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I know it's been a while since I came back from Japan, but there are still lots of fabric from there that I hadn't had a chance to share with you here. My sewing machine had a serious issue with its upper thread tension which I couldn't find a solution for anywhere, so it is on the mend now. It's weird not to have a sewing machine at home. Some part of me is relieved that I can cross out sewing-related stuff in my to-do-list temporarily, but some part of me is missing sewing so much. I guess it's more of the latter case. Wednesday tends to be the day of the week when my productivity goes up, but not today. Without my buddy (sewing machine), I am so useless. lol. So I decided to take this time to take pictures of some Japanese fabric to blog about and to list some fabric in my etsy shop . This gave me an opportunity to remind myself of some really cute fabric stash I have but I had forgotten about, which made me go Woohoo! I think I am totally addicted. No wonder my

I've been totally in a 'paper-piecing' mode. It's like my brain is functioning to paper-piece everything I see. If I see anything easily-paper-piecable, I start thinking about diving into sections and numbering pieces. It has been so much fun to design, to think about how to piece, and to actually complete the project. Tons of fun. This toaster block was made for Penny (of course!) for Ringo Pie patchwork bee . She asked for all things kitcheny which got me really excited! You know I am crazy about the kitchen theme! I could think of so many things to paper-piece, but I decided to make a toaster, just because I thought a toaster with Penny's name on it would be quirky and silly. I had a pretty good idea of colors and types of fabric she likes so it was fun picking fabrics for this. This design was based on the applique template I made for the kitchen towels in the current issue of Stitch magazine. I just made all curvy lines straight to make the piecing process a

photo originally uploaded by jusojin Thank you again for those of you who have donated to reputable organizations for relief efforts. And thank you for your emotional supports too via comments/emails. It makes us feel helpless there aren't a lot we can do to help the people suffering, but every little donation definitely helps. I'm touched to see so many crafters/bloggers have embarked on some projects for relief efforts. If you have one or a few quilts that you can donate to people sleeping on pieces of cardboard boxes in snow with fears regarding radiation, please go ahead and read this post by Sonja of artisania and learn how you can donate your quilts for them. She has done a great job explaining what we can do. (Don't forget to take a look at her sushi quilt that will be in the hands of someone in need of warmth.) Anyways, I wanted to announce eight winners for the giveaway I hosted last week today. Congrats to Vicki K , Isabelle , and Rebecca! (Vicki and Rebecca -

Here is the Spring block I made for Lucinda for Ringo Pie Bee . (Sorry the resolution of the picture isn't very good - hopefully I'll get to take a better picture once the sun comes out.) I spent days sketching some ideas for this month, trying to come up with a design that has lots of neutral colors which she asked for, but after much thought, I was determined that I really want colorful flowers in it and I ended up compensating with a background in a neutral color. Keeping my fingers crossed that this turned out ok and it will look good with everyone else's Spring blocks for her. This is the fourth pincushion I made for a custom order. The recipient asked for a sewing theme, so I had fun picking out sewing themed fabrics from my stash and whipped up this guy. I am happy with the outcome so is the recipient, woohoo! Here is a diaper pouch I made for a little boy I babysit. Ever since Anna posted this awesome tutorial , I knew I would make it for him. I can't believe

Photos from Artisania I wanted to let you know that some generous crafters have kindly contacted me to offer their products to my donating readers! Sonja of artisania has the most unique, fun and clever quilt patterns in her shop . She would like to offer 3 readers of mine a chance to win 2 free patterns of your choice from her store . Photos from Happy Sew Lucky Berene of Sew Happy Lucky is offering 1 reader a chance to win a baby animal kit of your choice AND a Dinnertime fabric book kit. Aren't these too adorable? Photo from Happy Sew Lucky She is also offering this cutest set of four birdies kit of your choice of color for one winner among donating readers of mine. To win any of these or two items offered in my previous post , the only thing you need to do is to donate to any charity to help the survivors of the recent massive disaster and leave a comment under my previous post . For example, if you decide to join For Japan With Love to raise fund for shelter for the victi

First of all, I am so blessed that so many of you have sent me prayers for my families and friends in Japan since last Friday, the magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck Tohoku area, the northeast part of main land. The hardest part of living far away from my entire family for me has been to deal with the fear about possible natural disaster like this earthquake that resulted in thousands of people's death. Most of my family and relatives live in a prefecture called Gunma which is located in in the middle of the main land where the effect from the earthquake was minimum, although my dad said it was the most massive earthquake he's ever experienced in his entire life. They are all safe though. Just a few things fell from the wall, that's all. Most of my friends live in the same prefecture, Gunma, and Tokyo, so I am just blessed that they are safe for now. I do have a couple of friends in the area that was heavily affected by the earthquake. Thank goodness for the Internet. I found

You must be absolutely sick of seeing log cabin pincushions here by now for sure, so I'm sorry for being so repetitive, but I must admit I enjoy making these guys so much. These were custom-made for a girl who told me she likes 1) pink, red, aqua, 2) vintage inspired, 3) cute dogs, and 4) Parisian theme. Umm.. that's everything I love too! Can you imagine how excited I was to whip up pincushions for her?! I made it a point to have a cute dog print somewhere in each pincushion for her. I am totally in love with the apples and pears fabric I recently snatched from this etsy store . I knew I would want to make a pincushion with the red and aqua poodle fabric immediately after learning about the recipient's favorite things. I think this one came out kinda cute! I'll have another one to go. None of these had enough aqua fabric, so maybe the next one will be made of lots of aqua fabrics. hehe. I wanted to let you know that I will be out of town until Sunday night this week, s

So I've come to realize that it would not be as realistic as I expected to have a blogpost where I have pictures of all fabrics and all zakka items, given everything that needs to be in have been listed. For a few reasons. For one, I am sort of lost in the amount of fabric I brought from Japan. For two, I am not the most organized person. And for three, I am simply ready to sew up something tonight for someone's birthday coming up soon. For these selfish reasons, I decided to share with you pictures of Japanese fabric & zakka over the span of several blogposts. I will be adding some fabrics to my etsy shop from time to time too in case you are looking for some Japanese fabric to join your stashes. The very first picture in this post is some cotton print fabrics designed by Kumiko Fujita . A fabric chain store called Yuzawaya had a quite big selection of her fabrics that aren't very easy to find in other fabric stores, so I went a bit crazy. And these umbrella fabrics -