Multiple Blessings

It has been a while since I updated my blog.  I just seemed to have lost my momemtum after my accident. Trying to put the pieces back together like I was before took longer than I thought it would. By His Grace, I am recovering very well but ....wish it was faster.... :)  I seemed to have fallen off the wagon into somedays of deep depression and sadness and just couldn't make myself get back to crafting and normal activities.  But He is good and never forsake me and seem to just lift me up and put me on His shoulder and carry me off.  Somedays, I just rest in His heart pocket and let Him take me where He wants to.  I gave up trying to stay positive.  It was too much effort on my part which I just didn't have the energy for anymore.

Praise Him I am gaining back almost 100% feelings in my left fingers. I am so happy I am able to play the piano without much pain and effort now.  And my right knee is recovering well too.  I have stopped the gauge and antibiotic treatments which is a blessing.  Now I am massaging with the anointing oil and herbal oil.

By His grace my 'Fragments of my Childhood Memories' quilt won 1st place at the CPQG show ....

and my 'Tuscany' quilt was selected as a finalist at the IQFestival in Houston....

My Tuscany quilt has come full circle.  It was at the IQFestival that I learned about Art Quilts and was so inspired to learn to make one and now my quilt made it into the show.  When I first learned to quilt in 2009, I was given the impression that it would take like 10-20 years to be a good quilter and not to even think about entering into this IQFestival cos its the biggest show on earth and only the best quilters all over the world get selected to show their work.  So when I entered mine, it was purely for the experience and to support them (with the entry fee).  Never in my dreams did I expect to be accepted into the show.  Praise God.  Deep down I know it was His Blessing upon me.

The Festival was last week and I had a fantastic time shopping and viewing all the quilts.  I will share pictures of my shopping in the next post.

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.....:)