Previous Finishes

I've started a couple of new projects, and was about to share my progress here when I realised that I haven't posted some earlier finishes. So I thought I had better be a bit more organised and list them here first.

First up is a string table runner.

I didn't think much of it while I was making it - my focus then was just to use up some of the longer strips in my scrap bin. But I changed my mind pronto as soon as it was finished.

Now I really like it. Hip hip hooray for scrappy projects :-)

Then there's the blue coin quilt:

Baby sized, and is the blue version of a similar pink coin quilt I made a few months earlier.

I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again - coin quilts are the easiest! I highly recommend them if you're a beginner quilter or if you just need a quick finish.

I'm hoping this little quilt will find a new home soon.

Enjoy Sunday all, and have a great week ahead!

A Little Less Fabric

I've been very good lately in eating into my stash. The more I use up the more reason there is to buy some more, hee!

This week I've used up more than half of my Moda Arnold's Attic fabric.

So there's not miles left, only mere yards, eheh.

And this is where it's gone into:

My kitchen table's gotten a new look hu hu!

Hmm, maybe I should've ironed the table cover before I photographed it?

(Check out my mosaic floors, they must be about 30 years old - does anyone else have mosaic floors these days?)

For the seat covers I simply used velcro as fasteners. My previous seat covers (patchwork affairs also made by moi, of course - currently in the wash, so no photos) had ties, but I wanted this set to be simple with clean (or cleaner) lines, so I just velcro-ed it. It's not so pretty, I know, but ah well, I'm easy to please :-)

All in all, I'm giving myself a pat on the back *big smile*.

Used up any stash lately?

Starts and Stops

(Note : in keeping with the theme of this post, commentary will also be in stop-start fashion, ehehe)

Stopped : Hexagon quilt

Hit brick wall. No ideas how to continue the outer layers. Ah well, can't rush inspiration.

Started : More cushions - eheheeeee!

Labour day (we get labour day holiday here you know, Malaysia full of public holidays - another one in  couple weeks *big smile*), now where was I? Oh yes, my Labour Day project.

Using remaining bits from Annette Tatum's 'House' FQs:

To fit our standard sized 16 inch sq cushions. To match the big (30 inch sq) floor cushions made before:

Uggh, awful lighting in living room. Better light in "The Office" aka sewing room:

Ahhh, that's better :-)

Even enough scraps left over to make little quilted patchwork pouch :

Annette Tatum stash all finished.

Stopped : 'Spirited' lap quilt for friend Down Under

Perfectly justifiable excuse! Postman hasn't arrived with backing fabric!!!

Started : Batik Skirt

Couldn't resist buying these when on Langkawi:

Batik 'chop' or hand printed batik -  Guessing 'chop' refers to the stamping process when batik is printed: Dip (in wax), chop/stamp (on the fabric). Dip, chop. Dip, chop. Get it?

Results next.

Still Seeing Squares

After a weekend of stippling:

More stippling:

And a little bit more stippling...

And some final measuring, backing and binding (in front of the telly).... 

Behold the fruits of our labour:

 Two oversized pillow covers for the oversized cushions in the living room.

Tried, tested, and given the seal of approval :-)

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

Strippy Project Finished!

My, I've been productive, heh heh.

I've finished with my earth-toned strips, and here are the results.

I must say I'm really happy with how it's turned out. I've not quilted this piece, mind you, I've simply stitched on a layer of backing under the pieced top.

The finished table cloth measures about 5 ft square. There are 5 rows of blocks, each row consisting of 5 blocks. An off-white sashing was sewn in between each block, and the entire piece finished off with a 2" deep russet border all around.

My old kitchen table feels all new now :-)

There were even enough blocks leftover to make into a mini table cloth. This one has 3 rows of 3 blocks, and as with the kitchen table cloth, is also finished with the cream sashing and russet border.

Molly seems to like these strips, she seemed to be drawn to them from the beginning to the end of the Project. She insisted on 'modelling' the mini table cloth and kept getting into the frame when I tried to take these pictures.

Overall, this was quite an easy one to do. And the results are so satisfying. I hope you try it too!

Strippy Fun!

I've been having fun with strips of fabric. Strips are cut from odd bits of fabric, but not so small so as to be scraps. A variety of fabric is chosen. I gave up trying to match them after a while. There doesn't really have to be a theme, although I've made mine to consist mostly of earth tones.

Can anyone spot Molly's foot?

 Most of these strips were cut along the width of fabric, and are about 3 inches wide.

Strips are then pieced together randomly to make several nine patch blocks, each block having a cream/off-white centre block, and enclosed in a matching cream border, like so:

Each finished block (minus the border) is 7.5 inches. So far I've made about 30 of these blocks now. I'm going to make a much needed new tablecloth for the kitchen table.

Molly interfering again!

More pictures soon!

Coasters

As I sew I have a habit of chucking small bits and pieces of leftover fabric into a box. (It's sooo difficult to throw them away isn't it?) Well, the box will inevitably overflow at some point, so once in a while I go through it and try to make something out of the contents.

This time I came up with coasters. I got the idea at the office one day. I was trying hard to concentrate on work, but got constantly distracted by a sticky ring on my desk from where my coffee cup had been the previous day.

These coasters are really simple to make. Which is really great, given my schedule these days. All you need is two squares, 4" or 5" squares work wonderfully, and one square of batting.

So what you do is place the front and back pieces together (with right sides facing) on top of the square of batting. Like in the (blurry) photo below.

 Line everything up and  stitch with a 1/4 inch seam allowance along the edge, leaving about a 2 inch gap (for turning) between your starting point and stopping point. Trim away excess batting and trim the corners to reduce bulk.

Using the opening you left earlier, turn everything inside out. Quilt as desired. Don't forget to quilt over the gap to close it. I used simple straight line quilting in my coaster here.



You can also make them out of smaller pieces of scraps, like I did. Just piece enough of them together to get the desired (4" or 5" square) size, and repeating the steps above.

I love just mixing the fabric and colour randomly. That way when you flip the coaster over it's like you get a totally new one!

These babies are going to the office with me. Let's see if I can make enough for my colleagues too.

Wishing you a good week ahead!

Something a Little Different

Let me start by wishing all my Moslem friends a belated happy and blessed Eidul Adha and all my Hindu friends a belated Happy Diwali. Hope you guys had a good one.

It's still terrible at the office, but am happy to report that we're surviving so far. It doesn't help that Boss has gone on long leave, leaving us here to hold the fort. I'm usually happy when he's not around. You know what they say about the cat being away and all that... But I must say I've never been so desperate for him to come back to work, hee hee.

Anyways, since we got the day off for Eid this last Wednesday, Yummy Hubby and I went back to visit Nenek* B. We haven't seen her for a few months now, so the trip was long overdue. Nenek B lives with As, an Indonesian lady, who helps around the house and garden. In between running after Nenek B and her many chickens and turkeys and pottering about in the garden, As likes to sew. And I notice that she likes to sew one item in particular: Floor mats. Little rugs.

Everytime I visit, I usually buy one or two of these little rugs from her, so there's always one on display in my house. As gets scraps of fabric from the kampung's dressmaker, and turns them into these babies. I've always admired her work. I've noticed that over time she's become very good with details like colour. 

Basically, a rug is made of many, many small pieces of scraps, each folded into a triangle-type shape, sort of like a prairie point. These little triangles are then arranged, slightly overlapping each other into rows on a fabric base.

You can just about make out the hand stitching at the back in the picture above.

Truly a work of art, don't you think?


* Nenek - Malay meaning grandmama.
Kampung - village.

Home decor a.k.a Kitty-proofing

"The Office" a.k.a the sewing room is being redone. Nothing too major, we're just putting in a built-in wardrobe along one wall to hide all the junk. The room was just becoming too full of stuff. Not surprising really, as it serves also as a storage room and a study.

So anyway, in the process my sewing machine got (literally) buried under a pile of things, and I can't get within 2 yards of it it without rearranging half of the room.

In the meantime my blog is getting cold, so I'm going to show you a little something I made earlier. It's an easy way to give any corner of your home a new look. So here we go.

Take one chest of drawers from Ikea.

I use this chest to store our photo albums. Very practical, but a bit blah, don't you think? I figured it would also make a good two seater, so I got some plain white muslin and stuffing and made a nice two seater cushion. Like so:

A bit more comfortable, but still a bit bland. So then came the cover. A simple navy fabric, for a nice clean look.

We were quite happy with the result, until the kitties decided to make it their unofficial day bed. Because the cover is a navy and therefore very dark, the fur left behind by my sleepyheads became quite visible. I spent some weeks religiously brushing the seat before deciding enough was enough and that something had to be done about it. And like a lightbulb going off in my head I decided a little quilted seat cover would do the trick nicely. The result:



This little quilt is basically made up of Ohio Stars and Prairie points.

A close up:

The beauty about this seat cover is, now all I have to do is wash the little quilt as the need arises.

So satisfying!

Hope you had a good weekend everyone!

More Scrap Ideas!

I've been making boxes!! They're SO exciting and addictive.

These are made from scraps cut into 5 inch squares. Basically the outside will need 5 squares and the inside lining will also need 5 squares. I suppose you can make these from any size squares you like. I got the idea from a tutorial off the internet. I tried to find the tutorial before I posted this entry, so that I could link it to this post, but I couldn't find the exact one. But if you google 'fabric box tutorial' there are plenty of sites that you can refer to.



To help keep the boxes in shape you need to stuff the insides with cardboard or stiff paper. At first I thought that would be tricky to do, but it was actually quite easy! You can use any stiff paper for this, eg cereal boxes. For those of you who have just celebrated Eid, now you know what to do with all those festive cards you received.  Quilters recycle - yay!



A close up:

You can see I did a row of hand stitching at the top, just to keep everything in place.

I'm going to use them to store my hexagon paper pieces, my hairclips, spools, receipts, bits, bobs etc etc. 

They're so cute and easy, can't wait to make some more!

Clothes Scraps

Remember the bag of clothes scraps I got from my friend Jane?

Well, I've been busy making stuff with them. I figured early on that I was too lazy to do anything too fussy, so the result is that most of it went into making cushion and pillow covers.

Here are some finished:

The black flowery one on the right was a simple one made for another colleague Irene, and she also got a matching case for her fav (read 'smelly') pillow (smelly pillow not in the picture, thank goodness). The grey one on the left caused me a bit of grief, because the fabric was very flimsy, and I had chosen to make a quilted cushion case with it, silly me. In the end it didn't turn out too bad I suppose, but at that time I couldn't wait to get it over and done with :-( 
Not one of my faves I have to say, although Yummy Hubby likes it a lot - I guess it's a man's taste.

The next flowery blue one is my favourite so far:

I just looooove the ruffles! Thinking I'll be more making more like this from the larger scraps.

Now the next two are patched from smaller pieces of fabric. This fabric was also sort of gauzy, so I had to use interfacing and lining for the top. Surprisingly, it was very easy to work with and finish. The back of the covers were made from solid black fabric - also from Jane's scraps.

Not bad use from what would have been otherwise binned, don't you think?