qiang embroidery

starting in a few hours from now (since it's after midnight, with a full moon, and i will have to get up well before the sun rises) i will be heading off to china for a week.

it's a research trip for school and we will be visiting the area of sichuan that suffered badly from the earthquake 2 years ago. it's an area that is home to the qiang people, an ethinic minority in china, who have an extremely rich tradition of embroidery. i'm not sure how much i will be able to blog, but you can bet that i will keep my eyes open for crafts.

the photo above is from sandyahyu on flickr.

another lovely kogin embroidery book

this new kogin book was just published this year. it's in the shop, and the full flickr set is here.

happy summer solstice

in my family, we didn't put a lot of emphasis on mother's or father's day, especially because my dad's birthday is june 21st, which is always close to father's day, and summer solstice to boot.

most years we had cake with strawberries for my dad's birthday, since strawberries were always in season. the strawberries in my kyoto veranda garden aren't doing that great (i'm learning a lot about how do be better next time!), so here's a link for the adorable knit strawberries above from kathryn ivy.

my dad has always supported anything i wanted to do, and is probably responsible for my wanderlust and my love of travel. he's a teacher, and a translator, and while i was growing up, he had a hobby business binding books by hand. now that i think of it, the different activities that i'm doing in my life right now (graduate school, research, studying a foreign language, running a small business on the side) are not that different from what he has done. yesterday he put up with the technology that is skype (he's not a technophobe, but a little bit of a techno-impatient) and we chatted. happy birthday papa!

i hope all the dads out there had a nice father's day, and everyone had a happy solstice.

antique market at toji temple

toji temple in kyoto (not far from the kyoto train station) is the site of a huge market once a month, and also a smaller antique market on the 1st sunday of the month. in june, i made it to the 1st sunday market for the 1st time. as expected, it was quite a bit smaller than the main market, actually very peaceful. flickr set here.
the lotus pond at toji.

much love, illy giveaway

just look at those flowers--felt, orange, poppies--3 of my favorites combined in one! this is one of the items made by much love, illy who is sponsoring a shopping spree givaway via paper n stitch: more info here.

beautiful sashiko collection from sri threads

this is just one image from the sashiko abundance shared on the sri threads blog.
if you love old japanese textiles, you can often find a beautiful visual feast there!

around the world with needle felting, a new book

i've seen a lot of japanese needle felting books, and i really believe this one deserves to be shared. it's called 'small world trip-encircled by felted wool,' and beside the wonderful idea of a world encircled in felt, i love this idea of organizing a series of projects based on the cultures of different countries. this leads to a nice mixture of animals, scenes, and other small motifs.

here are the projects from holland: a girl, wooden shows, and a little windmill scene.
koalas from australia,
and pandas from china.

there a full flickr set here, and the book is in my shop too.