Lazy Susan

It has either sat naked or with a rectangular table mat that hardly did it any justices.  But my shopping trips for a round mat for the last couple of years has not been fruitful.  It has been on my to-do-list to make a quilted one but I just couldn't decide on the color or fabric or design.

When I chanced upon these pretty fabrics and colors in Japan last year, I knew that was it.  Last week, after needing a change of pace, I decided its time to start on the 'Lazy Susan Mat'.  I am so glad I measured again cos the last time I did, I merely estimated the dimensions and I was waaaayyyyy ooofffff by about 6" or so.  Praise God I didn't cut into the fabrics yet..... :)

Mentally I had thought this would be an easy peasy project.....measure, cut, sew but nooooooo.....nothing I ever thought was going to be easy ever turn out that way.....why is that????.....:):):)

Anyways, after much figuring out, redesigning and compensating here and there, tada.....its done......yeah......and I am proud to say it covers the lazy susan almost to the tee.

But I had leftover fabrics and while I am still at it why not make matching hot pads too.........see, this is one of the ways I always turn my mini suppose to be easy weekend project into a whole big drama project for a week or more.....:):):)...

So, I decided on small hot pads as I was most comfortable with those but as I was making those, I thought it would be nice to make bigger ones too for hot pots and so.....here I go again, don't know when to end this project......but finally, after 4 small pads and 2 medium ones, I just decided I am tired of making hot pads for now.

OUT with the OLD.......

IN with the NEW

.......WITH matching hot pads to go with it....

Ginger Syrup

As I was casually browsing and admiring the displays, I happened upon two sweet Japanese sales ladies offering me a sample of a concoction which I was unfamiliar with.  They showed me the bottle and after reading it was ginger syrup (I love anything ginger), I happily took the cup and enjoyed it so very much.  Because all instructions were in japanese, they were sweet enough to demonstrate how to mix it with different drinks and wrote down the recipes for me.  I found out I could add it to tea, milk, juice, chocolate just in different measurements.

Basically it is pure thick ginger syrup.  It is similar to the way I would boil my syrup to go with my tofu pudding except I do not boil them until they are this thick.  I just boil them till I feel it is spicy enough and I could taste the ginger.

As it was kinda heavy, I only bought two bottles.  I have been enjoying this with milk and tea.  Especially in this cold weather, it does my body and mind good.  Very relaxing and delicious.

What you See is What you Get

In my last post, I had wrote 'that was one of the best Chinese meal I had in Japan'.....well, today's post is about the best and first Chinese meal I had in Japan.  It was at the Kyoto train station.  We were staying in Osaka and just arrived to Kyoto to spend the rest of the day here. We were starving by then and I didn't feel for anymore japanese food.  By now, we had been in Japan for about 5-6 days.

The train station is more like a shopping mall.  Lots of shops, departmental stores and restaurants.  They had endless rows of restaurants on all floors (I remember climbing at least 3-4 floors) but I had absolutely no appetite for any of them until I saw this window display.  It was chinese food and they had 'dim sum' too (we normally eat dim sum on weekends and that day was Sunday).  I studied the display carefully and they all looked delicious.  I could have ordered one of each....that was how hungry I was.....'see' food diet.... :):):).....so we decided its ok to eat chinese in japan (don't know why we were guilty... :).... the place was busy and we were glad to get a table.

When the food came, I was so please with our choice of restaurant and dishes.  They looked just like the display by the window or better.  How cool is that?  And the aroma.....that was better than expensive perfume...:)....I remember saying to myself my Lord loves me and He knew my hearts desire.:)  ...I felt loved...

After photos were taken and grace was said, I dug into my noodles and it was simply delicious....cooked by a real chinese chef using a real wok with high heat.  I was so amazed. Every dish was awesome.  I looked over to the partly open kitchen to get a glimpse of the chef.  He was wearing a white tall hat and uniform but I was not sure whether he was chinese or japanese.  He was of sumo size and knew his way about in the kitchen.  I concluded that he must have been trained in a real chinese kitchen in Hong Kong or China.  My parents would say he has 'kung-fu' (skill) to cook chinese food.  Its either you have it or not, its a gift, a skill blessed upon that person.  I think so too.

The window display of the dishes in the menu....these were not real food....

.............DH ordered this set lunch(window display).........

.....and got this .....looks better than the display I think.......it was yummy yum yum

.....I got the noodles with seafood and veg(window display)......

.....this is my dish and I dug into it before stopping to take this picture....simply yummmmmmy...

Shrimp in tomato spicy sauce(window display)

......again tastes and looks yummmy...

dim sum (window display)

.....bigger size than the display and thumbs up for taste and texture.  The 'ha gao' skin (white skin on the left) was perfectly made and you got to have the skill to make this skin/dough. I have tasted many 'ha gaos' and many have failed at the skin.  They were breaking, coming apart when you try to pick it with your chopstick and taste mushy or doughy.  This one was perfect.  Just perfect.

Chinese dinner in Japan

After several days of Japanese food, I was ready for some chinese food.  I had lost a few pounds with all the walking and not eating properly and was beginning to feel a bit weak.  I think this dinner was in Tokyo at the Shinjuku area in the Takashimaya building.  I had forgotten the name of the restaurant but I remember it was at a corner of the food floor.  Yes, they had dedicated three floors to restaurants in this building and they are way up on top of the building too......I think like the 11th, 12th, & 13th floor.

The fabric and other shops were on the lower floors so it was perfect.  After a hard day of shopping you can drop in on the restaurant above to dine and recoup abit before going down to shop some more....:):):)

This was one of the best meals I have had in Japan and it was chinese food....lol

Stir-fry shrimp & veg w/eggrolls, soup and pudding

Sui Mau - steamed shrimp & pork dumpling

Pan fried pot sticks

Bargello

I just love Bargello quilt.  I have seen variations of this patterns and had itchy fingers to make this one plus others for a while now.   This pattern was from a quick sketch I have seen from a photo on the net a while back.  I finally got to put in down on fabric.  I made it kinda small about a child size quilt.  The fabrics were from my stash and I purposely choose bright contrasting colors.

.....does not look so bright here I am afraid.....might have to take a better picture.... :)......but I enjoy the bargello process and the 'V'.  Don't know why.....maybe its like a puzzle and I am putting all the pieces together to make a 'V' and I sure enjoy puzzles........:)

At the Park

Last week, we had really terrible weather with rain and thunderstorm for almost half the week.  I love being outdoors jogging, walking or biking so I missed out on my exercise for those days.  Over the weekend, on Saturday, it didn't get any better but on Sunday, God answered my prayers and we were able to go to the park.  Even though the sky looked gloomy and the weather forecast projected rain and thunderstorm, we got up early and headed out to the park before the rain could have a chance to spoil our plans.

We were in for a surprise cos tons of people were already there before us.  It was cold with temp in the 50s and gloomy skies.  We had thought most people would still be in bed with this kind of weather and this hour. Wrong ......we were the late birds it seems.  This time I brought my camera and got some shots of the park.

I have heard on the news report that we had lost thousands of trees at this park dued to the severe drought over the summer but didn't realized the sad extent until I saw it with my own eyes. 

Look at those early birds......we were glad to find a parking..... :)

....this park also have tennis court......

.........you can jog to the steak house....... :)

.....it has a a golf course

....a little cozy rest area.......

....sadly, alot of trees have been cut down.......

......this view tells me I am almost home.....just 1 1/2 miles more to reach our car......yeah.....

......cute photo of two men trying to figure out their watches or timer or something.....

...I love how this tree is bend over trying to tell a story or provide a shade......I hope they won't have to take this tree down too

Pants Pants

Everytime a piece of fabric catches my eye and I just have to have it but not sure what I was going to do with it, I would often buy at least 3-5 yards or the whole bolt.......just in case......I know it takes about 2 1/4yd for me to make a pair of pant or skirt and about 5yds to make a dress.  So I figure, if I make a pant or skirt, then I would still have enough left to make something else.....like a quilt or a bag or something  ..........

Last year, being ambitious, I had washed and cut 8 pieces of some of my favourite fabrics to make capri pants.  I was thinking assembly line production......wash, iron, cut, sew......well, it didn't turn out as planned.  Life got in the way......travel, out of town assignments, emotions(my mojo was on vacation too I think.... :):).....

This year so far seems like a 'catch up' year.  I have caught up with some quilt tops. To change pace, I dug further into my 2011 UFOs and found these five cut but unsewn pants.  I had to crack my brain cells to figure out where I had left off and where the patterns and instructions were.  I found similar instructions but the patterns, I had redrafted them to fit me better and I am afraid, I didn't keep a good record of my thoughts then.

Normally, the commercial patterns here add in 5/8" seam allowance but for quilting, we sew at 1/4" seam allowance.  Since I was not sure what I had done to my patterns, I decided to sew at 1/4" SA just in case.  The first and second one came out pretty lose but I like it cos its comfortable. For the rest, I decided to play with the pattern a bit here and there, and they fit better.  I really enjoy these fabrics and pants as they are not too formal or casual.  I can wear them at home and go to the store or even evening chruch or meetups.  I had trouble finding the perfect pants in the store.....its either I like the fabric but not the style or lenght, or I like the style but not the fabric .......so I praise God for blessing me with the desire and knowledge to sew some sometimes.....:)

Jelly Roll

These jelly rolls were also bought at that sale I had stumbled upon last year.  I think I must have bought at least 10 or more rolls and not knowing what I was going to do with them, I bought at least two of each print just in case...... :)
I love these colorful ones.  They are part of my 2011 UFOs.  Obviously they are for kids and will go into my donation pile onces they are completed. 

Last year, when I unrolled the jellys, I had no clue how I was going to put them together.  There was no pattern that came with it.  After counting the number of stripes that came with each print and color, I did some calculations as to the completed size quilt I was aiming for.  I remember I did start drafting a pattern last year but had lost the pattern and forgotten how I had wanted them to turn out.  When I started on them again couple weeks ago, I just decided they needed to be finish so I just started sewing the stripes together and design as I go.

Since kids quilts are much small, I managed to make three quilt tops out of two jelly rolls with leftover for binding at least one of the quilt. I think that is pretty good. I still need to shop for backing fabrics for them. I am thinking bright colors or prints. These quilt tops measure 42"x42".

Paper piecing Crane

Having folded alot of paper origami crane, I have been wanting to try folding it on fabric.  It didn't turn out so well cos fabric is soft.  I tried stabilitizing it with fusible and it worked better but I still didn't quite like the final result.  Then I saw a paper pieced crane quilt block somewhere online sometime ago.  I tried locating the source for the designer so I could buy the pattern to no result.

Finally, I gave in and started creating my own pattern.  I could have done that earlier before wasting so many hours trying to locate the source online but I was just lazy.... :)

It took quite a few hours, trial and error here and there and finally I think, I got it.  Now, I have to figure out what I want to do with it.  Maybe a coaster, an ornament or I could enlarge the pattern and make more blocks into a full quilt.

Ironically, the fabics I used were bought from local quilt shops here but the prints resemble the 'sakura flower'.  I had wanted to dig into my stash bought from Japan but didn't get a chance to so ......yet.

Batik Fabric

Everytime I get to go home for a visit, I would try to buy certain fabrics not available here in US.  Although I can get batik fabric here, they are not the same ones.  Over here, batiks are 'tied & dyed', 'crushed and dipped', 'splashed and dried under sun',......not the hand painted with wax and dye or printed kinds I get back home.

Also, over here, batiks are sold by the yard whereas the ones back home are sold by the panel of about 2 yards each.

I had bought quite a few pieces back with me on my last trip and had made alot of casual pants, skirts, bags and binders.  I really enjoy wearing them in the summer and at home.  The fabric is soft and comforting.

Batik Binder
After making a skirt with this fabric, I had enough letfover to make this binder

Inside the binder

.....with markers and tablet

Skirt and Binder

This is a different piece of batik fabric. I made a skirt and bag out of it.