As of late, I have been obsessed with super cute crafting supplies from Japan. Thanks to the internet these have become available and I have been buying it up! A few months ago, I came across one of my now favorite sites. Superbuzzy. Superbuzzy specializes in imported craft supplies and every experience I’ve had with the store has been amazing; fast shipping, personal notes and even candy thrown in!

I purchased what is known to quilters as a “charm pack” which is a variety of fabrics, cut into 5 inch squares. Yardage wise this is expensive but the variety of fabrics that you get is amazing. Each of Superbuzzy’s charm packs had a total of 30 squares but the  more common charm packs (made by Moda) have 40.

Early August I was looking at the squares and just started sewing them together. Then I would stack them, cut a weird angle and sew them back together creating a block filled with fabrics at all different angles.

Even if you hold the quilt in front of you, most people think that the blocks are printed this way. Not so! The other neat thing to note here is that every single fabric was a floral print. Not so “old lady”, eh?

When it was time for sashing (the green fabric around the blocks) I went with a vibrant green with tiny leaves, abstractly representing the leaves and stems of flowers.

Now to get super “mother earth goddess” on you, I chose a blue water droplet print to represent the rain that waters the flowers.

Are you rolling your eyes? I’m totally rolling my eyes and I’m the one who is writing this!

Here is the quilt in it’s glory.

(click the picture to be taken to a HUGE version if you’d like to see details!)

I’m very, very proud of this quilt. This is the first time in a very long time where I’ve trusted my creative instincts and really made an effort on not second guessing myself so much. The results paid off and I’m taking this as a valuable lesson. This quilt has become sentimental to me, I see it as turning point in my abilities and a marker in the journey of creativity.

OK to get even more disgustingly mushy, while making this I really thought a lot about the people in my life and how their love has nurtured me in ways that I didn’t think possible. I think this quilt might be a physical manifestation of the love I’ve received.

And this is where I’ll be ending the Lifetime movie segment of this post.

There are two blogs that I really, really used as resources that I wanted to point out.

1. Oh, Fransson! was my major resource and inspiration. Everything that you will need information wise is here. The probability of me writing her a craft love letter in the future is high.

2. Hello, My Name is Heather is where I learned how to bind my quilt. She provides a great tutorial!

Now that I have my first machine embroidered quilt under my belt, I’m ready to buy up the fabric stores and lock myself in my craft room!

My sweet husband and I though have made a point to have a few dates here and there though and my favorite date has got to be dinner and the bookstore. In all honesty, I rarely ever buy the fancy craft books from the bookstore, I pet and inspect them and then order them off of Amazon (almost always cheaper!). Two weeks ago I found a book that I had to have at that very moment.

I love felt food, I’ve never made it but I love it. I have a crafty LiveJournal friend who has made some seriously cute felt food. I’ve also been in the market to purchase some of that luxurious 100% wool felt instead of using cheap acrylic.

Look at what you can make. THIS IS MADE OUT OF FELT, PEOPLE!

Are you dying of cuteness? I am!

Of course, I haven’t made a single darn thing out of it yet. I haven’t even ordered my fancy felt but I will say, this book is worth every single penny just for the pictures alone.

In the back are detailed instructions and patterns to make everything. Fabulous. This is one for everyone’s craft book library.