How to Photo Video - Easy Quilt Pattern

I was asked by a fellow quilter for this pattern and since I am a visual person , I created this photo video to share the simple pattern I use to make charity quilts with just three fabrics.

This method saves me time as I can cut my fabrics in all the same size and store them away for when I have time to sew.  I find that reading and trying to decipher long pattern instructions is too tedious for me.   Problem is when I finally am able to understand and comprehend the instructions and get the neccessary fabrics selected, washed, iron and cut, I am bored and too exhausted by then and it will probably be a UFO.

So I came up with this idea to go thru my fabrics, wash, iron, cut them into 8 1/2", put them in drawers easily accessible for when I have a little time to do some sewing.  Also, the patterns is a no brainer therefore making the whole process really fun.

Chinese Food in Japan 2

Because we enjoyed this restaurant so much, we went back again for dinner..... :)  This time, we ordered an extra serving of Japanese food.  I think it was call Soba noodles.  I didn't really like it the last time I tried it but I thought maybe since I like their chinese food, I might like their Japanese food too.

Again,  the chinese food was just lovely......lovely presentation and delicious food.  As for the soba noodles, I am still 'just ok' with it.



We both ordered the same dish.  Look how lovely the presentation is.

Stir fry shrimp w/veg, pork dumplings, sweet sour chicken w/veg, soup, rice, pickle veg, dessert.

Soba noodles w/shrimp and veg tempura.  Lovely presentation too.

At one of the sushi restaurant, we were served with this mug.  We decided to buy it as a sourvenir.

Green Tea Cakes and Cookies

I think this might be my last post of green tea goodies from Japan.  Both of these were also from the duty free shop at Narita Airport.

The green tea cake was very light with strong hint of green tea flavour.  Almost like chiffon cake, light and fluffy.  Not too sweet and lovely with a cup of green tea.

Green tea cake.  I also enjoy their beautiful packaging.  There were layers upon layers of wrapper inside till you reach the lovely surprise....the cake.

Below is yummy green tea cookie with green tea filling.  Crisp and light, barely sweeten with strong hint of green tea.  Individually wrapped for guaranteed freshness.  I enjoy its bite size and crispness.  Just lovely with cup of hot green tea.

Green tea cookie.

Green Tea Candy

I have a love hate relationship with English toffee.  I love the creamy rich soft texture but not them sticking to my teeth.  Having never  had green tea toffee before, I knew I had to try it when I saw these at the japanese snack shop at the airport.

If you are a green tea lover, you will love this green tea toffee.  You can literally taste the green tea and its soft, chewy, not too sweet and best of all, it does not stick to my teeth that bad.

Green tea toffee

 The candy below has a medium soft chewy texture with filling in middle.  It is very different to the green tea toffee.  I have to say, I much prefer the toffee better but I am glad we tried it.

GreenTea Chocolates

We had about a couple of hours before boarding our departure flight from Japan to US, so we took a walk and noticed they had many.....yes, many many 'duty free shops' enticing passengers to walk in and spend their last 'yen' before leaving.

The duty free shops were broken down to japanese foods/snacks, western alcohol/candy, cosmetics/fragrances and ladies/mens accessories ..............well, these were the ones I walked into or had time for before boarding.... :)

I really appreciate the japanese foods/snacks shops as we didn't have that much time to buy them during the trip.  I never had green tea chocolates before so I was excited to try these and they were just lovely.

......these green tea chocolates melt in your mouth....very smooth and lovely

........just gorgeous eye candy......yummylicious too..... :)

Takoyaki (Squid Balls)

While walking the mall in Narita, we came upon this Takoyaki stand at the food court.  I love to watch chefs cook or make the foods/pastries and this stand was very interesting.

chef adding cut pieces of squid

another chef helping to add more ingredients

topping off with more batter



tada........from the messy mess on the right to perfect squid balls on the left

turning the balls with skewers for even cooking

delicious.....:)

Japanese Snacks 2

These snacks we had when we were still in Japan at the hotel.  It was our first day in Narita and after a full day of walking and sightseeing, we decided to take the bus to a local mall nearby.  It was evening by then but dued to our tiredness I think, we were not really hungry but knowing we would be when we get back to the hotel, we decided to pick a few things to enjoy in our room.

It was eye candy for us and we ended up buying more than enough.

I think this was sweet sour chicken with meatballs and rice

green tea and yam gelato.....yummmy

a variety of snacks....the tangerines were very sweet and lovely

curry doughnut or pastry.....very tasty and good

Japanese Snacks 1

Since I can't do much sewing or quilting, I decided to catch up my on blog and dive into my pictures to see what I can blog about.  I have been hunting in my pantry the last couple of days for snacks and look what I found, snacks from our last years trip to Japan.  Praise the Lord, the expiry date is till end of this year.

My all time favourite, these rice crackers are gone.  Wished I had bought more......:)  They are small petite easy bite size you can just pop into your mouth and are delicious with very different unique flavours.  I had bought these from Kinokuniya at Ueno Station I think.  It was intended for our bedtime or train snacks but somehow I forgot to take them out and got carried away with other foods around us.

my favourite rice crackers

A variety of other delicious rice snacks

Hello Kitty

I grew up collecting and loving anything 'Hello Kitty'......and I still love them but have kinda stop collecting until a couple weeks ago as a reward to myself for making it into the biggest quilt show on earth......yes, IQA (Tuscany on page 17), I saw this Hello Kitty handy organizer in the children's stationary section and it caught my eyes and I just couldn't walk past it so I gave in and stop to view it and touch it and open it and yes, it went into my shopping basket.

It reminded me of my other organizer at home I had used for carrying my sewing/quilting supplies especially when I am on the move.



ohhhhh...look how cute they are together....Hello Kitty is a mini me version



same four pockets except......




Hello Kitty has cute stationary in them.....:)

Stain glass quilt

I have been wanting to try my hands at making a stain glass quilt for a while now and have been playing with fabrics and colors in my head as to what ingredients or rather materials to use to make this quilt.  Also been keeping my eyes open to what subject I would like to make.

At first I was thinking a real stain glass from the church wall but too big and complicated, then insects from butterfly to dragonfly, then to birds then to lady in kimono, then to landscape then finally I settled on flowers.  I kinda borrowed this idea from a book I had bought from japan.

As for the fabric, I was excited to use the fabrics I had dyed myself here.  Actually, I couldn't wait to dive into them .... :)  I really amazed myself cos I never really like any of the batik fabrics in the store and had always wondered why people are buying them.....and now....look at me.....not only am I buying but dyeing them myself.  I  have to say that I still do not like the texture of the store bought ones cos they are too stiff or rough.  With that in mind, I made sure I used 200 thread counts when I dyed mine and they are just lovely......soft and smooth.  I can even make clothes for myself with these dyed fabrics.  That will be another future project.....:)

So far, this is what I have.  I have come to a stopping point and will finish off when my fingers are fully recovered.  It is hard to make tiny bias stripes with one hand.




with background flash



without flash