2005 Yokohama Quilt Show

As Seen with the Listening Heart, 38" x 27", by Karen Colburne Martin of St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador.


The pictures above are from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine

Today I went to a quilting group website called "芃的拼布配色筆記書" as normal. I found these Japan Yokohama Quilt Show pictures from Jessyca's Blog there. The projects in the show are really amazing !! Especially knew that Japanese like to have their projects hand quilted so I can see they must have made a lot of efforts in preparing those wonderful quilts ! If you want to know how amazing the quilts are, please just click the link and have a look. Thanks to Jessyca in sharing those pictures (she took some of the detail pictures as well) which let me, a person leaving so far away, can have a chance to see those beautiful beautiful quilts.

Litte house key holder

A little earlier I've signed up to make this little house key holder in Fan's Quilting Group in Taiwan. This key holder is all done by hand sewing. The string is from the paper bag that came with moon cake (rather than throwing it away, right ! recycling).

In the past, I used a necklace key holder to hold all the keys because when my kids were so young they were naughty and liked to play and run in the parking lot. I used that kind of key holder so that I could have my one hand holding the kid and free my other hand in order to press the car alarm button. Nowadays, my kid grew older and can manage himself to stay calm then I started to put my keys into my handbag which has scratched my leather wallet inside. I really love this litte house key holder that can cover all the keys. Ha ha ! no more scratches.

Reason for my younger son to be an adult

I helped my younger son to take bath yesterday (he actually can do it himself but I worried about he would get sick while he played water during his bathing time), the following is the conversation between us:

My younger son asked: "Ma Ma, if I want you to be a grandma, is that mean I should be an adult ?"

I said: "right, but not just that you have to get marry with a lady so that your wife can deliver a baby then I can be a grandma."

My younger son said: "But Ma Ma you already xx (I don't how he can find out how old I am), I have to be adult and get marry then by that time you will be died already ?!"

I said: "No, you can get marry sooner so that you can have a baby sooner then I can be a grandma a little longer, right ?"

My younger son didn't reply but he started to cry instead !!!

Simple Hangbag

A little earlier, I signed up for Sunbird Sewing World's November Project - Simple Handbag and I've just finished it recently. Lucky me, I have finished and submitted it by the end of 12/31. I think this is my last project for this year (coz I still have one half-finished project - Sue's wallhanging which I guess I could only bring it forward to next year now). This handbag is fully machine pieced and quilted. I have added an zippered pocket inside this handbag in order to hold the some items which could be more easily found. I specially selected a longer handle so I not just can hold it by hand but I could still carry it on my shoulder. The handle is bought from JoAnn for only US$7.99 and there are choices of white and brown now. I really want to thank 喵喵for her clear tutorial file. When I was making this handbag which really inspired me and make me felt more interested in creating more because it so easy and quick to made. That's so nice.

It's 2006 New Year time in Asia now, Happy New Year everybody !! it's still raining in my area. I hope New Year Day tomorrow will have much better weather at least no rain pleaseeee.

Small Scarf

Christmas is coming soon but I still don't know what can I get for best friend in Taiwan after spending a long time in thinking. When I surfed on the net, I came across a free scraf pattern which look so neat then I decided to knit that for her. I hope she will like it and have a warm and cosy holiday. Once I finished it I then rushed to send it out by courier to Taiwan. I even couldn't believe it that in this hectic period in the season, the courier company just took 2 days to deliver my gift to my friend that really incredible !! In the past, I have tried the other courier company to send things to her which took more than a month to arrive at her side !!! They also need me to call so much times in order to follow up the package delivery status. Their service was extremely bad.

I really love knitting when I was in HK but after I have taken up quilting so I put it aside for long time already. The whole families sweaters were knitted by me. As my knitting speed was pretty slow so it could take quite long time for me to finish a project.

If anyone still have problem in thinking what to get for your best friends or relatives may be you can try visit Knitty to choose a pattern. They have sweater patterns for adults, kids and even your Blythe doll plus some interesting and lovely doll as well. Happy Knitting !!

P.S. My husband also like that scarf which he asked me to make one for his lady colleague as a Christmas gift. I am busy in knitting now ha ha !!

Coughing Water Heater

The weather changed to really chilly recently and my water heater was coughing (with noise sound like "fog" "fog"), no water could come out when I pressed the top button. The first thing I think of was to throw it away but it seems kind of waste as it still functioned normally other than that problem. Later, my friend told me then I got a packing set (US$9.97) from a store that sell Japanese goods. After replacing it, ah ha ! it work again !! That's really good.

If anybody need this, please don't forget to bring the water heater with you to the store (because the staff need to the check the model number), the following is the address:

Daiyu Corporation
7968 Garvey Ave.,
Rosemead Blvd., CA91770

Tel: 626-572-4152

Egg Ball

(Photo Source﹕香港小食小字典)

Last Saturday, my husband didn't go fishing so my whole family has gone for a hiking trip to the nearest trail. At first, there was windy at all in the area which we lived but when we went up to trail then start to became so windy. We have drove quite a distance from home so we just ignored the strong wind and went for the walk anyway !! It's really not my day which the wind made my head hurts but we had walked quite a long distance up to the half of the hill !!! not bad, a little exercise made me felt much better.

When we got back to the car, we all felt starving. My husband's friend had just opened a noodle restaurant so we went there to try the food. Too bad ! he was not in the restaurant. We have ordered some noodle anyway but the food quantity was too less so we all left still have a feeling of the stomach half full only. We then went for some window shopping and started thinking of eating again. So we went to a Hong Kong style cafe and found that they had my favorite snack there i.e. Egg Ball. How nice ?!! It's been so long that I haven't had that and I can now have it here in U.S. Wa Ha Ha !!! I ordered one dish although they were not as large as those I had in Hong Kong. It really tasted good ! The egg balls so soft and the side was so crispy, yummy !! When my younger just seated and said:"I wouldn't eat anything at all ! we just ate our lunch an hour ago !!!" but he ate almost two third of the dish afterwards !! If anyone live here and would like to try (around US$3 per dish "can't remember exactly how much"):

U2 Cafe
1200 E. Valley Blvd.,
Alhambra, CA91801

Tel: (626)282-1800

As I didn't take the photo at the restaurant so I made a search and found that there is website called “掃街DIY” that has the recipe and teach you how to make them ! but there is nowhere I can find the mode to make it ! otherwise I can do it myself then it will be so great.