I have an early Valentine’s Day gift for you all! This is a project that’s been running through my head for a long while 😀 I thought I’d put it with the Monthly Crafting Challenge for 2015 with the rest of the punny food animals, but since it wasn’t food related it got bumped. They’re inspired by the Japanese word ‘koi’ which means both ‘carp’ and ‘love,’ and the beautiful yin-yang moon-spirit carp featured in Avatar: The Last Airbender. So together it’s a pair of sweet koi plushies that nestle together in a yin-yang pattern, and their matching markings come together to make a heart ^-^
If you just need a carp or fish pattern, the pattern works just fine for that too. Though it is a little more complex than a typical fish pattern because it’s asymmetrical and the fish twists off to the side. Placing the heart lobes just right is also a pain, so I think it’s much easier to stitch it in place after both fish are done than trying to sew it on beforehand as I would usually do. Hopefully by posting this tutorial today it might help inspire some wonderful V-day sewing! I hope you all like it!
Are you all enjoying the start of fall? I know I am 😀 I’m so glad it’s finally October. I’m working on a lot of projects that I’m hoping to share with you in the coming weeks, and the weather down here in Florida is slowly getting more bearable.
Last week I had another giveaway for my Nyan-Cat Quilt to celebrate a pageview milestone that went really well! Looking at the numbers, it might be a little while before the next giveaway, so at least it will give me a good long time to come up with something great to give away! Here are the stats: DeviantArt pageviews: 124,969/150,000 = 83% DeviantArt watchers: 4,396/5,000 = 88% Facebook likes: 1,457/2,000 = 73% Tumblr followers: 759/1,000 = 76%
Wordpress followers: 1,385/2,000 = 69%
But onto the patterns! The newest free pattern I’m giving away for October is this little Shrimp Tempura Plush!
This one is really simple but classic – just a little plush made to look like a plump tempura shrimp. I’m most of us have had tempura or at least fried shrimp at some point. Of course tempura is a bit different because it uses a completely different batter that, when fried perfectly, results in a finish that’s perfectly crispy and non-greasy. I know in my personal culinary efforts I have yet to perfect my deep frying technique, so I know it’s something I’ll have to keep trying at x3
You can get the pattern for this plush by signing up for email updates (found in the submission box on the right side of the page below the search bar). If you have trouble signing up, you can check out more info at the main Monthly Crafting Challenge page, the FAQ, or by emailing me. Also, bonus! for today only I’m offering both this pattern and the one from September when you sign up. After today though, the prize is just this guy 🙂 Though you can also purchase the older pattern through my Etsy if you’re too late.
If you’ve already signed up for emails, that’s where the challenge comes in. You can get this pattern if you make one of the projects from this blog, my books, or my Etsy then email me or message the finished project to my Facebook where I have a really awesome collection going of your creations! Keep it up every month and you’ll get a new free pattern, so don’t forget to check back during November to see the newest creation!
September’s just begun, and I have to say it couldn’t come soon enough after the muggy and sweltering Florida summer over here x3 I’m very much looking forward to autumn, especially since my semi-hiatus has ended and I’m able to post more often 😀 As you might have seen from what I’ve been posting, I’m currently working on bringing down my stash of quilting cottons, so be prepared for lots of patchwork-centric kind of projects. I’m also painfully close to another social media milestone! Namely, my DeviantArt page views. So before you know I should be starting up another giveaway! Here’s what the numbers look like:
But now for the fun part; a new plush pattern for my Monthly Crafting Challenge! This month for September is a little plush taiyaki fish!
I knew a pattern like this had to be part of my collection from the get go, so I’m glad I’m finally able to introduce it! Taiyaki (literally, “baked sea bream”) is a little fish-shaped cake that’s usually filled with sweet red bean paste, custard, chocolate, or sweet potato. Savory versions are also popular and are filled with gyoza filling and other similar foods. It’s cooked just like a waffle really, from a special molded pan that has the fish shape on each side. The pink version can sometimes be seen when particular confectionery experts color the batter to make it look especially cute like that. It’s common to see taiyaki being made at school festivals or food trucks in Japan, so, sadly, I’ve never personally had one. It’s definitely on my gastronomic bucket list though, and for now I’ll have to enjoy the plush version instead ^-^
You can get the pattern for this plush by signing up for email updates (found in the submission box on the right side of the page below the search bar). If you have trouble signing up, you can check out more info at the main Monthly Crafting Challenge page, the FAQ, or by emailing me. Also, bonus! for today only I’m offering both this pattern and the one from August when you sign up. After today though, the prize is just this guy 🙂 Though you can also purchase the older pattern through my Etsy if you’re too late.
If you’ve already signed up for emails, that’s where the challenge comes in. You can get this pattern if you make one of the projects from this blog, my books, or my Etsy then email me or message the finished project to my Facebook where I have a really awesome collection going of your creations! Keep it up every month and you’ll get a new free pattern, so don’t forget to check back during October to see the newest creation!
Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe 2013 is over? I personally can’t believe my blog is 1 year old today! It all started because I wanted a nice little hub for people to come to when they happen upon my books, but I’ve gotten over 1,000 fans over the past year! I can’t thank you all enough! It’s been a blast making things all year and I can’t wait to keep chugging along for another one ^-^
As far as updates go, I still wanted to give a heads up that I won’t be able to post with free patterns every week until a few more months. I’ll should be able to post every month or so, but I’m still catching up on some other work at the moment :3 Hopefully you’ll all be able to see the fruits of my labor soon!
I’m also waiting on when to do my next giveaway, which will probably be when I hit the 100,000 pageview kiriban (milestone) on my DeviantArt. That will likely be a few months down the road, so I’ll make a bigger fuss about it when I get closer :B
The most exciting update, however, is the revealing of the new 2014 Monthly Crafting Challenge!
For 2013 I did a set of 12 sushi plushies and challenged you all to make projects from my books, website, and store to earn more. Over 2013 I received over 60 submissions! Thank you everyone that sent me a picture of their work ^0^ It was such a blast getting to see all the new little projects everyone made, especially those of you who were just learning to sew! And above all, I’m so flattered that people went through the trouble to make my designs ;o; I can’t thank you enough. Keep up the good work, everyone, I can’t wait to see what gets made for 2014!
So for the 2014 collection I’m doing… (drumroll please) Japanese snack foods!
After doing a whole set of sushies, I realized just how many more awesome and delicious Japanese foods I was missing out on that weren’t sushi, so I gathered up a collection of 12 and made plush patterns for each one. Here’s a preview of what you can expect throughout the year! I still want to keep a little element of surprise each month x3 but I couldn’t resist showing off the full collection.
For January, the fun begins with this plush mochi!
Mochi are a delicious Japanese confection made from sticky rice flour and traditionally eaten on New Year’s! (though they’re tasty all year round). The sticky rice flour is made into a thick elastic dough through rigorous pounding, then the dough is wrapped around a filling such as sweet red beans, strawberry, or ice cream. The finished treat is wonderfully chewy and sweet. I actually made a batch myself over the Christmas holiday — I personally love to fill my mochi with chocolate truffles. This project has a very simple pattern, but all the face options really make it fun. And the best part, I think, is that since mochi often come in loads of different fruit flavors from melon to lemon to green tea, you can make a whole rainbow of plushies!
You can get the pattern for this plush by signing up for email updates (found in the submission box on the right side of the page below the search bar). If you have trouble signing up, you can check out more info at the main Monthly Crafting Challenge page, or by emailing me. Also, bonus! for today only I’m offering both this pattern and the one from December when you sign up. After today though, the prize is just this guy 🙂 Though you can also purchase the older pattern through my Etsy if you’re too late.
If you’ve already signed up for emails, that’s where the challenge comes in. You can get this pattern if you make one of the projects from this blog, my books, or my Etsy then email me or message the finished project to my Facebook where I have a really awesome collection going of your creations! Keep it up every month and you’ll get a new free pattern, so don’t forget to check back during February to see the newest creation!
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! 😀 The first of the month snuck up on me before I knew it, but December is here!
November’s been great, considering I got to hold another giveaway, and my Etsy store got a huge update (along with lots of coupons to share) x3
It’s only too bad that I had to cut back on posting freebies every week in order to balance my work load. That’s still going to continue for a little while, but expect to get another update from me this Friday ^-^ Hopefully soon you’ll get to see the fruits of my labor yet again just like with the Etsy update :B
Even though I just reached my milestone for followers to my main website, my next milestone might be just around the corner! Go check out my comprehensive work portfolio at DeviantArt and help bump my pageviews up if you want to get the next party started faster! 😀 DeviantArt pageviews: 88,246/100,000 = 88% DeviantArt watchers: 3,405/4,000 = 85% Facebook likes: 1,135/2,500 = 45% Tumblr followers: 767/1,000 = 77%
Wordpress followers: 1,101/2,500 = 44%
Of course, the most important of the updates is the last leg of the Monthly Crafting Challenge for 2013!
I saved the best for last in the sushi plush collection, and if you’ve been collecting since the beginning of this little blog, this month you can complete your collection of 12! No set of sushi would be complete without a ginger rose and dollop of wasabi!
I must admit I’m very bittersweet about this collection ending xB I’m sad that it has to be over, but extremely excited to start the new set of plushies for 2014! I do have a theme planned, though they don’t make as much of a neat and easy little package like the sushi collection (that’s pretty hard to outdo :B). But I hope you all like it nonetheless! If you want to take guesses in the comments, I’ll be more than happy to tell you if you’re warm or cold ^-~
If you haven’t signed up for emails yet, you can get this little guy along with the freebie for Novembertoday only, and after today the prize is just this guy 🙂 Though you can also purchase the pattern through my Etsy if you’re too late. Just sign up with the entry box on the side of the screen and I’ll send you the latest sushi!
If you’ve already signed up for emails, that’s where the challenge comes in. You can get this pattern if you make one of the projects from this blog or my books then email me or message the finished project to my Facebook where I have a really awesome collection going of your creations! Keep it up every month and you’ll get a new free pattern, so don’t forget to check back during January to catch the reveal of the brand new Monthly Crafting Challenge 2014!
Happy Halloween everyone! As exciting as Halloween is, it’s a shame that it also means October is over, so the month of Halloween patterns has also ended.
On the bright side, with over 50 free tutorials under my belt, I’ve made a lot of headway on my scrap collection! This whole adventure started with me tackling my heavyweight fabrics, which are practically gone now! All I have left are a few large pieces of vinyl, so I’ll have to pick some interesting things to use those for 🙂 My quilting cottons have gone down by at least half, and I’ve taken a decent bite out of my stash of satins, knits, and lining fabrics.
With that said, life has caught up with me a bit and I have some big assignments to tackle in the next few months, so I’ll need to take a break from posting new patterns weekly and probably go down to doing it monthly for a little while. But not to worry! I’ll be back a little ways into the new year to clean out the rest of my stash 😀 I’m hoping I can reach a goal of 100 projects before I run out of scrap fabric completely (that probably sounds crazy, but I’m sure you other sewers out there know that that’s a perfectly reasonable goal with the way fabric stashes are!). Then I can start featuring other things here, while still doing free patterns every once in a while ^-^
It doesn’t look like I reached any of my milestone goals during October, but we’re still exceptionally close to my goal for email followers! DeviantArt pageviews: 83,617/100,000 = 84% DeviantArt watchers: 3,342/4,000 = 84% Facebook likes: 1,105/2,500 = 44% Tumblr followers: 664/1,000 = 66%
Email subscribers: 955/1,000 = 96% (almost there!)
And finally the last update I have is the next round of my Monthly Crafting Challenge!
The freebie for November is the pattern for this Octopus Nigiri plush!
This is probably my second-favorite of all the plushes I’ve released this year (I admit it, I saved my favorite pattern for last x3). And it’s the last nigiri-style plush in the series. It’s much like the Tamago, Uni, Tuna, and Shrimp nigiri, except of course the topping is a little slice of octopus tentacle, complete with suckers! I just love the way the suckers turned out on this guy, not to mention his adorable face, and that’s why I saved him for next-to-last.
If you haven’t signed up for emails yet, you can get this little guy along with the freebie for Octobertoday only, and after today the prize is just this guy 🙂 Though you can also purchase the pattern through my Etsy if you’re too late. Just sign up with the entry box on the side of the screen and I’ll send you the latest sushi!
If you’ve already signed up for emails, that’s where the challenge comes in. You can get this pattern if you make one of the projects from this blog or my books then message the finished project to my Facebook where I have a really awesome collection going of your creations! Keep it up every month and you’ll get a new free pattern, so don’t forget to check back during December to catch the last in the sushi plush collection! Just one more to go; I hope you all love it! 😀
October is nearly here! It still felt like September went by pretty quickly, but at least this time around I can say I accomplished some awesome things this month 😀
I am super excited to announce that for the month of October, in the weeks leading up to Halloween, I’ll be doing a special Halloween-themed tutorial every Friday! I’ll be posting them in order from most time-intensive to least time-intensive, so you’ll have plenty of time to make them for Halloween! So stay tuned this Friday for the first in the series *w*
During September I also held my second giveaway ^0^ It went even better than the first one, so I can’t wait to hold another one again!
Once I reach my next milestone, I’ll get the next one going! It looks like that’ll be when I get to 1,000 followers on WordPress >w< so close! DeviantArt pageviews: 81,260/100,000 = 81% DeviantArt watchers: 3,253/4,000 = 81% Facebook likes: 1,067/2,500 = 43% Tumblr followers: 639/1,000 = 64%
Wordpress followers: 900/1,000 = 90% (almost there!)
And finally the last update I have is the next round of my Monthly Crafting Challenge!
The freebie for October is the pattern for this Scallop Gunkan plush!
This one is the last gunkan style plush in the sushi series for this year 😀 It’s just like the Ikura Gunkan and Urchin Gunkan, but the filling this time is a heap of sliced scallops ^-^ Just like before, those scallops are piled on top of a bed of rice and all wrapped up in a sheet of nori seaweed.
If you haven’t signed up for emails yet, you can get this little guy along with the freebie for Septembertoday only, and after today the prize is just this guy 🙂 Though you can also purchase the pattern through my Etsy if you’re too late. But for this month’s prize, just sign up with the entry box on the side of the screen and I’ll send you the latest sushi!
If you’ve already signed up for emails, that’s where the challenge comes in. You can get this pattern if you make one of the projects from this blog or my books then message the finished project to my Facebook where I have a really awesome collection going of your creations! Keep it up every month and you’ll get a new free pattern, so don’t forget to check back during November to see what I’ve cooked up :3
