Kimonos

I'm not usually one to spruik on my blog, but I've just come across a super sweet Japanese-inspired book for my Japan-obsessed Ollie.

(image from Booktopia - see link below)

Kimonos by Annelore Parot (which can be found here - check out some of the inside pages) is so sweet! Although it is mostly about a handful of Japanese girls in their kimonos, I think Ollie will adore it. There are a few boys and men pictured in traditional clothing, so I may even be able to convince him to wear something Japanese-y. Definitely one for his Christmas stocking!

November...

was an awful one this year. Two days after returning from Japan, a close family member passed away. So November has pretty much been a write off.

We did have a couple of birthdays to celebrate though. My beautiful Ollie turned 5 on October 27th (when I was in Japan - that was a hard day for me, but he had a great day!), so we celebrated with a yummy chocolate cake. He's very excited to be a big 5 year old. One of the highlights so far has been Prep orientation. He's had 3 one hour sessions at his new school, and was so excited and proud to be standing amongst all his new class mates.


My birthday passed fairly quietly (and not without a few tears). I was just happy to have family around me. I did splurge on my gift to myself this year (with some help from mum) - a Horn sewing cabinet, purchased on ebay, and in near mint condition. Previously, my sewing machine was set up on a very messy little table in the corner of my lounge room. I'm so excited to be able to put it out of sight when I'm not using it, knowing that it's so easy to bring out again.

I've been completely lacking in creative motivation since I returned from Japan, so I was hoping that this would be just the thing to get me sewing again. As you can see in the bottom right corner, today I've been working on the French General Flying Geese (FGFG!) quilt from Fat Quarterly eZine, Issue 1. Slowly getting there...

Japan - It's all in the details.

One of the many things I loved about Japan was the attention to detail. These were just a few of the gorgeous manhole covers we saw on our travels throughout Japan:

Miyajima

Tokyo

Hakone (technically not a manhole cover, but still beautiful)

Takayama

Arashiyama

Takayama

More to come!

Images of Japan

I'm back! Here are a few images selected from the many hundreds I took :)

Jo-san

Bamboo Grove, Arashiyama

Bamboo Grove, Arashiyama

Takayama

Shinjuku

Imperial Palace Tokyo

I really enjoyed Japan. The people are absolutely lovely, so sweet and helpful; the public transport system is easy to use and oh-so efficient; and all the places we visited to were so clean and tidy. Stay tuned for more detail.

Freckles

10 days, and counting!!

Konichiwa!

With only 10 more sleeps (not including day time kips) til I fly off to Japan, I thought it was high time to get some Japanese holiday sewing done.

I bought some beautiful Nani Iro double gauze on Etsy a couple of months ago, and searched high and low all over the internets for the right pattern for it. I ummed and ahhhed for a good few weeks over the Summer Blouse pattern in Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing, but wasn't overly happy with the shapelessness of it. Eventually, I came across this tunic that Bec made, and I bought myself the pattern that night. It's the Schoolhouse Tunic by Meg from Sew Liberated.

It finally arrived yesterday (things always seem to take longer when you're in a hurry to receive them!), and I got stuck into pretty much straight away. It's a very easy pattern to follow, and I had good intentions to follow it to the letter (a rarity for me!). When it came time to try it on, though, it was too big. Only a size or so too big, but it was feeling a bit sack-like.


I spent half the night unpicking and resewing, with a few extra modifications along the way. For example, I've made the pleats larger, I've crossed over the front bodice sections where it joins the skirt (mostly to stop the gaping), I've taken length off the bodice, and I've added darts onto the bodice back.


This morning I unpicked the hem, and took both sides in about 2 inches, re-hemmed, and now I have a tunic that I'm really happy with. It fits perfectly, the fabric is so soft, and I don't think I've ever made a garment for myself that I'm as happy with as this.I'm off to Spotlight now to get some black thread for the overlocker so I can get stuck into Version Two.

More Bee Blocks

Please excuse the muddled order of photos - blogger was not being helpful tonight.

Have I shown you this block made for Jen?
It has now been embellished and is ready to post. See the last 2 pics for embellishments.

The following 2 blocks are for an 'I spy' quilt my friends and I are putting together. More on that when I have more to show.
The star is for Tacha of Busy Bees. I used a free pattern found online for this one.
As promised, Jen's embellishments. Some cute little buttons;
and some colourful and sparkly ric rac.

Urban Home Goods Swap

Once again, I took part in the Urban Home Goods Swap (hosted on flickr). As the name suggests, it is a blind swap involving any hand made goodies for the home.

For round one I was fortunate enough to receive some gorgeous place mats made by Isa of Denmark. Would you believe, for round 2 I received even more goodies from Isa! This time she created some super sweet pot holders made from a mix of linen and blues, as well as a large quilted tea cosy. Isa sews so beautifully, and her choice in fabrics is spot on. Thanks Isa!


I had a tough time trying to work out what to make for my secret partner. In the end, I went with a Space Invaders cross stitch hoop.


I googled Space Invaders to find some images, and found plenty of screen shots to use as a guide. I drew up the different game components on some graph paper, and got stuck into the cross stitching!


I spent way more time on it than I expected, but I love the results!

I also threw in a crochet heart garland (so hard to photograph a garland or bunting, don't you think?). Hopefully my partner likes it all!

Sk8er Boy

That title probably makes me very uncool as a mother!

Ollie has been spending some quality time on his scooter at skate parks in the last few weeks. Miss J has even taken to dressing him up as a skater boy (think skinny jeans and shirts).
He's such a tough little thing. He has the occasional fall, but picks himself up quickly and gets on with it.

I was initially wary of the bigger kids (and men) on skateboards and BMX's, but they've shown themselves to be totally cool with a 4 year old on his scooter, even if he does cut in front of them every now and then.
Today a young man on his BMX even reached out his hand to pull Ollie up to the top of a ramp. Ollie was absolutely beaming - he was one of the boys!

I, of course, wanted to run up to the guy and gushingly thank him for being so kind to my boy, but stood back and let Ollie have his moment with the big boys.

::57::

More bee blocks - forgive my laziness if you've seen some of these before - I can't be bothered checking old posts.


Big blocks for Sheridan:
Smaller blocks for Liz:

Orange blocks for Amber:



The Japan plans are coming along nicely. The airfares have been paid for, accommodation booked (just waiting on my tax return to pay that off), and we start learning Japanese through CAE tomorrow night! Only 57 sleeps til departure :)

My Multi Tasker

Although I had seen these around the traps, I hadn't thought of making one til Annabel from Perle 8's got her hands on an old copy of Mixtape that featured a tutorial.

Annabel (very nicely) supplied me with the op-shopped placemats and blanket pieces required to make up the tool (as well as some sandpaper and vinyl that I didn't end up using).


Amitie provided the fabric (at a cost to me, of course!!), Spotlight the felt. (I had just admired a different colourway of the fabric at Perle 8's on Thursday before finding some at the Amitie sale for 50% off!)When closed (as above) the multi tasker may be used like a mini portable ironing board.
When opened, it reveals an A4 sized cutting mat on one side, and felt on the other side (which I imagine will be helpful when laying out cut pieces of fabric).

My end product is slightly different to the one in Mixtape as I've omitted the vinyl (or leather) and sandpaper, and used felt instead. I really have no idea what the sandpaper and vinyl would be used for, so I think using the felt works better for me. To see a multi tasker made according to the instructions, check out Annabel's.

Details (totally taken from Annabel): Multi Tasker Tutorial, devised by Kirsty from Kootoyoo, found in Issue 11 of Mixtapezine.

65 days, 21 hrs....

Sheridan's Bee Blocks

Fat Geese Quilt

{ Handsome } Hexies Swap

Fabulous finds

The quilt store gods were smiling down on me today - I found some lovely hard to find fabrics in a local quilt store!

Prints Charming bubbles

Heather Ross Gnomes

Heather Ross Mushrooms

Summer in the City Birds

Hand Quilting

Goodness me! Twelve months ago I blogged about constructing this quilt top.
Today I can happily report that I've started hand quilting it. I haven't hand quilted a quilt before, but I've been inspired by the likes of Andi and Annabel from Perle 8's.

Please keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't take me another 12 months to finish it!

The Whirlygig

Some months ago I was given a heap of fabric scraps. They weren't really my style, so they kind of stuck out like a sore thumb on my fabric shelves. I decided I had to use them up quickly, so I paired them with a Kona Indigo solid to make this whirlygig quilt.
It was fun to make, and I had a lot of help from my quilting assistant Ollie, who helped me lay the blocks randomly on the floor, then passed the blocks to me in the correct order so I could sew them together.
I decided on the pieced strip on the back to use up even more of the scraps, and teamed that with a Kona navy solid. The scrappy binding ties it all together.
I used invisible thread (in smoke) to quilt it as I didn't want the quilting to interfere with the look of the quilt. Navy thread would have darkened the whirlygigs, and a lighter thread would be too visible on the indigo. Although I like the finished appearance of the quilting, I won't be using invisible thread again!
It was too close in colour to my hair, so I was constantly confused as to what was thread and what was hair. It was a pain in the arse winding onto the bobbin - as you can see above it broke one of the bobbins, resulting in a tangled nasty mess. Never again.

On the plus side, though, the only thing I needed to purchase during the making of the quilt was the invisible thread. Everything else, including the batting, was from my stash. And who doesn't love a stash busting quilt??

Ice Cream Social Winner!

I used the random integer thingy to choose a winner (out of sheer laziness, of course! I could not be bothered writing out all 21 names!).

So, the first winner chosen was number 4 - Karen! Except, Karen doesn't have a child who could wear the blouse, so I'll send something else to you Karen!

Second time lucky was number 21 - Judy! Unfortunately I have no way of contacting Judy, so if i can't hunt her down in the next week I'll have to do a redraw :)


Speaking of giveaways, I recently won these patterns from Louise. She even hand delivered them - thanks Louise! If I wasn't feeling so shite with a bad case of man-flu at the moment, I would be whipping up a little parterre quilt tomorrow for a baby boy who recently joined the extended family. Instead, I'll be groaning on the couch hoping for a miracle cure.

Karen and Judy - email me your details!

Japan

My sister and I are heading to Japan in October. We are on the verge of booking our tickets and accommodation - but we need your help!

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Have you been to Japan?

Have you heard great things about it?

Do you have some invaluable tips for us about traveling in Japan?

What are the must-see destinations?

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We'll be in Japan for two weeks at the end of October.

I look forward to reading your tips!