Dainty and Sophisticated. Jewelry for her.

My daughter's ballet "the Nutcracker" production has opened last Saturday and it goes on until Sunday. It is the busiest time of the year for us. Especially this year is the craziest because I am volunteering much more as a seamstress than I was in any past years. Plus, I needed to finish numbers of items for consignment and also my writing deadline was yesterday. Oh my goodness, I barely accomplished the last two missions by yesterday. Though sewing hooks onto tutus, altering soldier dolls' uniforms and Arabian dancers beaded belts, etc....are still going on until tonight (hopefully!).

After all, fortunately this morning I am able to take breath and have time to finish sharing my recent work with you. I made lots of new bracelets.  This time I focused on Macrame technique using delicate strings and beads. The finished bracelets look dainty and sophisticated. I am happy with the result. I hope these will be given to precious women this Holiday season. I would love to see these on their wrists.

These tiny crocheted necklaces are not my newest line for this season. But they are still shining and perfect for wearing on the white Christmas day.

The felt flower brooches are already gone!! This year it seems my stuff are going fast. (^^)

We had lots of snow in November but there is none right now. This morning my daughter just said she wants some snow for her Nutcracker production week. I think, I can survive without having  White Christmas once in years. ;p

I hope you have a good weekend. Please stay warm. Thank you for reading.

More crocheting

.....with rainbow colors.

Work in Progress

Just a quick WIP post with photos for now.

These puffy flowers eat yarns pretty much. The texture of soft baby yarns makes me smile (^^).

Working on several different fabric manipulation. This is Canadian / North American smocking.

I am knitting this cardigan pattern (Olinda by Georgie Hallam) for Nina. Also an adult cardigan for myself is on my needles. For mine I have lace weight. The pattern is more complicated than Nina's. So I think I am going to finish this first. Lace pattern is really fun to knit. Though I sometimes miss just simple stocking stitches, or garter stitches which I can knit watching my favorite dramas or movies.

Thank you for reading. Hope you all have a good weekend. Happy handmade!!

Japanese Magazine "Knit Marche vol.18"

Japanese knitting and crocheting magazine "Knit Marche" vol.18" is now on the market. I am writing two pages serial articles in this magazine titled "手芸家のアメリカ暮らし / Designer's life in America". In this issue I wrote about sock knitting with circular needles. It is always hard to put many ideas together in only two pages. I tried to make it more intelligible with some photos and my own illustrations. I hope that will interest many new sock knitters in Japan and bring them simple pleasures of sock knitting.

There are many cute designs and patterns in the issue. You can see photos of items in this issue here.

FGGS Bag Handles Tutorial

Hello folks! I hope you had a great start of the week.

Some people asked me about how I crocheted the Flower Garden Granny Square Bag handles. So I write a quick tutorial today.

Hook : 4mm (Japanese size7) for 5" square.
Yarn : 4 ply worsted weight cotton yarn ( Sugar'n Cream from Lily).

Row1 : ch 71, sc in the second ch from the end. sc in each ch to the end (70 sc total).

Row2&3 : ch1, sc in each sc from previous row to the end.

 My handle measures 50cm (about 20"). Make two handles and sew them on your FGGS bag body.

Thank you for your interest in my Flower Garden Granny Square pattern. Please do not forget to upload the pictures of your finished FGGS Bag to FGGS Flickr group! You can share any items made with the FGGS pattern.  I am looking forward to seeing them!!

That is it for now, but I am going to make another post today for telling you a sewing tip. Thank you for reading. Happy crocheting!

Pretty things, and what's on my work table

My life is not always very organized. It sometimes gets chaotic. And I see messes here and there in my house. But I also have some, maybe many pretty things.

Vintage textiles.

Vintage Pyrexes.

And more.

These are things currently on my work table.

I'll tell you about them soon. What pretty things do you have? Thank you for visiting. Please have a good day.

French/Asian Fusion Style @ JE!

It's March! It is March, everyone! I yell that just in case you have not realized that. ;-) Well, hearing the word "March" usually makes me feel the approach of Spring, but this year I do not have any of that feeling yet. At all. We just had about three inches of snow last night and there is thick ice remaining on our roof. I don't hate Winter. But I think we had more than enough "Winter" until now for longing to feel a hint of Spring.

In the meanwhile, many Spring themed events will be coming in town this month. I will be featured as a guest artist at Junk Evolution in March again. They change their theme every single month (that must be a lot of work for them. And that makes their shop so awesome!)  and this month's theme is "French/Asian Fusion Style". I will bring in many of my new work and also have a sewing workshop there on March 26th. If you are close by and interested in the workshop, please contact Junk Evolution asap because a number of seats are limited and it goes quickly. Their contact info is in their website and facebook page.

I am going to share some items I have been working on for selling at Junk Evolution this month. I made both "Spring" and "Japan" themed items.

There will be some cute jewelries which bring a sweet smell of early spring to you. I hope.

Very delicate crocheted necklace.

There are more of different kinds of crocheted motif necklaces.

So tiny motifs! I used very fine lace thread imported from Japan.

Say farewell to snowflakes. I made them in sugary pale colors. I also put tiny flowers, shamrocks and little hearts (beads) together.

In "Japan" theme, I did a bit of modern Sashiko embroidery stitching too. I have been introducing Japanese traditional handwork in modern style.

I stitched traditional "Juuji Hanazashi (cross and flower stitch)" and made iphone cases with them.

The case has a crocheted handle which is detachable on one side so you can attach the case on your bag handle! I often lose my phone in my bag. This function would rescue you form that issue if you have the same problem as mine!

These items will be available to purchase at Junk Evolution from First Friday on March 7th. You will see these pretty kiss lock purses (picture below) made with antique Kimono silk as well! There will be more of my stuff. They are all one of a kind. So please do not miss the chance if you are interested in them!

I hope you started your new month happily whatever kind of weather you have. There is no Winter which never ends. I am telling that to myself!! Happy making!!

Writing in "KNIT MARCHE" the Japanese magazine

I started writing serial columns in "Knit Marche" the Japanese knitting and crocheting magazine. I am going to write about various fun topics about crafting (mainly knitting and crocheting) in the US. My first work is already issued on Valentine's day in Japan. This time I wrote a little about reading knitting and crocheting patterns in English and some of my stories with photos which are taken in my studio.

"Knit Marche" is well known among Japanese knitters as a very informative magazine with cute, quality designs and clear instructions. (most Japanese craft books have good instructions, though.) In this 2014 Spring issue (Vol.17) there are so many pretty projects which I wish to start working right away! There are many beautiful lacy cardigans, shawls. Also attractive small items like bead-crocheted pouches and jewelries. You are able to see the projects in this issue here in their website. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Merry Christmas everyone! It has been really long time since the last post. I wrote about Halloween in that post! That meas I have been silent for about seven weeks! I am so sorry about that but things around here got suddenly crazy busy after then. I usually spend very busy weeks around the Holidays like many of you do, but this one was extreme. I kept thinking of updating my blog and always ran out of strength at the end of a day. There were numbers of things that has occupied me so much. One of the reasons were that I had two commissions from the publishers in two different counties. The dead lines were close together in the middle of December. I am not going to describe about that, but this is a sneak peek for you of what I had been working on.

Today, I am going to share the pictures of the things I made on consignment for Christmas sales at Junk Evolution. These are folding zipper clutch bags. This pretty red and white lace fabric was from the dress I've found at a thrift store. The dress itself looked beautiful, clean and almost unworn. I washed and took apart that very carefully then made it into these pretty bags.

These are crocheted jewelries. Some colorful earrings and pins.

My standard goods, crocheted flower brooches.

I started making these felt pins last Winter. A building and a tree series.

From here, these are Christmas gifts Nina made for her teachers. The mini heart pillow with embroidered letters. This was for her ballet teacher.

The canvas book tote made with "original textile" . Nina drew the picture with fabric crayons and markers.

This was not a gift. She built this ginger bread house almost all by herself for the first time! Now I consider her a real big girl ;D

This is the book tree I saw at the library in the town. I think it's very chic and cool. Maybe, I could make a small version of this for my house next year.

It's literally freezing here in South Bend tonight. We don't have much snow but this is a beautiful Christmas eve night. I hope you are having a merry merry Christmas with your loved ones.

( I promise the next post will be coming sooner! I have a lot to share with you!!)