Kaoru Marie

quilting, quilting, quilting......I don't know what to think about it anymore. I really enjoyed quilting when I first started (maybe because of the newness of it all), but now that I'm really into apparel sewing, quilting has kinda lost its luster. That's not to mean that I don't want to do it ever, but man oh man, there is so much repetition in quilting and it really takes A LOT of patience. Anyway, onto the quilt. You may not believe it after what I just said, but I really did want to make this quilt and I am so glad I did. This quilt is for a very good friend of mine from high school. High School! ....that was so long ago! When I found out earlier in the year she was expecting her first child, I immediately knew I wanted to make her a quilt. Then I found out she was having a boy and I was able to start shopping for fabric, probably THE BEST part of quilting! And seriously, there are some ridiculously cute fabrics out there. I subscribe to Sew Modern 's ...

It's been a long, long time since I completed a quilt. I think the last quilt I completed was a gift for a friend who was expecting a baby boy, which was almost a year and a half ago! How funny that this quilt is also for a baby boy. I found out over the summer (early summer actually) that a really good friend of mine is expecting her first baby. When I found out she was due in October I knew I had plenty of time to sit on it and not do anything until just before her due date. Naturally, that is exactly what happened. My first baby quilt was actually pretty big. I had no idea what size baby quilts typically are so I just made it to fit a standard package of "crib size" batting, which is 45"x60". I remember finishing it and doing some free-motion quilting over it and thinking it was really big for a baby. Over the past year I have paid more attention to quilt sizes from some quilters I admire. It seems like 36"x44" is a decent size for a baby and de...

I just couldn't resist any longer. Over the weekend I finally bought Ayumi's book, ' Patckwork, Please! '. {side note: my husband can't stop saying it like this: "Patckwork? PUH-LEASE!" He's also the guy who will always say, "I have Du-puis" when we watch a hockey game involving the Pittsburgh Penguins and the announcer mentions Pascal Dupuis. Also, he never fails to say, "I guess he's just in a bit of a pickle" when we watch a game involving the San Jose Sharks and the announcer mentions Vlasic's name. *sigh* he's such a goofball, but aren't we all ;) } We spent Saturday afternoon at The Grove and Farmer's Market having lunch and picking up some goodies. There is a Barnes and Noble at The Grove so I insisted we stop by since I may have checked earlier in the week if the book was in stock (it was!). It took a bit longer than I anticipated to find the book because a sneaky stock person placed it in the knittin...

Last weekend I stopped by Momen+ in Torrance, CA (located in the suburbs of LA County). It's a cute little sewing/quilting shop filled with tons of fabric, patterns, notions, and tools and there is a small workspace area in the back where I think they hold classes. Since the owner has Japanese roots (I think), this shop carries lots of Japanese fabric, including the ever popular Kokka and Echino, but there is also plenty of "modern" fabric too. Side Note #1: Funny story. My mom, who is from Japan, didn't know about double gauze even though it originated in Japan. She looked a bit unimpressed with the "thin" fabric {her words}. I told her about the popularity of double gauze, but that didn't seem to help the cause. $20/yard for double gauze? *gulp* Where's the sale section? Anyhoo, my mom has visited Momen+ a couple times and has been sweet enough to buy me some Japanese fabric (not the popular stuff, but super cute nonetheless) and a couple ...

6 continuous days of photos. I'm almost at a week. If I take a photo tomorrow, then I'll consider it a streak. First up is January 5, 2013 and, yes, it is a cat photo. I love trying to get  close-up photos of my cat, especially when his eyes are super big. Only his eyes are in focus because I had to shoot wide open (and at 1600 ISO) in order to get an appropriate shutter speed and exposure and I set the focus on his eyes. My external flash can't arrive soon enough... Today's photo, January 6, 2013 , is of a zipper pouch I made a couple months ago. One day I had an urge to actually make something as opposed to just reading about everyone else's wonderful sewing projects in my Google Reader. I decided to make a zipper pouch since it looked somewhat easy and I had enough scraps to make one. I used Ayumi's zipper pouch tutorial and scraps of Tula Pink's Prince Charming collection . By the way, Ayumi has the most amazing tutorials on her blog, Pink Peng...

I made some progress on my Prince Charming quilt in the past couple weeks.  I finished the half square triangle block for the corners of the main block.  I recently came across a tutorial on how to create 4 HSTs with two large squares of fabric.  I can't remember where I first read it, but a quick google search provided this Half Square Triangle Tutorial .  The nice thing about that tutorial is that the blogger provided an easy formula for determining the size you need for the two initial squares of fabric to yield 4 HSTs (although I think her formula is for a block including seam allowances.) The original tutorial I read didn't provide such information so it took some time for me to figure out the sizes I needed.  Eventually I figured out that for a finished (meaning, after it's all sewn together) 3"x3" square, I would need to start with two (2) - 5.5"x5.5" squares. After those suckers were done I moved onto the flying geese blocks.  I wasn't su...

This past weekend I got my order of Tula Pink's Prince Charming fabric!! :)  This was my first time ordering fabric from Hawthorne Threads and I was pleased with the quickness with which I received my order.  I was a tad bit concerned that they didn't include an invoice or receipt with the package, but there were no issues with the shipment so I'll definitely order from them again. Tula Pink's Prince Charming Collection As I mentioned last week, I didn't have a pattern in mind for this quilt, so I spent most of Sunday sketching ideas with the NFL playoff games in the background.  I developed a couple ideas and eventually decided I needed a pattern that would highlight the frogs and turtles; I think these will look good as 6"x6" finished squares. Fabric and Pattern Sketch I totally f'd up fussy cutting the first two frogs.  I have a 6"x24" ruler and completely forgot that I couldn't just cut along the narrow sides because I n...

Soon after I first discovered how awesome quilting can actually be, I thought it should be pretty easy to develop my own patterns. I mean, I'm an engineer! How difficult could it be? Apparently, I need a refresher course in basic geometry because I totally F'd up my first pattern. Thankfully, I actually like the outcome, BUT it's definitely not what I initially wanted and I spent an embarrassing amount of time agonizing over the correct measurements so that next time I can create the pattern as it was intended {by me}. Here's a photo of the pattern I sketched for a 16"x16" pillow cover: Initial Pillow Cover Pattern Look at those pointed corners! (and my old engineering paper.....awwww, I love that stuff) Annnnnnnnddddd, here's how it turned out: Little Apples Pillow Cover ACK! What happened to the pointed corners???!!!  Don't get me wrong, I love how the pillow looks, but my heart sank when I first sewed a couple blocks together and reali...

I have been following the lovely gals at IPB living for quite some time and always marveled at their quilts and blocks and close-up photos of the most beautiful fabric. After seeing one of their recent finished quilts I had had enough. I needed to learn how to quilt! The gals gave me some recommendations on how I could start learning and off I went on the interwebs searching for more clues to unlocking this mysterious world of quilting. I came across Moda Fabrics and was thrilled to see they have so much information and free patterns ! Since I was terrified of screwing up my first quilt I picked a pattern that looked easy for a first time quilter and lo and behold, it was made with the Little Apples fabric collection (by Aneela Hoey ) aka one of the most adorable collections I had seen. I HAD TO HAVE IT! The quilt top was super easy to make, but I think it took me way longer to complete because I was so anal retentive about how I wanted the colors and designs to line up. I spen...

I'm still new to quilting so I'm gradually discovering all the talented fabric designers.  This week I came across Tula Pink and completely fell in love with her Prince Charming collection.  I finally bit the bullet and bought a bunch of fabric from the Prince Charming - Honey collection from Hawthorne Threads .  It seems I'm a tad late to the Prince Charming party because it took some time finding an online store that had all the pieces of a collection in stock.  I seriously cannot decide which print is my favorite: the frog, turtle bay, or dew drops. Frog Prince in Honey (Tula Pink) Turtle Bay in Aqua (Tula Pink) Dew Drop in Storm (Tula Pink) Oh boy, I am so excited! Now I just need to go pick up a couple kittens to complete my quilter-spinster persona.  Oh, and I need a quilt pattern.

My mom found a fabric store near her that I think is a Japanese fabric store.  The store is called Momen+ and is in Torrance, CA. There's not much info on the store's website, but there are 12 reviews on Yelp and they are all pretty positive.  I have yet to visit the store, but my mom went recently and bought a couple mini quilt block kits and she mailed them to me!!!!!!  Best mom ever! :) I came home on Friday to a package and was so thrilled to find two mini quilt block kits with pre-cut Japanese fabric: Here are some close-ups of the fabric.  I think the owl print is really adorable. Don't these look like origami paper?? So even though I've been quilting for a couple months, I haven't made any blocks consisting of small shapes.  I've been wanting to try making a disappearing nine-patch block quilt  in order to get more practice lining up seams {just perfectly!} but that requires buying more fabric, which I don't want to do until all my ...

I very recently started quilting and one of the first things I had questions about when I finally got my first fabric order was: Should I pre-wash the fabric before quilting? I so badly wanted to dive right in and start measuring and cutting, but the fabric I bought had lots of red and white and all I could think about is what happens if I don't pre-wash the fabric, I finish my very first quilt, wash it, and then see that all the colors bled? And what if there is shrinkage???   I searched the interwebs for quite some time hoping to find some answers, but some people said do it and others said it didn't matter.  I just couldn't decide what to do based on what I had read so I decided to go with my gut.   I'm used to sewing clothes and hemming pants and I've always been instructed to pre-wash the fabric before sewing.  So......I pre-washed my fabric before I started quilting.  And guess what?  I'll NEVER DO IT AGAIN! First of all, I bought one layer ca...