A trip to Japan

At long last I am back here to post a little about to our trip to Japan.

We spent just 6 days in Tokyo, but managed to see quite a bit.

One evening, when we returned to our hotel room, we were surprised to see a faint view of Mt Fuji from our window.

One of the things I love about Japan is the contrast between the old and the new. The photo below shows a stone structure in Ueno Park with  the lights of the modern city in the background.

Then there are serene gardens surrounded by thousands of buildings

And the iconic busy crossing in Shibuya.

Of course I went fabric shopping! :)

First stop was Nippori.

A whole street of fabric shops where the multi storey Tomato is possibly the most famous!

Me in fabric heaven!

We also visited Yuzawaya. There are several Yuzawaya stores in Tokyo, but we went to the Takashimaya store in Shinjuku where Yuzawaya takes up one whole floor.

A stand of Liberty fabric on the left and much more to see on the right.

We also went to Tokyu Hands which has craft supplies of all kinds.

Another great find was Okadaya in Shinjuku. It is spread over 2 buildings and several floors. We don't speak any Japanese and the young lady who looked after us didn't speak any English but with lots of hand signs we managed to understand each other!

Beautiful  kimono fabric in Okadaya.

While wandering around the huge department stores you never know what you will see...

A patchwork skirt found in Seibu, Shibuya, In this department store there was a small area with La Drougerie, (knitting yarn, embroidery supplies, ribbon, gifts and a small amount of fabric), 100 Idees (fabric) and a craft bookstore.

I even managed a little sewing on the plane.

We would love to go back to Japan one day and visit Kyoto and Osaka.

And what did I buy?  Below is some of my shopping. There were also a stack of fat quarters, many of which I have gifted or used.

Oops!!! How did it appear upside down??!!
The Yuwa toile I found at Tomato and I bought some in blue too. The bird fabric is also from a shop in Nippori. Okadaya had tables of "bargain" fabric out the front of the store, and I found the red fabric there. The books I found at a book store called Keibundo Books. It is a huge store with very helpful staff, and a great section of craft books. Yuzawaya, Tomato and Odakaya had tables of fat quarters of all sorts of fabrics.
I would go back to Japan in a heartbeat!!

I'm back, with a new project and much more...

Well, it has been far too long since I updated my blog! There has been plenty of sewing happening, so I will start with my most recent start and come back with some more posts of what else I have been doing.

I have bitten by the clamshell bug!! I have never made clamshells before, so got some advice from others about what might be the best way to go.

I decided to make my own clamshell template from template plastic. I found an old Mathomat one of the kids used at school to draw a 2 inch clamshell.

Next I traced several clamshells on to freezer paper and tried applying spray starch with a paint brush and ironing over the curved edges. I didn't have much success with this. The freezer paper got soggy and stretched. Now I am using glue to stick down the folded edge.

I plan to make just a small quilt with an Alison Glass Ex Libris in the centre and surrounded by clamshells. I have an Alison Glass border fabric that I plan to use also.

For the clamshells so far I have chosen a mixture of Alison Glass, Cotton and Steel, Karen Lewis Textiles and Maze and Vale fabrics.



Since I finished the 2 quilt tops in my previous posts, I have mostly stuck to making progress on 2 projects.

The first is a new project using a pattern by Jen Kingwell. My Small World originally appeared in the Spring 2015 edition of Quiltmania. It is now available as a separate pattern. Below are parts 1 and 2 completed. I have almost finished part 3. I will do a new post about this quilt. Its been lots of fun!

I  have been continuing to work on Mountmellick, Di Ford's mystery quilt from Quiltmania last year. These little blocks are for Part 4. I have 2 sides attached and just the other 2 to sew on. Stand by for a separate post about Mountmellick too!

You may notice the photo above was taken in a plane. We recently had a short holiday in Tokyo. There was some fabric shopping in amongst all the sightseeing!! Of course there will be a post about our experience in Tokyo too!!!

Back soon! :)