Applique of "Liger?"or "Tion?" / Estate sale love

 I am doing another project with my girl. This is going to be a birthday gift for the best friend of my Mother in law's Vivian.  This time I picked applique to attach Nina's artwork. She drew an animal I asked for, it was a lion because Vivian traveled south Africa recently and she showed some pictures of Lions she saw in Africa. As Nina carried on her crayons the Lion transformed into a Tiger which is her favorite animal. You can see the vestige of the lion's mane.

 A tiger on Denyse schmidt's County Fair.

Apply the tiger piece on the base with slip stitches.

I added a flower and a heart.

I have not decided to make this into a zipper porch or small tote. I don't have much time for sewing since Nina's school was over. She always needs her Mom to play with. Probably I need to wake up earlier or stay up later  for finishing this project.

Changing subject, there is an estate sale going on this week in my neighborhood. We went on the first day and I got these things which are sold for very reasonable prices. Today is the last day of the sale so we are going to check out if other expensive stuff we liked are still there and the prices dropped. I love garage sales and estate sales. This is  one of my favorite activities in this country.

$15 total. Yey!

Nina found this little dish. She really liked it and guess what? This was made in Japan. This kind of thing happens to me when I find something I like at antique malls. I thought that's funny.

And the Anniversary Giveaway is still going on my other blog. If you have not entered yet please check this post out and join it.

Have a good week end!

Check it out !

I am having an anniversary giveaway on my Japanese blog HIBILABO JOURNAL. It has been five years since we moved in this country, and four years since I started the blog. This one is almost written in Japanese, so you probably cannot read it, but you still have a chance to win. Visit this post in my Japanese blog and leave a comment (either in English or Japanese) about your favorite crafting book (it doesn't matter if it is not new, written in Japanese or any other languages). If you leave your comment on this post which you are reading now, it wouldn't be accepted as an entry for the giveaway. I prepared two prizes. This time please tell me which prize you want to win (prize A or B) in your comment. And don't forget leave your website or email address for me to contact you when you win a prize.This giveaway will be closed on June 1 at 11:00 am (EST). I will announce the winners on both blogs later, and I will send email to the winners.

Take a good look at stuff I am going to give away!

Prize A is a smock embroidered pouch.

Prize B is a knitted and cross stitched mini tote.

I am looking forward to hearing from you over there on my Japanese blog!

Blogger's Quilt Festival / My Old Ribbon Embroidered Quilt

This week Amy of Amy's Creative Side is hosting "Bloggers Quilt Festival".

There are so many wonderful quilts you can get inspired by. And I am having fun to read the story of each quilt. Please check out my old ribbon embroidered quilt and many others.

I am participating to this Festival with this wall hanging quilt. This is about 13years old. I think this one could be called my first quilt. I made many small quilted things before this quilt. Something like purses, granny bags, mini quilts or appliqued wall hangings. But this one was the first decent sized (33"×36") quilt. I made this for my first exhibition as a handcraft designer in Tokyo. At that time, in Japan, the silk ribbon embroidery was very popular among people who like to do needlework. Many books about ribbon embroidery are published.  I remember I made many Victorian style things for Japanese craft magazines at that time. Right now I am a big fan of fresh modern style, but in my early thirtieth I loved the Victorian style needle works and elaborate techniques. So I decided to feature this quilt in the exhibition and worked very hard to make it pretty.

There are two reasons why I picked this quilt to show you on this occasion. One of them is that I realized many people are interested in my ribbon embroidered buttons through the "May Giveaway Day". I think this quilt would be a very good sample of using ribbon embroidery for quilts. Or you just can enjoy it as a sampler of ribbon embroidery.

Another reason is that this quilt reminds me how ambitious I was to show the aesthetic of craftsmanship when I started my career as a designer. This quilt always reminds me pleasure of creating beautiful things.

When I made this Quilt I have never thought I would have a daughter in my future . Now this quilt is perfect for decorating  my daughter's room. I am glad I made this and brought this over seas.

Embellished with beads and buttons.

I love this flower print which I used for the border and backing. I wish I still could find same thing somewhere.

I hope you enjoy this event and have a good week!

Thank Goodness! I am a winner too!

I can't believe it but I was picked from over 1,500 people and won this contest! Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson had a May giveaway day on her blog as well last week and it was a giveaway contest. The contestants had to post the inspiration you would like Elizabeth to use for your quilt. I submitted my idea about making quilt inspired by Tokyo subway map. Then I saw more than 1,500 people posted comments, that made me think there was no way to win. But, OH THANK GOODNESS! She chose my idea! I am so honored to be chosen and it made my day (maybe not only a day) of course.

Here is the sketch of the subway quilt Elizabeth drew. And you can see the fabrics she picked for this quilt on her blog. I love them especially polka dots ones.

I just cannot wait to see how she will make it! And she will send the quilt to me? Again, unbelievable!

And what's more? I will get this Robert Kaufman quilter's linen bundle? That makes me swim! They are my favorite colors! Thank you Elizabeth!

I hope you like it.

I changed the layout of this blog. I could have done this long time ago. Somehow I didn't think about it so much. But now I feel more comfortable and it looks much better. I would change it again in the future but I will stick with this for a while. I hope you like it too.

Have a good weekend!

The Winners are.........

I have to say thank you all for participating my first giveaway and leaving nice comments. I am so glad that many people got to know me and hopefully some of you will be my good friends in this enormous blog land. Anyway, the lucky winners are.........

prize #1 winner is

 MossyOakLane who said... 

What beautiful work on the tote! I love it!

And prize #2 Winner is 

 

Lichtlein who said...

WOW, what a wonderful idea! I'm deeply impressed. 

Kind regards from Germany

I will send you email later. Please respond ASAP so I can send stuff out sooner to you. I hope everybody who participated had fun and liked this blog. If you liked it, please come back often and leave comments. I would love to hear from you! Thank you so much. 

the Last day for enter!

Thank you for all your sweet comments! I didn't expect that I get more than 200 comments for this. So I am so happily surprised. I am so glad that many people think my work is well done, and that makes me smile a lot. The giveaway post will be closed at 12:00 tonight (EST) and I am going to draw the luckiest winners tomorrow morning. Then I will announce the winners here and contact them to ask some information for shipping the items. If you forgot to leave your email address or website (which I can make contact with you ) in your comment, please email me at hibilabo{at}gmail{dot}com.

We still have one more day. Let's enjoy it! Thank you!

May Giveaway Day!

As I informed before, I will give some handmade stuff away for this Sew, Mama, Sew blog "May giveaway day". So as you will notice on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog the competition will close on the May 20th . To enter simply leave a comment on this post. Entries will be taken from today until May 20th and I will draw two winners (I prepared two prizes this time) randomly on May 21st.

Here are pictures of what you'll try to win! Two lucky applicants will receive one of these prizes.

Prize #1 / A set of an embroidered Dalahäst (Swedish folk crafted horse) pincushion and an embroidered small tote.

 Prize #2 / A set of silk ribbon embroidered buttons and a smock embroidered pouch.

 There are more pictures of these giveaway items at my Flickr pool. I am looking forward to reading your comments. Thank you!

PS / I will ship items internationally.

Participating "May Giveaway Day"

I would like to notice that I am participating "May Giveaway Day" of  Sew,Mama,Sew! blog. I am going to give some handmade stuff away in appreciation for readers and for giving my blog a little lift. The giveaway entry will start on May 17th. I will make an announcement  about the items I'll give away in a couple days here. There is the detail of this giveaway here at Sew, Mama, Sew! blog. I hope many people will participate and I would love to hear from you all!

"I love my teachers" Project

Next week my daughter Nina will graduate from the preschool which she attended for two years. She learned so much and made a lot of friends at the preschool.  It is a little emotional to look back how we enjoyed those preschool days and how much the kid has grown up in these two years. And teachers! Oh man, they worked hard and did a fantastic job to their little students. Nina loved her school and her teachers and she always was happy to leave home to school. I really appreciate their work.

So Nina and I decided to give some gifts for the teachers and we made these handy pouches.

The gifts have to be collaborated by Nina and me, so I considered what would work for both of us. Then I thought of  the idea of letting Nina to draw pictures on the fabric. I picked some scrap fabrics from my stash and patched them together, quilted, sewed zippers on and made it up into pouches.

We used this Pentel Fabric Fun for drawing. I like these crayon type better than markers for kids. It is easy to use and the texture of finished drawings looks more interesting. I applied freezer paper on the back of a piece of fabric for drawing. So kids easily can draw on it just like they do on papers.

I embroidered a message of " I love my teachers" on the back.

 

It was a very good practice of free motion quilting. I tried some different quilting lines and it was so much fun.

I like both pouches very much, so I think I will make more. One for my mother in law's birthday, one for my daughter, and one for myself.

You can see more pictures of this project at my Flickr pool. 

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Ready to Fly!

My Nine patch quit is done! I picked green and white print from Joann fabrics for my border and backing. I think it was a good choice and I am pretty happy about the result.

This quilt measures 40"×46". Pretty small but perfect for a small living room in a small Japanese house. Yes, this is going to fly over to Japan soon. It should be a surprise for the recipient so I thought I shouldn't say whom this is going to. But I guess the recipient would never read this English blog because I usually post same topics on my Japanese blog as well at the almost same time. So she doesn't need to bother herself to read English consulting her dictionary. All right, now I tell you that I made this quilt for my sister (and her family). They built a cute little house a couple years ago. This house is very pretty French country style. My sister and her husband are collecting antiques and decorating the house nicely in soft colors. It looks pretty much shabby chic. Right now I am not a shabby chic person (once I have loved that in my thirties) but I tried to make this quilt to match with their style.

Nina helped me to take pictures of this quilt. I love to see the stained glass effect when it is against in the sun.

 

You can see more pictures of this quilt at my Flickr pool here soon.