30 April 2012

Tempation

I wish they would stop running these ads...



An entire 50% slashed!

HALF priced!

I shall NOT be tempted.

Or shall I?

Arrhhh arrrhh arrrrrrrrrrh!

28 April 2012

Liebster Blog Award

I received the Liebster Blog Award from the talented FarahLin of Handmade by FarahLin - thank you FarahLin!!! Muah!

To be perfectly honest, I had not come across this award before, and FarahLin was very good in explaining what's it's all about in her post:

"The Liebster award (German for favourite/dearest) is to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note. A way of introducing other bloggers to the blogs they enjoy.

The Liebster Conventions says that :
1. Thank your award presenter on your blog and link back to him/her
2. Copy and paste the award to your blog
3. Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that you think deserve to be recognized
4. Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
5. Have faith that your follower will spread the love too!"



Unlike her though, I must admit that I had a little bit of trouble choosing bloggers to pass this Award to, primarily because I've found that most blogs I read/follow are so popular they have more than 200 followers. Hmm, I think this is a reality check - it shows that I should really spend more time checking out the newer blogs too!


Ok, without further ado, I would like to present the Liebster Award to...




1. Mama Daniel Danish of MamaDaniel :  I love her - she's so cute!


2. Azidah of Princess Closet : She doesn't know this (yet) but I enjoy reading about her travels.


3. Sertyan of Sertyan's Sewing Corner : Another talented lady, you won't believe the outfits she makes - I'm always looking forward to the next dress!


4. Sheen of Mission Possible : The Stay at Home Mom (don't you just love that name? Mission Possible - yeah!) : This lady comes up with the yummiest looking dishes! 


And lastly...


5. FarahLin of Handmade by FarahLin : I don't know if I'm bending the rules here, but no matter,  she's so talented she should have two awards!


Enjoy! 

25 April 2012

Bluggered. And a Finish

Is it just me or has Blogger recently changed its format for everyone else? I've been having some trouble with my posts ever since, specifically that new posts keep disappearing. What's worse is that the contents of said posts disappear too and I've had myself retype things only to have them pfoof off again. And one post was a really wordy one - arrrh arrh! Is anyone else having this problem or am I the only one being bluggered? (note : in case you're wondering this is a non-word created by self in fit of frustration).  I suppose it doesn't help that I'm completely useless with all this techie stuff either does it?

Anyway I'm hoping this post airs somewhere over the ethernet (and stays there).

Just thought I'd share my blanket finish - hip hip hurray!


It's currently being modelled on the double bed in our guest room.


I especially love the backing fabric - purchased from Nagoya. The little flower prints are so cuuuuute!


I've decided for this to be gifted to Nenek B. That's my Grandmama on Dad's side. The one with the Angry Bird(s) (from this post).  I think this will do really nicely for her. And with Mother's Day coming up soon, I'm glad I tackled this one when I did.

Now, let's see if this one gets into cyberspace...


22 April 2012

Missing!

So I was all psyched to start quilting my 1930s Reproduction Quilt this weekend.

I found some cute pink and yellow plaid sort of print in my stash which I thought could do for the backing fabric. What do you think?


Then I started getting the normal things together, you know, batting, notions etc. And then found that I couldn't find all my basting pins. Arrgh!

I did find some, but all the others seem to have disappeared. I've looked and looked and now the only conclusion I can reach is that I may have accidently tipped the pin box into the rubbish bin. Or one of the Meows may have. Although they wouldn't have done so accidently I'm sure.


So now I have a grand total of SIX pins. I can't very well baste my quilt with 6 pins now can I?


I don't know if I should turn the sewing room inside out again to look for them. Although I suspect that I really can't be asked to. So quilt top, I suppose you'll just have to wait till I when I can get a re-stock of pins.

To everyone else - Happy Sunday!

19 April 2012

1930's Reproduction Quilt Top

Is finished! 


Eeeheheeeeehhheeeee!


I used this tutorial - but added a border with leftover fabric.


Yum yum yummy yum!

18 April 2012

Of Triumph and Disaster

Had a little bit of both in the past week.

Finished piecing my big UFO:


Huhu!!!

I have decided for this to be a blanket. As opposed to a quilt. Had my run over to our closest Nagoya (Malaysian textile store for those not in the know) for some backing fabric, and, fingers crossed there will be a new blanket in the house, hee!

And for something less triumphant, I present my banoffee pie.


A first time try. Induced by the overload of bananas found in the house recently. I used this recipe.

The pie base was good, the cream topping was good. But the fudge bit was a little bit of a disaster. I'm sure its supposed to taste like fudge or toffee, but mine had the taste and texture of plain ol' condensed milk - acck!
(Edited note : Condensed milk effect is probably due to lack of cooking talent on my end - and not to any fault in the recipe!)


Ah well. Where there's Up, there's down. There's Yin and there's Yang. So am not complaining.

:-)

10 April 2012

Just Sewing

Just been sewing, tackling a long awaiting UFO.


Adding sashing and a border ...


Moving along, slowly but surely ... 


A new top to be finished soon!

07 April 2012

Setback

There's been a little setback on the sewing front around here. Sure there was a little more travel last week, but the main culprit for this short hiatus was simply a tiny bit of hardware. My old Singer was acting up a bit. Not too much really,  mainly giving me tension issues (both on the fabric and on the nerves in my neck and shoulders). Naturally I called in the maintenance man but I still wasn't 100% happy after he left. It behaved well enough at the time, but not long after he'd gone it was back to nonsense. I've had my machine for 8 years more or less, so I think I know when it's happy or not, and this machine definitely was not.

I resorted to some hand sewing for a while, and came up with more hexies, and hand quilting:




But the machine kept calling, so I persevered to troubleshoot (hmmm... maybe I should say don't do this yourself - you should always call in a professional, unless of course you are a professional - which I'm not, I'm just stubborn). Before long there was a teeny, tiny sound, almost like a click - I could have missed it had I not been so accustomed to my machine's little noises) and upon inspection, emerged victorious with the culprit:


Can you guess what it is??

Feed dogs!

Yup, I broke my feed dogs :-(

I have no idea how I broke them. A couple of weeks back I broke my walking foot, and the people at my LQS were stunned. I guess I'm just going through a breaking patch. Yummy Hubby was really nice and said it's only natural, just some inevitable wear and tear, instead of suggesting that I could really try to be more delicate with things. Haw haw!

And so anyways, once the culprit was found, it took but a quick trip to the shop (actually it wasn't so quick because we got really lost trying to find it, but I digress) and replacement dogs were soon installed.

You can imagine I'm now completely spirited, and have grand plans for sewing. Of course, nothing less than a new quilt will do. I've decided to use this cute bundle of 1930s reproduction prints, which I'd completely forgotten about for a while:


And because I'm feeling so buoyed I think I'll tackle this UFO (remember these blocks?):


Let's see how far we'll get shall we? ehehee.

Happy weekend everyone!