Order {More Inspiration}

It is hard to write another inspiration post after Lucy's - even I had not thought about all these potential interpretations of order, I set the themes!

Going back to my own project for order, I started by thinking 'order' - as in someone giving me an order, which should always be along these lines... 

I really wished someone gave me that order for life - especially for Monday mornings (oh, I hate Monday mornings, definitely not awesome). 

or maybe something like this.. 

 

Totally doable craft projects, right... 

Or put some order, as in organisation, in your house - if you can take that many portraits of yourself of course...

 And you could add a splash of colour order of course

 

 Or follow the order of a beautiful colour scheme

Or, like I am doing, try to have some order amongst the disorder...

So hopefully that has made you want to participate to le Challengethis month. All you need to do is come back on 15th with your 'order' entry (small, big, it does not matter as long as it is finished)! Cannot wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Order {fabric inspiration}

I actually think this is one of the most open challenges we've set, after all ORDER is apparent in nearly all crafts in some way or another. There's always some order to constructing a pattern:

Pia Pleat Skirt

Free Charm Pack Cherry Quilt Pattern

Stitchy Fun Sampler

And there's plenty of ways that ORDER can be seen in repeat patterns:

Meadow Melody

Blaze Shaded Chevron

Hubba Hubba Green Diamond

Even putting things in order, creating something to maintain order or doing things in an ordered fashion:

Alphabitties

Project Book Pouch

How about some hard working bees creating very ordered structures in Bee My Honey?

I hope that sparks some ideas! Have you started your ORDER project yet?

And the winner is...

Susanne! Congratulations you have won a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop. I am sending you an email.

Susanne made this beautiful bag:

I hope you've got your thinking caps on for the next linky on March 15th, the theme is ORDER.

Check back for inspiration and if you have any ideas to share let us know in the comments, this is another theme that is open to so much interpretation we would love to hear what you're thinking!

Next up...

The next theme is: ORDER

So get organised and we'll see you here on the 15th March with your projects inspired by 'order' and be sure to check back for inspiration posts to help you on your way!

Le Challenge #9 - The Rising Sun

Welcome to the first link of the year and Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are our takes on The Rising Sun theme:

Read about this scrappy basket at Charm About You

Read about this Japanese top at Made in Home

Check back tomorrow to find out the new theme!

If you are new to le challenge, find more information here.

For a chance to win a $25 Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate make sure you link up your finished projects and please remember to include the button or a link to Le Challenge in your blog post or Flickr description.

So how did you interpret The Rising Sun?

An InLinkz Link-up

The Rising Sun {More Inspiration}

So how are your 'Rising Sun' projects coming along? Have you been inspired by Alice's post? Do you need more inspiration? Well, I may be able to help.. 

For those following me on IG or twitter, you will know that I am sewing from Japanese pattern book - and clearly my own project has inspired this post. 

What I love about Japanese sewing patterns is the simplicity of them - you can of course make the garments funkier with interesting fabric or just plain simple. 

And they do have the cutest models ever for the little ones... 

But you may need to work out the patterns first... 

Or you may be drawn to the funky Japanese fabrics... 

That have inspired some shops  

 1. Phone case here; 2. Scarves here

 And here is my own effort..

 This is not a Japanese pattern - but I would love to recreate this look with a Japanese pattern (I may need to learn piping as well..)

And to be honest if I end up being fed up with the patterns, I know what I will be doing with them... 

More inspiration from Alyce

Today we have a special guest post by Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts...

I'm thrilled that the Le Challenge ladies thought of me for this month's theme, Rising Sun. After all, living in Japan, I live and breath (and sell) Japanese fabric! We are Aussie ex-pats living in Chiba (right next to Tokyo on the Bay) for 4 years for my husband's work and we're almost halfway through that time.

 

Recently, I was was able to attend my second Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival. It is a massive quilt show held at Tokyo Dome - an indoor baseball stadium! Aisles and aisles of quilts and shopping are laid out on the field and it is a sight to behold when up in the stands, the hordes of people swarming around.

 

Despite being a "Great International" quilt show, it's very Japanese. The signs next to each quilt are mostly in Japanese, with only a few naming the quilt or quilter in English. All the Special Exhibits are in Japanese, leaving you to guess what's so special about the featured quilter, other than their amazing creativity and technical skills of course! And of course, most of the quilts have a "Japanese look" to them, which I've been pondering and trying to identify just what it is that makes them look so Japanese.

  The Fabric

 

 This the most obvious one, of course. The use of indigo fabrics and Hawaiian solids (ombre effects) are widespread, using various shades to create a fascinating visual effect.

   

 Then there is the use of popular Japanese fabrics like First Of Infinity. Granted, this particular quilt is by Kumiko Fujita herself... 

  The Style

 

 Other than using solids to create unique visual effects, and bold graphic designs like Fujita-san, Japanese quilters are also big fans of the scrappy quilt. When they do branch outside solids and use a variety of print fabrics, it's always with a scrappy effect. And usually with incredibly tiny, hand-pieced designs!

   

 Art quilts are also highly popular, in particular the highly-lifelike variety. This quilter used tiny pieces of fabrics and sparkly thread to create this incredible cherry blossom quilt, accurately recreating the light and shadows, the colours, and, the light and airy feel of the blossoms.

You can see all my photos from the Quilt Festival in my Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival Flickr set, as well as the 2012 Yokohama Quilt Festival, the 2013 Tokyo Quilt Festival and the 2013 Yokohama Quilt Festival for more Japanese inspiration! And if you are ever in my neck of the woods, I'm always happy to help out with recommendations for fabric shopping in Tokyo.

Thank you so much for the fabulous inspiration Alyce!

Remember to come back and link up your Rising Sun projects on 15th February for your chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop.