30 June 2010

Cushions



When I first started patchwork piecing, I made a lot of cushions and pillows. It was good practice for all those single blocks. I suppose you could say that cushions were my guinea pigs for quilts. The blue one was one of the first. The other picture is of some other ones I made.



Recently we moved offices at work, and had new furniture installed at the new office. The new chairs were so stiff, so a couple of my colleagues requested for cushions to ease their backs:-




I think you can say that Irene is very happy with her pillow (or is it with the prospect of cyberstardom?) and Mar is very shy.






Heheee...!

28 June 2010

Weekend away

Yummy Hubby and me went balik kampung this last weekend. We visited my Nenek B, who we haven't seen since my agoraphobia episode earlier this year. V. nice trip. And certainly very, very nice to eat free range chicken again.

I like going back to Nenek B's. Somehow I feel like I'm taken care of. I can forget about being grown-up/responsible/obliging etc for a while. When I'm at my Nenek B's it doesn't matter if I'm brilliant or pathetic, whether I've been naughty or nice. It doesn't matter. I still get fed no matter what. What's more I can choose what I'm being fed with. All I have to say is, "Wouldn't it be yum yum to have Assam Fish/Sup Ekor/The Fat-Chicken-Running-Around-In-The-Coop for dinner tonight" and it's sure to be on the table. I like :-)


Nenek B's lilies were in bloom while we were there. They're so pretty I can't resist posting a picture of them...


Anyways, I managed to get some quilting done there. It's another baby quilt, and I'm hand quilting it this time. As usual it's taking forever, but I hope to get it quilted and bound by the end of the week. Here's a sneak preview:



Stay tuned!

24 June 2010

Polka Baby


This baby quilt is called Polka Baby.

It's made up entirely of polka dot fabric (apart from the white sashing of course) The polka dot fabric came from one Dessert Roll. I think you can see that some of my strips are crooked. Actually all my projects have a crooked bit in them somewhere, no matter how hard I try to make them straight. Never mind, we can always disquise the imperfections as 'handmade charm', heh heh.

Here Yummy Hubby is holding it up for the photo shoot. You can see his legs peeking out from underneath. Also if you look really, really carefully, you can see that my kuinin tree was fruiting at that time :-) Can you see it?

Another view of Polka Baby, draped over a chair.




I actually ran out of Dessert Roll before I finished this project. There just wasn't enough for the last 2 blocks. So I decided to test out my applique skills and substituted the missing blocks with a flower applique and a dinosour applique. Somehow the dinosour looks like it's in a hurry to get out of the quilt!
Here's a close up of the flower applique.

Polka Baby was given away to a friend when she had a little baby boy some time ago. I do hope it's keeping him warm and snuggly...

Beginner's tip : A Dessert Roll is a bunch of fabric strips. Each strip measures 5 inches X the width of fabric. Usually there are about 10 strips in a Roll.

23 June 2010

Introducing Milo



Meow!

My name is Milo. I'm a tabby cat and I'm 7 months old. I live with my Human Mummy and my Human Baba, and I like to play. My Human Baba says I'm very naughty. My Human Mummy is a total Fabric Case. She's mad about fabric and is always playing with them. I'm not allowed in her sewing room but sometimes I sneak in when she's not looking and have a good sniff around. Sssshhh!! Hee hee.

This is a picture of me my Human Baba took when I had a bad foot. One day I tried to play with the big ginger cat outside. I guess he didn't like me because he made a big hole in my foot. I couldn't walk and had to go to the cat doctor who wrapped a long fabric strip around it and made it all better. Now I can run around being naughty again. My Human Mummy says I drive her mad and that I'm a Nut Case.

Here is a cat quilt my Human Mummy made for me. She made quilts for my Abang Cat and Kakak Cat too. I can't show you theirs, because one day they fell asleep and didn't wake up, so Human Baba took them and wrapped them in their quilts and tucked them in a hole in the garden. Human Mummy said they're sleeping in heaven and their quilts will keep them warm.

Pinks and Greens aka The Bus Quilt





I made this some time ago with Moda's Sultry Charm Pack. As I used only one pack, the result was quite a small quilt, about 2.5 feet X 2.5 feet. Aren't the colours yum yum??


The next picture is my attempt at a close up of the different fabric. Like My First Quilt, this one is also machine pieced and quilted.








I was so excited when I finished it and showed off to Mum. She promptly took possession of it and it's been sitting in Dad's 'bus' (a term adopted by little Nephew for Dad's van, LOL!) for the longest time, and used as a travel blanket/pillow by Niece and Nephew.

Recently Mum and Dad went away on a trip overseas so I grabbed my chances and quietly reclaimed ownership of Pinks and Greens, ahahawww haw!! (I wonder if they've missed it yet?) Now it's doubling as a wallhanging in my office.

If you've got a lonely charm pack lying around, arrange the squares in rows of 6 X 6 and piece together (this pack has 42 squares so you should still have a few squares left over). You can arrange them in any order that suits your fancy. Then add a couple of borders in coordinating colours, in any width you want. My borders were about 2" and 3" wide. Put them all together and you're done!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Beginner's tip : A charm pack is a pack of 5 inch squares, all from different fabric, but from the same line. A pack contains about 30/40 squares.

21 June 2010

My First Quilt



My very first quilt! A very simple one, made with 5" Winnie-the-Pooh Squares, alternated with pale yellow and green squares. Machine pieced and machine quilted. It was made for my cousin's baby, and was finished just in time too!

Sew easy!

Oh by the way, the interloper in the photo is Baby Tiger, who was testing out the quilt for Baby...

Revolutionized!

Breakthrough! I'm blogging, I have my own blog, my very own blog!!!

Background : Am a bit technology retarded. The internet spooks me. Until recently I didn't have any idea what the difference was between upload and download and the only cookie I know is the one we eat (generous sprinkle of chocolate chips preferred). So believe me when I say this is an achievement, woo hoo!

Why blog? Because I have to, have to share my love for the crafts. And FABRIC!!!!! I lurrrrrve, absolutely luuuuurrrve fabric. If I don't have an outlet for this passion, I might be in danger of imploding. Or talking to myself. But then I already do that sometimes :-)

But that's another story. Back to the blog, I am an amateur quilter. A total fabric case. So I'll be sharing some of my work on this blog. When I have some time, maybe I'll post some tutorials too. Sewing is so easy. And SO satisfying. Ok, sometimes sooo frustrating, like when you discover you've stiched something back to front. But in the end so definitely worth it. Come join me if you can - I'll be back soon!