Gifts from Friends ~Quilts~

Alphabet quilt made by friends. More about it here

First of all, thank you so very much for all of you who sewed along through my book!! An extra thank you goes to Lindsey and Debbie who organized the whole zakka along wonderfully, and a special thank you to all 19 contributors who were so kind to take the time to make a project and share it on your blog on a scheduled date. I know all of you are very busy people with many other commitments in life. I feel overwhelmed with appreciation for every one of you. I hope you all had as much fun following along as I did. Much love to you all!! I feel extremely lucky.

Please accept my apology for slacking off on this blog lately. I have been wanting to get back to blogging regularly, but the longer I waited, the harder it became to come back. I know it's just about writing a quick update and clicking on "publish", but somehow I felt too much pressure to take the action. That's what happens when I become terribly disorganized. I owe so many friends so many things I feel inadequate to be present here, if that doesn't sound too strange.

Matching Game Quilt made by Mary

I am starting to realize that I am not one of those superwomen who seem to be able to get a million things done while holding a full time job and taking care of multiple children. As much as I admire them and wish to be like them, in reality I am a very slow person. I take extra long to get little things done. One pink penguin who takes verrrry slow steps.

Lovely print quilt made by Elnora

I am terribly sorry if I ever seemed unappreciative or rude or even inattentive. My online life has become a very important part of my life. Friendship I have developed through online community is something I truly embrace from the bottom of my heart. I am hoping to change my blogpost style a bit from lengthy posts (like this one!) to short, mainly picture posts. That way, it will be much easier for me to post regularly and you can save time on reading too :)

Hand quilted scrappy quilt made by Chase

I have been loving every aspect of being a mother. My baby girl Honoka is growing so fast I try my best to spend as much time with her as possible so I won't miss a thing. I wake up in the morning wanting to see her, and I go to sleep missing her smile. She brings so much joy to my life. I can't even describe how amazing it makes me feel to be able to call her my child. She is my favorite thing I have ever created for sure.

Pink quilt made by Penny

OK, I talked too much I am only getting to talk about these amazing quilts from friends finally and then it's time for bed. The makers of these quilts already how much I love them and I've posted the pictures on Instagram already, but I just wanted to take this chance to share these pictures here.

Honoka is such a lucky girl to have this many quilts made with much love. One truly lucky little pink penguin.

Meet my baby girl Honoka!

I am officially the worst blogger ever!! What kind of a blogger takes a whole month to announce a safe arrival of a baby?? I am so sorry for this terribly late post, but I wanted to let you all know that my baby girl was born on July 13th. The delivery wasn't very easy and speedy. I was hospitalized on July 11th with a plan to deliver the baby next day with induction. The induction started in the morning next day, but it wasn't until 10 am the day after that I got to greet my baby finally. (The 29 hours of induction didn't dilate my cervix enough, plus it had been 24 hours since my water broke, so I ended up having C section.) The contractions seemed never ending and I was completely exhausted, but the moment I saw my healthy plump baby girl taken out of my belly, alive, moving, crying, I couldn't possibly think of any happier day of my life. Instantly, everything I experienced - uncomfortable pregnancy, painful contractions - seemed absolutely worth it, and I cried out loud in joy of finally meeting my cute baby girl :)


This is the very first picture of my baby, Honoka Kimberly Mills, taken about 15 minutes after she arrived. She was being held by mom and Joe took the picture. This picture brings back to me the memory of the day, so it has been my favorite picture of her although it is a bit blurry :) She weighed 3986 gram (8lb 12oz) and measured 55 cm (21.6 inch) at birth. She was SO much larger than the average newborn baby here; in fact, she was the largest baby in the entire hospital! We left the hospital on July 22nd and have been happily staying with my parents.

The baby and I are finally going back to our apartment in Tokyo this weekend if she clears everything at her one month check up tomorrow. I am very happy that we can finally stay close to Joe throughout the week soon, but I am a bit worried about my family here, who I know for sure, will miss the baby tremendously.


I will be back to blog about lots of lovely handmade gifts my lucky girl has received so far, including this quilt she is laying on, which is made by an uber talented and super sweet Elnora!!

Hope you are having a great week so far!

Zakka Along 2.0 :: Patchwork, Please kicked off!!

I can't begin to tell you how much I have been looking forward to this! The Zakka Along finally kicked off with Penny's awesome variation of bellpepper coasters, the very first project in the zakka along!! I feel that it was just a few weeks ago when Lindsey kindly contacted me to bring up the idea of zakka along through my book, Patchwork, Please!. This, in fact, happened about a half year ago! You can imagine how thrilled I must have been, but I guess I was more nervous than excited at first. I wasn't sure if enough people will like the projects in the book enough to participate in it, and if my instructions are clear enough for everyone to follow through, and if anyone would be willing to be a contributor for my book's zakka-along. But knowing how fun and successful the first zakka along Lindsey hosted was, I had such a great feeling that this zakka along has a lot of potential for people to have lots of fun if I let Lindsey and Debbie take a lead in this event!

Lindsey and Debbie are such amazing hosts! They have been working very hard behind the scene even before the book came out. I can't thank them enough for their willingness to do this and their absolutely awesome organizing skills!!

I am sure you've already read the detail about the zakka along. Not sure what it is all about yet? Then you should check out here for details! It's not too late to join in! There are TONS of prizes from lots of great sponsors every singe week starting this week through the first week of October, not to mention great prizes waiting at the very end!!! Here is a schedule of the Zakka along!

June 3: Penny | Sew Take a Hike :: Bell Pepper Coasters
June 10: Maureen | MC Handmade :: B,L,D Towels
June 17: Anna | Noodlehead :: Lettered Tea Cozy + Pouch
June 24: Angela | Cut to Pieces :: Polka Dot Cafe Apron
July 1: Lynne | Lily’s Quilts :: Diamond Patchwork Placemat
July 8: Lindsey | LRstitched :: Yum Yum Apple Bib
July 15: Sukie | Don’t Ya Know :: Dino-Mite Hat
July 22: Jennifer | Ellison Lane :: Book for Baby Quilt
July 29: Krista | Poppyprint :: My Scrappy Box
August 5: Kerry | Very Kerry Berry :: Swedish Bloom Time Quilt
August 12: Tamiko | Patchwork Notes :: You’ve Got Mail Wall Pocket
August 19: Monica | Happy Zombie :: Happy Hexagon Trivet
August 26: Krista | Spotted Stone Studio :: Piece of Cake Shopping Bag
Sept 2: Lori | Bee in My Bonnet :: Triangle Patchwork Box Pouch
Sept 9: Amy | During Quiet TIme :: Vintage Pencil Case
Sept 16: Svetlana | SOTAK Handmade :: I love My Ipad Quilted Cover
Sept 23: Amber | One Shabby Chick :: Handy Market Tote
Sept 30: Deb | A Quilter’s Table :: Sweet Trips Embroidery Pouch
Oct 7: Leila | Where the Orchids Grow :: Prettified Pincushion

I have been a big fan of every one of these 19 creative people, so I was absolutely over the moon about them agreeing to be contributors! Thank you so much every one of you and all of you who are sewing along! There is nothing like seeing everyone's work made from my book really. It almost drives me nuts every time I see it!

If you've made bellcoasters, don't forget to link up here over at Lindsey's blog for your chance to win the $25 gift card to Fort Worth Fabric Studio and a crib-sized package Legacy™ by Pellon® 100% Bleached Cotton Batting. And certainly, do check out Penny's great tips for altering the coaster pattern to make a hot pad! (LOVE the idea, don't you?!) While you are there, you'll definitely want to leave a comment for your chance to win some yummy prizes :)

Once again, thank you to all of you who are sewing along through my book! My fingers are crossed that it will be so much fun for you!!


On a personal note, I may be MIA quite often during the sew long is taking place, because I am due July 6th :) I've decided to follow a traditional way here, which is to move in with parents, give birth at a hospital close to their house, spend a month or so with parents and the baby, and come back to my home. Now I have been going back and forth between my apartment (in Tokyo) and my parents' (in Gunma - 2.5 hours train ride one way) for my check ups. Sometime next week, I will move in with my parents so no more traveling but seeing Joe for only weekends :(  I'll miss him terribly, but hopefully I am making the right decision for the baby and myself. Because of this, my little etsy shop will be closed for a few months starting in a week! (I've noticed a lot of people who are sewing along have shopped at my shop to get ready for the zakka along - thank you so much!!!)

Hope your week started off nicely! Mine did most definitely :)

Filled with Quilt Love :)

Look what we've got in the mail just a few days ago! It is an alphabet quilt for a tiny pink penguin growing in my belly made by a collaborative work of my lovely friends all over the world. You probably heard me squealing when I opened the package, didn't you? It was such a lovely, touching, unexpected surprise!! I feel that I have done nothing but enjoyed feeling so much love from it ever since it arrived here.

I had absolutely no clue that friends have been working on anything like this for months and months. Krista of poppyprint was so sweet to start a flickr group to make this happen since I implied that I was expecting a baby (about 6 months ago now.) I found out all about how the planning went and how much thought and effort everyone put into it now. This has been really, really touching.



Seriously, this would not have happened without Krista's amazing skill to organize the group, everyone's willingness to share ideas and to provide time and effort for it. All of these people worked real hard to come up with a quilt that I would most definitely love, and they absolutely nailed it. Who wouldn't love growing up with such a cute alphabet quilt like this? I know the tiny pink penguin will have lots of fun pointing at alphabets and designs while learning ABCs. And you know how much I love paper-pieced blocks, especially those in my super quilting hero, Kumiko Fujita's 318 book (which is unfortunately out of print). The pastel color pallet, cute and lovely fabrics, quilt backing with one of my favorite fabric print - Sew Cherry's red plaid designed by the ubber talented Lori... I could go on and on about how much I love about this quilt, but what I love the most about it is how I feel the labor of love from each and every stitch.



Now would you let me introduce each sweet block and give credit to the talented makers?

The A and the apple were made by Sam. Can you spy the teeny tiny apples in A and a gorgeous vintage feedsack on the big apple? Sam! You are so generous! Sam is also expecting a baby now and there is even a chance our babies could share their birthdays!!

The B and the bee had to be made by Lori of Bee in my Bonnet, and I was right! I have been a huge fan of her ever since I discovered her blog and her fabric line!

The C and the cake were made by the sweet, talented Linda! You know how much I love sweets and this cake has to be one of my favorite patterns in the book!!

The D and the dress were made by the lovely Penny, which was no surprise either :) The cute dress pattern is one of the Sew Very Christmas pattern set by Sew-Ichigo, run by Penny and Kerry. Notice she picked ducky fabric for the D? That's exactly something she would do :)



The E and the envelope were made by Belinda and Amy. It made my heart sing to notice that this E block is the only block with a slightly pink background, because we happen to have a name picked for the baby in mind that starts with E :)

The F and the frog were made by Chase. This frog is literally the cutest frog I have ever seen! I relate myself to a frog quite often lately especially when I sit down. A big belly and short, chunky legs :)

The G and the grasshopper - I knew for sure they were made by Elnora! I had seen this cute grasshopper on her flickr or IG before and thought it was so darn cute! Can you notice the teeny tiny grasshoppers in the background? Too cute of details!



The H and the house had to be made by Charise :) She is another sweet and talented friend of mine who adds "Charise touch" to everything she makes. Oh and how much I adore everything she makes!! Such perfect fussy cutting for every window in the house!!

The I and the ice cream are just as lovely and sweet as Kylie herself! Look how perfectly she fussy-cut the cherries and the word "ice cream"?? Way too adorable!! I have a little felt pink penguin made by her. When it came here, my tiny pink penguin was so much smaller than the felt penguin, but now she is much larger! (2000 gram now!)

The J and Jello were made by the sweet, silly, and popular Monica! Everything she makes and designs is so lovely and cute just like Monica herself! I have been such a big fan of this talented lady!

The K and kite were made by Krista of poppyprint, who worked so hard for months to bring this whole quilt together!!! She is a master of everything, so she is often someone I go to when I need advice. You know someone who just seems to do everything so perfectly somehow? To me, it's Krista!



The L and the ladybug were made by Megan! She is just as lovely as this ladybug! Knowing how busy she has been at the time she made these blocks, I very much appreciate the time and energy she put into making them. The placement of the apple on the ladybug is killing me!

The M and the mouse are Berene's work! How cute is the mouse?? I wish I could snatch him up off the quilt just to give him a big hug! Berene has been working very hard to organize To Boston with Love project where quilters get together to send love to those affected by the incident in Boston. Head over here to learn more about it if you haven't heard of it.

The N and the necktie were made by the silly Doe! I read in the discussion thread and learned that N was the last alphabet to be chosen! Doe, you are so clever to come up with this necktie idea! I want a necktie exactly like this!



The O and the owl were made by Lauree! You can probably recognize that she used Sonja's cutest owl pattern! The cuteness of this owl is driving me nuts. I'll have to get a picture of my baby making a similar facial expression right next to this owl block one day for sure!

The P and the penguin - I knew right away Sonja made them! What could possibly be a better choice than a pink penguin for P? I seriously can't think of any! She designs the most unique, adorable paper-pieced blocks. It's like her brain works so differently from everyone else's! I just love everything she designs!!

"Q for a quilt?! That is so neat!" was one of the first things Joe said when we first spread out this quilt! These blocks were made by Krista of Spotted Stone Studio! It is so tiny and cute. I am crazy about anything tiny, so looking at this makes me so smile!

The R and the rabbit traveled all around the world, from Argentina to Canada, the US, to Japan! They were made by the sweet Paula! I know that she had a lot on her plate at the time she made these blocks, so I can't thank her enough for agreeing to contribute these blocks. The rabbit is way too adorable!



The S and the strawberry had to be Kerry's! Kerry has been such a great friend for me for a long time. You can find her lovely strawberry pattern in Sew-Ichigo's shop! It is a truly lovely pattern! While you are there, don't forget to check out their awesome newest pattern set!

I knew right away that the T and the teapot were Leila's work! It's funny how I was playing with her Green Tea pattern just an hour before the quilt arrived. I was using this teapot pattern for my flag contribution for To Boston With Love project. I even used the same daisy print! It's like a part of me knew what was coming my way!

The U and the umbrella were made by Jeannie. She too is such a busy lady, so I feel blessed that she took the moment to make some blocks for this quilt! This umbrella is completely perfect in every way! I wish I had a cute umbrella like this!



The V and the van were made by Amber. Seriously, how lovely is this van? If my tiny pink penguin sees a van like this on the street, I am sure she (and I!) will not be able to resist going there and getting some treats!

The W and the whale are Amy's work! This whale is just so so cute!! This fabric she used for the water part reminds me of some traditional Japanese fabric, which makes this block very special for me too!! "Woof!" for W is so awesome, Amy!!

The X and the xylophone are so Tamiko I knew they were made by her!! The apple fabric I covet and the loveliest use of colors - there are so many things about these blocks that spoke to me they were Tamiko's work! I so miss being able to hang out with her all the time when I was still in the US.

The Y and the yarn were made by the talented Marit! The creative use of the stripe fabric for the yarn block is just so amazing. Can you spy a string on the left side of the yarn ball? So cute! Oh and yellow for Y is such a neat idea too!



The Z and the zippers were made by Tara! Tara is such a creative lady who is a maker of everything! How I wish I had awesome zippers like these?! I would make all sorts of things if zippers like these existed!

Reading about how they went to come up with filling the last 4 blocks was so fun! They ended up choosing this number because it is the year the tiny pink penguin will be born! So clever!!

The 1 and 0 blocks are the sweet, funny, talented Lynne's work! There seems to be nothing whatsoever she can't do about sewing/quilting, but I know this kind of paper-piecing isn't her favorite, so I completely appreciate she tackled it anyway!

The 2 block was made by the lovely Melinda! You may not be able to see it, but she used such a cute postage stamp fabric for the number. I can imagine the tiny pink penguin gazing at the block and being happy to discover some animal in it!

The 3 was made by Jan. Sorry for a bad picture, but there are really cute animals holding an alphabet letter, L or Love and H for Heart inside the number 3. What a sweet way to conclude this quilt!



Even the backing of this quilt is so special. Look at this lovely embroidered message surrounded by cute patchwork, made by Jessie. This adds so much loveliness to this whole quilt. I just can't believe how lucky I am to have such great friends who worked very hard together to make this happen!

Every one of these friends who contributed to this quilt has had many other commitments in life. And, not everyone likes paper-piecing in particular, nor had the Kumiko Fujita's book, nor had fabric stash that I would particularly like. There were a lot of actions taken behind the scene to help each other among the group to make this all happen!!



This is truly one of the most amazing quilts I have ever received and it will be much loved by us for years and years to come. Expect seeing lots of pictures with the tiny pink penguin laying on this quilt in just a few months :)

Thank you so very much to every one of you who contributed to this quilt, and a special thank you to Krista who brought this all together! I can't be happier!

Collage Overalls and Winner!

Thank you so very much for your sweet words about my book! I am back today to show you overalls I whipped up this week. You know who this is for, hehe! It's so teeny and cute I can't believe I have like a year to go until my little baby girl (←maybe) is ready to wear this.


I have been in the nesting phase completely. I am constantly on the lookout for nice fabric print that would make cute baby outfits. So when I received Carrie of Such Designs' new fabrics, "Collage" for Windham Fabric to come out in July, in the mail, I went out of control!! All the things on my to-do list that day were pushed back to the next day so I could start making overalls with this awesome fabric right away!! Take a look at some of the prints in the line!






Isn't it so beautiful?! I feel so honored I got this chance to play with this beauty before it hits the market. Carrie and I have been friends for years, and I've always admired her natural artistic talent. I knew the moment she told me she had designed fabric, it will be such an awesome line. I wasn't wrong at all! Colors on this fabric line are just so rich it's pleasing to look at. I love that this fabric line is great for both large and small projects. I can see it would make really nice bags, outfits, home decor items, but it would be great for small patchwork projects too. (Check out Carrie's blog to see some creations with this fabric line by her friends (They are amazing!!) and learn more about the line. Thank you Carrie for your generosity and kindness to allow me to play with your fabric!!



The result of the giveaway! The winner of a signed copy of my book is...

Congratulations, Jessica! Could you email me your address? :) (I don't have your email address!)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great week so far!