skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I made this bag about a month ago and have wanted to
show it here, because I really love how it turned out.
Each fabric is one of my favorite stash.
This is the other side. For this side, I used gray fabric
with white polka dots instead of the shocking pink fabric.
A little difference makes a pretty big difference, doesn't it?
Either way, I love it *smile*
The denim fabric for the exterior handles comes from
my recycled jeans.
It might be kinda hard to see, but this side I used
bright yellow thread to quilt, and the other side
was done with soft pink thread. I really enjoy this
parallel quilting and always used white thread but
this time I decided to be a little more open-minded
and adventurous by using different colors' one.
It was fun ;)
I'm sure we all go through this but my fave stashes
change all the time. At this moment, I love fabric
like these: fabric consisting of no more than two colors.
I still like bold, vibrant colors but am not too
crazy about busy-looking fabric. I haven't been to
fabric stores for a long time. I hope I'll see fabric
like this next time I go there ... ;) Wish me luck!
Joe and I are going to San Francisco tomorrow.
We have been such stubborn homebodies.
Staying home is nice, but sometimes I just need
to get out, appreciate this awesome weather, and have fun.
I hope you all have a great weekend.
Thanks for coming and reading!
(Photos borrowed from BeachField)
Some of you who looked at my last post asked me whether
you can get hands on the stamps designed by ako of Beach Field.
When I told her that her stamps are getting lots of attention here,
she was super delighted and said she would absolutely LOVE to let
her stamps go global!
I really like to share things I got from Japanese little online
shops in this blog, but it always made me sad to find out that
those shops were often, very often, reluctant to accept paypal/credit
card payment and/or to ship internationally. The language barrier is a
part of it too. It made me the saddest when you excitingly contacted me
to ask if you can purchase those and my answer was 'no'.
I've helped some people personally, being an intermediary between
a shop in Japan and a buyer in America, or the other way around.
It was nice to be able to help, but every time the transaction
happened I wished I could do for many more people at the same time:
Buying a bunch from Japan all at once and send individual packages
from here so that you can save money on shipping.
So, I am really excited to announce that this time, I want
to make the collective purchase happen! If you can let me know
how many of which stamps you want, I'll order yours with mine.
As soon as the package arrives here, I'll send yours to you from here, California.
These stamps are designd by ako of Beach Field whose crafty blog
places No.1 in Handmade Stamp Blog Ranking in Japan. Her stamps
are only available in Japan at this moment, but like I said,
she wants her stamps to travel to many countries.
The manufacturer of the stamps confirmed with me that
there is no upper limit as to quantities to be ordered,
so if you're interested, take this opportunities to get
these super kawaii stamps this time.
This is how it works.
1) Send me an e-mail letting me know what you want to order.
2) I'll get back to you within 24 hours with a total cost
including shipping. (Here, shipping means shipping from California
to where you live. The prices of the stamps given below already
include shipping from Japan to the USA. So if you are someone
living in the US and ordering a few small stamps, it will be
like $2 plus the cost for your items. For shipping to other countries,
I would need to find out, but I'd be more than willing
to send your packages internationally.)
3) You send me a payment via paypal/check/money order by
July 25th. I'll place an order on that day.
4) The package arrives here
5) I'll notify you and send your items to you.
Anyway, it was too much blah blah blah..
Let me now show you the cute stamps!
These stamps from No.1 to No.15 are $3.80 USD each.
Each stamp measures 0.6" x 0.6" x 2.4" (15mm x 15mm x 60mm).
$12 USD. Measurement:1" x 1.8" x 1"(25mm x 45mm x 25mm).
$17 USD. Measurement:1.8" x 2" x 1"(45mm x 50mm x 25mm).
$8.40 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 1.6" x 1"(30mm x 40mm x 25mm).
$26 USD. Measurement:2.2" x 4.1" x 1"(55mm x 105mm x 25mm).
$13 USD. Measurement:1.4" x 2.4" x 1"(35mm x 60mm x 25mm).
$15.50 USD. Measurement:1.6" x 2.4" x 1"(40mm x 60mm x 25mm).
$15.50 USD. Measurement:1.8" x 2.2" x 1"(45mm x 55mm x 25mm).
$8.40 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 1.8" x 1"(30mm x 45mm x 25mm).
$16.50 USD. Measurement:1.4" x 3.1" x 1"(35mm x 80mm x 25mm).
$15.60 USD. Measurement:1.6" x 3.1" x 1"(40mm x 80mm x 25mm).
$8.40 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 1.4" x 1"(30mm x 35mm x 25mm).
$7.20 USD. Measurement:1" x 1.2" x 1"(25mm x 30mm x 25mm).
$7.20 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 1.4" x 1"(30mm x 35mm x 25mm).
$13.20 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 3.1" x 1"(30mm x 80mm x 25mm).
$8.40 USD. Measurement:1" x 1.8" x 1"(25mm x 45mm x 25mm).
$9.20 USD. Measurement:1" x 2.2" x 1"(25mm x 55mm x 25mm).
$15.60 USD. Measurement:2" x 2" x 1"(50mm x 50mm x 25mm).
$10.80 USD. Measurement:1.2" x 2.4" x 1"(30mm x 60mm x 25mm).
If you're interested, e-mail at ayumi_seattle at hotmail dot com
or leave a comment under this post letting me know what you
want to order and your e-mail address. And please remember that
July 25th is the deadline. This may be the only time I can do
this, so please make sure to let me know by July 25th.
Thanks for coming and reading!
Hi all! It's the fourth of July!
Happy Birthday to America! I moved to this country
in 2003. I never planned to stay here this long, but
the more I spent time here, the more I've become accustomed to
cultures, customs, and lifestyles in the US and gained comfort
living here. I went through a bunch of culture shocks and often
thought about moving back to Japan and living with the cultures and
language that I grew up with while being near my family and friends.
But oh my goodness. Time flew. Now I've spent over 20% of my
life in the US. I have to admit that my life would have been
totally different - absolutely boring - if I didn't move here 6 years ago.
Living here has taught me that it is ok to be who I am,
it is ok to express in the way I want, it is ok to
pursue my goals without worrying about things
I shouldn't worry about.
Well, I am definitely not trying to say these are the
things you can't achieve if you are in Japan (Japan is super
cool in a lot of ways), but living in a different country
has given me opportunities to meet awesome people, to look at
things from different perspectives, and to appreciate all
the things that are new and different.
I thank America and wish it Happy Birthday ;)
By the way, aren't these stamps cute?!
They are designed by ako of BeachField who is
super talented at making hand-curved stamps.
If you like looking at handmade stamps, you'd probably
find yourself subscribing to her blog almost immediately
after you hop over there.
Every time I look at her stamps, I wish I were good at
drawing and curving stamps. I am terrible at those.
I was so happy that I finally got her stamps in hand!
I can't to wait to get a book that she's been working on now.
Do you remember my Sun Golden Cherry Tomato plant?
I took this picture a month ago. ONLY a month ago.
Take a look at how it's doing............
Oh my goodness!!!!!!!
How fast-growing is that?!?!
Now there are many flowers on it and
some baby tomatoes too.
As you guys suggested, I've been giving lots of
water and fertilizer, and Joe found a few wooden sticks
on the street to prop up the tomato plant. The guy who
I bought it from said I can cut the plant if it gets too
big so that it would stay short but I am too graceful for
its growth and hardly ever think about harming it.
Who knows what's gonna happen once all the
cherry tomatoes start growing on it.
Thanks for coming and reading ;)
Happy Fourth of July!
Thanks so much for lots and lots of sweet comments
encouraging me to write up a tute for the tissue box cover
and I'm sorry I couldn't catch up with you guys sooner.
I had some other projects to wrap up and school kept
me pretty busy for the past few weeks. But here I am back
with the tutorial for a super easy + quick reversible tissue box cover!
Hope you'll enjoy.... ;)
***Fabric Measurements for a tissue cover that will
fit on a tissue box including Kleenex 200 ct.***
Exterior
Eight 7 1/2" x 2 7/8" pieces
Two 5 1/2" x 4 5/8" pieces
Interior
Two 7 1/2" x 10" pieces
Two 5 1/2" x 4 5/8" pieces
(1/4" seam allowances included)
***Other supplies***
elastic strip (3/4 wide, 5 1/2" long)
Let's cut out eight pieces for the exterior cover.
I chose 4 different fabrics, two pieces from each.
Now with right sides together, sew four
pieces together, aligning long edges.
Repeat it with the rest of the four pieces
and press seam open. Now you have two patchwork panels.
With right sides together, sew the top edge just 2 3/4"
for left and right sides leaving a big opening in the middle.
(Remember to backstitch at the end toward the middle.)
Press seam open, including the middle part which you didn't sew.
Now let's work on the sides of the exterior
cover. Cut out two pieces of fabric according
to the dimensions given above.
For each piece, make a little mark in the center in the
top edge which you can measure 2 3/4" from one side.
Match the mark on the piece with the center
of one of the long edges of the main panel.
Sew the top edge of a side piece onto the main panel.
Make sure to backstitch before you reach the seam
lines on the sides.
Clip into the seam allowance but make
sure not to cut beyond seam lines.
Do the same for the other side of corner.
(This makes the next step 10 times easier!)
Align the right edge of the side piece and
the main panel like this and sew them together.
Repeat it with the left edge of the side piece
so that one side of the exterior cover is complete.
(Important note: Make sure to trim the top corners
as depicted in the photo. Doing so makes the tissue cover
less bulky.) Now, repeat to sew the other side to
the exterior cover.
Hooray! The exterior cover is completed!
Let's now move onto the reversed side!
It would be perfectly fine if you choose to make patchwork
panels for the interior just like you did for the exterior,
but here I am simply using two panels cut out from just one
fabric just because I felt a little lazy. Forgive me ;)
Complete the interior cover in the exactly same way as the
exterior cover (in this case, excluding the patchwork part.)
In the center on one of the long edges of the exterior cover,
Baste a strip of elastic, very close to the edge.
Make a mark in the center of the other long edge.
This will be a reminder for you to sew the other
side of the elastic strip in between.
With right sides together, align and pin the the exterior and the interior.
Sew the bottom edges, starting from the point about
an inch away from the mark you just made.
When you're about to reach the mark, backstitch
about an inch away from the mark so that you have
two inches wide opening centering the mark.
Yup, Exactly. You don't wanna forget to attach the
other short edge of the elastic to the bottom! Using your fingers,
pull out the short edge of the elastic, place it
between the covers, and sew it up in place.
Turn the cover inside out and topstitch at the bottom.
Lastly, hand-sew the top part of the cover, connecting
the openings of the exterior and the interior.
Then your reversible tissue box
cover is complete!!! Woo Hoo!!
This cover will fit on a tissue box measuring 8.2" x 8.4".
(Kleenex 200ct, the most standard one that I found
at Walmart, will be perfect for this cover.)
I'll go and get other standard tissue boxes including
the cube one and come up with dimensions to make
tissue covers for them later, and share with
you the dimensions here.
I totally agree with some of you who told me that
it's so hard to find a tissue box at stores that
will match well with your rooms. It's just a tissue
box, but it make a pretty big, nice difference
if the one in your room is covered in the color/
design/pattern that you love to look at.
Trust me on this one!
Like some of you said, I think this will make a
great holiday gift. How about making a reversed
side a holiday pattern? ;)
When you make reversible tissue box covers,
Take a photo and share your tissue box covers
in this flickr group!
I'd also love it if you could let me know what you think
of this tutorial in the comments too!
Thanks for coming and reading!!
After a brief look at at the preview of this new book by Suzuko Koseki,
one of my favorite Japanese fabric designers, I was so inspired
that I immediately had a surge to make a potholder!
I had this great feedsack fabric that I've wanted to put
into use. Because the pattern on the fabric is so big and
is kitchen-themed, a potholder was definitely a great choice!
Such a beautiful print, isn't it? My plan was to attach
a bunch of appliques on it, but as I realized soon that
it might be better if I didn't add too many things so that
the center of attention is unquestionably the Apple Pie ;)
I added "1" on the right top corner to add a little fanciness,
so I named this potholder "No.1 Apple Pie." Hmmm..
I haven't had it for a while... yum yum...
This is the back side. I'm glad I chose this waffle fabric.
It seems to be working fine with the crazy binding.
I also made three fabric baskets over the weekend.
This one is my fave. I picked fabrics that I love.
This one is so Japanese. I can imagine being invited to
a little tea party by someone in Japan and seeing this basket
on a coffee table filled with candies and tea bags.
This is such a happy one. Looking at it makes me want to
sing a happy song or something.
All the fabric basket as well as the No.1 Apple Pie
Potholder have been listed in my shop;) When you make
a purchase, let me know you came from this blog so that
I'll add a little gift for you ;)
On a side note, I went to a farmer's market in Campbell, CA
yesterday and picked up Sun Golden Cherry Tomato seedling.
We've never been good at taking care of plants, but
I'm so excited for it to grow and to see cherry
tomatoes one day. If you have any suggestions as to
what we can do to help tomatoes grow better,
I'd really really appreciate it if you shared the
info with me ;)
Hope you all have a great week!
Thanks for stopping by and reading!
