Happy Birthday, Annika !

When you keep moving around the way we do, it is hard to form any friendship, let alone maintain the friendship when it's time to move again. So my little girl became my best friend & we do many things together. 

She draws & sews , like me. She knows which fabric goes with which & which fabric I would like. Today, my little girl has grown a little. 

Well, actually, she is now taller than me & she just turned 11 today! 

This is this year's homemade birthday party invitation card 
& 5 friends will come over, for lots of splashing fun in the pool. 

Each year, we make our own cake too.  

Happy 11th Birthday, Annika !  

Fabrics all around & a teenager too !

A friend asked what fabrics do I have & how much.  

So, here's a part of my ever-growing stash. 

Some are folded.

Some are lying around, 

patiently waiting to be sorted out, by colours, theme or by designers. 

The hardest part of my projects, is always selecting the fabrics, 

which seem to be oozing out from every corner of my small & crowded studio. 

...and a new quilt top...    

Today, our Niklas, is 13 years old. He sure loves to read.

He has been waiting a long time for this day, to be a teenager.

And we waited a long time for Niklas to be in our lives. 

Whenever I pick him up in school, he hugs & kisses me which really means a lot to me.

I am happy that he does that, whenever he sees me or his sister. 

He holds his sister's hand when she is frightened. And removes her shoes for her, 

when her hands are full with schoolbag & ice cream. 

生日快乐，权权! Shen ri kuai le, Quan Quan !

You are finally a teenager. Have fun with your new Kindle.

A quilt named 很可爱 ... & some pins

While waiting for my kids after school, I normally sew under a tree. A mother passed by, was smitten by this quilt & soon, it will be on its way to USA !

This quilt is named 很可爱 ( "Hen Ke Ai" in Mandarin ), which means "very adorable". It has my favourite children-print fabrics & the little girls in the design reminds me of my own little girl. Ok, not so little since she's now 10.

The label is hand-sewn onto the back of the quilt ; handwritten & with our homemade stamp designs, a round applique & some free-motion stitching plus the buyer's message.

We start our summer break today so the blogging process will sloooww down even more :) . Next week, we head first towards Osaka & Kyoto, & then back to Tokyo. Then we will leave Tokyo again, this time for Germany, London & Singapore.

A couple of English bloggers had been very kind in recommending quilt shops in London. Thank you Melanie & Shev for your suggestions! I won't be buying fabrics ( I think! ) but I sure look forward to books, notions, gadgets & what-nots galore!

This is the very kawaii Baby Liam, who loves his new quilt as much as his parents. Sadly they have left for Germany & we will miss them very much. 

PINS ( & I don't mean those that's used for sewing ! ) : 

An update on my previous post, about my 12 year old son who broke 2 bones in his arm. 

Niklas says "Thank you!" to those kind people who commented & sent good wishes to him.

Unfortunately, things got worst for awhile & he was operated on, 

when an x-ray showed that the gap between bones, had widened. 

After many painful nights in the hospital, he is now back home again, with stainless steel pins holding the bones together, & a new cast for his friends to sign on.

Happy summer everyone! Stay cool & have fun!

Quilts, lanterns & broken bones

When I started quilting, I thought I will be making quilts for family & friends.

Didn't think anyone would buy, let alone place an order.

And then, I sold 2 quilts & am working on a custom order for a single bed quilt! Can you see me hopping around still ?!!

These are the 2 quilts sold.

- Calming Pinks & Greens.

Very soft & luxurious fabrics with fleece batting. It's for a mother, at the end of a long day.

- Playing with Animals in Blue.

Cotton fabrics with toys motifs (western & asian designs). 2 very lovely new parents bought this for their equally adorable baby.

With a wonderful Bernina, you can make wonderful personalised labels too! Now I understand why quilters have more than 1 project at a time. I have so many ideas running around in my head & I want to sew so many quilts - all at the same time!

The latest project in the making is "Red Lanterns". I am making it with my mother in mind.

She found me during the Lantern Festival, one mid-autumn. She loves red & she loves lanterns in the wind. It will be the first time, I am sewing just for her.

And we had an excitement recently. My 12 year old Niklas fell out of a tree & broke 2 bones in his right arm. He climbed to get his ball & fell 2 metres (over 6 feet) to the ground.

When you are suddenly one-armed, almost everything is more tricky. His little sister, Annika helps him patiently with everyday normal things.

I help him, with lots of scoldings in between the concern & care. I still scold, when I think of the worst that could have happened.

Annika said his arm (before the cast) looks like Harry Potter's arm when it became boneless & was all floppy. She also said that if we dotted Niklas' hand, the broken arm will look like a swan's head.

12.

When anyone asked Niklas where he's from, he used to say "Hongkong". We had to explain to him that such a brief answer is misleading. Instead, he must always say "I am a German & a Singaporean Chinese but I was born in Hongkong & now live in Japan".....yes, quite a mouthful but how else could he answer then?

Niklas was born in Hongkong, in 1997 - the historical year, when the British returned Hongkong to China. He spoke at 7 months & spelled by the time he was 18 months old. Now, he learns German, English, Japanese & French at the German school here.

My baby is 12 years old, today. His name "Niklas" comes from an old book that my husband used to read each night to the "baby" when he was still in my tummy.

His middle Chinese name "Quan" (pronounced with the Q sounding like "ch") means "power". When he was a baby, every sound or movement he made.... he had the power to make his parents come running!

The years of fertility treatment & injections was worth all the pain & agony. As a big brother & true to Chinese tradition, he looks after his sister. Lots of responsibility but he's used to it...so he does things, like making sure her shoelaces on her football boots are not too long. She loves him a lot. We too.

生日快乐，权权！Shen ri kuai le, Quan Quan.

My first hand-piecing !

Since I became interested in quilting, I am visiting mostly sewing & quilting blogs. And...I found Eileen's Attic. Within hours, we were yakking like old friends!

The problem of being self-taught & in a foreign land is that, I can't ask the sewing shop staff for help. But now, I have Eileen to run to, if I need answers!!! I used to think that you can only do basting with a chicken. Now I know better :) .

Eileen is so nice & talented & I do admire her for her handmade creations, from Raggedy Anns to beautiful quilts.

With Eileen's encouragement, I tried hand-piecing for the first time.

MK & Tracy, this means hand-sewing pieces together to form something :)

The hexagons were quite fun to do. But don't look too closely as you can see the stitches!

These stacks of fabric will eventually form a "Coin Stack Quilt". It was very difficult deciding which fabrics to use. I think the hardest part for me, will always be the selection of fabrics!

Soon we will be traveling. I look forward to the cities but I dread the thought of not sewing or crafting for weeks. So I am planning & cutting stuff to bring along. Small projects to occupy me when flying over 15 hours in a plane or relaxing by the sea & sand dunes.

Eileen suggested mini hand-sewn quilts. What else can you suggest? I shouldn't take up too much luggage space, heading out as I prefer to load up with goodies, coming back.


And a pic of 2 crafty kids :

Annika, stamping a bag, with our home-made stamps.

Niklas, doing free-motion stitching.

The story of Annika, who is 9 today.

Annika was conceived in Vienna, born in Singapore, in 2000. Yes, when you are trying for years...you remember stuff like that! She likes to say "I used to live in Singapore alllll my life, till we moved to Japan".

Her first name came from a Swedish children story in which the main character (Pippi) has a best friend named Annika.

The funny thing is that while growing up, I was reading the exciting adventures of Pippi Longstocking in English while my husband was reading Pippi Langstrumpf in German. That's why Annika is Annika.....well, we couldn't really name her "Pippi"!

When she was 10 months old, she went into a coma. After 15 hours, she woke up & we spent the next few years, observing if she would reached all the milestones - walk, talk, all the normal things. Those were long agonizing years.

We think she is totally normal now! And like Niklas, she started reading at 5 years old. (sorry!...I am a very proud mama!).

Today she turns 9, speaks/reads German, English & learns Japanese in school. Her Chinese is not very good but she wants to learn more in later years.

She likes to craft & cook & sew & draw (just me!). Her birthday presents are : a rag quilt, fancy-edged scissors, sewing book, sewing machine, drawing stuff, more books! Everything perfect for a sweet girl who likes to sew & draw & craft here & there!



Her middle name is also "Xue" & I call her Xiao Xue - "Little Snow".

She also tells people "When I grow up, I want to be like Mama", which makes me emotional but in a good way.

Shen ri kuai le, Xiao Xue!

Spring Colours

These past weeks, I've been having spring/hay fever. My eyes are hurting & I've been sneezing my head off! Meanwhile, the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom in Tokyo & soon, I'll be taking hundreds of pics of these blossoms.

These are things we like in spring :
- Annika's new felt purse for school

- Egg-shaped Kokeshi dolls displayed in a restaurant.

- Egg & Chick. A felt-sewing craft with Annika's 3rd Grade class.

- This pair of bunnies "walk" when you squeeze fingers into its legs & make them walk - which you can't tell since I didn't take any pics of the back.

A stamping frenzy!

Yes, we are really going crazy with our homemade stamps! I combined my sewing with this latest craze of ours & ta-dah!.....personalised aprons.

The first one was for Annika who is having fun in her cooking class at school. A mother there saw her apron & ordered one, so here's a custom order for Michael, a super 4th Grader who enjoys cooking.

This is for a friend, whom I hope, will enjoy her colouring set. This "Colours in a Wrap" will be a suitable gift for anyone (young, old, big, small or lopsided!), who loves to get creative anytime, anywhere.

The same beige cotton wrap can also be used for crochet hooks, cutlery, carving knives, brushes, anything...& Willow suggested knitting needles!

If you like anything on my blog, do email me for details. Or check in my Etsy store.

We got married...

...on a Christmas Eve, 15 years ago, at the German Lutheran Church in New York City. We got married in the morning then immediately went to the Post Office, to mail off our 150 handmade wedding announcement cards.
The announcement (a Xue-Original ;-) design ) consists of a card bearing an actual pair of chopsticks, tied with gold string with these words, "Lily & Martin. We tied the knot".

It was a very small wedding with 5 people - Pastor Schmidt-Lange, us & our 2 witnesses (good friends Katrin & Gerald who were visiting from Germany). Actually Katrin & Gerald didn't know then, that they were to be our witnesses. We only told them to "bring something proper to wear as we will be going to a formal place on Christmas Eve". And we did, we went to the church to get married!

Martin & I met years ago, in the Australian Consulate in Shanghai. Shortly after we met, he left for his next job posting in New York City. I stayed on with my job in Shanghai & joined him later, in NYC. where we then lived for a few years.

Our son, Niklas was born in Hongkong (1997) & our daughter, Annika, in Singapore (2000). Now, we live in Tokyo in this cosy home & the children attend the German school here, where they learn English, French, German, & Japanese.

Happy 15th Anniversary to us!
Merry Christmas to you!

Christmas at home

When Annika & Niklas were 3 1/2 & 5 years old respectively, they started to make these paper gingerbread boys & girls. I had pre-cut these from 3 shades of brown paper. Each day when they got home from kindergarten, they would completed a couple. Trust me, if you start in June, you will get hundreds by the time it is Christmas! Each Christmas, we put these up somewhere - their work, when they were so small.

















On our tree, besides twig-stars, gold & red tinsel balls, we have hand-painted mini clay dolls from China, kawaii painted wooden clogs from Japan.




Beneath the tree is part of our Brio trains, a collection which started when Niklas was 1.

Here & there too, are craft made by the children, like this Christmas mobile which Annika made in Kindergarten.














And as in most family with kids, we have the traditional Christmas photos over the years.....from 1999 till now.