Passport Cozy

A very fast project! A passport cover. I made this upon a custom order. Her request for it was to be simple and made with linen and vintage fabric, and this is how my result turned out. I find "simple" to be one of the most difficult requests since I love making things absolutely opposite from being simple, as you probably have noticed by now! But I always like to challenge myself and try new things! ;) But I know the great thing about simple things is that they won't get old so quick. Things too fancy makes you tired to look at after a short period of time, but simple and plain things have some sort of allure for you not to get tired of for a long time. So probably the girl will use this passport cover for a long time! That's very good! That's even the best!! Yes!! Shhhhhhhhhh...! Here's a little secret for her. hehe. Her initial letter on the back of the front page! One time I received a handmade gift that had my name on it. "Ayumi" stamped on a ribbon sewn onto the little pouch. It just made me smile and still makes me happy every time I see it and think about her being so careful to stamp each letter of my name. I think a name given is special to everyone. Wow! it's 1:30am! What am I doing? I am not tired at all! I guess I shall do some sewing and reading.. Yes! I am reading a novel now! Woo hoo! This is a nice announcement! .........What's so special about it? Well, I used to be a big reader when I was in Japan but not anymore. In fact, I've only read the books that were assigned by school since I moved to this country. I brought several Japanese books to read with me when I moved here but soon I found that reading books in Japanese was interfering with my English-learning process. Because I got frustrated I entirely stopped reading Japanese novels at some point. It would have been great if I could've moved toward English books, but I was too lazy to finish readng books in a different language. Millions of new vocabulary, expressions, and the cultures behind it to understand the meaning seriously killed me and I found reading to be so tough! The reason I started reading spontaneously is that I thought maybe I have enough English skills to enjoy a book now, if it isn't a complicated one like ones written by Mark Twain, which I had to read for an English class and killed me really bad. And I also thought I want to expand my vocabulary and ways to express emotion and actions to be a better blogger!! Some crafty bloggers are not only good at creating things but also expressing in words on their blogs! I got jealous. so that's why. I am actually really enjoying this book, the Bright Forever. I like myself reading in the bus, on the couch, in the bed, feeling like I am gaining knowledge day by day. I like this feeling a lot! So if you have any books that you want to recommend for me, please leave a comment to let me know! I feel like reading a love-story book or a story about someone with psychological problems or something. And of course most importantly, I enjoy easy-reading! Thanks for reading!

Another Potholder

I made another one! Aren't the girl and the boy in the center so super adorable? This fabric was one of the pack of 3" square patches I purchased on Japanese Yahoo Auction. Do you know by the way that the auction rocks if you are crazy about cute fabric like me? You can find really rare/unusual fabric in Japanese Yahoo auction for pretty inexpensive prices. I went through a phase once where I was totally addicted to the auction and bought lots of fabric from there. Go take a look! So back to the potholder, this time I cheated. I just couldn't find the right fabric from only the scrap stash, so some of the fabric I used wasn't scrappy. Back view. The cute fabric I hadn't been able to find a use of for the longest time finally now is in use! Yay! It's now listed in my shop ;) Enjoy looking at these fabulous creations! Pen case 1, 2, 3 by Nina Pen case by Sandy Fabric Basket by Julia I smile, smile and smile ;) ;) ;-) Thanks for reading!

Scraps can be treasure.

Hope you are all having a nice 4th of July. I am trying to adjust myself to this new laptop and have been liking it quite bit. There are still a lot of things that make me feel like "huh?" but I'm sure I'll find out everything and soon I can fully feel comfortable with this new VAIO. Tons of fabric scraps that don't seem to decrease but instead keep increasing and even started flooding from the glass bin got me thinking...ok, let's take an action to reduce. So I gave myself a task: Make something out of these scraps! And I made this potholder. I have to admit that the cotton batting, heat resistant fabric, and linen for the back surface of the potholder didn't come from the stash but all the fabric you can see in this front view is from it! *smile* What's the border between "trash" and "keep" for your fabric scraps? Do you consider 1" x 1" to be too small for keeping? I am a big saver when it comes to this, especially for rare fabrics that I love and know isn't available anywhere anymore like vintage fabric and Japanese fabric. I could save these kinds of fabrics even when it gets 0.5" in length. It's just so adorable for me to see even tiny scraps of these and it makes me happy to keep them. I thought making a potholer is such a great idea for this, because that way you can see your precious fabric anytime you want to by putting it up in your kitchen and of course it is easy and quick to make! Great!! I have to make more!! This potholder will be in my etsy shop soon! And probably will be more in shop too! Thanks for reading!! Happy 4th of July!

Big Diggie

So yes! I did work on a big project! A soft doggie made of 92 square patches! yay! 26 different kinds of fabric were used, including Japanese linen, vintage fabric, and modern designers' fabrics. Fun fun fun...! My kitties named Molly and Katrina seem to love the new doggie too. This doggie will be in my etsy shop sometime today, 4th of July. Sometime? Why not now? Well, here is the reason. Joe got me an early birthday present today: Laptop!! Woo Hoo!! And I am updating my blog using the new computer but oh my.. I don't know anything!! The layout of the keyboard, how vista works, the new firefox.. no bookmarks, no pictures, no remembering me in anything, no no no nothing in this new computer and Ugh!!! This drives me nut and I want to escape from it immediately, so let me! I'll write comments back for you guys tomorrow and will be back with great links to a fabric basket and pen cases! Have a great 4th of July! Thanks for reading!

Experimenting...

These are the things I've ever sold in my etsy shop. Looking at these items I made with love and knowing that they are being loved by the people who were so nice to purchase them make me simply smile big time. It's even therapeutic. I knew about Etsy from a long time ago but it took me a lot of courage to start opening my store there, just because I wasn't confident if anybody would be interested in my handmade items. But I can really tell that it was an absolutely right decision to open up my store. I really enjoy making things for sale as well as encountering people there who value "Handmade" as much as I do. --------------------------------------------------- This idea came across my head last night... "another tutorial?!" I had a go at making it very quickly, being excited to see how it would turn out, but hmmm... probably it's not worth making a tutorial, I thought. The fun part is the bottom which is a square consisting of 4 triangles all touching each other. The slanted piecing parts are interesting too, but something about this little bag doesn't allow me to fully approve. Well, it's ok. It was just an experiment..;) I'd been working on small projects a lot recently, so I am now feeling like trying something big. Quilt? A big bag? A big toy..? Sewing is so much fun! Thanks for reading!