29.4.13

to Boston with love

Wishing peace and love to our beloved city, Vancouver modern quilt guild is planning an exhibition of flags to be strung into banners and displayed in Boston in early June 2013. More details and a tutorial to make the banner are on their website


It is very touching to see banners come in from all corners wrapped in healing thoughts and prayers of fellow crafters. I just mailed this one.

Thank you to Berene, Amy and to Vancouver modern quilt guild for their heart warming efforts!

Thank you for visiting! Hope you have a lovely rest of the week!

22.4.13

patchwork, please!

Writing a book is not unlike planting a seed, giving it plenty of love and water, protecting it from persisting worms and then anxiously waiting for the tiny sapling to grow into a big beautiful tree. But when sweet smelling flowers start to appear on every branch all that hard work feels satisfying beyond any measure.


 I can only imagine how gratifying it must be for Ayumi when she finally got her precious book in her hands. All those months of sleepless nights and endless thought process cannot be forgotten but it surely becomes more meaningful now that the results of this toil are blooming brightly right along side the cherry blossoms.

I feel so fortunate to have known Ayumi for many years. She is the most sweetest lovable person, always so kind and amazing in every way. Her projects reflect equal amounts of that sweetness and incredible talent with only sky as the limit! 
Having her new book "Patchwork please" with me feels like Ayumi is here at home on a friendly visit to guide me through any project I pick. I find this book gives me an opportunity to explore many techniques from simple to complicated that I haven't tried before but would love to learn.


There are 19 Patchwork projects to make which are both stunning to look at and very practical for everyday purposes. I want to make many of these lovely things as presents for friends.

Taking baby steps, I thought for my first attempt 'Prettified pincushion' would be perfect. It eases you slowly into Ayumi's magical world of Paper-piecing!


..a fairy tale of a prince, princess and their pet squirrel. He is eating a yummy acorn while the prince and princess are enjoying their favorite hobbies. This is their afternoon routine :)


They live in a simple home with a flower garden on the side. I used Shinzi Katoh fabric for fussy cutting them.


This light green dot fabric is last of the scraps left from making a bag. I kept thinking what to use for the bottom, luckily I found another scrap in similar shade, but I had to piece it together to get the correct size.


 I filled the pincushion with ground walnut shells instead of polyfill as I readily have them at home. There is a slight risk of staining the fabric in the long run with these walnut shells even though it helps in keeping the pins sharp. So after finishing the paper-piecing part I lined all the pieces with a cotton fusible which is light and thin like a muslin.

It is hard to believe I survived without a pretty pincushion in my sewing room until now.  Maybe without knowing I was waiting for Ayumi to come up with this adorable version ;)

I am looking forward to the Sew-along starting on June 3rd. Hope you will join us in this fun event! Thank you, Ayumi for this amazing book to make us drool and feel inspired. Wish you all the success and happiness for your future endeavors too ( ' v ' )

14.4.13

spring in Boston

Hi, it is me, Kalyan.. it has been a while since I shared any pictures. So I thought I will post some photos I took on our walk this weekend at Arnold Arboretum. The landscape is still very brown here. But it is good to see signs of Spring finally!







Happy Spring! Hope all is well with you!

4.4.13

sunrise 5

We went for a walk in our neighborhood two days ago and felt a thrill to see tiny flowers sprouting up.
Now the days are not too far when we can visit our favorite park!


It has a sweet little pond ..not quite a lotus pond like this girl here is enjoying but lot of wild flowers on the bank and soft grass to lie down on. There are turtles popping out from time to time and frogs croaking from under the shrubs.


We usually bake a small treat of apple cake or biscuits and carry some ice tea with us.


When we get bored of staring at the turtles or hearing the frogs and finished nibbling our treats, it is time to go deeper into the woods in search of new sights. Lucky for us, there are no bad wolves stalking behind us, only hopping squirrels!


On the way there are always fluttering butterflies greeting us or some beautiful flower that we haven't seen before.


When you walk so much and see so many pretty things, it is only natural that you will have a very pleasant sleep in the night! 

sweet dreams!  ^v^