Patchwork Houses

  I am not positive that is the name of the book as I do not speak/read Japanese. It was listed on Superbuzzy as Patchwork Houses though so that is what I call it. It has all sorts of cute little patterns to make patchwork potholders, baskets, and more. It's a small book and was only 6 bucks but with all the ideas inside I am really glad I got it. Here are some other images from the book if you are thinking about purchasing it.

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Fabric

Fabric Shopping

I get contacted a lot with the question of where I get all my
fabric. Instead of having to compose a whole new email with the same links in it
every time I decided to put a page up where I can link people to it. Simple and
easy. Of course as new sites are discovered they will be added. So here we go.

• Superbuzzy – Cute
  Japanese fabric, books, zakka gifts, etc. Located in the U.S.

• Reprodepot – Variety
  of fabric (Japanese and American designers), patterns, cram cream, also
  located in the U.S.

• Fat Quarter Shop
  – Charm packs and fat quarter bundles galore. I have purchased from this
  website numerous times.

• Purl
  Soho – Lots of Japanese and American fabric here. The package everything
  in tissue like a gift. Also has yarn and things like that for knitting I
  suppose. I don’t know how to knit so I just loiter in the fabric sections.

• Harts Fabric – Many
  different prints here. I haven’t ordered from them before but I probably will
  at some point. They have a good selection.

• Cry Baby’s Boutique
  – Nice little site. Offers Japanese fabric plus knits. Cute prints either
  way you go.

• JCaroline
  – I can get lost on her website for hours. So many categories of fabric plus
  tutorials it’s endless.

• Nuno-Plus – This site is
  my weakness. It’s all Japanese fabrics with designers such as Decolello and
  Shinzi Katoh. I have purchased from them many times. They also have websites
  on Ebay and Etsy. This would be at the top of the list if they were in order
  of importance.

• Kitty Craft – Here
  is another website I have purchased multiple times from. Designer prints plus
  magazines, books, zakka gifts, etc.

• Alexander Henry
  – This website is mainly for Alexander Henry prints. From the tattoo girls to
  the cute little kitchen pears you can most likely find any print of his here.

• EQuilter – Many prints
  on this site. Have used it for quilting fabrics before.

• The Fabric Fairy – Lots of cute prints, knit, Japanese. Good stuff. 🙂
• Bunte Fabric – Beautiful fabrics and great source of cute ribbon.
• Z & S Fabric – Popular designer prints.
• Fabric Tales – Many Japanese prints. Traditional and cute.
• U-Handbag – Not really a fabric shop but has lots of cute purse frame kits and patterns. I love them.
• Hancocks of Paducah – Has lots of designer prints/collections.

 

On Etsy

• 
  Mountain of the Dragon

• Milco
  Tiger Favorite

• Down
  Shadow Lane

• 
  Good-ness

• Sew
  Love Fabrics

• From
  Japan With Love

• 
  Matatabi

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Scrappy House Coasters

So I was digging around in my overflowing scrap basket when I decided I needed to make something with them. I got my little Patchwork Houses book out and proceeded to make some coasters. They were not too difficult to do. The only issue was that Kody and Christian were determined to interrupt me every time I sat down at my machine.The pattern in the book was actually for a potholder so making it coaster sized was really tricky to sew with my machine. The edge kept getting stuck under the feed dogs. I have a patchwork foot I really should start using. I also have some little plastic thing that is supposed to help with sewing small pieces. I guess I need to take one of the six classes I was offered to attend when I got that machine. Do classes expire? It’s been a couple years. I will post the book I got this pattern from tomorrow for the Flickr person and anyone else that may stumble on here wanting it. Mine has an extra fabric piece on the left side because I was using scraps and the pieces I had were not big enough. It still turned out okay and my tea is resting on it now protecting my sewing table. 

                                                                Patchwork Fairytale House Coasters

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Secrets of The Mushroom People

I can’t divulge the secrets to you here. This picture however will be gracing the front of my postcards I am going to make this weekend. I had a long day of work so I am off to bed…

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Japanese Fabric

Okay so I have taken some medication for these horrible allergies I am dealing with so this post may come out strange…as I am about to fall asleep in the midst of typing. wasn’t even going to post anything but while I was browsing the
internet waiting for the allergy meds to kick in I went to check out Nuno-plus.

I I found so many cute prints I would just love to have to make makeup bags and cute little zip pouches out of but holy cow. One of those prints was over 7 bucks for a fat quarter!!! Unfortunately I am not really overflowing with money right now so I guess I will just have to look at my little mosaic and dream.

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Bad Day

Today was not the greatest of days. It was my first Wednesday back at work since my summer class ended. It was awful.

I went to the Asheville college
on my lunch break to try and get a class there since I can’t take it in Marion this
fall. I couldn’t’ find where the main
building was after driving through the side roads for 30
minutes. I mean putting a sign up that said "admissions" or "main building" would be waaaaaaaaay too much to ask. I kept getting on these one way roads through all the buildings which were all named after trees. I don’t know why that annoyed me….but it did.So I go into a parking lot to ask someone and the girl didn’t know where it was she was just there with her sister or something. I had reached my tolerance level and decided to leave when some teenage punk almost
hit me with his 4×4 truck. It’s like 90 degrees. I am hungry, lost, haven’t had a
tea or coffee all day and was furious. I decided to lift my
spirits by getting that iron on embroidery paper at Hancocks. I have all those Japanese embroidery books with patterns and needed that paper to do them, but guess
what?? crapcocks doesn’t carry that.

HELLO

How does a store like that not
carry embroidery products.

I was so upset. I got a couple
half yards of that project runway fabric, got my z-pack at CVS, and went back to work.

When I finally got back I got the wonderful job of doing a tour for some new person at one of our offices. I need a vacation. If I already wasn’t going to have to work Saturday because I have so much stuff to do I would call in sick and stay home and sew.

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Happy Birthday Kody

4 years old today. His newfound love of Playmobile has surfaced.
He will sit and play with his pirate ship we got him for hours.

Of course the poor little guy got a stomach ache tonight from too much
cookies and cake. I should have known that would happen but I can’t
deny him of birthday treats on his birthday. 🙂

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Why Hello There

As most of you may know I have a hard time sticking to a blog. I have been on every blog out there possibly even having more than one account on them. I am going to give Typepad a try though and luckily for me my name was still available for the url. *happy dance*

I think that is my problem. I get sick of those little cutesy virtual names. Like my "A Craft Life" blog. I loved blogging about my crafts but lately I haven't had time to craft. So most entries ended up being more about me and my life. The way it used to be before I got back into sewing (which was only a couple years ago might I add). So here I am. Re debuting myself out into blogger land. I guess I will put a link up on my wordpress blog I bailed on. I initially liked that blog…a lot. It was how I designed things. Anyone can make a zip pouch or a doll dress. It's all the special trimming and extras you do to make it original and unique. However, after a few months, for some reason it started reminding me of the hairdressers, and trimming hair and things of that nature. It started to gross me out…maybe it's just me…..yeah it probably was. 

Anyway lift your drink up for a toast. Here's to a new blog. Also new fabric that will be seen in some of the upcoming posts.

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