Stash from Japan and family news.

After returning from our whirlwind tour of Japan and arrival to home, I had time to reflect about our trip and how much fabric I had purchased. First let me share with you my stash from Japan, when is enough fabric enough!, don't you just love what wonderful designs are out there and the never ending supply of such wonderful  fabric designs. Ohhh the time that I need to get stuck into making a few creations with them all.

My long awaited Xmas present arrived, on order for six months, as they say all good things come to those that wait. I felt very spoilt at how my car was delivered.

Our other wonderful news is that we are going to be grandparents, our oldest son Nigel will be a father in August, we are tickled pink with the news 

So what have I been making!, the first of many, hopefully.

Finally finished my "field of dreams" quilt off to the quilter to be quilted.!

I was nominated by Chris Jurd to take part in the five day artist challenge currently on FB, what a fun time and how wonderful have all the quilts and projects been, such delightful eye candy,  It has been a great opportunity to get to see what everyone is making and what creativity, not one quilt has been the same. Well done to all that took the time to participate. 

 That's all for now!

Japan we are done, thanks for the memories.

Our second visit to Japan, has been just as wonderful as the first time, we visited, we are pleased to have travelled all over Japan, and had the wonderful company of the gracious Japanese people. Thank you for sharing your country with us, the food, culture and experiences that Japan has to offer are a delight and that one should partake of, if you ever get the opportunity. "Origato domas"

Even Ginza district, Tokyo has a Hooters.

Staying at the Ginza Grand, my sister has capitulated and started sewing hexagons, to make a coin purse.

Harijuku, the trendy area of Tokyo, very crowded and wait times for meals.

Horse meat on the menu in Ginza.

Osaka, Universal studios.

Kyoto, Golden Palace.

Hiroshima, trams

This actual tram was working in 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped.

Miyajima Misen and free roaming deer.

Snow in Sendai

Light show, Tokyo Dome.

Sumo, Endo the Japanese sumo.

Goodbye Japan, onto our next adventure, hello France.

Play, fun and limited time.

It has been  2 weeks since my return from Japan, worked 8 days, 4 day shifts and 4 night shifts and I am now on days off so time to get cracking with some creations. I have completed my 56 Lucy Boston blocks so onto sewing in the 1 inch squares, not a project that I am liking so I am taking some time out to do other things. I will place the blocks on my design wall soon. Below I will share a few things that I have on the go at the moment.

This is  " ME", a small fun quilt that was fun to put together, the idea came from a miniature quilt that Chris Jurd had on the back of her sewing room door. The design idea came from Chris's Art Deco lamp pattern.  Pattern available from Patchwork Fundamentals.

This is the start of another quilt, it is a combination of two quilts in one, Margaret Sampson has published this quilt in a recent copy of Quiltmania. Margaret has called the quilt  "Anna Levens" and in the centre of the quilt advertised, she has seven centres fussy cut and the picture is surrounded by hexagons.

Off course, I do big quilts, so my centre will have sixteen fussy cut centres. This was the easy part, now onto multiple, 100's,  of hexagons to form a rectangle, did I say easy, never !.

On the countdown to Christmas, seeing I am working and we are going on holidays overseas late December, I will not be getting out all the Christmas decorations, but I could not resist making this Christmas tree, with the help of my son, I am very pleased with the result, now for some decorations, and "whola" a rustic Christmas tree.

Before I went to Japan! my interest was piked in Japanese fabrics and to make a Japanese quilt, but I held off until my trip to japan, hoping that I would find some great fabrics to fussy cut for the centres. This proved difficult, lots of Japanese fabrics but none suitable for centres, I did manage to  buy 6 metres of backing fabric and a silk design from the textile museum in Kyoto. Below is a photo of the first of nine blocks, and this is where I used the silk design. Another Chris Jurd design from Patchwork Fundmentals. The quilt is called "Noodle Box"

That's all for this week folks!.

Farewell Japan

Oh well last night in Japan, what a fun packed 8 days, had by me, not sure about DH, although he did enjoy the sightseeing, food and Japan in general, not my shopping though. The comment made was, if he see's another Yuzawaya store, he will slit his wrists, LOL. All in all our experience of Japan was a very pleasant one, food was great, freshly cooked and efficient service, the Japanese do try to  accomadate the English  and have menu's written in english, but we did eat at some out of the way places, pointing to a picture on the menu also worked well. The pointing method seem to work and we have not been disappointed so far with our choices. In Japan they still have smoking areas in restaurants. Fashion is interesting, the Japanese are very well dressed, the young girls wear shorts with stockings and boots, temperature is dropping and will soon be winter, not sure if the shorts will be worn in winter or not. Hubby was hard pressed to find TV channels with English subtitles, so he spent the time watching samurai movies in Japanese. The trains are amazing and are always on time and they come every few minutes, so we have not had to wait long for a train, a little different with the buses, where you may wait anything up to a hour. Taxi's are also plentiful, the cab drivers have white gloves on, seats are covered in white lace and the doors are automatic, so no need to open the door. do not put your luggage on the seat!!!  The toilets are automatic, music, shower, bidet and an automatic flush, a person could get used to this. Japan is a shoppers delight, anything and everything is for sale. Fabric, craft items, needles and scissors are half of what we would pay in Australia, this was an added bonus for this trip, my mission was to buy as much fabric and accessories that took my eye. next trip to Japan is hopefully with family and mainly sightseeing? Jan 2015 is booked in for the Tokyo quilt show.

Some highlights of our trip, Golden pavilion in Kyoto.

Japanese dress, kimono,s/ culture.

Japanese woman sweeping leaves at the Golden Pavillion.

Autumn, colourful leaves.

The Yokohama  quilt show.

Well maintained gardens, with flat rocks so people can sit and mediate.

Window displays decorated for Xmas, love how they use unusual critters, heaps of Xmas trees and displays all over Japan to celebrate Xmas.

Fabric town, chose to visit on a Sunday, will journey back to Nippori today as we need to fill in a few hours.

The Japanese are so organised! see the yellow line! these are everywhere, footpaths! escalators and train stations! you walk to the left of these.

Mac delivery bikes, yes that is right, mcdonalds delivers in Japan.

Typical Japanese street, lots of restaurants and good photos to point to!

We sampled the local speciality "ramen" in kamata Tokyo 

Prepackaged food for sale in beautifully decorated box's, we did not sample any of these but have been told they are fresh and flavoursome.

Last but not least, my little patient Japanese man who cut me, 20 pieces of fabric in the kamata Yuzawaya store! farewell Japan it has been an experience! one that I will repeat at a later date.

Japan and shopping.

My first day in Japan, Tuesday.  Monday evening at 5.20 pm, we landed at Narita International airport. It was pitch dark and cold, Japan is 2 hrs ahead of us in Oz. We caught the Narita express from the airport to the Shinjuku area and our intentions were to walk to the hotel, believed to be only one kilometer, on exiting the Shinjuku station from the east, we found ourselves on a Main Street with five intersections. DH also known as Daniel Boone said we would go this way, and pointed to a street, after a 9 hour flight, a 2 1/2 hr train ride and getting up at 4.30 am, I was not in the mood for walking endlessly up and down streets to find our hotel, so promptly got a cab. The cab ride was 10 mins and the walk if we would have known which way to go would have also been 10 mins. Of course, now being familiar with the area, we now know where the station is located, so will walk tis time as we are off to Kyoto tomorrow.

My goal today was to go to a shopping centre called Takashimaya Times Square, inside this shopping centre is a place called Yuzawaya, which is a bit like an upmarket spotlight at home. The whole 11th floor is dedicated to this shop. I found out about this store by reading an earlier edition of a Quilters  Companion. Liuxin Newman had visited Japan and wrote a column about Japan, in particular this article was about this department store being a craft lovers delight. I was not disappointed and it was very hard to contain myself, 2 hours later and DH wandering about and passing comments. I made a decision to not buy a lot as I would be hauling it all over Japan and made a vow, on our return to Shinjuku in 4 days time, Yuzawaya would be visited again. The stores do not open before 10 am, but this I itself was not a deterrent as whilst we were waiting we were bowed at and presented warm tea. I did mange to buy 4.2mtres of fabric as there was not much on the bolt and felt that it may not be there in 4 days time. I also purchased some sashiko thread and "d "rings for a bag that I am making, the fabric is Yuwa and my little shopping spree set me back $37.

Gourmet delights.

Shinjuku Station, South exit.

Takashimaya, Times Square.

Yuzawaya 

Fabrics galore!

Today we travelled to Kyoto and had a little Japanese culture.

Kimono being modelled.

Some Sumo wrestling, we were amazed at the number of western men competing and training as Sumo's.