...Japanese crafty gifts

Last year when I turned 30 I went to Bali for a celebratory trip with some friends. This year it was N's turn and he went to Japan with some of his friends.

Naturally I gave him some crafty gift ideas I might appreciate on his return.

As some background he is really supportive of the time I spend sewing but he hates visiting Spotlight and quilt shops. I have been know to be given time limits when we have stopped somewhere in trips out together. And he always waits in the car.

So after a few days he went on a trip to 'Tokyo Spotlight' and let me know later in the day that he hadn't been able to find anything from the list and 'it was not more fun visiting there just because it was in Japan'. A few days later he took a train out to one of the other stores I mentioned - to find it shut and shuttered. At that point he said my gift was coming from the airport.

 As luck would have it a few days later he happened upon a gift shop outside of Tokyo and found some of the books I had mentioned - but they weren't for sale. Eventually, apparently, the language barrier was difficult to overcome, with many apologies from the girl in the shop a map was drawn and directions were provided to a store in town for some books and fabrics purchased.

The fabric - minimal as I'm trying to use up what I have - consisted of two napkins from Echino (at least I think that is what they are, they have finished edges)...

...and these two that seem to be cut from the length of the bolt. I especially love the cranes.

It's all great, all the more because he chose them himself and I know this was not the most fun he had on the trip. Apparently that goes to eating pig guts and bee larvae - and no, there is no sarcasism in that comment Seriously.

I wanted to see if this was a real thing - I think it might stay just like this!

And I think he has earned a few passes when it comes to fabric shop visits!

A new book on my shelf - Quilting - from little things, Sarah Fielke

I had a reasonably ordinary weekend last weekend. Now it is Friday and almost the next weekend I can't remember all of the terrible so it can't have been all that bad but I do remember quite badly rotary cutting my finger and nail and needing to go to the doctor and that did put a slow down on lots if the quilt blocking I had planned to do.

Instead Nik and I went to Carlton to do a few things we had been meaning to go for a while and had a little walk around and an early but delicious dinner. On the walk I happened to pop into Readings bookshop - all the stores in this small (and I think only Melbourne based chain) are great but I have found the one in Carlton to have a particularly good sewing and craft section. And what do you think I saw, and a week before the publish date but Sarah Fielke's new book - Quilting: From little things! You know Sarah, she writes for Sewn and was one of the two co-authors Material Obsession: Modern Quilts with Traditional Roots and Material Obsession Two.

So, what do I like about this book? I love the way it is set out with the book working through different techniques with each being demonstrated by two quilts, a doll quilt and then a larger bed sized one. And, like all Sarah's books, they include some challenging and more time consuming quilts. There is a place for beginner and quick quilt books but I really enjoy some with more difficult quilts as well as they are so rare.  

 I really love this quilt and it is going on the list. I think it also shows really well one of the things I especially appreciate about both Material Obsessions books and this new on and is the focus on the whole quilt and not just the piecing. It is easy to finish a pattern by saying 'quilt and bind as desired' but I find the liberal use of hand quilting and the notes at the end of each pattern on how and why quilting methods and designs were chosen elevates what could just end up being a quilt top to an actual quilt.

And I think this quilt has to win the title for the best quilt name EVER and one of the nicest stories behind it.

 And one more thins I really love is this picture. Sarah is a wonderfully talented quilt maker and her designs and quilts inspire so many people but I love this picture as a demonstration of how nothing is absolutely perfect all of the time. See the seam allowance folded over in the middle?

 As I understand it this book is only available in Australia at the moment (and possibly the UK?) with this availability getting wider by the day. Should you not be in those areas and can't wait for it to come to a store near you I think Sarah has some for sale on her blog and Readings has it here ships worldwide.

Books, glorious books!

Note: There are various links in this post. They will (mostly) take you to Amazon. If you buy the book in the link, or any others I will receive a tiny commission, certainly not enough to retire on. I am providing the link so you can get more information about particular titles if you are interested as well as other reviews because my opinion is certainly only one, not to encourage you to buy the book from Amazon or anywhere else, but I thought it was only fair you should know. 

I love books. I can't really articulate why, I just do. I like to read and so I love novels and biographies but I also have an alarmingly large collection of recipe books, gardening books and crafting books. I once swapped a large number of books at a second hand book store and regretted it almost immediately. I still sometimes go looking for some of those books on the shelf and feel a little pang of grief. 

So to share the love I thought I'd share some of my more recent buys. There are a few so I thought I'd share a picture or two for each and a thing I love about it and one thing I might have changed if it was my book.

Section 1:
Recently I read a review of a Japanese craft book on Badskirt and then saw a range of garment books in person at Tessuti fabrics in Melbourne within the space of a few days. I was hooked.
1. My title: The skirt book ISBN: 4309280021

+ I love the finishing attention to detail in these books. They add interest without being overly fussy.

2. My title: The other skirt book ISBN: 9784579109494

+ I bought this book almost only because of these pockets!

- The down side of both of these is that I am not a tiny Japanese woman, and certainly not the skinniest of minnies. To make these work I am going to have to adjust them a lot to fit.

3. The girly dress book. ISBN: 9784529048163 

+ There are so many great, cute but simple patterns in this book. I love this jacket.

- The down side. The instructions and pattern markings are all in Japanese. I hope I can follow it....

4 & 5 - Handmade Zakka (ISBN: 457911017X) & Machine Made Patchworks (ISBN: 9784579110209)

 

+ I love the simplicity and colour in these projects, Perfect considering the images are great inspiration where the instructions are unreadable to me.

 









- There are a lot of really similar projects.

6. The Practical Guide to Patchwork
Recently released and written by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson! it is full of projects and some really great instructions.
I love that it shows and tells you how to hand sew binding at the back.

And I love this quilt.

- The minus is one I find with most craft books,there are very few advanced projects, although there are some tin this book which is a significant point of difference.

7. Amy Butler's In Stitches

+ These two projects

 - This one was kind of expensive

8. Making baby's clothes

 + Garments books are a really great way of getting lots of patterns in a cost effective way.

 

 - You have to trace out all the patterns.


8. Make it Perfect
+ This dress, it is hot here tonight!

And love that there are patterns for little boys clothes as well.
- It is not so available overseas yet.

What I've been doing this afternoon

Admiring this book that arrived in the mail this afternoon Scandinavian Stitches: 21 Playful Projects with Seasonal Flair (Stash Books)

Getting ready for some Christmas sewing

A long list this week...but I think I'm making progress.

My sewing evolution – Book review with some navel gazing

The past week or so have seen me in Melbourne with not as much to do as I thought I would have on my plate. Don’t get me wrong, I have been busy and there is still a lot to do but we are sort of a bit stuck until it can be arranged to get all our furniture and boxes out of storage and the unpacking and homemaking can begin in earnest. This is the time I thought I would frantically be looking for a place to live and then arranging leases and unpacking but the house and lease part happened almost as soon as I got here and now we are just waiting (somewhat impatiently on my part) for the unpacking.



I’ve kept myself busy though, visiting IKEA looking for storage and furniture ideas for the new sewing room (if anyone knows a good furniture op shop in the St Kilda to Chadstone area please let me know. I need a new sewing table and the kitchen table I used before was great but is still needed in the dining room to eat dinner off…) and finding my new locals, quilt shops, bookshops, Spotlight and shopping centres. That sort of thing.


I picked up a new book for a quilt shop, Amitie in Bentleigh, dangerously close to where we live for my bank balance. Weekend Sewing: More than 40 projects and ideas for inspired stitching by Heather Ross wasn’t an impulse purchase. I saw it one afternoon when I quickly ducked into the store as I had been driving past. Not as strange as it seems, the store was recommended to me and I had a spare few minutes. I didn’t get it then, rather I went back again the next morning, bought some fabric and left without it after some consideration, only to go back again that afternoon to claim it for myself.

I’m not really sure what drew me to it; I think it may have been the large number of projects and the glimpses through the book of many of Heather’s very early fabric designs. It could have been that many of the projects were clothing, I’ve been on a bit of a clothing kick lately but none of those are the reasons I love it so much now.


It really comes down to the two page introduction, which I, somewhat shamefully, admit to reading stopped at successive sets of traffic lights on the way back to the hotel after buying it.


Heather talks about learning to sew knit and craft as a child and how, as she grew to adulthood the time for getting lost in sewing was overtaken by life deadlines and responsibilities. I’m paraphrasing and I hope she doesn’t mind, but this is the message that stuck in my mind. She goes on to explain that the book’s name ‘Weekend Sewing’ is in reference to her idea that some of her sewing time is just for her, for fun and not for commercial interests and in her mind this is called weekend sewing.


And now for the navel gazing. This struck a huge chord for me. I don’t remember learning to sew, or knit though I can do both, knitting less well than sewing. Since I have started to sew a lot more in the last year or so, and since I have started reading blogs and especially since I started writing this one, I have tried to remember when I acquired these skills.


I do remember getting by first pair of knitting needles (they are a fat purple pair, about 15cm long and came in a pack with an equally fat crochet needle); I just don’t remember how old I was. Certainly less than eight. I also remember helping to sew my school uniforms (by actually sewing seams), one in particular I wore in year one, which I started when I was five. I remember tracing out multi size patterns for Mum and cutting fabric for clothes for me, my younger brother and sister for her to sew later. I know I made dolls clothes, first for my dolls and later for an antique doll that was my great aunts, then my mum’s and now mine. I distinctly remember this one because I did it, taking over from Mum when I got frustrated she was taking so long. This is the first quilt I made, sometime when I was at uni, for my dog when she was still a puppy, I didn’t realise then that it was a quilt though.

I took sewing at high school but I stopped after the second year, everyone else was still learning to thread the machine and finish a seam when I had finished the whole garment. I didn’t feel challenged.


But as I went to uni, and then when I started working I stopped sewing. There was the odd project, some curtains for a friend, a costume for my parents wedding anniversary party but for the most part the machine was packed away in it’s own case and stored away in the spare room.


Then last year my friend announced she was pregnant and I sewed up a storm. It happened to coincide with a purchase of a new machine. This might seem a strange purchase given what I have just said but my mum bought herself a new machine, gave her used, but not old one, to my sister who live a short drive away and gave me some money specifically to buy a new machine. And so, with a purpose for sewing and a new machine that was not so loud you wondered if there was a whole room of machines sewing at once I had means and a motive. It could have stopped there but then my partner told me about Etsy and then I found blogs and flickr. The motive stayed and I discovered a community spirit, but most of all I had rediscovered the enjoyment that creating something gives me, and the sense of calm and wellbeing I get while sewing and on finishing a project.


I don’t think it is a feeling I could describe well to others, especially others that don’t sew or craft. In fact I’m sure it isn’t, because I’ve tried. I work long hours, often 10 full on hours a day but a few seams, a finished quilt block, a look or email of gratitude, refreshes me in a way that sleep, watching TV or doing some other stationary traditionally considered ‘rest’ activity can’t.


But that is my weekend sewing moments, after work, on the weekend, in the evening and even once or twice very early in the morning. It’s obviously not all, or even the only thing, I find re-energizing and invigorating. I is, however, one of them, an important one, and I hope I can continue to find the time to ‘weekend sew’ and not forget the enjoyment it gives me again.


So I thank Heather, and her book for echoing my thoughts so well in her introduction, for 40 projects and much inspiration. I’m planning a shirt for some lucky little boy

Pair of slippers for each of our Christmas time guests

A zippered bag, just cause you can never have too many of them

And a pair of garden gloves, just because they are cool, and because I have a great new garden.

Do you think if a made a pair for my partner as well he would garden for the second time in 10 years and help me out?