Super quick post! I was making a little tote for Joe's niece Sarah this morning. Sarah came over to see what I was making and seemed to like it almost immediately. She waited for it to be finished on the table next to the sewing machine, and now it's hers!
I hope each and every single of you is having a great holiday. Joe and I flew to up here in Washington a few days ago where Joe's folks live. It has been really, really nice and relaxing days here. It's much colder, as we expected, but feels so warm to be around folks we missed so much. I really wouldn't mind coming back to this state for living.
Now I can finally show what I had been up to before Christmas, although most of you probably figured out what they were. haha.
I made lots and lots of these coasters. These ones turned out nice because it's pretty obvious that it's a Christmas tree in a coaster. Some of them turned out looking like poisonous mushrooms because fabric I picked out was a little too far from the real colors of trees.
Like these..
But I really enjoyed paper-piecing these trees.
I spent so much time making them. A day before leaving for Seattle, I made it a point to finish as much as possible so that whatever left can be done without a sewing machine in Seattle, but when I finally came to the point was at 4:30am and it was already time to get ready to catch a flight, so I basically didn't sleep at all that night! I was so super focused that I didn't even realize how fast time was flying. I love it when I can be that focused and productive ;)
It's been so relaxing. Joe's nephew Mattie got Nintendo Wii for his Christmas gift and pretty much we've been playing with that all day long. I guess I'll work on some sewing projects and make teriyaki for dinner for everyone. Fun time ;)
Happy Holidays!
Thanks for coming and reading!!
Note: Here is a pattern for the tree coasters. The credit goes to whoever made a patchwork pattern just like this in the Cotton Time magazine ;)
Thank you so much for voting for the next tutorial idea in my last post! Surprisingly, there are a lot more of you than I expected who would like a tute without the use of a flex frame, and some of you were nice to tell me that you would like both tutes, one with the frame and the other without, so I came to decide that I will do both!! I'm really excited about writing up the tute!! But it would have to be either at the end of this year or in January when I can have it available here. I am one of you guys now who are scrambling because of time running out for getting Christmas gifts!
I've made a quite few of something for Christmas but can't really show them here until after Christmas; I don't want to spoil the surprises ;) But I can show you this pincushion that I made for a Christmas gift for my friend, since it's been already given to her. She loves marvel colors, especially pink, which makes it fun for me to come up with a design because I LOVE working with pink fabric! The pink polka dots fabric with the little chicks that I used for the top right corner is what I found in Reprodepot and fell in love with. I would say it's one of my fave stash now.. just so cute to look at!!
I can't really tell what I've been making but I can't help giving you a sneak peak of what it is neither. hehe.
Oops, maybe that was a little too much. I hope the recipients are too busy now to come to my blog. If you happen to come here, please pretend you didn't and act surprised when you find these in your stocking! ;)
Alright, time to get back to more sewing!
I hope you are all having a not too busy happy holiday season.
Hi all! Thank you for your sweet comments/e-mails. I always love to hear from you!
One of the most requests I've had was to make the fabric basket tutorial printable. Many of you have told me how you had difficulties trying to print out the post and asked me to make a PDF for it. And here it is! I finally created a PDF for the fabric basket tutorial.
I'm sorry it took me ages to get this available for you. I finally figured out how to convert a word document into a pdf, (which was extremely simple by the way with this website's help), so I am now more encouraged to make my future tutorials available in PDFs!
Speaking of tutorials, several of you have given me suggestions to make a tute for the puffy pouch I've made recently. I would LOVE to make the tutorial except that I am not sure if involving a flex frame is a good idea. I've noticed that the more universal my tutorial is, the more people enjoy creating items off of the tutorial, which makes a lot of sense. I would rather make a tute that everyone can enjoy without much trouble finding materials, so I would like to ask you to vote now ;D
I started getting busy making Christmas gifts now that my finals are almost over! Woo hoo! These are my third and fourth fabric balls I've made this week. The first two were given to Taihei, the boy I babysit, for his 2nd birthday. I forgot to take pictures of them but I loved how they turned out so much that I had to have a go at making more and these are now on their ways to my friend's baby girl in Japan.
I stamped her name on the little balls, which I think made the gifts more personal and special ;) The tutorial I used was this one by Tanya of Grand Revival Designs. I love how simple and quick this project is, so I know I'll be making more and more. haha. (When I learn to make something easy and quick, I can't go without making several at least.)
And I made bath bombs using Christmas-themed soap molds. I've made tons and tons of these in the past and I just love how recipients are always fascinated to try it out. These are going to be for my friends I worked on a school project with. I love gift-giving, because to me that is the best way to show how much I appreciate how they are.
Bath Bombs are super easy to make and the tutorials are everywhere online, and soap molds are available in many online shops like this one as well!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! My name is Ayumi. I love sharing my crafty journal and other little anecdotes in my life here. I am a mother to two kiddos and a wife to my best friend. We live in Seattle currently. I hope you enjoy being here :) Welcome♪