Archive / Sewing

More blocks!

Completed 2 more blocks for the Star QAL. Saw a completed top at Flickr and I can’t wait for mine to get done too! :>

Here’s Week 8. See how hard I’m trying to use up the ugly yellow flower fabrics? I must be careful that I don’t turn it into the main feature fabric of the quilt! hahaha. But I think this print is going along quite well with the rest of the yellow prints :>

Here’s Week 9. More ugly yellow flower. But I kindda like it here :>

As if I don’t have enough UFOs, WIPs and what nots lying around. I started on yet another project with my quilting friends – Stack and Whack. Its really fun fun fun! I’m using a Quilting Treasures print for this Baby Quilt, for my son. I REALLY love how the blocks turned out. I guess if with better pinning, cutting, sewing, and pressing, the kaleidoscope effect would be phenomenon. So, gotta practice some more then ;>

First 6 blocks…

Then another 6 makes 12 blocks!

I LOVE the zebras & flamingos…

One of my favourites! :>

Before I go, here’s a look at my latest spree on eBay :p Bought some AB fabrics online too. Can’t wait to get started! MUST start at least ONE pattern this year! hahaha… I don’t dare to commit to COMPLETING a project… to be able to finish one would be a great X’mas pressie for myself then ;>

Goodnight, my sewing friends!

PS: Amy has a new book Little Stitches for Little Ones… LOVELY… :>

Playing catch up

My Yellow Star Quilt has been quite neglected (along with other UFOs). There is so much to do – work, baby, house, MarioKart Wii (:D) that I feel bad sewing with all these stuffs at the back of my mind.

The thing about sewing is that once you start, it is VERY hard to stop ;>

Last week, I cut up all the fabrics for Weeks 6 through 11 in a single night and went to bed with a sore back… Today, I put aside my work and sat at the sewing machine for a while and I completed 2 blocks (Weeks 6 & 7) and finished ALL my setting blocks! YAAY!

I think that the setting blocks look pretty on its own, but when I placed a star block next to it, I find that the setting block pieces look very bright orange. But as I laid out more blocks, I think it is turning out okay as the setting blocks act like ‘frames’ for the stars. Nope. I don’t have a picture of the blocks laid out here. Spent the time sewing instead! HA!

Week 6’s block. I’m using up the ugly flower fabric here :> Gosh, I’m glad to get rid of them here!

Week 7’s block and this one I LIKE!

Week 7 and 8 pieces laid out here. I have the week’s cut pieces separately bagged. And I’m doing them 2 blocks at a time. The missing bits of the blocks are at the sewing machine :p

I really had a good time doing these setting blocks. I like the fabrics and I like the easy piecing that turns out so neatly too! Took the ‘production line’ way and chain pieced, chain sewed and chain pressed the pieces. And I had the greatest satisfaction by completing 12 blocks at one go!

Another reason why Star QAL took a backseat for the past couple of weeks is because I started on a really fun quilt for Benji ;> More pictures coming up soon! :> Till then, happy stitching!

Sweet dreams…

Benji’s back into teething mode again. Approaching 16 months, and only 5 little pearlies, he has a lot of teeth to catch up with! We have to change bibs so often that I’m running low on stock by midday. And when we put him to bed, we noticed that he is trying to chew on the pillow covers, etc. Poor boy.

Benji goes to bed with a bolster and I can’t simply find reasonably priced and attractive covers for it. So, I decided to use the pattern off the ugly one that we bought off the shelf and make him new ones. Here’s my first attempt at it, and also at machine applique too! The ‘insects’ came from some fabric I bought from Spotlight. Great for a ‘quiet game’ of I Spy at bedtime then ;>

A close-up of one of my favourite patches. I also added in the cords at the seamline of the 2 fabrics, so that Benji can ‘gnaw’ away.

It was super quick to make and great fun too. I really wanted to get it done fast (started it yesterday afternoon and brought it for wash moments ago) so that my baby can go to bed with a cool cover! :>

Power up :>

This weekend has been fun fun fun! We caught up with some friends and she made us a really good dinner, and the kids enjoyed themselves very much too.

I also felt that Benji has grown a lot in these past few weeks. As he turned 15 1/2 months, he took his first steady steps last week and today he managed to stand himself up without holding on to any furniture, or legs, or walls. And he also finally figured out how to get in and out of his favorite push-car! It’s great to see him playing with the older kids and learning to be more independent because of his newfound mobility.

My parents came back from their vacation and they were exclaiming how much Benji has grown (in 10 days) and so many new tricks learned. One thing’s not changed – he still has his bib around his neck! Yah, my son has a MAJOR drool issue.

Over the weekend, I power-sewed. I cut up the borders for my Tales & Tidings quit, I also caught up with AmandaJean’s Star Quilt-A-Long and also cut up the fabrics for the 12 setting blocks. Phew! Chain-stitching frenzy! Half-way through to making the 48 X 4-patch pieces.

Here’s Week 3’s block. I ‘fussy-cut’ this orangey bloom fabric, which I don’t like very much. I think it turned out quite nice here! :>

This is Week 4’s block. The colours turned out more orangey with this camera. Just try to imagine it more ‘yellow-y’ :>

This is Week 5’s block. Tiring, but pretty block. After all the triangles, it was just good fun to cut strips and squares to work on the setting blocks.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the progress made so far. Fell back a few weeks because of vacation, etc. But once you get into the swing of things, the blocks came together pretty quickly :>

What a month!

Back from our vacation, and I think I need another one again! ;> It was Benji’s first flight and I’d say he did quite well. Don’t think he was very comfortable in our laps though as he is so used to having his own seat in our cars. And too bad that I only realised infant flight vests (or for lap held babies) are available after our trip. I strongly encourage people who travel with small babies to get one of these. We could not get car seats for the kids in our tour van and we had to carry Benji in our laps again. It was uncomfortable and nerve-wrecking at some points of the journey through the Bangkok traffic. Again, we would have felt safer if he had the vest secured to our seat belt.

And since our return, my time for sewing was affected when my folks took off on their own vacation. So, I had Benji all to myself for 2 weeks, and could only reply my emails during his naps and bed time. BUT I managed to squeeze in some therapeutic and quality time with my projects ;>

1. Banana Milkshake Shrug

I finally completed the shrug made for my good friend and Benji’s Godma. Meant for her BIG THREE-O birthday and I hope she likes it! I hope she will remember to take a picture of herself wearing it ;> It was really a joy to make this for a good friend, and very easy!

2. Soft book for Baby Joey

My friend’s youngest, Joey (6 months old), went into surgery the week before for her heart problems. She just got discharged from the hospital and we are all looking forward to her speedy recovery. This is the same soft book panel I made for Benji before, but then I did not have the embroidery function on my old Singer. This time, I had Joey’s name stitched in place for her with the Bernina 440 :>

3. Trip Around The World

I completed basting the lap-sized quilt and what a sense of accomplishment. Yes, it might not be a big quilt, but it was most challenging to squeeze time to get this quilt done within this busy and tiring month.

I had some strips left over and decided to make a pieced backing. I’m not bothered whether the strip is dead center – horizontal or vertical, I’d rather have it asymmetrical. I think it works better for this small quilt.

Actually I could have completed the quilt top earlier. But I found myself a few inches short of the outer border all around because I forgot to include the inner border’s width! I tried to take a short cut by piecing the border to make it longer. I deliberated for a few days after I ‘fixed it’. Ultimately, I could not bring myself to accept the mistake and ripped out the entire outer border, cut new ones and sewed it back on. I’m glad I did that. This is how one of the mitered corners of the borders turned out.

It is now sitting at a corner of my sewing table, ready to be quilted. I really hope that this could be ready before my birthday at the end of June. Not sure if I’m going to keep this quilt for myself – if yes, it will be my 30th birthday present for myself, if not, I’d give it for my mom who helped me babysit my boy during my quilting sessions!

And THANK YOU to all who have left nice and encouraging comments in my blog. I’m still pretty new to all the sewing stuff and sometimes wonder if I’m making sense about what I blogged (??). But ultimately, I want to share about what I’m doing, the mistakes I made (so you won’t make the same), and the tips I discovered, and to give back to the craft blog community since I have been so inspired by many of your blogs :>

Have a great rest-of-week ahead!