A while back I mentioned that I won a giveaway from Kukoshop in Japan.

I got this awesome package in the mail before the new year. So many cool things inside!

Everything was in this adorable plastic bag with some interesting English translation from Japanese.

I was excited to receive this “Cotton Time” magazine, with tons of projects and templates for projects, but alas, it’s ALL in Japanese.

Adorable notecard set that I’ll put to good use.

Stickers from the 100 yen store

A cute illustrated postcard

Travel kleenexes — ohirune time  is “nap time” in Japanese apparently. There was a picture of a cat sleeping on the top pack of kleenexes. I just thought the word “ohirune” was cute.

Washi tape, with what looks to be a toilet on it

a button with a weird-looking dude on it

grape gum or candy — I am afraid to try this. Grape flavor makes me gag.

And the most exciting part? 8 fat quarters of Japanese fabric.

Thanks so much, Karen!

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I love giveways, especially ones that involve fabulous fabric.

Quokka Quilts is hosting a blogger’s choice giveaway for 12 print fat quarters and 3 solids (holy cow!) of your choice from Fat Quarter Shop.

Since I mostly make bags, I picked a bunch of patterns conducive to bag-making. I also mocked up a couple of bag patterns.

First, these are the fabrics I chose. I went through and picked my favorite fabrics without thinking about putting them together. I didn’t read the rules all the way through … they are PICKING the best ones. I doubt I will get picked, but putting random fabric patterns together and making them look pretty is kind of what I do, so …

And now? How about a couple of ideas for what I might do with them. Stack them (wonkily and not straight of course):

Wow that’s a lot of fabrics. Okay, now for the bags I could create using a bit of ALL of these fabrics.

Probably with an orange zipper on that one.

And a turquoise zipper on this one. Obviously the patterns would translate into bigger than what they’re shown here, but you get the picture.

Anyway, here is the part where I say … pick me! Please.

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A while back I talked a bit ’bout making new wallets. The first one was cute, but not what I wanted.

Well, I sketched and sketched and put together another few before I finally got these down. And I had two days this week between jobs (I’m unemployed for 2 whole days! whoopeee!) so I got to sewing.

Introducing my new and improved wallets!

PS the one in the middle is MINE. 

How are they improved from the old version of my wallets? Well, for starters, they are sewn better — all thanks to my NEW sewing machine that I got on Wednesday. This Janome DC1050 solved all my problems of skipped stitches and weird tension happening with my old machine. AND there is a stop/start button, so I can use that instead of the foot pedal. This feature comes in handy when sewing a lot of the same thing in a row. Hit start, feed everything through the machine, then hit stop.

Also, there is one additional feature that my old wallets didn’t have — a divider with card organizing slots. And the closure? It’s not a button anymore. It’s a magnetic purse snap. It’s like my wallets went and got all grownup on me!

[one of my old wallets for reference]

I’m thrilled to have all these wallets ready for Craft Saturday next weekend. I also made a bunch of revamped teeny-tiny wallets. They’re a bit bigger to accommodate cards (which was the ORIGINAL idea … but my math skills got in the way) and they’re more nicely put together. Again, thanks to Ms. Janome. All of my old inventory will be on MAJOR SALE next weekend to make way for the new stuff.

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27 is still close enough to 25 to be considered mid-twenties, right?

What will this year bring? Who knows.  I already have ONE big change in store, but I’m not sharing just yet (oh the suspense is killing all of my 5 readers).  Cat will be out of the bag by the end of the week most likely (those of you with the inside scoop, keep it to yourself please).

I actually started my b-day off on Friday with a Jim Gaffigan show at the State Theatre in Minneapolis.  I laughed so hard I was crying! Note — don’t go to a comedy show after doing a killer ab workout the day before.  Side note — there was mention of a fork made of bacon.

Of course, there was shopping involved this weekend.  Since it’s my b-day, I bought myself a couple of gifts.

Found this fabulous Jessica Simpson bag at Gordmans thanks to a tip from my friend Shelly.  She bought one in a neat beigey-pink color.  I had to go with red to replace my almost 2-year-old purple bag.  I bought the purple bag in January of 2010 and busted it out that year in June. I’ve been too lazy to change bags and haven’t found anything in an affordable price range that I love just as much. Also, I combed the internet to find this bag so you could purchase too … but no such luck.

I also found these amazing shoes.  They’re G by Guess and they’re boots.  And heels.  Obviously.  But I don’t wear heels typically.  These are really comfy with a hidden platform and they have major traction on the bottom so they aren’t completely useless in the snow.  Oh, and they are COMFY.  And super hot. When paired with these jeans I look kind of tall (and by tall I mean average height) and super skinny.  LOVE these.

And I got a LOT of new fabric.  A lot of which for my new wallets. The top row will make great insides for my wallets.  And I’m beyond in love with the bottom right — “dropcloth” in plum.  I might have to make myself a wallet out of that with the dots on the inside.

To celebrate today, Mark and I went to The Café for lunch. YUM.  We haven’t been out to eat anywhere “fancy” for a while — just La Fuente and that’s mostly for free chips and salsa + booze.  I picked up lunch because I think it’s kind of rude to invite somebody out for lunch, and then expect him to pay for it.  He offered to pick up dessert.  Mostly because he knew if I picked it up we’d only get ONE dessert and he wanted something other than my first choice of dessert (they are all amazing there!) … so we got two.

[Mark's pick — the fig & goat cheese cheesecake — my 2nd choice]

[and my pick — chocolate cayenne torte — since I've been obsessing over spicy chocolate as of lately]

I also picked up a new album, which really isn’t out until tomorrow, but I snagged it on emusic early.  New Wednesday 13  [he's in Des Moines on the 23rd ... ].

All in all it’s been a pretty awesome day.  :) Here’s to another year!

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I thought I would share with you the tutorial I used for my clutch wallets. I made a few modifications (obviously), but this is the tutorial I used to make my first wallet (pictured below). It’s from Purl Soho.

Get creative and make as many modifications as you want. I started by changing the angle of the fabric to create more visual interest.  Have fun!

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It’s been a VERY long time since I’ve done a giveaway.  (In case you’re curious, I did one at the beginning of June of 2009, another in the middle of June 2009, one at the beginning of July 2009, one in the middle of July 2009, one in July 2010, one in August of 2010 and one in September 2010).

//EDIT// I posted this giveaway and realized that today is also Giveaway Day on Sew Mama Sew. I’m featured on the handcrafted items page.

Last time I did one, I had a trivia question. But I’m going to make this one really easy.

First — the prize?

A teeny tiny wallet of your choice — one of these two:

What do you have to do to win, you ask?  Simple.  Just comment on this post with which one of these you prefer if you win. Make sure your e-mail address is correct when you fill out the comment box or I will have no way of contacting you if you win.  Want another entry?  Tweet or facebook about the contest, and leave a comment on this post with a link to the tweet or post.  Want yet ANOTHER entry?  Follow me on Networked Blogs (check out the sidebar over here on the right).

Contest ends on Memorial Day (Monday, May 30). I will randomly choose a winner by using random.org’s generator. Good luck!

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There just aren’t enough fabrics with birdies on them, so I decided to try my hand at Spoonflower and see if I could turn my little birdies into some cute fabric.

Check it out. Birdies!

I did a few versions of my birdies. Kind of excited to see them in person.

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Yay!  I finally finished it.

A while back my grandpa had given me a bunch of quilt blocks that my granny (my great grandma) had made some time ago before she died in 2002.  She was kind of the queen of WIP, so I’m still collecting some random crafty things she’d started and going through to see what I can do to finish them or turn them into something else.

Mom and I went antiquing in March and found another set of blocks that went well with the ones my Granny had made since there weren’t enough to make an entire quilt. Even with these, it’s a pretty small lap quilt, but it’s really pretty anyway.  I ended up tea staining all the blocks since some were more aged-looking than others — they’re all about the same now.

As you can tell by the crappy quilting, I did it myself on my machine. I have a ton of quilt tops waiting to be turned into quilt sandwiches, but I need to send those off to somebody professional to do them. I probably should have done the same with this one, but I was impatient and wanted it to be finished — not to mention, I wanted to be the one to do it since my Granny had hand-pieced the blocks.

I have a couple more blocks she’s done, but I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with them still. This is a really neat quilt, and I’m really glad I have it.

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Yay … I broke down and ordered more fabric. I probably shouldn’t have because my stash is kind of ridiculous, but I needed some new stuff. I had a custom request come through Market Day last week for a black and white wallet. I didn’t have any wallet-worthy black and white fabric. I like using oversized prints for my wallets, and all I’ve got in black and white is quilting fabric (for my black and white quilt that I have yet to post anything about).

So, I visited etsy, fatquartershop.com and fabric.com. Nothing really to be found on the latter two. Lots to be found on etsy. But, I realized they were all from the same seller, and that it was a familiar seller, so I just went to her website instead — Fabricworm.

Here’s what I picked up for the wallet … plus a few other things that I’ve been eyeing for a while.

Not sure what I’m going to make out of some of the stuff, but I had to have it for my stash. I also picked up a random fabric scrap bundle which gave me a couple other goodies. I wish I would have picked up more of the top black and white fabric. It is gorgeous. It’s going to make fabulous wallets.

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… a growing pile of new camera cases I’ve been crafting. Look at all those fun fabrics. Lots of my favorites in there … and a lot of them are the last bits of some of my favorites. I’m looking forward to making things from the leftover scraps.

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