Saturday, October 30, 2010

Scrappy Logcabin Pincushions

log cabin pincushions

Making pincushions can be seriously addictive.
I had the urge to make a logcabin pincushion
this morning, and I ended up sewing up three.


log cabin pincushions

I really enjoy having a fun motif in the center
of my log cabin. And including some pieces of
fabric with writing is just necessary :)


logcabin pincushion

This one turned out to be a cutie!
Combining all sorts of different fabrics
is always fun. The poodle looks happy
being surrounded by cute feedsacks.


pin2

This is the other side of the pincushion.
I was so happy I found this perfect fabric
from my fabric stash. Its manufacturer is
American (I believe it was Alexander Henry)
but I found it in Japan a few years ago.
Don't you have some fabrics that you really
like but have never found a use for? This
was one of the fabrics like that, so I am
glad it's finally in use :)


Logcabin Pincushion

This one is very much vintage-inspired too.
Even the red piping tape is vintage!
I found an unopened, new one at a thrift store
a while ago. Its original price printed on the
label was 19 cent, but I think I bought it
for $1 or so. I love thrifty vintage finds!


pin8

Back side. This is the fabric I've wanted to
use to make a pincushion so once again I am
really happy that it finally became a part
of a pincushion!


Logcabin Pincushion

This last one is the silliest of the three,
because it says "Made in USA" and "Made in
France" in the black piece of fabric although
the fabric was made in Japan. Very silly!


pin5

And look at the back side! The word
that starts with "Stamp.." is back-warded!
I like the fun details of the pincushion.


All three picushions have been listed in
my shop. (The first one is gone - thank you!)

I'll be back with a mug rug I made for my
friend soon...! Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great rest of the weekend!


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Birthday Gift for Eriko

Birthday gift for my sister Eriko

My middle sister Eriko turned 26 yesterday, October 26th
and this is the handmade gift I sent her. She is the girliest
girl who loves everything girly, sweet, and very pink, so I
should've made a pink one like this instead, but somehow
this is how it turned out. While making it, I was becoming
more and more sure that she would not like this busy potholder
but my heart was set that this was going to be hers, so
I had to gift it to her. Well let me explain why
I think it should be hers, will you?

eriko1

First off, when she was a little kid, her dream was to
become a bakery chef and she used to bake lots of yummy
bread, so that explains why I started off with the bear
with a pancake! And if you look at it closer, you may
notice that there is a cake, a little message that says
"happy birthday", and 'love'. Oh and "Congratulations"
was not on purpose but it was great I included it,
because she passed a really hard exam last year to
become a clinical psychologist which I don't even know
what exactly it is but I know she can tell you a lot
about you and what's going on in your mind if you
show her a tree you drew. Interesting.

eriko3

I'm definitely sure she likes this one though.
This was made by my friend Kerry in Florida
who just opened a little online custom jewelry
shop called Sweet Heart Silver. She was
so nice to make this custom necklace for
Eriko within just a few days, gift-wrapped it
beautifully, and sent it off to me right away.
I could choose from so many different sterling
silver jewelry, satins, and even fonts of
custom word/name!

eriko2

When I told her that I must blog about this
necklace, she was sweet to offer a special
coupon code (10% off of your order): pinkpenguin
for you guys in case you want to shop there.
You won't regret taking a look at her shop I promise :)

Thank you Kerry for making such a lovely
necklace for my sister so quickly :)

Thank you for stopping by!
Have a fabulous day!


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Quilt Top Completed :D

Pink Quilt

After being that inspired at the quilt festival,
I knew that I would need to push myself
to get back to work on this quilt.

I was thinking about adding a white border,
but I started feeling that it might be more
interesting if pink or gray fabric is used
instead to match the teeny tiny blocks.

I thought the pink/brown polka dots fabric
would work well for this border, but I didn't
have enough of it left to make the entire
border made of the fabric, so I picked pink
solid fabric for the top and bottom edges of
the border and added applique on it.

I'm really happy with the result so far :)

pink-quilt3

I'm debating whether I should keep it
or list it in my shop. Although it would
look really cute in my sewing space for sure,
it might serve a better purpose by
wrapping a little baby girl somewhere
in the world... but can I part with it..?
Hmm.. I'm so indecisive.

Pincushion for my friend who grows the best tomatoes

Here is a pincushion I made for my friend Izumi
who grows the BEST tomatoes ever in her garden.
Once you get used to eating her sweet tomatoes,
you really can't enjoy other tomatoes anymore.
Now that Joe is used to Izumi's tomatoes,
he doesn't eat tomatoes in his bento box unless
they are Izumi's, but I can't blame him,
because her tomatoes are just sooo much better.


pin2

I am really excited to tell her why I picked
these fabrics. First of all, I love her tomatoes,
so I had to include a tomato there with a heart
pin right next to. And I had to use
the cat fabric because she loves cats.
And then lastly, the toast fabric was necessary
because she made me sandwiches which
tasted soooo good after walking for hours
at the quilt festival. And the reason for
the cheese is that she made me yummy
pasta with some Parmesan cheese on
when I was starving a while ago.
The bottom of the pincushion is pink,
which is her favorite color. Hehe,
I think she'll enjoy hearing these or maybe
I will be the one enjoying the most telling this, haha :D

If you want to make a pincushion like that,
here is a pattern for you :)

pincushion-pattern
Hope you are having a great day!


Saturday, October 16, 2010

Pacific International Quilt Festival

quilt27

Thank you to those of you who shared with me
what you know about the Australian fabric I
posted in the previous post. If you are curious
where it came from, go ahead and read some
comments under the post and learn about it :)
It's so much fun to be knowledgeable about unusual
mysterious fabric I have! Thank you, guys!!

Today, I have about 30 pictures I want to share
with you. I went to Pacific International Quilt
Festival
held at Santa Clara Convention Center
in California which is close to my place.
Ever since I moved here, I've always wanted to
go to this annual quilt festival, so I was really
happy that I finally made it this year. I was
way too excited the night before that I couldn't
sleep very well, haha. Ok, first of all, let me
start with some quilts I saw at some vendors
there that I totally fell in love with.

quilt19

I am so glad I discovered this shop called
The Vintage Spool that sells original quilt
patterns as well as quilt kits. Seriously, every
single quilt hung at this shop was just unbelievably
detailed, intricate, and amazing. For example,
look at this Halloween quilt! To give you a close look..

quilt21

Every applique has finished edges and quilting
is done using threads that match fabrics used.
Isn't the mean-looking owl so adorable?
I love the quilting on his tummy.

quilt22

Sorry it's not the best quality picture, but
you get the idea. Isn't it so charming?

quilt20

Oh how much I love this crow. My most favorite
part of it is that one of his foot is behind
the stem of the pumpkin. What I really enjoy
doing when I see handmade things is to look
for small details that I know whoever created
must have put a lot of thoughts and efforts
into them. I smile when I find the details.

quilt24

Sorry I don't have a picture of a whole quilt
for this but I have a couple of shots of
appliques on the quilt I particularly enjoyed.
I LOVE this house made of lots of candies.

quilt25

This was part of the same Christmas quilt too.
How cute is that? Look how intricate the appliquéd
stamp on the envelop is. So cute!!!

quilt23

These are going to be a quilt called Mon Ami
which will be available for sale on the 17th
of November. You can see a couple more
blocks that will be included in the quilt in
their website here. I don't think I will be
able to resist it once it comes out because
I am really really loving everything about
it so far! I know my passion about French stuff
is a bit excessive but I can't help it.
If you are curious about any of these three
quilts or other original quilt patterns they
have, head over to their online shop here ;)

quilt26

This is a quilt hung at another vendor at the
festival. I think vintage-styled girls' clothing
is adorable. Every clothing on the quilt looked
puffy and soft and made me want to touch it.
I'd love to make a quilt like that if I have
a girl in the future.


Now let me get to those quilts that were
exhibited at the festival.

quilt28

Isn't it breathtaking? When I looked closely,
I found that those teeny tiny scoops of ice cream
were made of funny fabrics like one with a monkey
face, etc, which made me giggle ;)

quilt30

I love birds so this caught my eye right away.


quilt31

See the fun small details? The fish and the
bird's legs! Discovering these details makes
me like the quilt a lot more.


quilt29

This was a really popular quilt with a big crowd
in front of. It has very interesting appliques
that are just so much fun. This mail man is my
favorite. Look how he has so many letters and
packages that are flying/falling from him.
This reminded me that as a kid, I used to want to
become a mail man in Japan. I've always loved
receiving letters and packages from an early age
and thought mail mans are really cool because
they make it possible.


quilt18

I thought this is amazingly artistic.
I really like how the depth of field is
expressed with lots of black and white fabrics.
What possibilities.

quilt17

This is such a beautifully pieced quilt.
It was made by someone in Germany and
was designed based on a picture she took
there. This made me think of San Francisco.
I should make a mini quilt of San Francisco
scenery one day. I love the city with
tons of steep hills and European style houses.


quilt16

Isn't it amazing also? I feel that looking at
this quilt makes me feel positive and carefree.
How fun would it be if we could fly away
with a kitty cat on the bloom like that?

quilt14

The first thing that came to my mind when I
saw this was "Happy Birthday!" It's so cheerful
and bright. The coolest thing about this quilt
was that it had literally million beads sewn on it.

quilt15

Closeup to the border of the quilt. Just like that,
every dot on the border had a bead of a matching color!
Oh my goodness, I'm sure it took a lot of time to
do that, but you know what, those tons of beads make
the whole quilt very bright and fun to look at.


quilt13

This is so nice. I think ocean-themed arts are
very nice to look at. I have never lived very
close to the ocean, so I get really excited
every time I have a chance to see the ocean.
It would be so nice to hang up a quilt like
this in my bedroom.

quilt12

I really like this one too. It may be hard to
tell but almost all blocks have 'numbers' either
in printed cotton or in stitching. And there
are a lot of interesting materials used including
lace and mesh fabrics. Some folks have really
amazing ideas!


quilt11

Probably this is the most unforgettable quilt
I saw there. Isn't it really strong and powerful?


quilt10

This was really impressive because everything is done
by raw-edged appliques. I mean, literally everything!
When I look at solid fabric or batiks fabric,
I don't think that it can turn into something so
artistic like that. This makes me think we could do
anything with fabric.


quilt9

This picture came out very blurry but I must share
this with you too, because this is really
beautiful and inspirational. The whole thing
about this made me miss Japan but my favorite
part of it is the two cats on the stairs.


quilt8

I like this quilt because it has fun features,
zippers! I can imagine a little kid having fun
opening and closing the zippers.


quilt5

I had to take a picture of this not just because
it is beautiful but also that I thought Joe might
like to see it. Joe's computer display looks like
this when he plays game on it.


quilt4

This was a really interesting quilt that is made
of many different kinds of printed cotton.
I recognized a lot of fabric used and made me feel yay!


quilt3

I was like "What?!" when I saw this.
I gave a closer look at it and found that
it was a single printed fabric that is
quilted. I am often surprised at how quilting
on a single fabric can make it look like it
was pieced. Anyway I really like this kitchen design.


quilt2

I LOVE this quilt. This reminded me of the time
when I went to a playground with my friends at night
to sketch constellations. Jeez I was like in the 5th
grade and it was part of a group project. We walked
for miles to get to the playground and walked back
home. It was so nice that it was possible to do
anything like that back then. It was safe enough
for kids to go out at night and make parents not
worried about it too much. I never thought it was
anything dangerous back then but I really don't
think I can let my future kids do anything dangerous
like that. But I remember it was just so much
fun to lay down on the grass with my friends
and looked at lots of stars and chatted in the
darkness. I bet bears don't have to worry about
anything like that at all :D


quilt1

This was a really beautiful quilt too.
Look how each and every single block has
a different design but there are only
two different fabrics used. I spent a few
minutes looking for the same blocks but
I gave up eventually. It must have been a lot of
fun to design this many different blocks,
don't you think?


Oh it looks like that's it!
I really hope you enjoyed looking at
these quilts :) Thank you for reading
such a long post! Have a great Sunday!

Edited to add - part1:
The last quilt is called a Dear Jane quilt :)
Thank you for letting me know that, girls!

Edited to add - part2:
Wow you must check out Anina's blog
where she has tutorials for ALL the
blocks for the Jane Quilt!! Thanks, Anina!