Ayumi Takahashi
Showing posts with label Ayumi Takahashi. Show all posts
Cozy Cottage Calendar Celebration
I am thrilled to be part of the Fat Quarter Shop Blog Tour to celebrate the Cozy Cottage 2016 Calendar. I love Lori Holt's sweet patterns and vintage style and the calendar has beautiful images that perfectly capture that cheery and homely feel. The calendar also contains the pattern to make two sizes of the Cozy Cottage block, as well as a mini quilt and a cushion.
After raiding my scrap bin, I decided to create a Cozy Cottage Café cushion!
I couldn't resist using that happy chef and a giant chocolate cake to entice people into the café! My kids love it and it makes me smile too. There are lots of possibilities for fussy cutting prints and really making the cottage your own.
The pattern is clearly written and it takes hardly any time to cut out all the required pieces for the cottage, it's also easy to play about and audition fabrics before you sew them together. I changed from a darker grey to the pale grey around the door. The colour choices are a bit unusual for me but I like that I made myself use up scraps and do something a bit different.
The café was taking shape but I felt like I want to add even more...
The border in the pattern is so fun and I picked some patterned and bright scraps to give it nice pops of colour. I used a piece of ribbon to create a 'sign' for the café and then hand quilted in the borders and around the window and door to add texture. I finished the cushion with a covered zip back and the lime stripe binding makes the perfect vivid frame for the cushion.
If you would like to make your own Cozy Cottage and be ready for next year with a charming calendar, the Cozy Cottage 2016 Calendar is available at Fat Quarter Shop.
This is another finish from my FAL list :)
Busy Girls Sews - hexagon cushion and time saving household tips!
I am so thrilled to be part of the Busy Girl Sews book tour for Heidi Staples new book Sew Organized for the Busy Girl: Tips to Make the Most of Your Time and Space.
This book made me smile, from the gorgeous projects and beautiful layout to Heidi's honest and fun approach. It is an inspiring book with small and larger projects, some of which are perfect for gifts and others that are great for when you want some selfish sewing. There are brilliant tips for organizing from Heidi as well as other quilters and the whole book felt to me like a good friend giving great advice. It's warm, real and hugely motivating!
I could have picked any of the projects to make for this tour but my love of English Paper Piecing won and I chose to make the 'Dotty Hexagon Cushion'. Turns out I had just got the most perfect fabric to work for this pattern and I immediately fussy cut hexagons from Swedish Kitchen, Lighthearted by Ayumi Takahashi...
and then created a rainbow from my stash using mostly 30s reproduction fabrics:
I love how fast glue basting is! I laid them out according to the book pattern and stitched them together. Once I was ready to quilt it I kind of wobbled, should I echo the hexagon shapes? Straight lines? And then I decided to do something different, a kind of scallop effect that makes those fussy cuts look like flowers and softens the angles. I used a spool of thread and matched the curve of the spool to the corners of the hexie. Then used my Sewline Styla pen to trace the shape and perle thread to hand quilt it.
Once those blue lines were rinsed away it left a subtle and pretty texture:
I deviated slightly from the book pattern (which has instructions for a zip closure) and I decided to add a touch of whimsy with a pom pom trim, which I had never done before but this tutorial by Angie has great tips to make it easy.
I used Swedish Text, Lighthearted by Ayumi Takahasi for the back and even used the selvedge to finish the envelope edge and did some simple straight line machine quilting.
I am thrilled with my cushion and will certainly be making more projects from Sew Organized for the Busy Girl: Tips to Make the Most of Your Time and Space! This was another check off my FAL list :)
Here is the tour list so you can blog hop:
March 30 - Lynne of Lily's Quilts
April 6 - Jodi of Tales of Cloth & Angela of Cut to Pieces
April 13 - Lindsay of Craft Buds & Debbie of A Quilter's Table
April 20 - Leanne of She Can Quilt
April 27 - Fat Quarter Shop
May 4 - Erin of Why Not Sew?
May 11 - Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts
May 18 - Svetlana of SOTAK Handmade
May 25 - Lucy of Charm About You
June 1 - Maureen of Maureen Cracknell Handmade
June 8 - Becca of Bryan House Quilts
June 15 - Beth of Plum & June
June 22 - Jessica of Quilty Habit
June 29 - Caroline of Sew Can She
July 6 - Heidi of Fabric Mutt (Tour Wrap!)
I thought I would share a couple of little things I do around the house to stay organised and save time (so I can sew more). My sewing isn't often organised and I still need to sort out my scraps (great tips in the book for that!) but with three kids I have to try and stay on top of the household stuff! I can also enjoying my sewing more if I know the house is in order.
Usually I do one bigger weekly shop and when I'm putting the food away I wash all the fruit and separate it into small resealable bags. This means I can grab snacks for the kids quickly or they can help themselves without eating it all! I do the same thing with 'grown up' snacks, sometimes adding some Bombay mix and always nuts and seeds. Yum! I try to buy nuts in larger portions because they work out cheaper but then separating them into portions means I don't eat the lot!!
I generally enjoying cleaning and have got a good routine going thanks to Clean Mama - check out the free printable calender.
Recently I realised it was WAY past time for me to clean the cooker, which is not a job I enjoy and, having started making my own cleaners using white vinegar, I really did not want to use conventional chemical oven cleaner because that stuff stinks, even the warnings on the packaging put me off using it! My sister mentioned putting lemons in the oven and after a quick google I found this site for how to clean an oven naturally. So I cooked lemons for half an hour and then once the oven was cool left baking soda sprayed with water sit overnight... I was sceptical but in the morning I literally just wiped it away and all the grease/gunk was gone!! I couldn't believe it, it was SO bad, embarrassingly bad, hence no before and after pictures. After cleaning it naturally (and cheaply) it was sparkling! Just trust me, if you've been too busy sewing to clean your oven try doing it naturally :)
My final tip is one I live by everyday. Write it down. Pen and paper makes all the difference for me. To do lists, sewing lists, my planner. If I write it down I don't have to spend time thinking about things or remembering stuff (I only have to remember to look in my planner!).
Happy sewing busy people!
messy space, new stash
Well this is the mess that it my sewing space (it's just a desk shoved in the corner of our dining room). It's no surprise really since I've been doing so much hand sewing, things just get dumped here. I need to get back to some machine sewing though so this will have to get sorted out sharpish!
Over the past couple of weeks I've added some lovely additions to my stash and I have plans for them all so you'll see them popping up here and there!
First this divine bundle from Miss Matatabi:
Swedish Kitchen in teal, Lighthearted by Ayumi Takahashi; Swedish Text in mint, Lighthearted by Ayumi Takahashi (available here); Floral in cream and mint, Lighthearted by Ayumi Takahashi; Shibuya in Linen, Tokyo Train Ride by Sarah Watts and Irome in Winter, Color of the Seasons by Kokka (currently sold out but Spring is available here).
And then no prizes for guessing why I had to get this adorable Tickle Pink Cats, Hello Petal by Aneela Hoey print! Fussy cutting ahead!
More gorgeousness arrived from Pink Castle Fabrics, I had a hard time choosing which First of Infinity panel to get but chose the pastel because I love the soft colours - this print is so gorgeous I would happily have them all!
Top row: First of Infinity Book Panel
Bottom row: Feed Sacks in Peach by Suzuko Koseki; Kona in white (always useful!); Ghost Saltines in Evergreen, Cookie Book by Kimberly Kight; Cottage Path in Grass, Daydream by Swirly Girls Design and Roots Dot in Green, Roots and Wings by Deena Rutter
At Patchfinders we have a great selection of fabrics that are only £6 per metre so I snagged some of this pretty Stof print:
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I've had that horrible stomach illness that all three of my kids had last week so this weekend so far as been exhausting but today I feel better and am ready for some serious sewing (and maybe some tidying up of that mess if I can be bothered... probably not!!).
I will be back to show you more progress on my green tea and sweet beans blocks, I finally have another quilt finish to show off and next weekend it's time for the DOTS le challenge finish, so a busy week ahead!
If you have been working with dots and have a finish that has a 'dots' theme, join us next weekend and link up for a random chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop!
Happy Sunday all!
Happy Sunday all!
le challenge - the rising sun
I made a much needed project for this challenge and it was easy to do to, in fact I managed it while the baby took a nap so a quick, handy and fun make! I chose to interpret the theme of the rising sun by using some of my Japanese fabric.
I've used this fabric basket pattern before it is by the lovely Ayumi of Pink Penguin, who happens to live in Tokyo.
The patchwork is made with some lovely Japanese fabric scraps, which I got a couple of years ago from the Eternal Maker, some other scraps that had been given to me in a swap and some of Karen's beautiful hand printed fabric. The bottom and lining are from Terry's Fabrics, lime and sage dotty curtain fabric. The handles are cotton webbing from the Village Haberdashery.
I made the patchwork squares larger than the pattern at 2.5" and enlarged the bottom section and lining accordingly. This means I can chuck more threads and little fabric scraps into it while I'm doing EPP or applique. It is nice to finally have a pretty bin and another tick off my FAL list!
Head over to le challenge to link up and see what everyone else made. If you want to join us a new theme will be announced tomorrow!
Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day and a great weekend! <3
how do you like dem apples?
and Lois enjoying wearing it:
Honestly it was a bit annoying, she just wanted to look at and play with the bib rather than eating!!
But I cracked on and made another...
I've had a lot to do this month so in a stroke of genius I made one I'm calling the 'toffee apple bib' since TOFFEE was this months theme on Le Challenge:
You might notice it's not really toffee, just sort of brown but I didn't have any fabric I would call 'toffee' so let's just ignore that ok?! I also thought it might be cute to zig zag stitch the binding down on the back - I machine stitched the first one and it looked great. The zig zag idea just didn't work as well so don't try that at home! I also contemplated adding a stick at the bottom to make it more 'toffee apple like' but it just seemed impractical.
There is a super cute scrap of fabric on the bottom though, even with a little bee and pot of honey toffee!
I'm calling it a win and it's another finish off my FAL list.
Head over to Le Challenge to see what everyone else made this month. The next theme is announced tomorrow and if you haven't joined in yet please check it out.
This would be a great month to get started and it's a super exciting theme!
apron strings
Aren't these panels just perfect for a cafe apron?
They were given to me by my cousin - thank you Jackie!
As soon as I got a copy of Patchwork Please by Ayumi Takahashi I thought of these panels for this project. I'm sorry to Ayumi that I didn't make her beautiful patchwork but here's my version of the apron and I'm joining in the
Zakka Along 2.0.
Zakka Along 2.0.
I used some interfacing on the fabric before lining it and I only quilted in between the panels.
For the main fabric of the apron I used a tea towel (it works so well!!).
For the main fabric of the apron I used a tea towel (it works so well!!).
It came together really easily, I even left the selvedge edges on the ends of the ties, so it was super fast to do.
Unfortunately I only had a 5yr old helper to take a picture at the weekend. So here it is in all it's blurry glory:
Yeah and again:
I tried lying down, better but not great!
He made up for it though with these totally gorgeous shots he got of his sisters:
oh no you didn't
I did manage to make some blocks that were on that list though:
I made two Scrappy Trip blocks for the lovely Collette, I now know why everyone loves making these - so fun!
I finished some more bear paws, added them to the Flickr group and did a tutorial on how I'm making mine:
now I have to get back to work...
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