Cut cut cut...

Who ever said that cutting your fabric for a new quilt was fast... was lying.

It's taking me forever to get all the pieces laid out and cut to exactly 0.5cm seam allowance. Driving me nuts!!!

Next stop... cutting.

Thankfully I am a subscriber to the "measure twice, cut once" school, because while waiting for my iron to be donated from a friend, I think I have measured my fabric 8 times.

I am on the fence of whether I am going to buy a sewing machine or not. I kind of want to buy the cutest Hello Kitty machine that is actually not badly priced at around 14,000 yen ($160 Canadian)

I know I mentioned in a previous post that my room is incredibly small, but I really want to start making my own things like skirts and halloween costumes. If I have my own sewing machine and I understand how to use it, I should be able to do it!

Fabric purchased!

Well, I headed to Fabric Street today (yeay! Pay day!). I went with the idea in mind of getting six solid colors and 6 patterns to make the pieces out of, but I was blown away by the number of prints they had! The store I went to is called Tomato and it has an entire floor of pre-cut fabric laid out very conveniently by it's relative color. I was thrown for a bit of a loop. I was kind of hoping that a magic fairy would come along and show me which fabrics to buy.

After looking around for around an hour in awe of all the wonderful fabrics and switching my palette two or three times, I struck the proverbial goldmine. Thanks to Atelier and Akiko by Lecien I found the most beautiful rich hued polka dot fabric. I took each of the 7 (remember, I only needed 6) and then headed to the solids wagon. I found a stunning, slightly tie-dyed fabric to match each of the 7. I really couldn't decide on the 6th color so I took them all.

Once I got them back to the office and had a real look at them, I decided that the bright orange kind of threw off the feel, so I axed it. It's a gorgeous color and halloween is just around the corner, so I will probably make a bib necklace or a hair tie with it.

I am very excited with the color and ever more excited to start cutting it up. I have decided NOT to pre-wash the fabric as it looks to be fraying a lot already and I don't want to end up with a washing machine full of threads (albeit gorgeously colored threads!), and it doesn't seem to be bleeding. I took a piece of advice from a forum that I was reading and took a q-tip and dipped it in hot water and rubbed it on the fabric. Even the dark blue seemed ok.

Ready to quilt!

The "Quest" begins

"To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping" - Chinese proverb

So I am new to quilting.  To be frank, I don't really have any idea what I am doing, but I am hoping to learn along the way. I would also like to mention that I am new to blogging and I will be doing my quilt ENTIRELY by hand because my apartment is WAY too small to have a sewing machine and my boyfriend would kill me if I brought home another piece of machinery....

A little background information from me. I am Canadian, originally from Corner Brook, Newfoundland but for the past 7 years I have been living in Japan. Handmade products are not as popular here, but the popularity is growing now due to the economic downturn and also the Japanese people's obsession with "eco". I anticipated my difficulty in finding the correct materials. But, I figured, what's a quilt but a bunch of material of different sizes sewn together with a back put on? Right? So I should be able to find material anywhere right? Well, it's turning out to be difficult already!

Most handicraft stores in Japan are for making crocheted animals, kid's bags or accessories. Quilting is rare, I believe due to space issues and also the fact that they use duvets mostly.

I was lucky however that I was able to find a wonderful blog floatingworldviews that told me about Tokyo's Fabric Town, a loooong street with around 50 different fabrics and textile shops. To my surprise and happiness, I was able to find TONS of fat quarters and charm packs. I found the cutest hello kitty fat quarter that I had to step away quietly from cause I thought I was going to die.

I decided to make 2 quilts. I am making one using English Paper Piecing style because of my lack of a sewing machine. I am also making a baby quilt for my friend's baby. They just found out that his wife is pregnant and she is only 2 months along so gender is still unknown.

I got inspiration for both quilts online. For the EPP quilt I am going to make my own pattern because it's a rare form and the style I want is not available to purchase in pattern form. Finding hexagon shaped graph paper is next to impossible, but I did find a website that you can use to make graph paper online and print it out. I then colored it with the pattern I wanted, which is a black background with a cherry tree on the left side and falling cherry blossoms scattered in the air and on the ground (bottom of the quilt). It is going to take TIME, and I mean ALOT OF TIME, but the process is relaxing and soothing.

The baby quilt is the mixtape quilt from Oh, Fransson!'s Elizabeth Hartman. I had to adjust the pattern to fit centimeter measurements. Good thing math was my best subject (along with art!). I also used her technique of Map of the States to ensure I was using a good combo of colors.





Well, here it goes!