designer for Westminster Fabrics. I think I have found another line of fabrics that I'm in love with! Image above is from his site. There isn't much there right now, but I'm super excited for his line to be released!

On a side note, I changed my blog template so I can post standard medium size images straight from flickr. HURRAY!