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!

And Then There Were Two

Two finishes this time - two!

They're both tiny though, baby sizes:

The first one was really simple - I used a panel, so no piecing! It was just a matter of layering, basting, quilting and binding.

I really, really liked making this one - because I always have fun stippling :-)

Yummy Hubby thinks it's a little boring, as all it is is a panel, but I love it all the same. Such cute safari animals...

In the photo above you can see the stippling a bit more clearly (I hope). And I'm happy to report that there's not a pucker in sight, hu hu! (Tip - always baste properly!!!)

Even the backing fabric is so cute...

Hmmm... can someone tell me please how to keep a kitty off a quilt?

It seems every time I lay down a quilt a kitty will come along and try to claim it...

The second quilt is a girly patchwork quilt.

If you've been following my blog recently you'll notice that patchwork quilts are fast becoming a favourite. This one's not so scrappy though - I used about 10 different prints, but threw in the odd matching square here and there. I only just finished this one this last weekend. It was made in a bit of a rush, for a neighbour who just welcomed their first grandchild a few days ago. As a personal touch I machine embroidered the little one's name in the corner:

I haven't had a chance to pop over next door yet, the poor thing's got jaundice now, so she's still in the hospital :-(

Hope everyone has a good week ahead!

Quilter, Interrupted

I was happily unpicking in front of the telly the other night.

Then got up to get a glass of water.

When I got back to the sofa, this is what I found:

She seemed to love snuggling in the quilt - and wouldn't move no matter what I said or did. Needless to say, that was the end of my unpicking activities for the day.

But you know what the strangest thing about it all was? I don't think that's even my kitty!

In other news, this came in the post for me:

There isn't anything quite as exciting as getting fabric in the post, is there? It's a baby panel, some backing fabric and binding. All bought locally, from May May Shop.

I began basting immediately! Told you I was excited :-)

Quilting - and more unpicking hopefully - soon.

Finishes

It's been a little slow going on the sewing front so far this year, but I musn't complain. I did manage to make my first ever softie, and then this past week managed another couple of projects.

I finally finished sewing a yoga bag for a friend. She's asked for it for a while now, but I was too busy procrastinating until recently. You know how it is, eheheh. I was very happy when she said she wanted pink, because I have plenty of pinks in my stash. And she also wanted to have the bag monogrammed with her name on it. That meant some applique, and more procrastinating ehee.

But here it is at long last, in it's finished form:

And a close up of the applique flower:

I can't wait to give it to her :-)

Then once I got sewing I just had to make something else, so I made a little shopping bag for myself.

Whoops! Someone's foot is in the frame, hehee.

It's foldable (the bag, not the foot), with a tie, so when I'm not using it I can bundle it up and keep it in my handbag. I feel all environmentally friendly now :)

And this is what I will be up to this week:

Unpicking!

This is what happens when you don't bother to baste your quilts properly. I was so keen to start quilting something that I rushed the basting. And now I have puckers galore.  Yuck.

So as you can imagine, I'll be pretty busy with yards of unpicking. Until the next time, happy sewing!