Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Pink Poodles on Everything

custom order

Thank you for the squirrel love!
Today's post is all about pink poodles!
(I sure love animal themes.)

I made this set of three items for a
custom order for someone who loves
pink poodles and purple/lavender color.

custom fabric basket

I was so happy to discover that the size of a
poodle on the print is just perfect for a 1.5" square!

fabric basket

Also, while working on these projects,
I learned how much I like the combination of
pink and purple. I always believed I am not
the biggest fan of purple, but I've come
to know that when purple is combined with
some colors I love like pink, the result is awesome!

The purple fabric with pink words on it
is one of the fabric available in my esty shop.
Speaking of my silk-screened fabric,
I was thrilled to find a couple of projects
made with the fabric by my blog friends!
Hop over to their blogs and see these cool items!

heart Fabric Basket by Janice of Be*mused
heart Potholder by Erica of Craftyblossom


custom pincushion

Here comes one more addition to the collection of
pink logcabin pincushions that have been over-flooding
in my blog now. I try to make each and every single
one look pretty different from each other, but I'm
not sure if I'm doing a great job making them distinguished.

pencil case

This is my favorite among the three!
A pencil pouch is another thing I've been making
a lot of. I've been trying a different method
of making the patchwork panel to see which one
is the quickest but impeccable way to match
corners of the rectangle pieces. I'd appreciate

any suggestions from you!!

pencil case

The other side ;)

pencil case

I hope the recipient will like all the three items.

Thank you so much to all of you who have
asked me to make custom items. I can't even
describe how much I appreciate your trust you
have for me and your patience to give me as
much time as I need to finish your items.

I just love it when I am finished with
custom items and let the recipient know
that they are ready. I think about the
moment while sewing items for custom orders.
Very nice part of my crafty time ;)

Thanks for stopping by!!




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Monday, March 29, 2010

Squirrelish One

squirrel

Hello everyone! Just a little quick post to
share this custom stuffed toy I finished today ;)

Making stuffed toys has always been something
I want to master really bad, but I find it very
difficult to make 3D toys. Every time I make
a stuffed toy, I spend much more time using my
seam ripper than my sewing machine. But I
get super thrilled when I manage to finish
making a stuffed toy. It's like I want to
hop, skip, and jump and say "Hooray!!"



Such a big reward to see a new toy smiling at me!
It's really worth it!!

It's supposed to be a squirrel except it's missing
a big furry tale and little hands, so let's
call it a squirrelish one or something.

On a separate note, thank you so much to those
of you who helped me figure out the marriage license thing.
We called the court and found that, surprisingly,
in California, we would not need a certified copy of birth
certificate if we had a government-issued picture ID,
so we went to the court very next day and got the license.
Now I feel like I am 'officially' engaged!!
I'll keep you posted on our wedding plans.. ;)
Thank you for letting me share!

Thanks for stopping by!!




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Saturday, March 20, 2010

Pincushions, etc.

custom pincushions

What a boring title for this post, I know.
Sometimes it's so hard to come up with a good
title when I have many different things to write
about. Pincushions, wedding-related talk,
Joe's birthday talk, fabric basket, silk-screened
fabric, etsy update - not so easy to combine these
all into one short cool title.

Some of you might recall that I made lots of
pincushions just like ones above last year.
In fact, I made so many things with the penguin
fabric, didn't I? I am just in love with the print.

These ones above are custom pincushions that
are flying off to Australia soon. It seems that
it's not only me who just adore penguin designs!

susan1

This is another pink log cabin pincushion.
(I warned you that you'd see it soon again!)

susan3

But this one isn't a poodle, but a birdie.
I like it either way! The scissor print is
from a newest collection of Suzuko Koseki's
fabric which literally made me go crazy
when I discovered online. Way too irresistible!!
You can view the whole collection here and here.
I've got a few prints already, but I want MORE!!

pincushions2

This is a fabric basket I made very quickly
in the evening of March 16th. March 17th is
such a big day for us every year; St, Patrick's day +
Joe's Birthday + Our Anniversary. This year,
Joe turned 26 and we celebrated our 6th anniversary.
As a part of birthday gift for him, I made a pair
of pajama shorts and this fabric basket.

The pajama shorts didn't turn out too well,
so let me pass on the picture, haha.
(luckly, Joe likes them and he's been wearing
them ever since he's got them.)
I think the fabric basket turned out neat.
I might have told you here before, but the
only male-friendly fabric I have is traditional
Japanese fabric. Joe loves traditional Japanese
stuff, so I knew he would appreciate a basket
made with these prints. Now, it's been used
to organize his athlete foot cream and ear plugs
- even inside is male stuff!

Oh as for our wedding plan, it looks like
we'll finally be able to get a marriage license
next week! I'd heard that I'd need a birth certificate
for this process, so I asked my mom to send me
copies, translated into English, and had my
friend verify it. Joe spent an hour looking for
his birth certificate in the garage today, but
the only thing found was a photocopy of it.
(Would it work? Does anybody know..?)

be2-1-2

It's a lot of work!!!! It looks like the wedding
itself isn't too bad, but the toughest part
is going to be changing my visa status.
Since it's too much paperwork, most people seem to
ask a lawyer to take care of everything, but
I decided to do everything on my own. For one,
no money. For two, it will be a great
excuse to be staying at home while looking for
a job after my graduation in May.

Paperwork isn't the funnest thing, but I am
really excited to become "married" and
of course, to wear a wedding dress, although
we still have no clue when the day will be.
(I just bought a simple casual dress for the
ceremony at the court - good enough, right?)

pincushion3

Coming back to crafty talk, some of you have
asked me to write a tutorial on screen-printing.
Thank you for the great idea, but I feel like
there are so many cool books and youtube videos
on it so it might be silly if I wrote up a tute.
My favorite book on silkscreening is Printing by Hand
by a great painting artist, Lena Corwin.
This book is absolutely amazing. In the book,
she presents so many different ways to print
on various things like fabric, cards, and walls.
And every method is very clearly depicted in
step-by-step photos so that it's so easy to follow.
I learned a lot about silkscreening from this
book, but what I had to learn from somewhere else
was how to burn images to create stencils.
The book recommends having it done by a local
art supplies store, but since I bought this nice
silkscreen kit
that came with everything I needed
to burn images, I really wanted to learn how to do it.
Some Youtube videos helped me a lot to get hand
on it, and it turned out that it's pretty simple.
If I gain more confidence, I might write a tute
on it but until then go ahead and watch videos
like this and this and google silkscreen tutorial.
There are great free resources on it everywhere online :D

pincushion4

I've listed my newest collection of silk-screened
fabric collection in my etsy shop.
As usual, fabric sheets are sold as a set of 3 sheets.
This time, I have a few listings that are for 6 sheets
that are sold at a discount price. Each sheet of the fabric
for these sets of 6 sheets has a minor flaw such as a little smudging.
Most words
are safe, but a few words may appear to have
a small
smudge like..

pincushion5

This may not affect a big project but maybe a small
project. Again, most part of each sheet is just fine
but it has one or two words that you may want to
avoid using if it is to be used for a small project.

And again, please let me know that you came from
here when you snatch anything from my shop, I would
love to add a little gift!!

Also, Thank you so much for those of you
who have purchased my silk-screened fabrics!
I hope you liked what you received..!
If you made anything with my fabric, feel free
to make sales. And if you blogged about what
you made with the fabric, can you let me know
so that I can look at it and have a good day.
I'll also link to your post in my blog ;)

Anyways, thanks you for listening to me
for a long time..! Hope you are all having
a great weekend..!!




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Sunday, March 14, 2010

So warm...!

thanks erica!

I hope your past week was filled with laughter
and crafty moments. Today I'd like to introduce
a couple of handmade gifts that have been given
to be me this year. The super cute potholder above
is from Erica of Craftyblossom. Erica has been
such a sweet, inspirational blog friend for me.
I found a surprise package from her the other day
in the mail which included this potholder as
well as other little gifts. ...Oh my!!!
Do I need to explain how much I love the potholder?!
I don't think I need to, because it's toooooooo
obvious that I am in love with the colors, designs,
style, and pretty much the whole awesome idea, right?!
So warm. No way can I use it in my kitchen.
I will put it up on the wall where I can see
it every single day to give myself a lift up!
Thank you so much, Erica!!!!

thanks susan!

Could any pincushion be prettier than this one?
This one is from Susan, who has been very
supportive and nice ever since we 'met' here.
It might not be easy to tell from this picture,
but the tummy of the little penguin is baby pink!
Pink Penguin, exactly!!
It's just so cute and handy. I didn't realize
how much I needed a little pincushion like this
until I started using this one. It stays very close
to me when I am at my sewing table because
it makes me smile and appreciate my creativity
which had led me to make lots of great friends
like you all. Thank you so much, Susan!!!!

thanks mary!

Here is another warm, sweet handmade gift that
I am very lucky to own. Mary is also a great friend
I made through my blog. She was very generous and
kind to send me a lot of rare vintage fabric which
I've already used for some of my projects.
I'd been meaning to make something like this that
would help me carry threads and a little scissor.
I love how beautiful and practical this little
one is for me. Thank you so much, Mary!!!!



pencil pouch

Here is the pencil pouch I was working on which
I finished yesterday. I really love how it turned out.

pencil pouch

It will be sent to a girl who likes tulips,
so I used this cute tulips fabric for lining.

puffy pouch

This puffy pouch will also be hers ;)
I really hope she'll like them!
Speaking of a puffy pouch, I've seen many pretty
puffy pouches in this flickr pool as well as
in some crafty blogs! Some folks came up with
really neat ideas such as adding a chain to
it and enlarging it to make a big purse!
Very creative!!

Thank you for taking your time to read my post;)
Have a great Sunday afternoon!



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Sunday, March 7, 2010

More silk screened fabric

pen case in progress

Thank you for your lovely, sweet comments that keep
me smiling. I always LOVE to hear from you!

This past week was a little busy for me so I wasn't
as productive at crafting as I wish I had been,
but I do have some things to share ;)

The photo above is a custom pencil pouch in progress.
Making these are just so much fun. I definitely have
to make one for myself!

pincushion for custom order

And here is another poodle pincushion for a custom order.
Tired of seeing these pincushions here? I hope you are not,
because I will keep making these! I even bought a plastic
container to store fabric strips that are cut into the size
perfect for this project. And the container is now getting
full of fun fabric strips. If you want one of these, please
feel free to e-mail me. I would be more than flattered!

silk screened fabric

I can't help producing these sheets of silk-screened
fabric. I want to remove this stencil and replace it
with a new one with a new design, but I just need
so many of these for my patchwork projects that I
have been printing the same design.

silk screened fabric

Not so many comes out successful. I'm getting better at it,
so the probability of success is getting higher but
I still have several sheets of fabric that aren't
good enough to be listed in my shop at every printing session.
And those are
for me. Ones that turned out nice go to my shop in
case any of you are on the lookout for fabric with writing.

As usual, I would love to include a little gift
if you told me that you came from here when you
snatched anything from my shop ;)

Have a great day!




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