Pink Penguin

Iron Pincushions and Sweet Gift

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:34:00 +0000

Goodness gracious, I did it again! So sorry for taking such a long blog break once again! I have a lot of my recent projects I want to share with you, but I will wait for a few weeks to do some lengthy blogposts. I am in the midst of wrapping up my pet project and gearing up for a new venture!I'll tell you all about it along the way, hehe!

Many of you are so kind to say you aren't tired of seeing my pincushions! thank you so much for that! It means a lot to me because I am still very muchaddicted to it and will not be able to resist showing you as I make them!Thank you so much to all of you for snatching up my pincushions and fabrics from my shop! I can't begin to tell you how exciting it is for me toshare my pincushions with folks who would appreciate them!
These two pincushions are my most recentpincushions that are available in my shop ;)

Today I want to show you this pretty pincushion that traveledall the way across the ocean from Norway!Isn't it soooo sweet??!! Marit surprised me with a little package withthis cutie inside! I'm loving it so much!!
She was so sweet to use the stamp I carved for her on the back ofthis little pillow! I feel so lucky to have a kind friend like her!Thank you so much, Marit!!
I hope you are having a great week so far ;)Thank you for stopping by my little blog!

Logcabin Pincushion

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:51:00 +0000

My addiction to making log cabin pincushions is back, and it's a bad
one again! I've shown so many, maybe too many pincushions on this blog in the past, but when I get bitten by this pincushion bee, my self-controlis totally gone and the only thing I can think of is to make and makeand make more pincushions. And the fact I took a part of the zakka stylesew along and made a pincushion for it didn't help ;)
If you are already sick of seeing my log cabin pincushions,feel free to turn around and say adios now!If you have a bit of time to spare and don't mind seeingsome of the pincushions I made, thank you and here we go!

I love this one partly because this is the first pincushion I've ever made that I used my carved stamp for! The "Sewing!" stamped on the linen piece is one ofthe stamps I carved this week. Remember I told you I've beenaddicted to that too? I also like this one because I think thegirl looks like she is looking at cherry blossoms petals falling. I love the pink snow flakes and miss them terribly already!

I made this one today. Very pink and strawberry!The stamp came out a bit better than how it looks in the picture. I got to use some fabrics I have always wanted to use for pincushion-making, so I'm happy!So far this is the only one left waiting for a new home in my shop ;)

This is another one I made today. It's for a sweet friend who I've wanted to make something for for a long time. I carved the chipmunk stamp too.I'd say it's not too shabby, no?He is asking for a swap with his little flower for an apple, but the thing is ....

There are a bunch of them just behind him!So he would just needs to get up and go around the back to discover them.

The Heather Ross Gnome fabric is always a perfectone to start a log cabin!

Whenever I receive email to notify me I sold my pincushion, I have such a mixed feeling. Happy and sad.Happy because there was someone in the worldwho wants to welcome my pincushion to her crafty space.Sad because it means I have to part with it.This one was particularly a hard one to part with!

This one was so much fun to make, I remember! I've always thought pink is the dominant color in my fabric stash, but lately I realized I probably havemore aqua fabrics than pink fabrics. The bigger the stashto pick fabric from is, the funner it is to make pincushions.

I covet this poodle fabric and have always wantedto make a pincushion using it.

There may be a little too much going on, butI think it turned out sorta fun!

I picked up the bike stamp before I started carving stamps.Now I feel like I may be able to make a stamp like thatwith a little bit more of practice!

This one makes me think of vintage style a lot ;)It found such a nice new home!

I love this one too. I'll have to make more pincushionswith a sewing machine in the middle more often!

I had a lot of fun making it too. The linen looking fabric at the right bottomis not linen. It is printed cotton that looks like linen and a button. So fun!
I'll probably keep making more pincushions for my shopfor a while, hehe.
Thank you for letting me share these pincushions!Hope you have a great rest of the weekend ;)

Oops I almost forgot! The winners of the package of Aurifil threads are:Sarah, Joyce Carter, Karen P, Beezus, Dakota sews!Congratulations girls ;) I'll contact you all shortly!

Zakka Style Sew-Along Week 3 - Zakka Pincushion

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:25:00 +0000

Welcome to week 3 of the Zakka Style sew-along! Thank you again Lindseyand Amy for hosting this sew-along and letting me participate in the fun!It's been so fun to see everyone's projects from the book popping up in the blogsphere lately! Today, I'd like to share with you my pincushion I made from the book as well as (hopefully) helpful tips ;)

Probably this is the easiest project in the book, and I certainly loveeverything about it! It's very simple but gives you a lot of room to be creative and make yours very unique!
I closely followed the instruction except for the button on front.Instead of using a fabric covered button for it, I used a cutelamb button I found in my stash, just because I thought the lamb may feel better to be on there rather than sitting in the zip lock for another few years. lol!

I happened to have a sewing-themed stamp of the perfect size,so I used it, but I must admit I had a bit difficulty stamping on the cotton tape.

My initial plan was to use this stamp that I made by carving an eraser.(I've been totally hooked at this lately! I am making at least one stamp a day nowand have 10 books about curving stamps from the library!)Anyway, one sad finding for me was that the stamp on thecotton tape did not come out nearly as nice as it would on smooth quilting weight cotton, however many times I tried. It is probably the matter of a fact that it is difficult to get a good impression oncotton tape because of its somewhat bumpy surface.(Or maybe I just suck at it!)
Here are some tips for you
1. If you have temporary fabric adhesive on hands, you might want to useit for the cotton tape and the lace placement instead of pinning them.

I use this glue anytime it's hard to use pins (like sewing rick rack tapes etc.)It's much quicker and easier and, gives you better control!
2. When you leave an opening at a long edge to turn your pincushionright side out through, it might be better to avoid including the areathe lace is sewn. Does that make sense?

This is especially if you are using something like a rick rack tapethat is hard to hand-sew. It is much easier to hand-sew toclose the opening if the lace part is already machine-sewn.
3. When you put ink on your stamp, it might be nice to use a Q-tip toclean the edges of the stamp to prevent from unwanted ink on the tape.
4. Small print fabric might work best for the cotton part of the front.I thought about using a big print for it and realized it would be too busywith the stamped cotton tape and all. Small print helps other features (cotton tape, lace and button) pop up, I think!

Here is the schedule of this sew-along again!

April 2nd :: Zig Zag Tote with Sew Fantastic
April 9th :: The House Pouch with During Quiet Time
April 16th :: Zakka Pincushion with Pink Penguin
April 23rd :: Sewing Kit with Monkey Do
April 30th :: Patchwork Pencil Case with VeryKerryBerry
May 7th :: Itty Bitty Quilt Block Magnets with Little Bluebell

May 14th :: Raincloud Mug Rug with Quilt Dad
May 21st :: Zakka Block Quilt with I like Orange
May 28th :: Stem Messenger Bag with Sew Sweetness
June 4th :: Zip Organizer with Spotted Stone
June 11th :: Orchard Path Tweed Pouch with Don’t Call Me Betsy
June 18th :: Happy Couple Handwarmers with A Cuppa and a Catchup

June 25th :: Patchwork Potholder with Sew Take a Hike
July 2nd :: Water Bottle Holder with One Shabby Chick
July 9th :: Elephant Bookmark with Cut to Pieces
July 16th :: Patchwork Ribbon with {House} of A la Mode
July 23rd :: Delightful Linen Bag with Sukie
July 30th :: Bread Basket with Patchwork Notes

August 6th :: Sweet Sugar Cookie Sack with BettyCrockerAss
August 13th :: Little Pocket Pillowcase with Freshly Pieced
August 2oth :: Sweet Memories Photo Frame with Noodlehead
August 27th :: Pleated Coin Purse with Shape Moth
September 3rd :: Happy Garland Message Board with Maureen Cracknell Handmade
September 10th :: Nesting Boxes with From the Blue Chair

As you may have guessed, I have a giveaway for you!

To win one package of 5 Aurifil threads, leave one comment for this postby the midnight April 20th. I will select 5 random winners and announce themon the day after.
P.S. Make sure to link up your finished pincushion over Lindsey's by April 22nd for a chance to win the fat quarter bundle of Monsterz by Cloud 9 fabrics!

Good luck ;)

Sew-Ichigo ;)

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:43:00 +0000

If you've been around on my blog (thank you for that ;) ), you may already know I am a huge fan of Penny and Kerry, because I talk about them a lot. Well it's because these ladies just simply rock! They have become such great, sweet friends of mine in the past few years, and I have always been inspired by their impeccable works!

Their new adventure, sew-ichigo kicked off recently, and they just made their first set of paper-piecing patterns, "Kitchen Classics" available for sale! You've got to take a look at them! They are just soooooo adorable! Ever since they told me about these patterns, I had been secretly hoping they'd ask me to test their patterns because I knew they would be wonderful just like everything they create, and I have a weak spot for any kitchen related stuff!

You can imagine how excited I was to test this KitchenAid pattern Penny came up with! When I first saw her KitchenAid block for Ringo Pie bee, my jaw dropped to the floor! I don't know what it is about KitchenAids, but they are just so lovely! Penny did such an amazing job creating the difficult shape into a doable quilt block pattern!

This potholder was made for Jacey of Jaceycraft who is going to get married soon ;) I had always been wanting to send her something. She likes cooking, and I have spied a KitchenAid in her blogpost. I couldn't tell if her KitchenAid was in cobalt blue or black or possibly any other color, but I guessed it was in cobalt blue, so I made the KitchenAid with a fabric in a similar color (navy blue). I love the way she combines blue and orange in her beautiful projects, so I picked orange-ish fabric for the bowl. It made her way yesterday and I was just so happy to hear she likes it, hehe!

Let me leave you with some cherry blossoms pictures I took about a few weeks ago. Japanese cherry blossom blooms for only a week each year. Seeing them around really made me feel I am back home.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Camera Block

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:34:00 +0000

This is my terribly awfully late take on Amy's theme "All things related to cameras" forthe Ringo Pie bee. It's my very last block for the first round of the Ringo Pie bee, the first quilting bee I've ever joined! No need to be sad about though, because we kicked off the second round this month! I just really love the concept of this bee and the very friendly, encouraging and inspiring bunch of friends in the bee. Making one block takes a lot of time and energy, but I like the way this challenge stimulates my creative mind and helps me go beyond my comfort zone.

For some reasons I was really intimidated to make this block. My ideas for my block for her kept changing, but I ended up with this camera block which is modeled after Diana F+ clone camera. Its retro look reminded me of Amy's style a lot ;)Obviously, the tape is not sewn. I just found the ribbon in my stash and had totake a picture with it because it looks like a camera strap!

This humongous flash light could have used more contrasting fabrics maybe. My instinct was calling for yellow fabrics for it, but there is a reason I had to resist. When Amy and I hung out in Tokyo, (Yes! I've met her in person! How cool is that?), she told me she really liked these posters she saw at JR train stations.

Photo Credit: n_wakaThese are the ads to encourage people to take a trip to the northeastern part of Japan, the area that was affected by the tragedy last year. Amy and I both thought the colors on these posters are "so Amy". If you know me well, you know it was the moment I knew my block for her will be in this colorway, hehe.

The reason for 12 04? It's the date I hung out with her, December fourth last year.

My fingers are crossed Amy will like it.

Have a great weekend ;)

Zakka Style Sew-Along

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:29:00 +0000

I bet you've heard about this Sew-Along in the blogsphere by now! Yup, it is hosted by the fabulous Lindsey of LR Stitched and Amy of Skie, and it will start Monday April 2nd with the first project in the book, Zakka Style by Rashida Coleman-Hale, and will continue through Monday September 10th with a new project introduced each Monday. Each blogger will sew a different project and will be sharing their finished project and inspiration with you.

I love this book! It is one of those books that make me feel I want to make everything in it! When Lindsey asked me to pick five favorite projects in it, I had a hard time choosing as there are a lot more than five that I would love to make! I'm really excited about making a zakka pincushion designed by Sonia of Cozy Home Making because you know, I am a pin cushion addict!

April 2nd :: Zig Zag Tote with Sew Fantastic
April 9th :: The House Pouch with During Quiet Time
April 16th :: Zakka Pincushion with Pink Penguin
April 23rd :: Sewing Kit with Monkey Do
April 30th :: Patchwork Pencil Case with VeryKerryBerry
May 7th :: Itty Bitty Quilt Block Magnets with Little Bluebell

May 14th :: Raincloud Mug Rug with Quilt Dad
May 21st :: Zakka Block Quilt with I like Orange
May 28th :: Stem Messenger Bag with Sew Sweetness
June 4th :: Zip Organizer with Spotted Stone
June 11th :: Orchard Path Tweed Pouch with Don’t Call Me Betsy
June 18th :: Happy Couple Handwarmers with A Cuppa and a Catchup

June 25th :: Patchwork Potholder with Sew Take a Hike
July 2nd :: Water Bottle Holder with One Shabby Chick
July 9th :: Elephant Bookmark with Cut to Pieces
July 16th :: Patchwork Ribbon with {House} of A la Mode
July 23rd :: Delightful Linen Bag with Sukie
July 30th :: Bread Basket with Patchwork Notes

August 6th :: Sweet Sugar Cookie Sack with BettyCrockerAss
August 13th :: Little Pocket Pillowcase with Freshly Pieced
August 2oth :: Sweet Memories Photo Frame with Noodlehead
August 27th :: Pleated Coin Purse with Shape Moth
September 3rd :: Happy Garland Message Board with Maureen Cracknell Handmade
September 10th :: Nesting Boxes with From the Blue Chair

I am super lucky to not only be part of this sew-along but also to have contributed a project to the book! I can blog about it now that I have a perfect picture of Joe's niece Sarah for it.

It is a patchwork photo frame titled "Sweet Memories Photo Frame." I made this a year and a half ago, but I like it just as much as I did when I made it. I think it is great for a little girl or boy's picture, but obviously you can make it more grown-ups picture friendly by choosing different kinds of fabrics. I knew I would put Sarah's picture in it as soon as I get this back. This is my favorite picture of her. Doesn't she look so adorable?

This is the picture I took right after it was finished. (I miss the nice weather in the bay area!)

Several folks have asked me if this girl in the frame in the book is me. Oh how I wish I had been this lovely! I don't know who she is, but I am really glad that the publisher picked her picture for it. I think this particular frame was meant to be for a cute girl like her or Sarah ;)

Thank you for taking the time stop by! I'll be back very soon with a paper-pieced camera block ;)

Charise in a Basket

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:40:00 +0000

Thank you for your lovely words about the juice and sprout blocks!
Both Penny's sprout block tutorial and my juice glass block tutorial have
been posted at Sew, Mama, Sew!.
Here is a block I made last night for Charise for her theme, 'baskets' in Patchwork 318: The Bee. There is this really cute mermaid patternin the book that I've always thought looks like Charise andI knew I'd somehow want to include the mermaid in the block for her.So when she asked for baskets, I immediately had this picture of themermaid (= Charise) in a basket lol! I wasn't sure if that kind of crazy stuff was right up her alley, but my stubborn mind was insisting on the original idea.
It took me a while to find the right solid for the skin.This one I used for the block was found in the section of"UV coated solids" at the store, so it basically means the mermaidCharise doesn't need any sun screen! That's cool!!
I don't know if she is dancing or just stretching or possibly trying to stay away from the fish,but she looks pretty happy in the basket ;)
Thank you for stopping by!

Sprout and Juice Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:08:00 +0000

Remember how I slightly hinted at a little project I was working on with

my lovely friend Penny of sew take a hike? Well, here is a reveal! The kind folks
at Sew, Mama, Sew contacted us a few weeks ago to ask if we'd be
up for an interview about our Ringo Pie bee and for sharing paper-piecing
tutorials on their blog! The interview is posted there today and our tutorials
will be up on their blog tomorrow and Tuesday!

It was so fun working with Penny (as always!) We had this idea ofcoming up with one pattern each and we both make a mini flimsy using both our patterns. Penny made this adorable sprout pattern and I made the juice pattern.We both decided to go with making several pairsof sprout and juice blocks and use stamps to label them, but we wouldn'tshare each other's work until Sunday evening when our flimsy is complete.This way, we were able to put our own spins on the blocks.As usual, I was way too slow making progress. Penny was done with hersway before I even started mine and look what she ended up with!SOOOOO AMAZING!!!! I so wish I was one-tenth as talented as that lady.I'm a bit embaraased to show mine after seeing Penny's, butI still want to share with you how far I got anyway.

Nine pairs with Kona snow sashing.I really don't know what I should do with this now. Anyone has any ideas?

Oh before I head to bed, I want to give this pair a little attention.It's funny how I don't care for purple, but I quite often like stuff I makeusing purple fabrics. I went back and forth about whether or not toinclude a purple pair, but I'm really glad I did include it because it turnedout to be one of my faves among the nine. Is this only me that thinksthe sprout looks like a pair of sweet eyes and those eyes could use the sunglasses in the juice? Maybe I am crazy.
Off to bed now. Thank you for stopping by!Hope your week started off nicely!

Handmade Gifts from Friends (Warning: The longest blogpost ever!)

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 13:31:00 +0000

I'm guest blogging at Charlotte's lovely blog at Lawson and Lotti today
as a part of Sundays Sewing Space she has been hosting. It's been really nice to peak through my virtual friends' sewing space every Sundayon her blog and am so honored that Charlotte has kindly asked me to sharemy space on her blog. My space isn't anything like you see on Pinterest, butI like my space because it is filled with lovely handmade gifts from friends. On Charlotte's blog I talked about my sewing space mainly (and you'llhear Joe's perspective on the way how we share one room.)

Here I'd like to introduce handmade gifts as well as other pretty things in my sewing space that I have been meaning to share with you forever!

I bet you have seen this on Kerry's blog already. Yup, it was made by her for my birthday/house-warming gift! You don't even have tohear me to know how much I love it, do you? It's SO ME!I found this super cute vintage bathroom cleanser on Flickr last year and had toshare it with Kerry because she and I often find the same things cute.I just love the combination of deep pink and green so much!Can you believe she made this pillow using the same color palette???You can read more about this pillow on her blog here, but all thesenine blocks are categorized as friendship blocks. Lots of fabrics she used for it are fabrics we have talked about, bought together, or fabrics I sent her.This is the first and only handmade pillow I have ever received in my lifeand I care about it too much to use it as a pillow. Here it is rested on my chairjust for a picture purpose, but usually it is in our bedroom for decoration.I look at it every morning and think how lucky I am to own it.When you are over Kerry's, don't forget to check out her friendship pillow tutorial!

This is the pinnie I am so happy to have on my work station now.When I first saw this crabby pinnie whipped up by Heidi of craft:nosis,I instantly fell in love so bad. The next second I found myself begging her to make one for me. Call me selfish, I even asked her to make mine pink!Although I wanted to have this in my sewing space in the US, it attracted thisboy I used to babysit at my place a little too much I had to store it wherehe can't reach to prevent him from needle-related injury. Now my space doesn'thave to be kids-friendly, so it is on this cutting mat feeling quite safe and proud.So adorable, right?! Heidi has written a tute on this pinnie here!

I've gushed about things made by my super talented friend Mary quite a fewtimes on this blog. I don't know anybody who can sew and stitch so perfectly like Mary!I have so much to learn from this lady. She is not only so talented, but isalso such a kind, generous person! She has given me so many lovelythings in the past few years and I treasure each and every single thing she made for me.
This completely adorable pink penguin object was made by Mary's neighbor girl who "lives to craft." So so so cute it's almost edible!

Yes, my friends know how much I love animals! I've already shared this lovely Oto quilt made by Sonja ofArtisania who makes the most unique and adorable paper-piecingpatterns! Since I talked about this, many people have sent meemail asking when Sonja would have this for sale. Well, guess what?She has it available in her shop now! She even included a pattern with Oto's ears being pointy (like normal cats) so if you like catsears that way, you have no problem with this pattern!
Let me show you some funny pictures of Oto that I took whenwe were at our parents' house for the New Year.

Joe: "Hey, Oto, look behind you!" Oto: "No thank you I've got stuff to take care."

- Oto leaving -

Shiro: "Oh wait, Oto! You got to see this! I see some edamame!"

Oto: "What? Edamame!? What??? Me also???"

Oto "What did I see just now......?"Joe "That was you pieced by Sonja, Oto!" Oto"........"

This super cute framed purse, (which is called gamaguchi here) was a part of a surprise gift Tara of Tinkerfrog sent me along with giftsfrom Penny of sew take a hike. I just love these ladies! They were sonice to plan this surprise gift since October last year. I got a bigpackage from them just about several weeks ago when I neededreal encouragement. You have no idea how gooooooood I felt about the package and how awesome it smelled! Tara makes handmade soap,facial lotion, and chap sticks which she was so generous to include!

I used to make soap like mad before I dipped my toe into sewing,which I've told you about too many times already maybe. I have notmade soap for years, but that does not mean I have forgottenabout how nice handmade soap feels. I have been feeling guiltyabout using a store-bought soap which isn't so friendly to the skin.I have yet to have the guts to start using Tara's soap, but I alreadystarted using the lotion and the chap stick daily! I love love love them!

Here is what Penny sent me : a cute, cute market bag and a scrubbie!This is my very first market bag anyone has made for me! I so enjoy thinking about coming back from a grocery store with this bag filled with groceries in the basket of my bike.When I told Penny I would never use it, she kindly said she'd behappier if I actually used it, so I bring it to the grocery store now, but I have yet to have the guts to use it especially when the weather is so unpredictable. (Joe and I went on a little hot springs trip thispast few days not knowing it would be rainy and snowy all day!)The scrubbie has been decorated in my teeny kitchen!You can purchase the scrubbie pattern in her shop here!It feels so nicely soft and scrubby - comforting to touch!Speaking of Penny, we may have something in the works together -I'll reveal it for you in a week or so ;)

This adorable purse was waiting for me when I came backfrom my parents' in January. It was a surprise Christmas gift fromKerry!! It is so small it fits perfectly on my palm! The little milkobject is also from Kerry but was sent to me for Christmas in 2010.I love them decorated together like this!!

This cutie, I associate with so many nice memories with Tamiko.Tamiko is one of my very few real life carfty friends, although we live far apart now.We met on Flickr last year and found that she worked in the building right acrosswhere I used to live. Since I had been admiring her works for ages,I asked her if we could maybe meet up for some fabric shopping one day.She said yes and we hung out to go to some fabric stores in San Francisco.
We totally hit it off! I just had such a blast hanging out with this super lovely,funny, and crafty girl! At the end of the day when she was about to drop me off, I begged her to come to my place, which by the way isn't like me. My apartment was in a huge mess, and I didn't tell Joe that I would bring someone I just met (and it didn't help that Joe had suspected Tamiko might be a serial killer),but I just really wanted to spend more time with her. We then at my place, flipped throughKumiko Fujita's ABC book and talked about making this particular potholder in the book together. Although we hung out enough times to be able tofinish the potholders, I started slacking off on this, which eventually gave herthis idea to make one for me! Last time we hung out before my move, she gave methis along with Kona cotton solids card which I still don't know where she found.(I had been hunting on it with no luck forever!)
If you ever meet anyone virtually who shares the same hobby as you and she happensto be your neighbor, I strongly suggest you meet up with her especially if mostcrafty friends you have are virtual friends. You have no idea how FUN it isto actually talk about fabric and sewing in person! Joe thought it was strangeI would ever talk about missing someone I had known for only a few months, but I consider her as one of my truly awesome friends I made in the bay area.

This is a lovely needle book Nancy has made for me based ona pattern by Bari J. Nancy is just super nice! She has been so supportive of my little etsy shop and one day she sent me this lovely Christmas gift tothank me for listing fun Japanese fabrics. How generous is she?Her works are sometimes found in Canadian sewing magazines.This needle book is so cute I just love looking at it.

Jennifer of Ellison Lane surprised me with this pretty little mug rug which she included in a little package along with an add-an-inch rulershe kindly shared with me! You know how much I love pink and whiteand anything with a kitchen-theme! This mug rug is so special because the littlefloral print is the same fabric Jennifer's mom made a dress out of for Jennifer'slittle girl! I saw the picture of her in the dress and made me treasure this mug rug more! I will never place a cup on it.It looks nice hanging in my craft space!(The little strawberry peaking at the right top corner is a lavender sachet from Charise- so cute!)
Ok, let me now move onto the other side of the room.

I am not done setting up this side of the room, but this is whatI've got so far ;)

This is one of my most recent handmade gifts from friends.It is made by Amy of During Quiet Time. I hear you wowing at this!After emailing back and forth, I succeeded in sweet-talking Amy intomaking a mini quilt for me! I told her how I covet this miniquilt she made as a part of the swap she was in and look what she did!She made a quilt just like that for me! It's just more pink (yay!)and has the lovely curtain and the bird (yay yaaay!).

I don't know where to begin. You know this is one of thosethings I just love everything about, literally everything! Amy and I sharethe love for miniatures and this quilt very much reminds me of the time I used to make miniature food. There is something about the miniature worldI just love so much. It was my hobby of a decade ago, but I still loveminiatures and subscribe to several miniature/doll house related blogs only tolook at them and go wow wow wow! Ever since I hung this quilt in my room,I have been wanting my friends to come over to my place.I'd love them to notice that the closet's door and open to find this surprise inside!

Lovely things hanging from the linen covered cork board. Those two crochet flowers were from Amy of Chick Chick Sewing.(You know how much I love pink and grey!)Felt owls below were from Kim, my mother-in-law who gave methis book that has this cute owl pattern. (Speaking of her, can you believe how excited Joe and I areabut his parents coming over to Japan this October?!)The A keychain is from Tara! There is a penguin on the back ;) So adorable!

Isa of crafting with love seriously makes the most endearingduckling applique in the world! Hands down!I found this in the mail on the way to go out about a few weeks before Christmas. I remember feeling so warm and fuzzy inside to discover this littlestocking she made, which I had been adoring ever since I saw it in her blog! I had no idea it was for me until I opened the package! How lucky am I?

She is so good at surprising me! This too was another ducking projects of hers which I fell in love at first sight. I don't think I ever hinted at her that I wanted it,but this came all the way from Germany to the US and then to Japan! All my friends go nuts about this when I show them this cutie.

When Penny and I became friends, we decided to do a little swap,and I asked her to make a mini quilt for me with pink fabrics. (so now you know I have thisbad habit of asking friends to make minis for me when I am so inspired by them!)I remember the moment I received this quilt and going crazy about it. I couldn't help myself but bring it to my friends' for a little show off!"See? Making friends online is awesome!"

This cat shaped lavender sachet was whipped up by the lovely Katarina!Lots of nice goodies were sent along with this kitty all the wayfrom Slovakia. She was so nice to include a guide book ofSlovakia which has made Joe and I seriously talk about taking a trip there ;)
OK, what a loooong blogpost it has become! lol!I doubt there is anybody who read everything in this post,but I am happy that I finally got to share these lovelies anyway.
For your patience to deal with my lengthy post, here is a 10% off code for my etsy shop (available now through 3/15):
March
Thank you for stopping by and letting me share my treasures ;)

Afternoon Tea Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:26:00 +0000

Yay it's March! I couldn't wait for March to come because I'll be playing catch-ups with a bunch of things this month. I'm most definitelygoing to catch up with my two bees I fell behind terribly andI'm planning on some serious make-over for my craft room and for my blog design. (I can't wait to show you my room filled with lovely lovely handmade gifts from friends!) Hanging out with friends and Joe and a lot ofgifts-making are happening too, not to mention I'll get to experience the springin Japan first time in 9 years. Woohoo! I made two blocks for Kerry for her Afternoon Tea theme for Patchwork 318 bee. I'm pretty happy with how this kettle turned out except for..

this unacceptably small seam allowance! This happens to me quite often. As the block I am working on is about to finish, I start slacking off and just eye-ball to make sure if pieces are large enough and I don't realize the lack of seamallowance until the very end. (Am I the only one who has this problem?)Knowing Kerry's amazing piecing skill, I know she wouldn't have too much troublepiecing it, but I wanted to give her another option in case this doesn't work out for her.I made this in the hope to make up for it, but I am so not happyabout this result. The addition of the black fabric was a bit too much and the tea cup turned out quite wonky. Hopefully,she doesn't mind these as much as I do.
Thank you for stopping by ;) Just to warn you... I will be blogging a ton in March!

Tutorial: Scrappy Hour Glass Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:46:00 +0000

Hello everyone! Here is a virtual big hug for all of you lovely folks for coming back here after my longest blog break ever. I apologize for having being away for this long without giving you a heads-up (again!). I have been tied up with some project for the past few months, which is coming to an end now, so I will be back to my normal crafting and blogging schedule very very soon! I can hardly wait! You have no idea how much stuff I have on my to-blog-about list now. I have so many things I want to talk about and share you with, but for today,I have a super simple scrappy hour glass block tutorial for you.

Do you remember this quilt top? I started working on this about a year and a half years ago with no plan ahead. I just had so much fun playing with my precious scrappy fabrics and hoped they would inspire me to make something with them.

I remember this project being very pleasing partly because it didn't turn out to be too busy (at least I think so, hehe!) I love scrappy look so much, but when my scrappy project is big in scale, I tend to worry that it would be too busy for my eyes. I added solid sashing between each block, which I think helpedto offset the craziness. And the little square blocks are added fun ;)

Just like what happens to many projects of mine, it was side tracked by other projects and months passed by so I haven't made a progress since then!When the sweet, talented friend Rachel of Stitched in Color contacted me last year if I could participate in Scrap Attack she is hosting,I immediately thought of this idea of revisiting this quilt top for it. I got it out of a zip lock yesterday and it had its first fresh air in Japan.Thanks to Rachel for giving me this opportunity! Now I actually want to finish this quilt.I always appreciate this kind opportunity that gives me a littlepush to go back to my old projects and actually finish them.

This tute might be a bit too simple, but I hope this will inspire some of you to turn your scraps into teeny hour glasses and hopefully do something with them! Each block finishes at a 2 1/4" square. Yup, it's teeny tiny, so these have potentials to be used for some small patchwork projects too!

Two squares, each measuring 3 3/4" x 3 3/4".

Cut from one corner to the other corner.

Take one of each triangle and sew along the long edges like this.(1/4" seam allowance as usual ;) )

Press seams to one side (same side for both.)

Chop!

Trade between the two!

Now to sew this bottom edge.

Press seam open.

Now you have two hour glass blocks, each measuring a little larger than a 2 3/4" square.

We want to trim down each square to be a 2 3/4" square. (1 3/8" from one edge is the center point.) Cut off the excess.

The one on the right hand side is done.Repeat the same process for the remaining block too.

Now they are clean and pretty ;)

It's quite addictive!

We'll need some 1" x 2 3/4" strips.

to join blocks to make a row.

Here I have the white strips sewn at the short edges of the panel,but you can choose to do that part later. Completely up to you.

I like to press seams this way.

To make a sashing that comes between rows, we'll needsome strips with a little colored block attached.Here I am sewing together a 1" wide pink strip anda 2 3/4" wide white rectangle. (Don't worry about length of each fabric.)

After pressing seam to the colored fabric side, chop it offto create some 1" wide strips like this.

And repeat the same process with grey fabric.

Here is to show you how I pressed seams on the sashing. (I made the sashing by sewing three strips and a 1" square at the short end.)

Sew along the edge.

Tada! Here is the beginning of the scrappy quilt.

If you would like to make a similar mini quilt, here is a measurement of my quilt. I have 49 hour glassblocks with sashing between and around them.I added a 1/2" wide border and then finished with a 4 1/4" wide border.This quilt measures a 32 3/4" square - a nice size for a baby quilt?
I would be thrilled if this tutorial could inspire you toplay with your scraps! If you are feeling scrappy, don't forget to stop byRachel's blog and Scrap Quilt Attack Quilt Along Flickr pool tocheck out everyone's scrappy projects - so inspiring!!
I'll be back next month and have tons of stuff to share with you!Hope you are all having a nice week ;)

Big thank you and a Merry Christmas to you :)

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:29:00 +0000

I don't usually take the time to thank every one of you for your kind acts you have taken to make me feel good about myself, but this past few days, I have been giving a lot of thoughts to how lucky I have been to have such great, supportive, warm friends who are always there for me. I have been in need of a lot of support lately, and I have had more than enough of it from my trusted friends and my hubby. Supportive people for me includes every one of you who are nice to hop over here to read my new post out of your busy time. Thank you so much to you all!

Sewing something and putting my projects out there for anyone's eyes has not been easy for me. I am very critical of my work and am always afraid that people might be here to judge me. However, in the history of Pink Penguin since April of 2008, I have never ever received a single email from anybody to criticize anything I have made or have said. This I find it almost a miracle as there are people who aren't necessarily as nice as you guys. I am so lucky. All my fear about my creativity and my projects are usually swept away completely by your sweet comments/emails. They have such strong uplifting power to me, so much that I can hardly describe it to my friends who don't blog or craft. (I would look just silly, hehe.) Without your support, I would not have as much confidence to keep creating and blogging. I deeply thank you for any moment you have spent to let me know you like my projects/tutes/blog. I am especially thankful when I receive emails letting me know that they liked my stuff in published works, as I am usually very, very nervous and shaky about having my work being published in print. So when I saw this post by my friend Penny of Sew Take a Hike today, I started feeling too warm and fuzzy and tears came down on my face. How much it made me feel better is indescribable.

I am also very thankful of all of you who have supported my wee etsy shop. It has been very helpful to me in that I feel I am doing something I can to support this family that Joe works very hard for.

I am ready to have a great Christmas with KFC and a decorated cake at a Kotatsu table (a table with a heater right underneath the table top and a blanket to go over to keep the heat) in our tatami room. I will make quick eggnog for Joe so that he won't miss American way of Christmas too much.

I hope you are keeping yourself warm and that you have a Merry, Merry Christmas with your loved ones!

Thank you again for your every kind act! Love you all!

P.S. Here is a little pattern I made a long time ago. I never cared about it enough to write a tutorial on how to use it, so the whole idea was tossed, and time passed by. I just happen to remember about this because I was thinking about a cake for tomorrow. (It's supposed to be a cake in the oven.) If this is something any of you would want to give a try for personal use, I'd be delighted! It may look a bit boring as it is but maybe it has potential to turn into a fun potholder? Who knows? You can download it here if you would like ;) Just a wee Christmas gift from me to thank you!

Christmas = KFC

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:48:00 +0000

Here is a little sneak peak of my second and sadly possibly last Christmas gift from me this year. (Can you still call it a sneak peak when you show 90% of it? lol) I totally underestimated how fast time flies. I was told at the post office that it's too late to send Christmasgifts overseas via standard airmail now. So my gift list went from 20to 2 since all my recipients-to-be live overseas. So sad, butthis is a great lesson - I will start VERY, VERY early next year!
Christmas is not celebrated in the same way in Japan, so there isno gift exchanges between family here usually. (I have never given Christmas giftsto any of my family, nor received one, but we have a perfect relationship :) )Christmas is rather a romantic day for couples and peopleenjoy a nicely decorated cake and KFC. Can you imagine what Joe's reaction was like when I told him we have to order KFC for Christmas this year? hahaHe said he would accept the idea if and only if he couldhave eggnog, which is basically impossible to find in Japan.Thanks to Krista for pointing out to me that I could make it at home.Well, I might have to do it so that we can have KFC!;)
Oh the winner of Kerry's Candy Cane pattern is**nicke... of kiss kiss......Quilt!Congrats, Nicke! I will contact you soon ;)

I hope your holiday making is coming along and you are enjoying every step of it!

Secret Gift Making #1

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:22:00 +0000

Here is a little gift I whipped up for someone, hehe.
I know the recipient of this little drawstring bag reads
my blog, so I hope I am not ruining a surprise too much by posting this..!

I made this using the same method in this tutorial, but instead of 2 1/2" squares, I used 1 3/4" x 2 3/4" rectangles, which makesa 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" drawstring pouch. I also sewed the patchworkpanel onto thin muslin to stabilize it.
If you are anything like me, you had a longest list of to-make-forChristmas gifts to begin with, but now you are finally realizing that 1) Christmas is just in 10 days,2) you don't have time to cross off everything on the list,and 3) you need a Plan B - switching your initial ideas to something a lot quicker and simpler. At least for me, this happens every year, haha.

Here are some tutorials of small things you can whip up little quickand can be great gifts for your friends and family just to name a few:
Scrappy organizer by Leila of Where the orchards growQuick scarf and lined drawstring bag by Jeni of In Color OrderMini tote bag by Kerry of verrykerryberryScrappy armrest pincushion by Amy of During Quilt TimeNeedlebook by Amy of nana company2011 star desktop calendar by Nathalie of An once of creativity
Oh and you must have seen Kerry's amazing newest paper pieced Candy Cane pattern by now. It's on sale in her shop, but if you wouldlike to win the pattern, leave one comment on this post by Thursday midnight.A random winner will be announced here this Friday.
One more thing! I would be so thrilled if you checked outmy sister-in-law's etsy shop here! She's got lovelyhandmade jewelry for unbelievable prices! If you snatch anything from her shop, please say hi for me ;)
Hope you're having a great week!

ABC House Block

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Hi all! So sorry for the longest absence ever on this blog! I have been sewing a lot recently, but I don't have very many projectsI can talk about at this moment! It's the time of the year with a lot ofsecret projects, right? Anyways, I am so glad to be back today withthis block I made last night for Leila for Patchwork 318 bee. Leila chose"Home Sweet Home" as her theme in November. In this bee, we useKumiko Fujita's Patchwork Pattern 318 book and our own stash to create blocks. This block is sort of a combination of 4 blockpatterns in the book - a house pattern and three alphabet (ABC) patterns.I saw Kumiko Fujita's work just like this in a quilt magazine at thelibrary and was so inspired to make one just like hers.

Here is how it looks like with seam allowances.I remembered Leila mentioned she finds quilt inspiration in song lyrics here, so when I spotted the musical note symbol fabric in my stash, I knew immediately it must be used for her block ;)
Speaking of Kumiko Fujita, I had such a great opportunity to meet her in person at the International Quilt Week held last month
in Yokohama, Japan. Here is us in front of her quilt she made for her grandson - so so so cute!! (You can have a little virtual tour and see her and her students' works exhibited at the festival in this video.)

She was an absolutely amazing person - so kind, humble, and funny!She had no idea that her books (unfortunately out of print) and fabrics have inspiredso many of our sewing/quilting styles overseas. I told her that her Patchwork Pattern 318 book is especially popular that it is sold really expensively due to its rarity value.She said she feels terribly sorry for all of you who had to pay a lot to snatch a copy of the book and also for those of you who have yet to spot a copy.According to her, the popularity of patchwork in general has declined dramatically in the past three decades in Japan so that there are less and lesspatchwork/quilt books available here. Would you say the situation is completelyother way around in the US? I feel that there are more and more patchworkbooks introduced nowadays in the US. Maybe some of you need tomove to Tokyo for me so that we can start a modern quilt guild here, ya?
I have a lot of things I want to talk about on my blog, but it'stime for me to go now! Thank you so much for coming back to my blog aftersuch a long break ;) I hope you are having a great holiday.

Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:08:00 +0000

Congrats, deserae and Shannon! I'll contact you guys soon!Don't be too disappointed about not winning this giveaway!You can always snatch your own Winter Woolies pattern here at Kerry's etsy shop! It's a truly amazing pattern with lots of possibilities!
Thanks for stopping by!

Scissors Block

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 02:53:00 +0000

Hope you are having a great weekend! It's a Sunday morning in Japan.
I thought I would post this before we go on a long bike ride today.It's a scissors block for Amisha in the patchwork 318 bee.In this bee, we use block patterns in Kumiko Fujita'sPatchwork 318 book (which is unfortunately completelyout of print) and use our own fabric. I love this concept of this bee.Just the right amount of challenges ;) Not too hard but not too easy either.
I know Amisha is a big fan of Kumiko Fujita and Suzuko Koseki,so I used a lot of fabrics designed by these two Japanesetextile designers! The "Quilt Work America" fabric ismy lucky find from auction. It's a very old Kumiko Fujita print. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to snatch it for my block for Amisha!
Would you say it turned out too busy...?Keeping my fingers crossed Amisha will like it!

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the weekend ;)

Kerry's Winter Woolies Pattern - Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:04:00 +0000

Thank you so much for everyone who left comments on my organizer baskets tutorial! It's been so fun and rewarding to see your baskets popping up in the Pink Penguin flickr pool.I also enjoyed hearing about your plans for your baskets' usein the comments. I'll make a list of your ideas for the basketsand add it at the end of the tutorial post sometime soon.
I wanted to share with you a few projects I whipped up in this past few weeks. The mittens above were made usingKerry's first paper pieced pattern for sale! Isn't it the most adorable thing?! Have you seen Amy's take on it?Such loveliness! I especially love those mittens, so I am making a tea cozy with these blocks for my new small tea pot. (I enlarged the pattern quite a bit.)The pink mitten is mine and the other one is Joe's. When I saw the creature fabric, I had to snatch it right away because it was the Joe-est fabric I have ever seen! Joe doesn'tlike the fabric, but hopefully he'll change his mind after seeing a tea cozy, hehe.
Here is one of several tissue box covers I made for friends.I had quite a few failure attempts in making this pattern,but I ended up coming up with a pattern that is just a perfect fitfor a Japanese standard tissue box (it's so short!).I'll have to make one for myself!

And this is a block for Angela in Stash Trad bee.This is her original pattern called Cracker Scraps, and you can findher super easy to follow tutorial here! With her clear tutorial, I was able to make this without making a single mistake. It felt so good!!
Ok now to a giveaway! Kerry has allowed me to giveaway her Winter Woolies pattern to one lucky Pink Penguin reader!For your chance to win the pattern, leave one commentin this post by the midnight of October 26th. Good luck :)
Thank you for stopping by! Hope you are staying warm!

12 Gifts of Christmas Blog Hop: Organizer Basket Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:57:00 +0000

I was flattered when Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts kindly
asked me to be a part of 12 gifts of Christmas Blog Hop! You've probably read about it over Jennifer's already by now,but we are bringing you 12 free tutorials on Christmas gift makings! One tute per day through October 25th!Sounds fun, right?! Jennifer started it off with a fabulous double sided pace mat tutorial yesterday and here I am hosting a second stop
with a tutorial on how to make these
easy-peasy organizer baskets!

Not ready to think about Christmas yet?

Me neither, but we know it will come before we know it!

Jennifer picked this perfect timing to get this rolling

so that we have plenty of time to whip up gifts!

It's been over a year since I last posted a tutorial,

so I was a bit nervous writing this up, although it is

probably the easiest project among all sewing tutes

I have ever written, hehe. Hopefully I took enough pictures

so that the visual will help you through! If you have any
questions about this tute, you know you can contact me anytime!

Ok, here you go!

To make one basket, you'll need two 13" x 7" cotton rectangles
(one for exterior, one for interior) and one piece of
cotton batting that is just a little larger than 13" x 7".

Spray the wrong side of the interior piece and add the batting.

Quilt as desired. I like mine diagonal cross hatch quilted.
I marked a line from one corner to the point where it's 6" from the other corner.

Quilt along the line. (My stitch length was set at 3.0)

This quilter accessory is such a big help!
I sew while guiding the quilter over the previous row of stitching.
(My quilting lines are approximately 3/4" apart from each other.)

Like that. If your sewing machine didn't come with
this accessory, you can mark parallel lines throughout the interior piece.

Here is how this looks after diagonal quilting is done.

Now mark a line perpendicular to the stitching and quilt in the same manner.

Yay quilting is done!

Chop off the excess.

Now fold in half the piece with right sides together lengthwise
and sew both short edges. (1/4" seam allowance)

Time to box corners!

Mark where the seam line is at 1 1/4" from both sides.
(2.5" long from one edge to the other.) Sew along the marked line.

Cut off the corner. Leave a small seam allowance.

Repeat the same process for the other short edge so that
your quilted interior looks like this.

Do the same with the exterior piece.

With right sides together, place the exterior inside the
interior. Match seams and pin in place.

I like to start sewing just about 3" away from the seam.

Leave about 1 1/2" wide opening. Turn the right side out from the opening.

Press the opening.

Top-stitching!

Now you've finished making this organizer basket!
(Finished size: 2"H x 9 1/2"W x 2 1/2"D)
These nicely soft baskets serve well as drawer organizers/utensil trays,
but if you want to stabilize the baskets a little,
you can alternate the pattern by using interfacing on
the back of the exterior and/or using stiffer batting and/or...

Top-stitching four corners.

Your basket will be more squarish like this.
(these were made in the same way except for top-
stitched corners.)

This basket is a perfect size to put together 16 spools of Gutermann 250m
threads for a gift. (Oh I just had a vision of this basket filled with spools
and one big handle in the middle! That would make a cute gift, wouldn't it?)

Or maybe pen holders? Whatever you or the recipients
of your baskets can think of :) Lots of possibilities!

I would love to see your baskets in this flickr pool and
here for anything you made using tutorials in this blog hop!

Fabric used: Sew Cherry and Kei

I hope you'll find some great inspiration for Christmas

gift makings by hopping over these amazing blogs.

I am so looking forward to seeing what they'll come up with
because I haven't decided what I will be making for Christmas yet!

Friday, October 14- Jennifer/ Ellison Lane Quilts

Saturday, October 15- Ayumi/Pink Penguin
Sunday, October 16- Amy/ Lots of Pink Here
Monday, October 17- Faith/Fresh Lemons Quilts
Tuesday, October 18- Penny/Sew Take a Hike
Wednesday, October 19- Kati/From the Blue Chair
Thursday, October 20- Lee/Freshly Pieced
Friday, October 21- Elizabeth/Don't Call Me Betsy
Saturday, October 22- Melanie/Texas Freckles
Sunday, October 23- Lindsay/Craft Buds
Monday, October 24- Amanda/A Crafty Fox
Tuesday, October 25-Vanessa/Little Big Girl Studio

Oh and to make this blog hop more exciting, there are

a giveaway at each blog stop AND a grand prize you could win

- $250 gift certificate to fabricworm! (Yes you heard it right :))

Enter to win a $25 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop by leaving

one comment on this post by the midnight on October 26th.
I'll have the random number generator
pick a winner for me on October 26th.

Make sure to leave a comment on Jennifer's tutorial
for the the chance to win the grand prize!

And just for stopping by, you can take advantage of a generous

15% off discount at Fabricworm with the coupon code fw12days

through the end of the blog hop.

Thank you for your time to stop by!

Mini Cross Quilt + Pinnie

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:02:00 +0000

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 meaningfulpillow I have ever owned! I knew I would not be able to makeanything 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 practiceto 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!

Thank you for letting me share my creations :)

Christmas Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:50:00 +0000

Are you guys in some Christmas mode by any chance?
Well I am because my small craft space's got
Christmas fabrics everywhere now that I just finished
two Christmas blocks! They are for Amber in the Ringo Pie
bee. Her theme is all things Christmasy, so I pulled out
all my Christmas-related printed fabrics and had so much
fun sewing with them while singing some Christmas songs ;)
The block above features 6 Christmas gift tags - two for
parents (Amber and her hubby) and four for her four beautiful
children. She has two girls and two boys, so I tried to
have two tags boy-friendly and the other two girl-friendly.

It was so much fun sewing this for Amber. I love reading
Amber's blog partly because she has such a lovely, lovely family.
If you have not read her love story with her husband,
you are missing out! Reading her posts about her husband
is such a great reminder to myself that I need to
treat Joe nicely. Joe loves it when I read a blog like
hers and I am all of a sudden super nice lol.

Amber has given me permission to embroider everyone's
name on this block, but I figured she knows much better
which tag her children will like the best, so I left
four tags without embroidery.

I made two blocks for her because she made two
blocks for me! It made me really happy
so I hope these two will make her happy too.

This block design was based on a house pattern
from a patchwork book from the library.
I modified the window's size (so that the most
adorable Santa designed by Monica would fit in perfectly)
and the chimney's size (so that the super cute cherry
designed by Lori would fit perfectly.)
Here Santa Clause is contemplating happy presents
for Amber's family. 'Hmm.. what would they want this year..?'

Yup Christmas is still three months away.
But we know it will come before we know it!

Oh speaking of Christmas, I will post a tutorial on
the utensil trays in a few weeks, because many people
asked for it! They would make great Christmas giftsfor friends who are setting up a new place, etc :)

Thank you for reading this! Have a great rest of the week :)

Echino Bag and Baby Booties

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:57:00 +0000

Thank you a million for your lovely comments on the
birds + a teeny quilt block!! You know it makes your
day when something you thought didn't turn out great
gets so much compliments. I love it when that happens :)

I would like to share some projects I sewed up for my friend today.
My friend is expecting a baby boy, and she has asked me
to make a diaper bag and booties for him a while back.
She wanted this bag to have strong and long handles
and a zipper closure on top. I picked up Echino fabric
from my local fabric store because the quality of this
linen blend fabric is absolutely perfect for bag projects.
There was a day where Tokyo was hit by a crazy typhoon
last week, so that gave me a great reason to stay home
and cross off one thing from my never-ending make-to list.

I came up with this bag pattern as I went. I would
make the outer bag, watch Kitchen Nightmare with Joe,
come back to made a lining, cook dinner, and come back
to sew up handles, etc. I didn't really make note of
anything about this pattern (measurements etc.) but
that was not the smartest decision, because I ended up
liking this bag a quite bit. I want to make one for myself too!

And these are booties for my friend's son-to-be!
She actually wanted booties to be matching with the bag,
but we both agreed that the Echino prints are a bit too
girly, so she let me use different fabrics for booties.
And ya, I know, the yellow ones aren't so boyish,
so I am thinking about making one more pair of aqua +
green booties for him and the yellow ones are to go to my shop.

The pattern is in a Japanese magazine, Cotton Time No.90.
It's not an easy and quick project, as it involves a lot
of hand-sewing, gathering, and sewing curves, but I think
the result pays off. Imagining my friend putting these
shoes on her first baby really got me excited!
I so wish I had my own ones to make baby stuff for (maybe
in a few years) Until then, I'll satisfy myself with
making baby things for my friends' babies. way to go!

I will be back with Christmas blocks in a few days!

Thank you for stopping by! Hope you are enjoying the
beginning of Fall/Spring! I definitely am! No more
sweating all the time :)

Birds + A Quilt Block

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 03:09:00 +0000

August was Corey's month in the Ringo Pie patchwork bee,
and her theme was "Quilts on a line." I must admit that
I struggled for a while. It is such a great theme, but
I have never hung my quilt on a line once before, so it was
a bit hard for me to be inspired by the theme. Totally my bad!
So instead of hanging quilts from a line tied to trees, I
decided to let birdies hold a quilt. Corey makes such
lovely things with bird appliques/embroidery, so I figuredshe wouldn't mind welcoming a few more birds to her house ;)
(have you seen this pillow she made? Unbelievably adorable!)

Making these houses was the funnest part!!
Each block is paper-pieced and is so teeny tiny (a 1 5/8" square).
It was so much fun going through my stash to look for
fabrics with teeny prints, and of course I squealed
when I found the cute penguin of the perfect size!

So these houses are supposed to be birdhouses.
Those birdies are getting sick of their worn-out
birdhouses, so they are presenting a catalog of new, pretty
birdhouses for Corey in case she would consider
building new ones for them :)

Hmmm...

Corey may come to a conclusion that the blue bird
doesn't need a new birdhouse, because he's got an
antique sewing machine in his current birdhouse!
No new birdhouse can be better than that, right!!

Thank you for stopping by! I will be back in a few
days with more birds-related projects :D

P.S. I have listed some more Japanese fabrics in my shop!
As usual, let me know when you come from this blog -
I will include extra fabric for you!

Have a lovely day~!

Sampler Display Canvas

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:18:00 +0000

I had such a great pleasure playing with this Sampler Display
Canvas by Basic Grey. When the Fat Quarterly team had kindly
asked me if I would be able to take part in this challenge,
of course I said YES! immediately. There was no way could I
pass on such a fun opportunity! Do you remember how boring
my new apartment looked like when we just moved in?Well, we have bought some furniture and stuff
since then but this place is still far from what I envision
to be a pretty place. I still need lots of cute things here.

You can read about how I went about fusing fabric scraps
onto this canvas over Fat Quarterly's blog, so let me focus
on fabric talk here. I had SO much fun putting these fabrics
together partly because I associate many of these fabric scraps
with nice memories. Some of these fabrics were given to me
either in swaps or surprise gifts by my friends I have made
through blogging and emailing.

I could have a long list of each fabric used in this project,
who and about when it was given to, and how much I love it,
etc, but it would make too long of a post for me. (It's
past midnight here in Japan!) So for now let me simply thank
Mary, Lori, Jan, Kerry, Erica, Charise, Marit and Jade for
gifting me some pretty fabrics that made to the canvas!

Other fabrics also evoke great memory of my life in the US.
I bought some of these fabrics with Tamiko. (It was always
SO much fun to be able to shop for fabrics with a quilty, sweet
friend!!) Some of the vintage prints were my lucky finds
on etsy or ebay or some other online stores. (When I found thevintage chicken print on etsy, I got so excited that my heartstarted beating really fast and my hands were even shaking, lol,some nice memory to me since I won't be using etsy and ebayanymore. Most sellers of vintage fabrics don't ship internationally.)

It is now hung in the living room :) Thank you again
the Fat Quarterly team for letting me play with it!

Ok, I just realized I am expecting a bed delivery
early morning tomorrow! I gotta go to sleep NOW!

Oh the winner of the last giveway is Three Honeybees
who said..

"Oh, I love all things princess and the pea!
How beautiful! And such inspiring videos. Thank you!"

I'll contact you soon!

Hope you are having a great weekend!!

Great Inspiration and Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (ayumills) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:44:00 +0000

Kumiko Fujita's Patchwork Lesson Part 1

Kumiko Fujita's Patchwork Lesson Part 2

Ladies, check this out! In this video, Kumiko Fujita,
a Japanese textile designer/quilter/an author of several
amazing patchwork books (including Patchwork Patterns 318
that is out of print and is in HIGH demand) teaches you
how to sew a little girl block by hand-piecing.
It's very educational, easy to follow, and fun!
If you don't have spare time now, maybe you can check out
3:35 - 4:55 on the second video because that's the cutest part!
It's only in Japanese, but it's all about visual :)

I know her most famous books are really difficult to
find nowadays, but you can spot her new patchwork
patterns quite often in Japanese magazines. The pattern
she is using in the video is available in Patchwork
Tsushin No.164 and this is a part of a series called
"First of Infinity" - There will be 6 more consecutive
issues of the mag with her new pattern. Also, in
Quilt Japan Vol.141, there are more of her patterns to
check out :) Look at these cute blocks made by Doe
using the pattern! Super adorable!

Another super cute thing - The princess & the Pea
Finger Puppet Pattern by Carrie of Such Designs.

A-dor-able!!! Carrie is such a talented, lovely
artist who I became a very good friend of. I love
all her patterns, but there is something about
this finger puppet pattern that is so irresistible!
Thank you Carrie for sending me an extra copy
of this pattern for me to share with one of my friends here!
If you want to win this pattern, please leave a
comment by September 8th, next Thursday! I'll
announce a random winner on the 9th of this month :)

Have a great rest of the week!