The terms "urban" and "modern" are tossed around with increasingly less meaning these days, but quilter Amy Ahlstrom puts those adjectives to good use. Her colorful quilted cityscapes evoke neon signs, skylines and Chinatown.
On my trip to Japan in 2001, one of the many interesting details I noticed was that all the sewer covers were embossed with beautiful designs. So I was pretty stoked a few years ago when I found not one but TWO books of quilting designs based on them! Just proves once again that inspiration is everywhere.
Felt food is all the rage in Japan lately, especially desserts. These make great toys and pincushions! 
See lots more HERE
If you want to make some yourself, I reccommend this book:
available on AMAZON
A pair of simple kitty dolls I made for my nieces for Christmas. 
This pattern and lots more are found in the translated Japanese book, "CUTE DOLLS" by Aranzi Aranzo. Even the pattern book is drawn in a super cute, almost comic book-like style, with little animal characters narrating the directions.
This and more great books available from their site here,also available on Amazon.
I have never been able to make up my mind if Hello Kitty is cute or not. I mean, she's got all the right ingredients- simplicity, kawaii proportions, Japanese....but she's completely emotionless and expressionless. No mouth. And those soulless black eyes that follow you around the room...*shudder*
On the other hand, someone who has a cute spleen with a pink bow can't be ALL evil...right?
details HERE
I love how the old 8-bit video game graphics are perfect for quilting with tiny squares, like this great Nintendo piece. Excellent work, especially for a first quilt. From the Craftster forums:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=220857.0
SUPERBUZZY is one-stop shopping for real Japanese fabrics, craft books & supplies! HAI!
http://www.superbuzzy.com/
"KAWAII" is Japanese for "cute". And nobody does cute like the Japanese!
Case in point: my all-time favorite character, Hamutaro. (known in the USA as Hamtaro)
http://www.hamtaro.com/home.html
As cute as the animated version is, the original children's books by Ritsuko Kawai are even better! (What would you expect from someone whose NAME is almost "kawaii"!)done in a soft, textured pastel style, I have yet to see anything cuter. A few have been translated into English, and are available on Amazon.
