Johanna Writes

Bonjour Ne?

I have a new article in the latest addition of Craft magazine!! The article is about two male artists who both use embroidery in their artwork. The best part is that you can read it online at http://craftzine.com/magazine/

Just click on "Not Your Grandpa's Embroidery" and there you are!

In the meantime, we're off for a 3 week vacation. First 10 days in Bogota, Colombia and then another 10 in New York City. Can't wait to visit all my friends and favorite crafty spots in NYC! By the way, Nico's been mixing his French and Japanese up in some interesting ways lately. The other day I snuck up to his nursery school so that I could watch him in action without his noticing. What I saw was him repeatedly rapping on the back of his teacher's leg with his stuffed doggy while demanding "Dozo! Dozo! Dozo!" ("Here you go! Take it!" in Japanese). Naturally she didn't have a clue what he was saying. We don't say too much in Japanese anymore but one thing I have held onto is to occasionally end words or sentences with the expression "ne" which sort of means "Is that right?" or "Isn't it?" and is often said in a sort questioning manner. Lately Nico has noticed that a lot of people say "Bon Journee" (Good day) to us on the street in French. He's started to say it in return but in his version it's "Bonjour... NE?"

Quilt

Yay!!! My first quilt ever is FINISHED! This is a quilt I made using a Denyse Schmidt pattern from this book. I changed it a bit by making the stripes go horizontally- mainly because I wanted to give it a road-like feel since the theme of the quilt was traffic. All of the fabric for the quilt was bought in Japan including my favorites- the fabulous Nani Iro black and white striped pieces. All the little vehicles were hand embroidered and the quilt was machine quilted. The fabric on the reverse side is some New York City themed fabric that I found at the City Quilter in Manhattan.

I love it because I've really been wanting to make a quilt for Nico that he'd really like but that at the same time, wouldn't make me want to vomit up Disney characters everytime I look at it. I think this is a good compromise. You can see more pictures of the quilt on my flickr.

Thanks to Everyone

Hi there everyone! I know I haven't been much of a blogger lately and I do apologize.  The thing is, that in recent months I've made a decision to start doing some freelance writing. Ever since I finished grad school several years ago and realized that I didn't want to continue with psychology, I've been struggling to find something that I could pursue career wise. Living in foreign countries where I don't speak the language well has made this even more of a challenge. It's only been within the last year that I've decided that perhaps writing could be an option and although I have no idea if it will ever become even minimally financially lucrative, I've decided that it's worth a shot. I want to thank my friends Deanne and Claire because although they may not know it, it was conversations that I had with them that really gave me the initial courage and inspiration to try.

I've been spending a lot of time this summer researching article ideas, writing drafts and submitting ideas to editors. Happily, the work is beginning to pay off and I've gotten a few commissions for articles which I'm really excited about! The only drawback is that I've found it virtually impossible to find the time to both blog and write articles. At first I thought about stopping the blog altogether but now I've decided that I'll keep it going and perhaps start posting more again about craft projects (cause I have been crafting up a storm!), as well as just general info about what we're up to.

In the meantime, I really want to thank the people who have faithfully kept up with this site. In particular, there are several people who have always left truly encouraging and insightful comments despite the fact that I am absolutely horrible about commenting in return (I think I've left a total of about 5 comments on other people's blogs in the past 3 years). These amazing people include Myra, Gleek, Tania,  Sigsy in Tokyo, Angelynn, Veronique, Christina, Suzy, Diane, Isa, Long Story Longer, Cora,  Kimblahg, Brittanie, Lulu, Catherine, Ola, Thrusher, Jessica, Leta, Denise, Anne in New Jersey, Kristin, Debora, Susanna, Stephanie, Heinzdelcl, Mimi, L, Helen, Kaitlyn, Nicole, Viking Zen, Emily, Jen, Mari,  Heather, Karen Rani, and of course my dear Jenn. I'm sorry if I missed anyone.

Anyway, I just finished a Denyse Schmidt quilt for Nico and I've also got a bunch of knitting projects in the works. Pictures coming soon!

New Flickr Photos

Despite what everyone may think, I have actually been taking lots of pictures over the past 6 months. Yesterday I finally sat down and uploaded a whole bunch of them onto Flickr. There are pictures of our new apartment, pictures of our trips to Barcelona, Prague and Southeast Asia and LOTS of pictures of Nico of course! Take a look!