I’ll start with Sewing Summit first. Have you heard about it? I’m surprised at the number of people that haven’t yet! It’s in October and everyone is invited! There is nothing exclusive about it…well except for it’s geared towards the sewers out there. It’s wonderful opportunity for us all to get together and meet and learn and just have fun! They will have classes and panels and there is a survey on the website you can fill out to let them know what and who you want to see. The best part, you have PLEANTY of time to clear your calendar and buy your airfare. It’s October 7-9th in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Little America Hotel. They have even worked it out with the hotel to set aside a block of rooms just for conference attendee’s at great rates! You can find out more and get links to the hotel to reserve your room by following the link above to their website. I am very excited to have this opportunity to meet so many of my friends I’ve made through the blog. As we get closer to that time, I’d love to know who has plans of going!
Per Completely Cauchy’s request, I am sharing some of the goodness of the Japanese craft books I got last week. I only showed a fleeting glimpse of the spines because with 4 books there was just too much to show, but today I will share some photos with you! I went ahead and arranged them into a single picture that you can click on to enlarge and get a better look of some of the examples of what you’ll find in the books. I’ll also include the ISBN so you can find a copy for yourself!
First up: This is a great book for the beginning sewer. So I take that to mean, it’s probably a great book for you if it’s your first time with a Japanese craft book and you don’t speak Japanese. The pictures and diagrams showing you how to make everything are VERY thorough. The projects are simple, but useful and the fabrics they use make you want to jump on a flight to Japan for a shopping expedition.
ISBN 978-4-391-63009-1
Next up is a 30’s fabric prints themed book. All sorts of cute projects. I especially love the white and blue basket. I’m sure Liz loves the yo-yo tote especially!
ISBN 978-4-391-62952-1
I really wanted to find a paper piecing book when I went shopping, and I found a great one! This is FULL of foundation pieced blocks. It’s a wonderful book, and even if the fabrics have you moving on to the next book, take a look again and think about all the other fabric combinations you could try!
ISBN 978-4-529-04188-1
And finally, I found a great quilt book! It’s full of all sorts of traditional patters show in new ways with different fabric combinations that I think we are use to seeing here in the West. I personally really love the traditional aspect of quilting, so this really appeals to me. It has a TON of quilts!
ISBN 978-4-14-031144-8
If you haven’t tried sewing from a Japanese sewing book yet, but want to try it out, then do! They have such great instructions with pictures and diagrams. The measurements are metric, so for some of you, you will want to convert the measurements to inches (2.54 cm/inch). Other than that, if you have a basic sewing knowledge, you should be able to stumble your way through the projects. There are many stores on Etsy that sell books or you can try Kinokuniya’s website for yourself!
Or the start to a beautiful romance as Bitter Purl put it! I got my new digital SLR in the mail yesterday! And I am over the moon about it. I have been decided on a Canon 60D for awhile and finally had the courage to press the buy button. I have been saving for months to buy a new camera after my other SLR’s shutter died. Rather than spend a huge sum to have it replaced, I felt it better to save for awhile and buy a more professional model. I have felt restricted by the XTi for a few years now, more so in this last year, so I am very happy to have a huge upgrade.
Having this new upgrade makes all of my lenses seem new again (and my external flash!). I really feel like I have a whole new set of lenses with this camera. The picture quality is AMAZING compared to my beginner DSLR. The options are everything I wished I had in the other model and more. 
I just putzed around and took random photos all day, oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over everyone. I really feel like this is taking my photography to a whole new level that I knew I was capable of. I am very excited to try some more HDR photography with this new camera and will try to find some outdoor spots to give it a try this weekend. In the meantime, here are a few more random pictures to enjoy. Everyone have a great weekend! 
By the way, for those of you that asked, there is now a widget at the bottom of my sidebar where you can sign up for email notifications of new blog posts through Feed Burner. Thanks for letting me know you wanted one set up!
