September 30th was my fabulous friend Kerry's birthday! I whipped up a mini quilt and a matching pinnie for her earlier last month so that my gift for her would get there on time. I surprised myself by finishing them up way before the deadline - a week before her birthday. Unusual of me :D
She gave me such a pretty pillow for my birthday/house warming gift. (which I'll show you how wonderfully it looks in my craft space once I am done setting it up!) It is the cutest and most meaningful
pillow I have ever owned! I knew I would not be able to make
anything comparable, but I still wanted to send her handmade love :)
Choosing fabrics for this quilt could not have been more enjoyable, because each and every fabric used here is what I know Kerry likes! Kumiko Fujita, Suzuko Koseki, Denyse Schmidt, Lori Holt, cooking, sewing, typography, vintage fabric, and linen - so ya, we share the love for lots of fabric designs! And you know it makes quite a big difference when you are making something with the fabric not only you but the recipient covet!
At the time I was making this, I didn't have a quilting spay on hand, so the quilting didn't come out as flat and nice as I had envisioned, but I like the fact it has more "handmade feel" to it because of my not-so-great quilting.
Kerry has inspired me to use alphabet stamps for sewing craft. If you are a big fan of everything she makes like me, I bet you too have wondered about stamps (if you have yet bought them :) I still need practice
to get better impression!
Here is a matching pinnie!
Sewing teeny tiny pieces is another thing we both love :)
The back side is her initial 'K' pieced.
I had been meaning to blog about these on her birthday, but I was busy whipping up tissue box covers for my friends this past weekend. I'll be back to show you one of the tissue box covers I made and hopefully other things too. In the meantime, don't forget to check out Kerry's great freezer paper/paper piecing tutorial and to enter her birthday giveaway!
This is one of the songs I will be listening while piecing together blocks everyone has made for my month in the Ringo Pie Bee. (Remember the theme
was anything to do with delivering letters and packages?) In this bee, we are allowed to use our own stashes and come up with whatever blocks that fit monthly themes.
It is quite challenging because we design original block patterns monthly (not required, but most of us like to do), and we all feel a quit bit of pressure since everyone in this bee is super talented. But I consider myself a super lucky girl to be in this bee. I love how accomplished I feel every time I finish my block, how inspired I am by everyone's awesome blocks, and how kind, encouraging, and friendly everyone is in this bee.
And now that I have seen these blocks folks have made for me, which are all super amazing, I am loving this bee even more!!
Ok, let me share with you those completed blocks by everyone so far. The Beatle's "Please, Mister Postman" (above) would be a great song to listen to
Remember I told you that May is my month in Ringo Pie bee? Seriously, you have no idea how excited I am about receiving everyone's blocks - 11 members besides me; therefore, 11 envelops/packages to come. Ever since I picked my theme which is "Delivering letters and packages," I knew I was going to paper-piece 11 envelops. My initial plan was to embroider everyone's initial on each envelop, but I wasn't sure if I could pick the best envelop for everyone, so I decided not to. Or in other words, I just got tired of working on this. lol
I used photoshop to design a simple envelop pattern, and then picked 11 different solids that seemed to work well together. Well, that may just have sounded an easy step, but choosing 11 solids was one of the hardest part of this project. Most of my craft projects are improvised; I barely ever go fabric-shopping with any particular projects in mind, but I couldn't be happy with my solids collection, so I had a few trips to fabric stores to get just the right solid. Yellow was the trickiest color. I ended up with Kona corn yellow - what a lovely color it is!!
Choosing print cotton to match solids was easy and fun. My favorite envelop might be the orange one with a boy and girl. Isn't the vintage print super adorable? Thank you so much erica for sharing me this beautiful fabric!
Another tricky part was this mail box, because it has curves!! Yikes! In the past I've always avoided paper-piecing anything that has curves for Ringo Pie bee blocks, because I suck at curves. But I took this opportunity to step outside my comfort zone to grow up. And I am very happy I did, because it wasn't as difficult as I expected and It was such a pleasure to know that I am capable of tackling curves! well, not perfect like everyone else's in Ringo Pie, but I think I will get better. A positive attitude is indeed necessary when I sew. Without it, I would be too overwhelmed to do anything.
Yes, this sewing blogland intimidates me too. It has been sort of nice to read what people have said recently about sewing blogland being intimidating. I thought I was the only one who is terribly intimidated and worried too much about presenting myself/my projects,
but clearly I am not alone. (a big sigh of relief.)
It's been hard for me too. I could have a loooong post about my fears to blog/sew, but
I try to be optimistic. When I am too overwhelmed,
I get fresh air, go hiking, hang out with a hubby/friends
for some laugh, and eat really yummy stuff
until I am ready to have some fun again with sewing/blogging.
I am just grateful that there is anybody out there
who is willing to spare some time to stop by my blog,
read what I have to say, and leave me nice comments/emails that constantly encourage me to keep
doing what I've been doing.
Thank you SO much for allowing me to share my projects here. Have a fabulous day!
Here is the Spring block I made for Lucinda for Ringo Pie Bee. (Sorry the resolution of the picture isn't very good - hopefully I'll get to take a better picture once the sun comes out.) I spent days sketching some ideas for this month, trying to come up with a design that has lots of neutral colors which she asked for, but after much thought, I was determined that I really want colorful flowers in it and I ended up compensating with a background in a neutral color. Keeping my fingers crossed that this turned out ok and it will look good with everyone else's Spring blocks for her.
This is the fourth pincushion I made for a custom order. The recipient asked for a sewing theme, so I had fun picking out sewing themed fabrics from my stash and whipped up this guy. I am happy with the outcome so is the recipient, woohoo!
Here is a diaper pouch I made for a little boy I babysit. Ever since Anna posted this awesome tutorial, I knew I would make it for him. I can't believe how long I waited to make though especially now that I know it is such a fun, quick, and addictive project! And I just LOVE this shape! His diapers used to be in a plastic bag from a grocery store. I think it is a quite improvement. Why didn't I make it sooner?!
I'm so happy I finally found a great use for this cute fabric covered button that I received as a part of a swap a few years ago. Too cute, right?
And lastly, this is a scrap-buster project that I was working on. I am not sure what this will be. A potholder for my friend was my plan, but I am thinking it's a bit too busy for her. hmm.. Any suggestions?
I have to warn you.. this post is once again going to be about log cabin pincushions that I've been making like crazy these days.. so if you are sick of looking at my pincushions by now, it might be better off to skip this post. If you still have patience to read my tedious story about each of three new pincushions, I thank you in advance for taking the time to do so :)
This is probably one of my favorite pincushions I have made so far. So the story goes like this.. the blue bird (in the middle) is hungry and looking for some veggies to munch on. But as you can see, there is another bird flying in to grab the veggies on the right top corner. I felt bad, so I decided to leave him with two carrots on the left bottom. Let's hope he'll find the carrots before the other guy comes to get them.
I really really like this one too. I'm so happy that I made it because this is my first project ever that I used this many purple/lavender fabrics for. I always thought I am not the biggest fan of the color range, but I started liking them. If the purple/lavender fabric is either modern or vintage, I can enjoy it very much, which I have learned pretty recently.
This mousy has a date tonight and he is planning to take his girlfriend to a nice restaurant where they can enjoy really nice red wine and hopefully a bird or two out the window. He is not so sure if he can satisfy her well, so he can't really guarantee the quality of the date, but maybe qulity.
This turned out to be fun too, I think. Remember the story about Mister Donut fabric? The word "Mister" came from the fabric. "Donut" part of the fabric couldn't really fit in, so I included..
a real donut, well, not that real but more fun than a word right? There is a truck at the top that carried the donut. The gnome is a bit confused though.. not sure why he is included in the Mister Donut pincushion.. so to make him feel a little better, I added the penguin and the cute owl.
Thank you to those of you who snatched my pincushions - I will be adding more in my shop in a few days :)
is a very kind, sweet, generous, and creative lady I very much look up to. She has sent me lots of packages full of yummy goodies including truly precious vintage fabrics, her handmade items, and her lavender which smells the BEST!
Knowing how skilled of a seamstress she is, I feel embarrassed to make anything for her, (because I know surely that she can make the same thing just a trillion times better!) but to me, there is no better way than creating something personal to show appreciation from my heart. I'm sure many of you can agree with me :)
I made this with her name in patchwork not knowing what it was going to be. I thought she might like to use it as a mug rug, so I used insul bright batting but I also thought she might be kind to decide to hang it, so I added a few small loops on the back.
I really enjoyed making it and couldn't wait to get this to her! Soon, I will have a post on many handmade gifts I have received from several blog friends over the span of a few months and you'll see lots of Mary's beautiful creations there.. :)
My most recent gift from Mary included lots of lovely vintage fabrics/feedsacks. All three pincushions I showed you in my precious post as well as additional three I am showing you today include at least one fabric scrap that was from Mary :)
For example, this pink fabric with a ferris wheel is one of my favorite! Isn't it so cute?! I think this fabric made the pincushion very cheerful. What is it about the vintage fabrics (especially feedsacks from the 30's) that are just unbelievably adorable?!
I picked this fabric for the back side. Oh by the way, I've noticed that I've been choosing lots of fabrics that I bought on my last trip to Japan two years ago for my projects recently. You know why.. I think it's because I am going to Japan next month ! :D Hooray!! I think I am subconsciously trying to use up the fabric I bought there on my last trip so that I can give myself a reason to buy more this time :) My entire family thought I was going crazy by buying so much fabric last time. (Last time I went to Nippori Textile Town, I bought so much fabric that I gave myself a bruce on my right arm where I was hanging bags full of fabrics! lol!) Sure I was going a bit crazy but don't mind the same experience again :D
I really like this one especially the naughty look of the bird on the red tape. It's like he is planning to eat up the pincushion or something. lol.
Isn't the pot lovely? This is also the fabric Mary shared with me. I think it is one of my favorite fabric now. So adorable!
Yup, this is also one of the fabrics I snatched in Japan two years ago!
This one turned out to be so American, color-wise! One thing I like about this pincushion is..
This girl in the corner wondering where she left her cherries and strawberries that she needs for her cooking. The upside down kettle there is fun too!
This fabric is just perfect for a pincushion.
The last two pincushions are available in my shop now :)
Thank you for reading such a long post! Hope your week started off good :)
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 a baby girl and a wife to my husband from Seattle. We live in a small apartment in Tokyo. I hope you enjoy being here :) Welcome♪
