We've Moved

We left behind beautiful Hawaii and are not situated just outside of Tokyo, Japan.  What a whirlwind of a move it was.  It took nearly 2 months to get settled here, a majority of that time waiting for our stuff to arrive.  Who would think that our stuff would make it's way all the way to California before coming here to Japan?  Right, it made no sense to me either.  My fingers ached to create.  The few little things I could do here and there just was not enough.  Now that our stuff is all here and pretty much organized, I have been able to create little things to make this "new" home our own.  Curtains, banners, quilt blocks to pillow covers. I am finally in my happy place.

A few little things to adjust to, like no big open floor space to lay projects out comfortably. This morning I had to find any place I could to lay the fabric for curtains.  Interesting indeed but fear not, they are done and up on the windows.  Now when people tell me that I need blackout curtains before summer arrives, I can tell them I've checked that off the list and personalized it.  There are so many more options when you can pick out a quilting cotton, add a black out drapery material to the back and sew it all together.

Within the next few weeks I'll start getting my feet wet in my creative little wonderland. I hope to share more than 2015 so please follow along if you desire.

We've enjoyed exploring some of the stores out in town, especially the 100Yen shop.  Washi tapes, beautiful papers, funky pens and stationary sets around every corner.  I found this little glass dome and I thought what a cute idea to display some pretty washi tapes.  A new obsession are these tin boxes.  They are so cute to store sewing notions or trinkets in.  My kids love the treats inside, I get the tin box when they are done.  I have a feeling there will be many more before we leave.










We are so lucky to have an Ikea nearby.  Perhaps we are unlucky, must practice self control.  The rooms are super small in the home so we decided that at least one of the kids should have a loft bed so create a more spacious feel.  Stark white, metal loft bed needed some decorating so it didn't feel so oddly cold.  A pop of color with a fabric banner, some bohemian string lighting and little girly nicknacks did the trick.  Someone loves her bedroom.  Now, we might just have to get the other 2 loft beds as well.  

 Here's the other wall view, found a cute and inexpensive shelving unit that we placed at the head of her bed. Now she has her alarm clock within reach and a few other trinkets that make her smile.  The hot pink pin board was a find from Hobby Lobby years ago. It's now in it's 3rd home and the perfect framed in location.

My project this morning was to finish the curtains for my oldest daughters bedroom. In Hawaii I had such a large floor plan that there was always a spot to put large projects down to pin them and prepare them for the next step, here, the space is very tight and limited.  I will have to adjust my ways and take what i can get.  That meant moving some chairs in the dining/living room this morning to pin the cotton material to the blackout drapery material.  It was quite the project, especially when it came time to press it and make crisp seams.

3 Ring Binder Zippered Pouch Tutorial

Wow! Long time no see!  I'm going to make a better effort at posting once and a while.  I've been very active on Instagram as of late and I find the instant feedback very encouraging as well as enlightening.  I have a better feel about what people are interested in.

So without further ado. For Valentine's Day, I wanted to do something more personal and useful for my children.  They always love things I sew so I thought, a binder pencil pouch filled with a few goodies would be a fun treat for them.  When I posted the pouches on Facebook and Instagram, instant feedback! Someone asked me if there was a pattern or a tutorial and I decided I'd try to make a tutorial for these fun things.  I was so excited thinking I had a clever idea so I search Etsy and alas, a bunch of handmade binder listings. Go figure! Haha.  So, this is not an original idea by any means but I did figure this out on my own and I'm sure there is either some tweaking to be done or maybe even a simpler way to make them but this works for me and I hope it works for you too.

List of Supplies of course included thread and a sewing machine but you will also need:

• 9" zipper
• 3 grommet sets 
• hammer and setting tool for your grommets
• exterior fabric, interior fabric and 1 fusible interfacing cut to size 12" x 19" each
• a couple of scraps about 2" x 5"
• Optional 3 ring binder to check your grommet placings

First step is to fuse the interfacing to the exterior piece of fabric:

Take your scrap fabrics and attach them to either end of your zipper to make it long enough to go across the 12" side of the rectangles. Cut to size to make sure it's at least 12" long.

Change your sewing foot to a zipper foot, we will sew the zipper to the fabric now.

Line the zipper up face down to one side of the exterior fabric and sew.

Next step is to line up the interior fabric. I like to sew from the exterior side to see the first sewing line so I do not sew over the zipper by accident.

At this point, I like the press the fabric back to have a nice crisp line near the zipper.

Fold up the exterior fabric so the bottom aligns to the top of the zipper, you'll sew across but make sure the interior fabric is not anywhere near where you are sewing.

in this picture I folded the exterior fabric up to meet the zipper, but then I flip it so the zipper is facing up when I sew just to ensure that I do not sew over the zipper and ruin my needle.

Now it's time to sew the interior, again, flip this up so the interior fabrics are right sides together and the zipper is pretty much sandwiched between all the fabrics. (I really don't know how to explain this but hopefully the pictures will do the explaining)

Once you sew the interior fabric to the zipper, it's time to open the zipper and pull the fabrics through so you can press everything flat.  As you notice, the sides still need to be sewn shut.  I like to press the zipper down from the top about 1"  I press so there is nice crisp crease that I'll be able to see once I turn the fabrics inside out.

turn the fabric so the interior fabric is facing out.

press again, notice the crease I made earlier is still there!

 Trim up the sides so you don't have all these loose scraggled threads.

Once you have trimmed the sides it's time to sew them closed. Make sure you are catching all the fabrics (and make sure to leave the zipper open or you wont be able to turn this correctly!)

I used a 1/4" seam on either side.

 Both sides are now sewn, the zipper is open and I'm going to turn this right side out.

 Press flat, we will do some top stitching now to reinforce the seams. The top stitching will also give you the opportunity to hide your raw edges on the inside.

You will top stitch around the entire pouch and on the one side where the grommets will be placed, I do multiple lines of stitches to add a little form to the pouch. I do about 1 inch of matchstick sewn lines.

about 1 inch of matchstick lines on the side where the grommets will be place.

Time to add the grommets. I have the tools for my grommets but I don't have the fabric hole puncher so I use my super sharp scissors.  Line up the grommets so they'll fit perfectly on the 3 ring binder loops.  I double check my placement with a binder that I have on hand.  But for tutorial purposes I measured the placement (but I highly recommend double checking! You don't want to get this far and then have the grommets not be place properly)

Grommets were placed at 1" then  5 1/4" and finally 9 1/2"  I pressed the grommet into the fabric to form an indent, outlined with my Frixion pen and snipped away at the circle.

 Place on side of the grommet into the hole.

 Flip and fit the other piece, and hammer flat.

a really nifty tool!

 The grommet is now set, repeat for the other 2.

 And that's it! Sit back and admire your lovely work.

I hope this tutorial was helpful! Please let me know if I need to tweak anything.  If you use my tutorial I would love a link back! You can find me on instagram @quatapochjewel or facebook at: www.facebook.com/quatapoch  Tag me! and tag #quatapochtutorials

Super Small piecing fun

As promised! I've been working on some more patterns.  I love the "bean pot" block from the "Civil War Legacies Quilt Patterns for Reproduction Fabrics" book by Carol Hopkins.  But i wanted to add a little twist to an already small block. So I changed out the center solid square with a paper pieced star that I came up with.  I'll add the free pattern for the star here.

I only made 3 mistakes, not carefully placing my fabric on the correct side of the line and then using the wrong color 2 times.  Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how everything matched up.  It's funny how such a little block (finished size was about 2" square) can take a while to put together.  Though, I do enjoy the almost certainty that my points will meet perfection with paper piecing.

Enjoy! If you make one, please feel free to share, of if you have recommendations on tweaking, let me know too. I'm new to this pattern making stuff.

adventures in sewing

It's been a while yet again.  I have actually been wonderfully busy with my family, my orders and life.  I just wanted to write while I was inspired to share.

I recently joined my very first swap hosted by Schnitzel & Boo I've done most of my posting on Instagram, made many new friends ( #makeaquiltmakeafriend ) and I've been inspired so much that I think about sewing 24/7.  I see patterns everywhere now, whether it is taking the kiddos to the glorious beaches, walking around the neighborhood or enjoying the afternoon in the back yard.  I wonder to myself how I can recreate such beauty through fabric manipulation. Combine that desire with all the lovely paper pieced blocks I have been seeing pop up in my Instagram newsfeed, I decided to conquer an intimidation block I've had.

I have always skipped over paper pieced instructions in books and magazines I browse through.  But how do we expect to grow if we do not overcome our fears?  I decided it was time to try paper piecing for myself.  I found a very quick youtube video that gave me the basic understanding of what to do for paper piecing here thanks be to "theCraftyGemini" for giving me the initial confidence that this too I can do!!!   I made 2 peak-a-book blocks based on her tutorial.

 I tried a sweet hummingbird pattern I saw in my quilting magazine but I messed up dreadfully and almost discouraged myself from continuing.  I decided I need something slightly more difficult but not too complicated and that's when I happened across the "Basketweave" star pattern from Add-Crafter.  I loved it! I posted on my IG schnitzel and boo swap hashtags and I got some wonderful feedback and the confidence builder that I needed to keep giving this a try.

Yet again, excited and wanting more I searched for my favorite pattern that I have wanted for so long yet never had the confidence that I too could do this.  I wanted the flying geese pattern but I wanted to do something slightly different.  First attempt, I do not remember where I got the tutorial for this one  but I thought I'd like to try it to eventually make a colorwheel sort of mini quilt for my Mom's art studio.  

But I wanted to go one step more. I wanted a different looking flying geese pattern and that's when I found the amazingly talented Pat from ForestQuilting.  She has the most lovely flying geese pattern in her free section, it's called "Chasing geese."  Really not tricky but when you print out the pattern it seems a little complicated at first but clear your mind, go with the flow and it WILL turn out beautifully! 

I made such a small version of Pat's pattern that I had to decide what to do with it. Well, a zippy of course! What else does one do with something too whimsical to stash away??  You can find the zippy for sale here.

And so, this little adventure brings me to the here and now.  I've just recently go into this fun method of quilting.  But I want to do something truly my own so I'm experimenting now with making paper piecing patterns.  My first 2 patterns are created by me but totally inspired but stuff I saw on Pinterest.  I came up with a pattern for a fox and a pattern for a raccoon.  I absolutely LOVE them.  I also started creating patterns for the alphabet which I will offer for free once I finish, so please check back and be sure to share! So until I am ready to share some pattern goodness with you, have a wonderfully creative day.