Trip Around The World - DONE DONE

I've been loving this project since Day 1. The top got done quite quick and then I put it away after basting it for quilting. I meant for this project to be my 30th present for myself. But that came and went, and I didn't get it quilted in time.

Over the New Year, my only craft-related resolution was: Finish what I have started, before I start something that I don't finish (quickly) again. So, in the past weeks, I have been doing small projects for the home and for the boy - more about those later on. I've pieced 3 more backings for my completed tops so that I can get them quilted and Done Done sooner.

With a good friend's birthday around the corner, I thought I'd gift the TATW to her - as I remembered her liking it when I showed her the WIP. So, it was a few days of intense quilting during Benji's naps & bedtime. Here's the final product! It's a lap-sized square quilt, but it covered just the top of my Queen-size barely.

I simply enjoyed putting the binding on and handsewing the back down - I was like: Done already?! . Never mind that the mitered border & the mitered binding don't match much, it's still my pride and joy :>

I quilted in straight lines with the walking foot - even then my lines are not all that straight!

Here's how the back of the quilt looks like. LOVE IT.

For the label, I grabbed a verse from Dorothy Parker - how apt for a quilty gift for a friend! :>

Good Buys 2

December has been a month of crafty indulgence for me :>

Well, I haven't given into temptations YET with all the online fabric stores' sales & coupons. But I have been checking out the local crafting supplies stores, stocking up on notions and what-nots.

A couple of weeks ago, I visited a local store in Chinatown. They sell loads & loads & loads of Clover products that made me a very very very happy girl :>

Here's what I bought finally, and I did show some restraints when I returned a few items at the cashier before I checked out the items :p

1) The mesh transfer sheet - handy for transferring quilting patterns without cutting out template sheets.

2) Bias Tape Maker - you need one for each size!

3) Gauge - which came in very useful when I had to fold over 1/8 seams in my last project. But this gauge is in metric, so I had to measure it against my other imperial rulers first.

4) Water soluble marker - gosh, this works like a charm for me! Why I didn't get this much earlier is beyond me. LOVE IT! The marks wash out beautifully and most importantly, the marking is much more accurate and clear.

5) Iron-on transfer-pencil - I love the idea that I can trace out a pattern with this pencil and then transfer it to the fabrics just by simply ironing on it. Downside is that the markings will be permanent. No immediate plans/projects that call for this pencil yet. :p

6) Fabric glue stick - this will be useful for the applique works

7) Variegated thread - too pretty to be left out of the shopping basket ;>

8) Heat & Bond No Sew fusible web - I was thinking of making some 'iron-ons' for friends who don't sew. This is perfect for such 'painless' projects.

I do consider myself somewhat of a 'gadget-girl' (I love gadgets, but I don't go queueing up for iPhones just to be the first ones to get it...), and perhaps that explains why I fell in love with sewing again, after all these years. All the toys that you can buy for just marking patterns! For cutting fabrics! And once, I spent an entire day just search and surfing for various presser feets and their functions... And of course, the Internet has also made researching much easier and interesting, bringing me all the inspiring blogs of people who share their love & passion for their crafts.

Alrighty. Time to get back to work now and earn more $$ for my crafty fund (and Benji's diapers :p) ! ;>

Christmas Skirting the issue

The Christmas Skirt is officially off the tree this year.

Here's a quick look at the 'finished product'. Nope. It's not been washed yet - I'm terrified of the colours running (I didn't pre-wash the fabrics for this project)... but let me figure out a way to get this in the wash without too much drama later on.

Applique close-up. Featuring the 12 gifts for the 12 days of Christmas.

The tree would have been PERFECT with this skirt under it. But, its not meant to be, for this year, at least. :p

So, we have 'relocated' the skirt to adorn the old-style coffeeshop table and placed the candlestickholder/wreath over the centre to cover the hole. Perfecto!

It's starting to feel a lot more like Christmas now! :>

My Christmas 'mini-Skirt'

The Skirt is DONE DONE DONE. The Tree is up (left the lights to get sorted out). So, I got the Skirt out and fitted it on.

AND THEN... I realised it was too SMALL for our tall tree! :( What a HUGE disappointment!

I should have at least measured the size of the tree stand when I started on this project, but I didn't. I'm so disappointed with this, and I even contemplated running out to buy a baby tree so I can dress it up with the skirt. But what am I going to do with 2 trees in the house? :(

So, I'm going to think up a way to use this skirt then... More pictures later.

I've been busy sewing up coasters for our Christmas dinner this year. And the cat is enjoying all the activity because she has a nice warm board to cosy up to after I'm done with it. :p

Let me go have a think about the Skirt now... headache, heartache! :(

12 Days of X'mas - Tree Skirt

I've been complaining A LOT these days that the malls are putting up X'mas decor earlier each year.

On the other hand, I've been keeping my eyes open for X'mas gifts, planning schedules around the holidays and also keeping a list of things that I will need to do, clean, craft in time for X'mas. The X'mas tree skirt pattern caught my eye when I was at the local quilt shop. I attended a couple of sessions at Quilts and Sew Forth and this is what I have done up so far! :>

The creases you see are due to the folding and packing. I chose 7 different X'masy fabrics and a lovely beige/gold background fabric. I chose to cut out the 12 days of X'mas gifts from a panel for the applique, instead of tracing, and hand appliqueing other designs from scratch to the tree skirt. I simply used some Heat & Bond and machine sewed them with a blanket stitch. Quick & Easy! :>

The skirt is now basted and I will machine quilt this baby after I have joined the blocks for Benji's Zoo quilt. I'm looking forward to this skirt gracing our X'mas tree this year :>

Sashiko Coasters

Finally got round to completing the set of 5 coasters after choosing the backing fabric. Although the Sashiko coaster kit just require you to sew up the sides without any batting or backing, I chose to add on a lightweight iron on interface and a backing fabric.

I chose a dark Japanese print Kaufman fabric (almost black) with Kanji prints on it. I feel that it brings out the Japanese-ness of the Sashiko stitching.

I'm looking forward to completing the rest of the Sashiko kits!

A couple of busy months...

It has been a while since my last entry. And this blog, quilting, fabrics and sewing have been consistently on my mind! There have been several knitting projects completed (not photographed yet), many yards of fabrics bought (I can't even begin to keep track of them!) and many projects stated (I need to tweak the WIP column very soon!).

Last week, I found a really neat shop, Sin Hin Chuan Kee, along North Bridge Road. It's a traditional wholesaler shop (read: old and not great with displays) that packs lots and lots of goodies at great prices. I found Chaco paper for tracing Sashiko patterns, elastic threads, tweezers (for getting paper backing out from appliques), and there are a whole of goodies in the store! I bought 2 reels of ribbons at just about US$1.90 each for X'mas crafting too.

I was packing up my stack of WIP the other night, then I saw my Zoo blocks looking so cheery and bright... and neglected. I remembered planning for the borders to be a deep shade of red. What a perfect X'mas gift for Benji! And I started to get into the swing of things (if I leave it till 'later' again, I will not get it done!), and started tracing the fabrics, cutting them, and taped up my layout mat on the wall. I'm now sewing the rows together, then will put up the borders hopefully by end of this week! Yippee!

Baby Quilt Top Done! Yaay!

Phew! My Gram's Fairy Tale baby quilt is done! I bought this kit from Fabric.com ages ago, and I've been progressing slowly with it for a long long while. I mentioned this quilt previously in a post here.

I dug it out of cold storage and started working on it again. The tedious bit was joining the triangles that made up the outer borders and joining them to the main body required some concentration - matching points, making sure that the points don't get cut off, easing in, etc...

Amanda Jean inspired me to work on this baby quilt with her Theme of the week. Although I'm a couple of days late in delivering this baby, there's nothing for me to lose as the top is now completed! :>

The instructions are clear and easy to follow and I do love the blocks and the fairy tale prints. I'm looking forward to basting and quilting than the Queen-sized Star QAL one :p

Sorry for the poor lighting again. Took this picture at around 3am in the morning when I put in the last stitch in the border. Well, the title of my blog is MIDNIGHT CRAFTS indeed! ;>

Star QAL Top DONE

Okay, I'm sorry that I could not take a better picture. But the weather has been dreary and wet for the past 2 days and I only have my mobile phone handy now :p I will try to get a better picture when I have more hands on deck to hold this baby up! :>

The top is DONE DONE. I'm so glad!!! But it is HUGE. My back is already aching just THINKING of the basting I have to do on my hands and knees :p

I'm not in a hurry to quilt this one yet. I will probably quilt it when I complete my Zoo Stack and Whack baby quilt top, buy a few more needles and get into the mood before I tackle the quilting.

Thanks to AmandaJean, this has been fun, fun, fun :> Yes, its true that you can work out a quilt all by yourself. But when you have so many others quilting along with you, and someone committing herself to lead this project, you appreciate the effort and heart in this :>

Already looking forward to the next project! WOOHOO!

Good Buy

I have a small working area and a smaller ironing board. and I HATE it when the wire gets in the way (and cause more creases) when I have to press those backings or bigger quilts.

And I found this beauty at the departmental store today. It costs about US$40.00 and I HAD to have it. It is a medium weight dry iron, different from my regular steam iron (I don't use the steam function for the quilts) which weighs next to nothing :p These lightweight steam irons are good for clothes, but not quite the thing when it comes to quilts!

Hubby was surprised that I would want an iron this heavy :p I explained that quilting is about PRESSING, not'ironing'... I think that left him more confused than ever! haha.

I've just applied the border to one side of my Star QAL and I'd love to try out this iron on the quilt then. I have not fired up this baby yet - not in the greatest shape to stay up in the studio tonight and sitting at the machine. I think I'm coming down with a flu or something... throat's a little scratchy and bones a little achy... not in the mood to get on the floor to pin the borders on tonight. Guess I will continue with my handquilting my sampler in bed then! ;>

Have a great week ahead!

About Stars and Sashiko

I've made some progress with my Star Quilt-A-Long project and I'm happy to say that I have completed all 30 blocks and cut up all my sashings/cornerstones, waiting for sewing now :>

There has been a number of completed tops at the group's flickr folder and I thought that the quilt is 'too square' to fit into any rooms in the house. haha. A quick calculation shows that I can turn this into a Queen-sized quilt with an additional row. So, I added 2 more Stars and 3 more setting blocks.

And I also took some time to pick out my border and backing fabrics too, and they are washed and ready to go when I'm done piecing the top together.

You can see the preliminary layout below, without the sashings/cornerstones/borders. I have a piece of tape on each block to indicate which row/column they belong to, so I don't have to bother with laying them out again until they are joined.

Here are my 2 additional blocks - Dutchman's puzzle and a 9-patch star.

Recently, I found that my quilt shop carries Sashiko needles and I got really excited (for nothing). Unfortunately, the shop does NOT carry the Sashko kits/fabrics or even threads. It has been very painful looking for Sashiko stuffs in our local craft shops . And that of course gave me an excuse to shop online ;> Bought a bunch of placemat kits, some samplers and also sashiko threads. Of course, I did not have the patience to get my camera and snap a picture of the parcel as-is, but I remembered to take a pic of my spree here after I started stitching on a few coasters.

I felt that the threads supplied in the kit are not as good as the ones that you buy 'ala carte'. They seem to be more loosely twisted and a bit harder to pull through the fabric. So I'll probably just buy the sampler or the marked fabrics in the future. This is my 1st attempt at Sashiko sewing, though I've known of it for a while. Never got the chance to try my hands at i till now, because they are almost impossible to find in Singapore.

Then I visited the bookstore and bought The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe which is really packed with loads of Sashiko history and patterns for reference. I. Love. It.

Loads of WIPs since the beginning of the year, and I sure hope I have more finished projects to show for in the coming months.

Thanks for sewing with me!

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!

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!

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! :>