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!

Busy Weekend!

It has been a busy few days for me here. A good, quilting kind of busy.

I finally got my Tales & Tidings quilt kit fabrics all cut up, and am almost done with the block piecing, except for the borders. I'm missing the backing for the quilt though! Was going to get it on fabric.com during the sale but it is sold out :( Anyone any ideas where I can get a good deal for it online??

And on Saturday, I attended a quilt session with a couple of my quilting mates. We started with a Trip Around The World - and it was so much fun! But I also spent some quality time with my seam ripper because of the boo-boos I made (piecing wrong sides together, skipping one strip, etc). BUT I made good progress that evening when I came back and its up on my design wall! Still left some piecing of strips to do, and borders to cut. But all in all, I'm pretty happy with it. Not too saccharine sweet, just nice for me ;>

Off to a trip to the land of Smiles (Thailand!) this Thursday through the weekend with family and some friends. Hope to buy some beautiful fabrics back! :>

New star on the block!

Gosh, talk about being on the roll. Done with Star QAL block 2 last night! YAAY!

But I caught the flu bug - woke up feeling really horrid. And I'd really hate for Benji catch anything from this episode. So DH had to send him bright and early to my mom's. :( Will probably stay in bed to catch up on some sleep and then continue with the hexagons in the room!

Want to get well soon so I can cuddle my boy again, and of course, there is the sale at the quilt shop tomorrow too ;>

On the roll!

For the past few evenings, I have been browsing craft blogs, reading quilting/sewing books, and getting the sense that the Bernina is beckoning me to the worktable... Finally, I got round to visiting the quilt shop and bought fabrics and hexagon templates so that I can actually START SEWING instead of marking out the pages for 'future projects'.

It is week 2 at Crazy Mom Quilts' Star Quilt-A-Long and I'm just done with week 1's block. Will be working on the 2nd block soon, I hope! I've decided to make this a 'yellow' quilt. I don't have much yellows at home, but I think it will go quite nicely with our Birch dominant theme in our home. :>

And I got into English Paper Piecing and I'm working on the hexagon flowers with the template I picked up from the shop. I was going to start off easy, picking out a big-sized hexagon template (2.6cm), thinking of making coasters, table topper, etc. And I'm using the 1930's themed fabric for this project. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I'm just going to keep at it... who knows, it might just turn out to be one of those 'grandmothers garden' quilt! :> I keep the project in a clear plastic file box and it is so easy to bring along and work on it while I wait at the clinic, etc.

AND I'm been 'inspired' to join Bonnie's Orange Crush Mystery as well. I think I should begin with gathering the scraps first, or perhaps stop looking at the craft blogs ;>

Anyway, this Saturday is the Colourwash workshop. Will be working on a 'trip around the world' quilt! AND there will be a sale starting Thursday at the quilt shop. A good start to the month, eh? :>