Bella Dia

Another Trip, Another Bag

Well, we're going on vacation - what I call a real vacation, a holiday. Resort hotel, drinks by the pool, room service, and sandals! It's been at least six years since I've been on any sort of holiday that wasn't visiting family so this is quite a treat that the kids and I have been looking forward to. So, the last bag I made for a road trip was The Big Bag but this time I wanted something to carry with me, more of a tote, so this is what I came up with. I am absolutely in love with this fabric with all its shades of yellow and orange and big bold flowers. I also just happened to have the perfect limey green for the lining already in my stash.

Of course it has to have pockets - two small ones on one side....

and a large one on the other.

I had two of these glitter lucite buttons that I've been wanting to use and I think they look pretty good with the fabric. I like boxing up the bottom this way because it creates another spot to add a fun detail.

I think I also have the blog lethargy that's been going around; even though I'm really busy with projects, a new job, house spring cleaning and stuff like that, when I sit down at the computer my brain goes into sleep mode. I'm hoping after I get back from our trip that I'll feel more motivated for blogging. I really appreciate all the comments and apologize for not getting back to everyone - I love keeping up that correspondence but I've been so squeezed for time lately that I haven't been able to, but I do read all the comments and they are very special to me. Being a part of this community has been such an awakening for me and taken me down paths I never even thought to explore - thank you to each and every one of you who read my blog and are so supportive of my work, I am blessed, truly blessed.

Japanese Craft Book Library

I have finally put together my library of Japanese craft books. I made a set of them on Flickr and you can see them here. I included one page excerpt from each book and I also tried to pick a page that someone else with the same book hadn't already featured. You'll find the ISBNs in the description.

**Update** I've had several people ask where I get my Japanese craft books. Some were gifts from my sister and the others I ordered from YesAsia and Amazon Japan. Amazon Japan usually quotes about 4-6 weeks for delivery but I have always received them in about 2 weeks or less and I have found them to be faster than YesAsia, so they are my preference. Some tips for ordering from Amazon Japan: be familiar with the Amazon (U.S.) interface, view the page in English on Amazon Japan and also in a language translator like Alta Vista's Babelfish, and use a currency converter. Items in your cart are calculated in yen but the charge to your credit card is in American dollars. Hope this helps!

Sewing Cabinet

This old green hoosier is just one of the places that I store my crafting goodies, well, to me they're goodies, other people know it as junk. Starting at the top and left to right: pussywillow cannisters hold stuff like elastic and cording and the yellow flower cookie jar is filled with zippers. The card basket is overflowing with bias tape and rickrack, the green flower pot has some finished objects like fabric flowers, the enamel dishes hold ribbons on spools, and the wire paper tray has old calendar dishcloths on top and a few hankies on the bottom.

Here she is in all her open-drawer glory: drawers at the top are stuffed with a variety of ribbon, lower drawer on the left has a miscellaneous mix of crafting and sewing items and the drawer on the right holds thread and bobbins. The big fat rounded drawers on the bottom hold different kinds of interfacing.

I've been keeping a photo log of my vintage fabric in a set on Flickr and this has really helped me keep track of it. The vintage pieces are typically smaller than my other new fabric and they tend to get lost in the pile so now when I want to see what I have I just look through my Flickr set.

A Little Organization Goes A Long Way

I'm so envious of people that have rooms specifically for crafting. Our extra room is used for our classroom (we homeschool) so my crafting paraphrenalia is delegated to the kitchen/dining room. I thought I'd share a picture of my sewing cart organized with my most used stuff. My sewing machine is on the kitchen counter (I prefer to stand when I sew) and I pull my cart up next to me for easy access. When I move into the living room to sit by the fire and watch TV, I drag my cart in there and have all the necessities that I need. The top has several trays that hold the smaller tools, the middle holds stacks of felt, and the bottom holds stuffing, my box of embroidery thread, and baskets of wool felt scraps. The orange floral feedsack bag on the floor holds my fabric scraps.

Here's a close-up of the top level. Left to right: an assortment of glues and fusible webbing, pincushions, rulers and right angle, marking pens and pencils, various tubes and sticks for turning fabric tubes, tape, small patterns, oversized rulers, scissors and other sharp implements. Under the trays are folders of ephemera that I use in making my tags, and another tray that holds my glasses and misc.

The green cabinet behind the cart is full of more sewing/crafting stuff. I'll share a picture of that tomorrow.

Quilt Cards

I've been dipping my toe in the quilting waters lately. I bought the new book, Denyse Schmidt Quilts, and these cards are the result of my first efforts. They are fun, fast, and easy - in other words, my kind of project! The floral images in the corners are copies from the book Funny Town that I posted about here, the rest is fabric.

Do you recognize the fabric? I told you I love it ;)

Something a little different here. I've been building a stash of Japanese inspired fabrics for a project I have in mind so I used a few of them for this card. The vase is cut from a Japanese newspaper. I'm participating in the Denyse Schmidt Quilt Along so go check out what others are doing too!

Fabric and Crochet Drawstring Bag

I've been wanting to tackle this bag for quite awhile now. It was inspired by a picture in a Japanese craft book (of course!). My variation is crocheted, not knitted, and the construction is my design as I didn't feel like figuring out the Japanese. It's about 10" tall and 8" wide and completely lined. I wove ribbon through the body of the crocheted part of the bag; it's the same ribbon used for the loops. I received the great floral fabric in a trade with Katey and I absolutely love it!

My sweet girl is modeling it here for me so you can get an idea of the size. I had intended to do an enclosed drawstring but got too far ahead of myself in the sewing and had to make a change at the last minute. Sometimes that kind of thing works out for the best and I think I like it better this way :) This bag is my test run - I'm hoping to get some similar bags in the shop for Christmas.

This is the book and picture that was my inspiration. (ISBN4-579-10981-3) I'm in the process of scanning all my Japanese craft books and will put them in an album over at Flickr.

Pintail

Pintail is my new pincushion design. She holds pins on her body and her wings are needlebooks.
My kids love to come along and push all my pins deep into the cushion and I'm always afraid I'm going to lose my needles that way so I wanted a design that would separate the needles from the pins.

It took me forever to get the bird body just right. I probably did five different variations before I was happy with the shape after it was stuffed. I'll try to make some more to put in the shop real soon :)

In case you think I've been loafing...

Here's some new pincushions I've been working on for a special order. This one is called Rings.


I call this one Pond because it's reminiscent of the flower and plant life you might find around a pond.

I tried a new embroidery stitch on this cushion. It's an open chain stitch and reminds me of strands of DNA so I named it Early Life.

And this pincushion was inspired by flowers flowing down a stream, so the name? Flowers in a Stream ;)