I find it interesting (and disconcerting) that household matters start to nosedive in clumps. Within a ridiculously short period, our oven firecracker-ed and died (so scary), our bath tub drain stopped up, our faucet water turned a stomach-turning shade of brown. I could go on, but the onslaught has been punishing. My poor mom, she arrived from Los Angeles yesterday to a fully dysfunctional house. It's as though the house elves are taunting, "Take that!! Can you handle this??" Luckily, the ... Read more

I translated a Japanese quilting book last year, and I don't know when it's coming out, but this book you see above is not it. It was a reference book for me since I'm not much of a quilter, and what a visual feast of neutral tones! I learned so much through perusing this serene pattern book. Japanese Quilting Piece by Piece by Yoko Saito is a calming collection of quilted projects, some of which are incredibly elaborate. There's a good dose of wabi-sabi here, with the occasional ... Read more

You, my dear friends, are getting the benefit of all this cleaning/purging/mending/organizing craziness that's going on around here. I've been sorting through my props pile, and came across some lovely Sashiko related items and since I have duplicates of nearly everything, I wanted to offer them up as a giveaway. The image above is an outtake from my upcoming book, Sewing Happiness. I have a Sashiko section that I included, and though this particular image didn't make the cut, I like it a ... Read more

One of my favorite things to do during the book process was prop shopping. I love me some good props. Being the way that I am, however, let's just say that I didn't hold back and now I have a mountain of charming, photogenic items taking up a whole lotta space in my basement. Luckily, most of them are very small. Like this tiny Merchant & Mills Rapid Repair Kit. "FIRST AID FOR CLOTHES", it promises, and this approximately 3.25" wide x 2.75" high metal box contains teeny scissors, ... Read more