Quilted Bags & Gifts Quick Book Review

Zakka Workshop was very kind to send me this book "Quilted Bags & Gifts" by Akemi Shibata many months back in June. It's an English translated book from the popular Japanese version for crafters like you and me who cannot understand a word of Japanese. I am very happy (or should I say relieved?) that now I can read every single word without trying so hard to figure out the instructions by looking at the pictures. It makes me enjoy the book so much more. I think I have been flipping through the book for more than hundred times no less.

I feel bad for taking such a long time to make something from the book. All the summer holiday vibes made it difficult to sit down for handsewing. When I got it started a few days back, the handsewing mojo came back almost instantly and I finished these two lovely floral coasters in just two days.

Aren't they beautiful?

I love to put them on the table during tea just because they are eye-candy. Fabrics from Yuwa and Lecien.

These coasters are easy and therapeutic to sew.

Handsewing and quilting details.

Leaves can be brown too? I love the pretty brown print on the right. Reminds me of autumn hues. Oh, remember to hide all the knots.

The back of the coasters look pretty enough to make them reversible.

I used a slightly different method to sew the front and back together with batting. I think it's more straightforward in my way by placing batting+back fabric (right side up)+front patchwork (wrong side up) and start stitching around following the stitch lines. Leave an opening at the side. Snip the pointy edges and the grooves before turning inside out. Then give a quick iron to flatten. Hand quilt.

I did a short video on hand quilting in IG yesterday with the help of my daughter. It was a fun and easy going video. Someone asked if I used pins to secure the three layers together for hand quilting. Sorry i'm quite lazy so I did not. Especially for small projects like this, I usually skip the pins but i do iron to make sure they lie rather flat.

This book is very very well translated in my opinion. I haven't spot a mistake or anything I don't understand. I think it's not easy to translate exactly from the Japanese version but this English one nailed it. There are 36 fantastic projects in the book. Each and every project is worth a try for both hand and machine sewing.

This is a quick review as what I wrote in the blog title because I can't wait to try another project from book. Then I'll write another better review. It's so hard to decide which one to make now but well, I must make one more big thing very very soon. Once again, thank you so much Zakka Workshop!xx