What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

There are many scrappy strip/string quilt tutorials out there. Some tutorials suggest using white fabric as a foundation and some use different types of papers. I wasn't sure if I wanted to use fabric and have an extra layer in my pillow. So I used tracing paper I had at home and it was too thick to peel off after the strips were sewn. I know there are special papers available online, but I wanted to start making the blocks right away. Yes, I was in the mood that I had to start the project at that moment ...

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Today marks my 3rd mastectomy anniversary. If you are interested you can read about it in my blog post after when I was diagnosed, the day of the mastectomy and the day I came home from the hospital.

I reflected on the past three years and the main thing that comes to my mind is that how grateful I am. I woke up this morning, got ready, went to church and later that day I was able to Facetime my sons who are both serving our church in Japan. I was able to cook and had dinner with my family ...

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Hello! How have you all been?? As I mentioned in the last post, I had a pretty busy summer and I didn't sew much... I just wanted to spend more time with my children. They are growing up too fast, but they seem to not mind that at all. I was having a hard time catching up with the speed. Now that my middle son has left home and my youngest has gone back to school, I am getting my sewing mojo back! There were a few things I wanted to sew, but I decided to try the McCall ...

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A few months ago, I found out that one of my dear friends for over 23 years was going to have open heart surgery in August. I wanted to do something special for her and pretty much immediately, an idea to make a heart quilt came to my mind. I talked to our mutual friends about the idea and they were all on board.

When I went through breast cancer three years ago, I was gifted with a special pink heart quilt from a talented group of friends. I was so surprised and touched with everyone's generosity and every ...

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I wanted to participate in #mymademay or #sewthatpattern during the month of May. I thought I should be able to create several outfits, and I quickly realized that I underestimated my schedule or how busy I will get just before the end of the school year. I finally found the time to sew one dress for this month! I used Burda Style 6414 pattern and modified it a little. The original pattern had two options for the shoulders: one with drawstrings to adjust how much of the shoulders are covered, the other one is simply a no sleeve option. I ...

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You might be tired of me posting another Nova(Sapporo) Coat, so I apologize in advance. I made this third coat for my mom who is in Japan, for Mother's day and I shipped it last week. She called me today to tell me how much she loves it! I am so glad it got there in time. I made the first coat with a white wool blend and the second coat was a quilted one. I knew my mom wouldn't care for either of them because she would say white will get dirty easily, the quilted coat ...

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I think it was about two years ago that I purchased the Wildwood fabric by Rifle Paper Co. I love it so much that it was sitting on my table for a while and every time when I walked by, I looked at it, touched it and thought about what to make with it. A tunic, a top, a skirt??? I didn't want to mess it up or didn't want to regret not making something else after I used it. My indecisiveness was in full swing and I had to put it on the shelf and wait.

After ...

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The idea for this project came purely from my own need, but I thought there might be some of you going through the same thing and looking for an eyeglass case.

I always had good eyesight up until few years ago (darn aging! My teen daughter often say, "Is there anything good about getting old??"), but I started needing glasses to see far and it seems to be getting worse. Because I am not used to carrying glasses around, I always forget to take them with me and I won't even think about them until I need to see ...

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Last fall, I was itching to sew some coats. I wanted to try something new and stretch my skills by sewing something other than skirts or dresses. A couple patterns that grabbed my attention were Tamarack Jacket by Grainline Studio and Sapporo Coat (they recently changed the name to Nova Coat) by Papercut. I made a couple jackets in the fall using the tamarack jacket pattern. Except for the welt pocket, the rest of process was something with which I was already familiar.

Now, I wanted to try the Sapporo coat pattern. When I saw the coat online, not only ...

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I can't believe we are already in the second week of November! I made this lightweight denim pants a couple weeks ago, but life got busy and I didn't have a chance to post it until now. The pattern I used is from one of my Japanese sewing books and the whole process was so simple and easy as the title of the book claims it to be. With one glance, it kind of looks like a skirt. I am toying with the idea to make this with plaid if I find something that catches my eye, or ...

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I knew it was getting colder, but we had snow yesterday! My "sew my stash challenge" is still ongoing, but I have been wanting to make a coat this year. My goal is to make a wool coat with liner, but that type of project is not only intimidating, it is costly too (no room for mistakes)! I wanted to start somewhere a lot simpler and easier. I felt like the coat pattern Simplicity 8811 is a great one to start. I bought a slightly better grade of fleece and dove right in! Just as I predicted, it was very ...

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I bought this beautiful Rayon Challis "In Bloom" by Cotton + Steel a while back. this Rayon is the perfect weight and very smooth to the touch. It is a little different choice of fabric than my usual pick from solid or floral, but when I saw it I immediately fell in love with the design. After going back and forth between sewing a dress or separates, I decided to go with separates! For the pattern, I used Simplicity 8910 dress pattern from my previous post for the top but extended the length and made a blouse. For the skirt, I ...

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I had this light weight denim forever and there were a few times in the past that I almost sewed something with it and then changed my mind. When I had Simplicity pattern 8910 in my hand and was revisiting my stash, I felt like they were a great match. There are many reasons why I adore the design of this dress pattern. I love the simple shoulder with modest puff on the sleeves little above the wrists. I also love the thick pleats in the front and the back. I feel like these pleats have a slimming effect compared ...

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This is one of those projects where I have seen something like this in a magazine or at a store, but I can't find a pattern similar to this, soo... I was just going to try to see if I could make it up as I go. I originally bought this linen blend fabric to make a skirt, and I only had 2 yards of it. I had no room to make mistakes! I drew a sketch of how I wanted it to look, measured myself (twice, of course) and then drew the lines right onto the fabric.

I ...

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In my last post, I shared the wrap top I made using a pattern from the Japanese sewing book Kana's Standard II. In the book, her version is a dress. I loved my top so much so that I wanted to sew a dress. Not a dress with any fabric, I was going to sew with my precious Liberty of London fabric! I tweaked a few things, results? I love it!! I lengthened the skirt by 4". Also, I cut the sleeves shorter, so they will be 3/4 sleeves instead of long sleeve. I did this after I ...

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I don't even remember how long ago I purchased this light weight cotton fabric. I was "shopping" from my fabric closet and I knew exactly what I could turn this piece of fabric into. I remembered seeing a pretty wrap top in a Japanese sewing book Kana's Standard II. Perhaps, sewing garments so often over the past few weeks improved my senses and decision making skills? I sure hope so! :) I barely had enough to make this top and I am so glad I did! I love how it fits so perfectly to my body and I already ...

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My recently turned 15 year old daughter is now taller than me and has started to borrowing my clothes. I always wondered when she would even be interested in my clothes. Turns out that we have different styles, but there are some common likes that we share. I am just happy that I could share some of my clothes and jewelries (a selected few) while we have a mother-daughter talk and enjoy each other's company. I was looking in my fabric closet; two fabrics stood out to me and pretty much right away, I knew what I wanted to ...

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I shared my Bubble Gauze Dress post not so long ago. I bought this mint green bubble gauze fabric at the same time when I bought the fabric for that dress. I wanted to sew a relaxed top with a little bit of flare and I finally found a pattern that spoke to me for this particular fabric. The pattern I used was Burda style 6266. There are three version of this top, and I honestly think they are all very pretty.


I have a short torso, so I decided to shorten the pattern by a few inches, but everything ...

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I have been wanting a red skirt to wear for a while and I remembered that I bought some red linen fabric a long time ago. Sure enough, I found this fabric in my fabric closet, yay! One thing I have loved ever since I started my own "sew my stash challenge", is that I am more mindful of what I already have and am thinking creatively. I love clothing made out of linen, but 100% linen gets wrinkled very easily, so I usually buy linen blend fabric for easier care and it's nice drape.

I only had just ...

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I bought this striped bubble gauze at Joann Fabric a while ago at 40% off. I knew I wanted to make a summer dress, but didn't have any specific design in mind at the time. Now I am doing my own "Sew my stash challenge" and I have been Looking at the fabric really trying to see what it could be. Then an inspiration came to me... I wanted to sew a dress you might find at a brand like Madewell. I had a french sleeve top pattern I created years ago, so I decided to modify that pattern ...

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