Sunday, January 1, 2012

12 Days of Christmas...

I don't know if you are aware but the Temecula Quilt Co. is doing a "12 Days of Christmas" Mystery Mini Sampler.  Like a host of other bloggers and quilters I have been following along.
Today was Day 8!  I have all 8 blocks complete and so I am up to date.
Here is a photo of my blocks so far.
I laid them out this way on point because I have a sneaky suspicion that might be the way they are planned.
If you notice in the photo below, each block has total pieces corresponding to the day; day 1 is just a square, day 2 is a HST and so on.  Very cool concept and it's a bit of fun too!
I will be sure to post the final blocks when they are complete.

Today my husband and I went to the Japanese Market in New Jersey (Mitsuwa).
It was very, very crowded but fun none the less.  We go a few times a year to stock up on some of the Japanese cooking supplies we cannot get locally.
In addition to the groceries, there is a Japanese Book Store there (Sanseido).
I love to look through all the Japanese Quilting Books they are amazing.
Today my husband bought me these two...
 Honestly, I could have looked through the books all day and purchased about 10 of them so I had to control myself!  
I also enjoy popping over to the Stationary Department.  They have the neatest stuff.  Today I picked up this "monkey valentine" to send my little guy for Valentine's Day.
TOO CUTE!  Cannot wait for him to get this!
I also got some Valentine envelopes ~ now I have to make cards to go in them for the adults.
There are 3 of each.


So, now that dinner is done I have to decide what I want to do tonight; work on a sample for the shop or sit down with a nice cup of tea and browse through my new books.
Tough decision but I think the books will win!

Happy Stitching,
Colleen

5 comments:

retrorevival.biz said...

That market sounds really fun ~ nice that it's available to you.

Happy new year,

Cindy

Cassandra said...

Pretty quilt blocks!

I love visiting Japanese stores. We have a very small Japanese market here in Phoenix, but we visited a gigantic one up in Seattle. They have such cool stuff! I bought a beginners quilting book but it's written in Japanese so I have to (very slowly) figure out the directions before being able to make anything. ;)

Colleen said...

@Cassandra ~ I know the feeling. I have a ton of beautiful Japanese Quilt books/mags and it takes forever to figure it out. My husband is Japanese but he's no help in this area!

Cassandra said...

Colleen - I think it's worth the effort, though. Such beautiful patterns! Do you have access to many Asian fabrics? I'm limited in selection unless I order online.

Colleen said...

The shop I work at doesn't carry Asian Fabrics but our other location does an I do go there sometimes to teach classes so I get to shop. I do have a fairly large stash of Asian fabric right now and need to work through them.