MY SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

These are some of my Japanese patchwork magazines and books. I find my inspiration for my patchwork and quilting in them mostly. I think they're very fun to look at and easy to learn. It's so much easier to understand the drawings of the projects than the American ones. You don't have to know Japanese so that you can understand the patterns mostly. You can figure a lot out from the easy-to-understand drawings. That's why I like them so much and I don't swap them for anything with anybody!

I bought some of them online at http://www.amazon.co.jp/. But it's quite expensive to have them sent to outside of Japan. Generally you have to pay shipping twice as much as the book's price.

Fortunately I have some very good friends in Japan who kindly send me regularly these magazines. I swap American magazines and quilting fabrics with one of them who also is interested in patchwork and as for the other one, she is a quilter friend of mine whom I have been known since 2001. I drew lots of inspiration from her work in the course of time. And I have right now a bunch of really good quality Japanese patchwork fabrics thanks to them. :)

I choose my patchwork projects from these magazines. In the Japanese patchwork magazines there are not only quilted bed covers, but too many cute little quilted things such as purses, drawstring pouches, bags, wall quilts, wall pockets, fabric boxes and other functional daily goods you can use every day at your home.

I am not into big bed quilts. I have one, a patriotic colored bed quilt that my husband's old quilter friends had made for him in return for his help in cutting project fabrics into necessary parts of the quilt. Being a mathematician, maybe he was the most suitable person to do this job. :) And how many more bed quilts can I have? Of course beside it I have some storage problem. So, I like making practical small things.

これらは私のパッチワークキルトの雑誌や本です。キルトの霊感をこの雑誌から受けるのです。見るだけでも楽しく、アメリカの雑誌より図案が分かりやすく、日本語が分かる必要があまりないのです。ほとんど図案から分かることができます殻、大好きで、私にとって絶対交換できないものです。

一部を日本のアマゾンで買いました。しかし、日本から海外へ送ってもらうのは結構高いのです。ほとんど、本の価格より高い送料を支払わなければいけません。有難く、これらを日本から送ってくれる友達2人がいます。お返しにアメリカの雑誌や布を交換するか、時々自分が作ったキルト小物を贈るようにします。彼らのおかげで、今はかなりの日本布を持っています。

キルトプロジェクトをこの雑誌から選びます。この雑誌にはベッドキルトだけではなく、日常に使えるポーチやバッグ、ミニキルト、小物入れ、他のかわいいキルト小物がたくさんあります。

大きなベッドキルトに興味がありません。一枚持っています。これはずっと以前に主人がキルターの友達のためにパッチワークピースを切ってくれたので、お返しに彼のために一枚作ってくれたものです。彼は数学者ですから、この仕事をやる一番適当な人だったかもしれません。ともかく、何枚持つことができるでしょうかね？そして、収納問題もありますね。ということから、大きいものより小さなものを作るのが好きです。