Hexagon Applique Mini Tote

I'm happy to report that my sewing mojo appears to be making a comeback.

The hexagon applique that was sleeping at the back of the shelf has now been embellished with machine embroidery...

And made into a cute little tote...

It's a really mini tote. Sort of like a large toiletry pouch. With handles.

This little one is being gifted to Zu from the office. She'd been asking for a little bag with handles, so I thought this would be perfect. 

Hope she likes it!

Umm, thought I'd also post a photo of Milo stuffing his face...

Sometimes I think he looks just like a little alien. But a very, very cute one. Ehehehe. 

XOX

Plans

I feel like I'm on the verge of falling off the edge of blogland. It's been a challenge keeping up to date lately. I know I've hinted at this before, but oh my goodness, my day job is really making me work for my money these days! I'm trying to keep upbeat about things - I mean, at some point it's GOT to let up right? Right???

As you may guess, I haven't had the chance to do much sewing (let alone blogging), but I do now have 26 blocks (whoopeee!) of my Scrappy Trip Around the World.

I think I'm going for 36 blocks, so I've got 10 more to go, hu hu! For the moment though, I'm packing my blocks up and putting it on the temporary back burner. I'm in need of something a little more stimulating now, and let's face it, making those blocks over and over again was getting a wee bit routine. And having bits of fabric all over the place was becoming too much clutter for an already cluttered mind. This is just part of it:

But before we leave the STAW, I'll just show you what I think is my favourite block so far:

I never knew that salmon and aqua could go so well together :-)

Anyway, moving ahead, today I've peeped into my secret stash of charm packs - nothing like a charm pack to get one sewing again...

and selected 2 packs...

I'm planning on a tiny baby quilt with one pack (let's just pretend we don't know anything about any UFOs at the back of the cupboard, ok?), and a new tote for myself with the other. I've been lugging this lime green bag to work for the past month or so ...

 ... and have just about had enough of the sarcastic comments from Yummy Hubby about it. So, just to shut him up, I'm going to whip up a pretty new tote for me pronto :-)

And while I was pulling out my charm packs, this old hexagon applique fell out into my lap:

Goodness knows how long it's been sitting in there! I think it's about time it be made into something more useful.

Looks like I'll be having my hands full ... I promise to make an extra effort to check in again soon.

Until then, happy sewing!

Wonder Toy

I've been really lazy lately about posting (I know, my bad) so I thought I'd better drop in a say a quick hello - Hello!!!

Today I'm going to introduce you to my new wonder toy. Actually, it's not so new.  I got it in the beginning of January, so I've had it for a couple of months now already. Anyway, here it is, tadah!

It's the Brother QC1000. And it's amazing!

I've had my eye on it for a couple of years now. And I've been trying to get everyone to buy it for me: Yummy Hubby, Mum, Dad, even dropping hints to my friends, colleagues and boss (no harm trying, you never know when you can catch someone on a generous day right? hahaha). Of course everyone either ignored me or fell just short of telling me to sod off, so two months ago I went out to my LQS and bought it myself. And you know what? I absolutely love it.

It's such a far cry from my old Singer: there're so many functions and buttons and feet etc etc, it took me a while to figure things out. There's been a lot of trial and error. And a lot of broken needles. There was  even one night when I started bawling and sobbing like a child (not kidding here) because I thought I'd broken the entire thing. Which of course I hadn't, eheheee.

I've still got my trusty old Singer. It's been cleaned out and is currently getting a well earned rest (retirement??) in its cabinet. Yummy Hubby thinks I should give it away to someone, but I'm feeling a bit selfish (or sentimental?) about it, for now at least. Perhaps if he asked me again in a few months...

In the meantime, I'm enjoying every minute with my wonder toy :-)

Have a happy week ahead!

Two Week Update

Gosh it's been two weeks without checking in! The Chinese New Year's come and going, going, gone. Time sure flies when you're having fun, or in my case, when you're being chained to your desk (at work desk, that is) meeting deadline after deadline. Ugh. The things we do to get money to buy fabric, heheheee.

There hasn't been as much sewing as I would've have liked there to be :-(  but I do have updates on my scrappy trip around the world. They were all done just about after my last post, I just haven't had the chance to post about it here.

So what started as a pile of strips:

Soon took a more structured form:

I have to say these blocks are addictive. Once I got started it was fairly easy just to keep going and going and going. Sew. Press. Cut. Sew. Press. Cut. Until the office calls, of course.

Anyway, I managed to get 16 blocks done before my attention was called elsewhere. 16 - yay!

Played around with the layout a bit. Can't decide between this - what do you call these? Diamonds? Boxes?...

Or waves:

What do you think?

I've also taken out by Love Panel Quilt Top, and basted it AGAIN:

I really must get this quilted. I don't know why, but there's been a mental block with this one for me. I suppose it happens sometimes.

I hope everyone's had a good week. Enjoy Sunday!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy New Year! 

May the year of the sssssnake bring good things to everyone.  Here at A Fabric Case we're going through our basket of mandarin oranges...

... slowly but surely.

Tossing our yee sang -  to prosperity! 

Here's a snippet about yee sang : apparently it's not done in China, so it must be a local tradition. Typically vegetarian,  but slices of salmon are common. The ingredients are placed in a large dish with some sauces, then everyone gets together with their chopsticks at the ready and TOSS. We do this every year, even though we don't celebrate the Chinese New Year.  I suspect it's because Mum just likes to eat the stuff. 

We're also enjoying the holidays. The best part about it is - no housework! Here's another snippet for you. Just in case you don't know. It's bad luck to clean the house on the first day of the Lunar new year, apparently you turn away wealth by doing that - I think (do correct me if I've got that warped somehow). But anyway, I take maximum advantage of it and DO NO HOUSEWORK, eheehehee.

On the sewing front, I'm making progress with my Scrappy Trip Around the World - yay! I'll get some photos up soon. In the meantime, I'll just leave this progress photo for you:

Little helper

Happy Lunar New Year!

Thirsty

There's this quilt along that's going on out there in the world wide web.  The scrappy trip-around-the-world. I've been seeing these blocks everywhere - just do a google, and you'll find them. Or you can see them in this link.

And so bit by bit, little by little, I'm getting THIRSTY.

So you know what? I think I'm going to drink the Kool-Aid, hee!

I took a look at the tutorial, figured I could manage it, but still tried it out on a test block:

I'm telling you, it's SUPER easy, even for me!

So then I started auditioning the fabric:

I had a hard time deciding if I want to make it super scrappy, just scrappy, scrappy in an organised-OCD-type way, or deliberately matchy-matchy : using fabric from the same lines/same colour palette etc. Oh yes, a really hard time.

Thank goodness for some inspiration lying about:

brain fuel

Then I decided to stop thinking and just go for it! And here are the first few strips:

I'm so excited! More updates soon.

Fabric Therapy

You know what's the best thing to do when you're tired and stressed and messed up in the mind? Tear your fabric off the shelves and indulge in a little spring cleaning. There's just something soooo therapeutic about the process : Folding, re-folding, enjoying the textures of the fabric, not to mention admiring the variety of prints. Planning and imagining all types of projects. At the end of it all, you have a nice neat shelf and a nicer quieter mind. Bliss...

I discovered, to my great surprise, that I have a surprisingly small pile of red fabric. I say surprise, because red is my favourite colour most days. 

Of course I immediately thought of going on a red shopping spree, then checked myself and remembered that I had meant to go on a fabric-shopping diet. Yes, I've been telling myself I should stop buying and hoarding, and start using what I actually have... but you have to agree with me, that IS a small bundle isn't it?

I suppose I should mention that in the middle of my so called fabric diet, this arrived for me during the week:

I just couldn't resist those dots! These are from Spot On by Robert Kaufman. Err, I think. No, I'm sure. I think.

Anyways, back to the fabric cleaning. I've also sorted out my small scraps. Err, again. Now I've got a little pot for the leeettle, little scraps:

Does anyone else have trouble binning small scraps? Even when they're tiny? I keep thinking there'll be some use for them, you know, applique for example. 

Then there's the not so small scraps:

And finally the larger ones, each about a fat-eighth or larger:

I have a nice neat sewing room now,  my fabric at the ready to be pulled off the shelves again, but for sewing this time. What a fabulous way to start the weekend :-)

Hope everyone has a happy one!