March Is…

March is National Craft Month, apparently (who makes these things official?) which is serendipitous since it’s always been MY craft month being my birthday month. It’s not that my birthday is special at this point in my life, but hey, what good is a birthday if it’s not a good excuse to do something nice for myself so… I got for myself this box to organize my embroidery floss in!! It’s actually a vintage slide organizer, but it’s completely perfect for my purpose and I’m so very happy with it!!!

My mom sent me a package a short while ago and in it was this cutest little box of chocolates. I’ve seen many beautiful chocolates, but I totally adore these! Japan isn’t known for chocolates specifically, but like every thing else from there, it’s very yummy. I’ve been missing Japan lately.

Also in the package were some Japanese craft books (quilting, jewelry making, sewing by hand…) and I read quite carefully on bits about hand quilting technique. As it turns out, technique is important because my quilting stitches are getting better already (though much improvement is still desired) and I can do them a lot more comfortably and faster too. Who knew that thimbles are actually useful!

Really big pale pink stitches are basting threads (it’s temporarily keeping together top fabric, batting and bottom fabric) which will be taken out at the end. My mom also sent me these from Japan. There isn’t such a thing as “basting thread” in US apparently, even though it’s such a necessary item in sewing! Basically it’s a cotton thread that rips out really easily. I think that it’s far easier to handle then having million pins in my WIPs.