chick chick sewing

Long Beach Quilt Festival 2010

Yesterday, I had a chance to visit the International Quilt Festival held at Long Beach, California. The show is open throughout this Sunday, July 25th.

This was the first time in my life to visit a big quilt show like this one, so I was pretty thrilled!

And despite the $11 admission plus the $10 parking (so expensive just to park a car!), and although I did not have enough time to walk through and enjoy looking at all the displayed quilts slowly and spend as much time as I wanted, I still had a very inspiring and motivating time.

I took several pictures of the exhibited quilts, both contemporary and antique, but I will only post the antique ones which were made in the 1800s and early 1900s, by the unknown quilters.

antique quilts

According to the information provided, some of these antique quilts are multigenerational quilts. Can you imagine making the same piece of quilt, made by your grandmother and your mother, and eventually completed by you? That sure is time consuming!!

I just loved looking at the elaborate handwork of the quilters from the centuries ago...

And after I saw all the quilts, I quickly walked through the aisles of booths, booths, and more booths at the convention.

At the booths area, they sold fabrics, yarns, notions, sewing and quilting machines, baskets, stencils and supplies, irons, antique items, and you name it, there were just too many interesting things to see!

And here are the items that I snatched from the quilt show...

My first feedsack set. Included are nine pieces of 7" x 7" fabrics.

Lace = 3 for $5

Fat quarters in red, blue and white. They were approximately $1 - $2 a piece.

Another fat quarter of a Japanese floral fabric

Well, I guess that's it for today....

Thanks for reading and hope you all have a good and relaxing weekend ;)

Cinnamoroll small bags　シナモロールのミニ巾着

For a quick sewing project, I whipped up these small drawstring bags for our girls last night after dinner.

Our girls like the "Cinnamoroll" character from Sanrio, who is this white dog with long ears. So I used small pieces of Cinnamoroll fabrics from my stash to make these bags.

Cinnamoroll

Another view of bags

Recently, I purchased this rack (above and below) from the local IKEA store. It was about $10 a piece, and I was able to assemble the rack on to the wall by myself. Yay!

As you may already know, many IKEA products are DIY products and some of them require extensive assembly that I could NEVER be able to tackle myself. But thankfully, this one was simple enough for me to put together... phew!

Besides the rack, I also got some fabrics from IKEA. I like the Scandinavian taste of the IKEA fabrics.

I'm thinking about making some bags out of these fabrics. But I have a super long list of projects that I want to sew, so I'm not exactly sure when I can sew bags using these fabrics, though... I'll see ;)

Handmade water bottle holder

When our kids go to the summer camps, they bring their sack lunches along with their own water bottles.

I made a water bottle holder for my older daughter, using the fabrics she selected (she loves pink!)

The handmade bottle holder fits this 500 ml (or 1 pt 0.9 fl oz) water bottle snugly. Cotton batting is sewn between the outer fabric and the lining.

It's getting pretty hot here in the Southern California, so our kids must drink lots of water during the day, especially when they spend most of the day under the sun.

I sewed a detachable shoulder strap, so that my daughter can carry her water bottle wherever they go.

The opening is finished with the bias tape...

With the new water bottle holder on her shoulder, our daughter is ready to kick off to the summer day camp! Yay!

Gift to... me!!

Hi all!

Today was my birthday and let me allow to show off my birthday gift that I got for ME (ha ha), for my past, present, and future birthdays to come ... :D

Yes, it's a Babylock serger. (Or it's called ロックミシン　in Japanese).

I already own a regular sewing machine from Brother (below image), but I've always, always, always wanted to get a serger to sew more clothing.

Since I got my new serger, I've been practicing serging lately. And although I'm a true beginner in serging, I'm already loving it! The threading steps are simple enough for me to understand and follow, and better yet, the results are awesome!

The best part is that I can now sew knit fabrics with ease, and finishing edges for any fabric is a breeze.

Shown below, these are just a couple of quick serging that I did over the past few days.

My daughter outgrew this summer dress (made of knit fabric), so I shortened the dress and made it into a summer top instead.

Before (original length) After (shortened length)

Serged the bottom edges like this

Using the excess fabric that I had cut out from the dress, I made a matching hair scrunchie. The edges are finished with serger again here.

And this smocked top that I recently whipped up for my daughter...

I simply serged together the short ends of the smocked fabric to connect both ends...

And I'm not sure if you can really tell from this image, but I used rolled hem function to finish the bottom edges in one single step. It was quick!

I haven't really sewn a real clothing from scratch using this serger yet, but I know I will be sewing up in a storm this summer ;)

Thanks for reading and hope you continue to enjoy your summer days.

Adios!

Smocked summer top for my daughter

For a "quick" summer sewing, I made this smocked summer top for my daughter.

The reason why I call it "quick" is because I used the cotton/spandex fabric that was already smocked at the top (purchased from our local Joann store a while ago).

All I needed to do was to make four shoulder straps, sew together hem on each of the short ends, attach straps to the top, and sew the bottom seams. That's it!

To make the shoulder straps, I used four fabric strips of 1.5" x 13" (2.3 cm x 33 cm) in length.

Close up of the shoulder straps, attached to the smocked top, and tied in ribbon.

Using the same fabric with the shoulder straps, I made a matching hair scrunchie (or we call it shoo-shoo in Japanese).

Matching hair scrunchie and the shoulder straps.

Our 10 year old daughter used to wear any clothing that I hand it out to her, but now, she is a young fashionista (at least she thinks so) and she is so specific about what she likes and what she doesn't like to wear...

But this summer top, she seems to like it... phew!

Now we have one happy mom and a daughter :)

But it doesn't stop here... Now I need to sew another top like this one for my younger daughter, just to be "fair" !

Collection of buttons & more...

Ever since our kids are out of school, it's been quite difficult for me to find time to sew (/. _ .\) ...

So, instead of blogging about my creations, today I'd like to share with you my collection of buttons.

How many buttons does an average person own? I have no idea, and I don't know if my collection of buttons is about average, below average, or above average... but to my opinion, I think I own A LOT of buttons!

I got most of these buttons from my mom in Japan. Just like me, she's a frugal person, and she stored all these buttons throughout the years.

I store my buttons in an empty jar and place it on my sewing table, like this. Although the entire buttons does not fit inside one (spaghetti sauce) jar, so I store them in several different jars...

And do you remember this recycled crochet mat made of fabric yarns that I started a while ago?

Well, after several weeks, it's not finished yet, and I'm still working on it in my spare time. I'm hoping to finish this up during this summer, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen...

So far, I've used recycled fabrics mainly from old bed sheets and pillow cases, but I'm also using our girls' old clothing that they used to wear several years back.

I picked up this bright pink fabric from our girls' old skirt that they outgrew.

I like the bright pink color of this skirt.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a good week !!

Honu passport case/organizer and a gift set

This is a passport case/organizer that I sewed up for my younger sister #2. She asked me to make a tote bag AND a passport case/organizer for her birthday gift, and I finally finished making both of them.

FYI her birthday was in mid June... Sorry for the delay, sis :P

I used linen, cotton polka dots, and the same linen/cotton blend fabric of *Honu* or Hawaiian turtle print to make this passport case to match with the tote bag that I made earlier.

passport case/organizer (opened)

The gift set will be flying to Japan by the end of this week...

It wasn't really planned, but I think that this gift set looks so "summery".
Japan right now is in the midst of hot and humid summer, so I guess the gift set suits the season over there...

Although I'd like to have my sis use these items throughout the entire year, even during the chilly and freezing winter in Tokyo... :D

Well... I'll see how it goes...!

Fireworks and the Hawaiian honu tote bag　ハワイアン生地でトートバッグ

Hi! Hope you had a good July the 4th weekend.

Here in the U.S., we celebrate the Independence Day with fireworks. Our family and I visited our local park last night to view the fireworks show.

It was spectacular!

When I was back in Japan, I used to go to the Summer festivals and Fireworks show with my friends and family, and what I enjoyed the most at these festivals was all the drink and food booth they had over there... such as Yakisoba (fried noodles), Takoyaki (baked octopus), Ika-geso (deep fried squid's tentacles)...

Image of baked octopus, or Takoyaki

I know, I know, these food may sound really barbarous or even disgusting to some of you, but they're actually yummy, when you try them on hot and humid nights in Japan, especially with ice cold beer! \*0*/

Well, too much about Japanese ethnic food and ice cold beer, and let me get back to sewing... I almost forgot that this was my craft blog after mentioning about the ice cold beer... Ha ha!

Here's what I made recently, a large tote bag with *Honu* or Hawaiian sea turtle prints used for the outside pockets.

The light blue fabric used for the outer side of the tote is duck canvas, which makes the bag very sturdy and somewhat stiff.