The challenge for January was to make an Asian-inspired block. I had no idea what to make, but Mary Jo Hiney saved my hiney! S...

So much could be said about Japanese design and their aesthetic. Japanese sense of style is much loved and copied the world over, often fused with other elements and styles. But nobody quite knows how to do Japanese design like the Japanese. Funny that, innit? The driving force behind the minimalist and simple Japanese style is the comprehensive principal of Wabi-Sabi. I won't pretend to be an expert on the topic, or to know too much about it. What I do know is that Wabi-Sabi is about an acceptance of transience, the imperfections and the cycles of nature. The approach is about finding beauty in the simple, natural, authentic and imperfect. The aesthetic is pared down to the barest essence, which creates pure and uncluttered outcomes...

So much could be said about Japanese design and their aesthetic. Japanese sense of style is much loved and copied the world over, often fused with other elements and styles. But nobody quite knows how to do Japanese design like the Japanese. Funny that, innit? The driving force behind the minimalist and simple Japanese style is the comprehensive principal of Wabi-Sabi. I won't pretend to be an expert on the topic, or to know too much about it. What I do know is that Wabi-Sabi is about an acceptance of transience, the imperfections and the cycles of nature. The approach is about finding beauty in the simple, natural, authentic and imperfect. The aesthetic is pared down to the barest essence, which creates pure and uncluttered outcomes...

The challenge for January was to make an Asian-inspired block. I had no idea what to make, but Mary Jo Hiney saved my hiney! She has the most amazing paper-pieced patterns in this book. My first choice was to make the crane below, but my goal is to use up my stash and to NOT buy new fabric. It didn't seem like my on-hand fabrics were going to work with the requested color scheme of saffron, rusts, golds and greens. (source) Anyhoo, a lot of trial and error and gnashing of teeth went into this block. Is there anyone out there who gets the color combination right the first time? If so, I want to know your secret. I tried three different combinations before I finally came up with something I liked, although I would have preferred to have had a subtly patterned light background rather than just the plain light yellow that was in my stash. In the first two, the kimonos didn't 'pop' because the background color blended in too much with the kimono fabric. I loved the third fabric, but it seemed like the scale of the print was too big for such a mini kimono. Anyway, the kimono finally 'popped' against a lighter background. And wouldn't you know it, I ended up using the first 'kimono' fabric that I had picked out. I should learn to trust my instincts. And, here's a retro video for your viewing entertainment.

I think I'm turning Japanese designed by Maximilian Larsson. Connect with them on Dribbble; the global community for designers and creative professionals.

My first attempt at crewel embroidery --- I used European Linen, and Appleton Crewel Wool. The pattern is from "The New Crewel" --- I think I may turn this into a small throw pillow.

For the coconut rice: 1 cup jasmine rice (rinsed), 3/4 cup coconut milk, 1/4 cup water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer, cover, turn to low, cook 15 minutes, let stand 10 minutes before fluffing with a fork and serving.

Tamagoyaki is a popular item on sushi menus, but it can be eaten hot or cold at any time of day, as part of a light breakfast, snack, lunch, or dinner.

Osaka is the third largest city in Japan. Many incorporate a visit to Osaka though just for a few days in their Japan Trip. If you only have as short as a day I think it is worth the trip. We initi…

Thanks for commenting Jennifer and Isabelle. I think our group does work of quite a high standard from what I see elsewhere. ( overseas even ) I wonder if you are like me ? When I see a fabric display like the batiks ( that tell you Milton Wright is here )in all the colours of the rainbow I get a real buzz just standing and drinking in the wonderful colours and how they look along side their neighbours. ( Displays of cottons; wools; coloured pencils or pens all do it for me. ) Luckily Milton always lets us stare for ages (with or without buying ). Maybe like J you prefer a more muted palette of colours? She is a very talented needlewoman ( who also makes exquiste small bags )and almost always works in thses colours. Detail of the cyclamen from J's quilt. And the fantail on a branch. I love her work but the colours don't excite me. These ones below do. Over the last few years I have seen at various shows this same quilt made in so many different colourways. Denise made this for a friend's birthday...lucky friend. Some of our group made this quilt during the year as a mystery block. So there were several the same - but all different. L likes greens. The colours in Pat's quilt were muted but went perfectly together. Do you prefer simple tried and true designs...they still work well. *********** The avocado picking got finished with another 4.5 bins yesterday. So now the trees have only about half the number of fruit left on them to size up. The hydralada hire cost will be high as they were slow doing select picking but we are still hoping for a good price. Watch out in Australia there are some lovely avocados making there way across the ditch to you! *********** I have been out closely inspecting the new grass patch but can't see anything yet. ************* I am trying to decide which quilting project to start on next ?????

Here's my new printable Paper Lanterns banner in action! I spruced it up a bit with some tassels, and I think it turned out really fun. It's easy to do. After you print and cut out the lanterns, you can easily string them together with a needle and string. I used embroidery floss, as I seem to have a ton of that around for some reason. You can simple sew the floss right onto the lanterns using a needle poked through the marked holes. Add tassels at the bottom by knotting several small lengths of floss and pulling them individually through from the back with a needle, or cut a small slit in the bottom of the lantern and pull several pieces through together. A little bit of floss adds a whole new dimension to this cute banner. You can pick up the PDF (as well as the coordinating Lucky Cat and Kokeshi printables) at my shop: www.littledear.etsy.com Use them for your papercraft or scrapbooking projects or hang banners all over the house! It's a fun, easy way to brighten up any room. :) Have fun! xo aimee

A husband and wife were having a friendly argument about who should brew the morning coffee. The wife said, "You should do it because you get up first." The husband replied, "No, you should do it because you make it better." They went back and forth like this for a while until the husband finally

Japanese is not nearly as challenging as you may think. It might be easier than the supposedly “easy” Romance languages like Spanish.

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When we think Japanese alcohol, we think sake. But the best Japanese drinks include fantastic beer, whiskey, and more. And then there's all the Japanese soda.

Hokkaido in March is a unique experience. Here's why it's the best time to visit Hokkaido and the unmissable things you can only do in spring.

Ozoni is a traditional Japanese soup eaten for New Year’s. It generally consists of a simple broth with a few simple ingredient...

Eggplant lovers will devour this anecdote and delicious eggplant keftethes recipe.

tansu are typically characterized by a unique technique of joining timbers without the use of any hardware; and adorned with metalwork embellishments.

I'm often asked what my favourite place in Japan is. It's a question I can only answer with a very long list. I find it a strange question really, it makes me a bit uncomfortable that I can't provide that single place that they are clearly expecting. Having said that I would recommend Nara to most people who ask me where to go while they're in Japan. There are many reasons why I love Nara but here are my top ten.

Whats going on there!? Bobby pins in knitting? 🧐 . Yes, my favourite short row method is the Japanese Short Row. You just trap the yarn at the turning point, and bobby pins are the easiest and...

My Grade 7 class recently finished these cherry blossom paintings as part of our "Japanese Art" unit. I absolutely adore cherry blossom paintings- I think they're very stylish and feminine. I also love anything Japanese related, so I really enjoy teaching this unit. And believe it or not, the blossoms are just finishing up here where I live. Yes, in June. We started off by watching a video about the Cherry Blossom festival in Japan known as Hanami ('flower viewing'). In the spring, thousands of people fill the parks to hold feasts under the flowering trees, and sometimes these parties go on until late at night. I thought it was interesting to find out that most public schools have cherry blossom trees outside of them. Cherry blossoms have been used extensively in Japanese art for hundreds of years. According to the Buddhist tradition, the brief beauty of the blossoms symbolizes the transient nature of life as the flowers last for at most a few weeks. The cherry blossom is also tied with the samurai culture, representing the fleeting nature of the samurai’s life and symbolic of drops of blood. So for this lesson students created a scroll-like painting of a cherry blossom branch using the classic 'blow paint through a straw' technique. You can find this technique all over the internet and Art teachers have been using this technique for eons. We first created a blue sky background (on long strips of white paper) with a faint full moon silhouette by placing a small circle container (in this case yoghurt) and painting around it with light blue tempera paint. While the sky paper is drying, student practiced painting (tempera paint) cherry blossoms in their sketchbooks. I demonstrated how to mix various tints of pink (always add the darker colour, red, a bit at a time, to the white- not the other way around). The blossoms: as long as they had five petals, students could paint them however they wanted and in whatever tint of pink. (You could also do plum blossoms in tints of purple). Once the sky paper is dry, student blew watery brown tempera paint (ink-like consistency) across their paper in a branch-like shape. I really demonstrated how to do this, as kids have a tendency to blow down as opposed to across. If you blow downwards, you get really, erm, hairy-looking trees!! I stress to keep it simple and follow a line of paint across the paper. Keep adding more paint and creating new branches as necessary. Encourage the kids to take lots of breaks as you can get really light-headed doing this! Let these dry flat. Next class, students paint on their cherry blossoms using tempera. Just add them randomly anywhere- add lots. I own some Asian-style rubber stamp 'chops' or seals- which is basically the artists signature. They are stamps or seals used in lieu of an artists signature in Asian art. They are typically made of stone and used with red ink. I have no clue what mine say and none of my Chinese students could read them either. Soooo, I just hope it's nothing rude or way wierd! Of course, if you have lino-cutting tools, students could make their own from an eraser. As I didn't have a red ink pad, I just squirted some red tempera onto a pad of paper towels. It worked pretty good. But an ink pad would be easier, obviously. Once these were dry, I mounted them onto larger mauve construction paper. Here are some of the Grade 7 results: Ta da! I displayed them with our Kimono project.