Done!

My blocks for the Sis Boom Pow! block gather are all done and I'll be posting them off to V in NYC tomorrow (weather permitting - the walk to the post office!), and my Black and White quilt top is done too, I'm just waiting for the bacing fabric to arrive from Spoonflower. I can't wait to see the fabric, it should be here soon as it was post two weeks ago tomorrow! It's dark here now, but I'll take photos of the blocks and the quilt top in the morning sunshine and post tomorrow.

In the meantime, have you seen the new Block Party quilt along? There's a giveaway over on the blog to celebrate.

x

Catch up

So....... had visitors galore for the last eight weeks, and now we're home alone! Yay in one way, but boo in another as I miss my mum : (

Aforementioned visitors have resulted in limited crafting and even more limited blogging. So here's a post full of the goings on over the last few weeks.

I received my parcel from my swap partner for the friendship bag swap. The lovely Frieda of sheknitsallday sent me not one but TWO beautiful bags, one for me and one for Possum, she's adopted the one on the right and took it out yesterday to carry her maraca and a little cow (as you do). Frieda also sent some lovely FQs, a covered tape measure and a little toy for Possum (not in the picture - already in toy basket!) Possum also love the tape measure, she pulls the whole thing out and then looks on in amazement when I push the button to retract the whole thing.

The birthday quilt was not finished on the actual birthday, so I whipped up this tutu from this tutorial as a quick on the day present, and the quilt was finished in time for the party a few days later - unfortunately it was finished in the nick on time and was hastily pulled from the dryer and promptly wrapped and arrived only 15 minutes late to the party - which meant no pictures! But I have asked for some pics so hopefully I'll have some soon.

I sign up for the Sis Boom Pow! block gather which V from Bumble Beans has organised. Fabrics donated by Jennifer Paganelli and a request for appliqued blocks. Here's the fabric parcel I received from V (I don't know if you can see in the pic the little bee in the cornerof the envelope, a nice little calling card - very cool, think I may have to get me one!)

And here's my first attempt at machine applique, quite a few puckers so I think I need to lift the foot at every pivot and be a bit more careful, now I just need to finalise my design, hmmmmmm.

And onto my most recent project, the black and white quilt for the Grandparents for Christmas.

I have already printed lots of black and white pictures of Possum and her cousin onto the inkjet fabric, they are all wash, pressed and cut out. I think the fabric worked quite well, although it did skew slightly after rinsing, and the colours look a little green tt me which I think will annoy me beyond belief as I am a real stickler for colour matching (used to be a big part of my job!)

My inspiration for this quilt, started from this, and eventually turned into a version of this but with actual pictures. I'm going to frame each picture with one of the black and white fabrics, and then put them all onto a white background courtesy of the Ikea flat sheet, and the Piece de resistance of the whole quilt will be the backing courtesy of spoonflower, but you'll have to wait for that to be revealed!

x

A new week.

Well another week rolls, by......

I kind of got a bit behind on the Fall Colour Week, and I'm afraid short of going and buying some plums, I give up with plum! But here's Thursday Chestnut, our lovely family dog, who sadly went up to the big kennel in the sky last week : (

I finished my friendship bag and posted it on Friday, but being the complete numpty that I am I forgot to take a picture of it before I posted it, maybe my partner will take a picture when she receives it. Also in the post I posted back the DVDs which my MIL had sent that week - wrong envelope - we hadn't even watched them!!!

I have a deadline this week, the birthday quilt which is in progress ....... birthday is on Wednesday! Party isn't until Saturday so maybe I could give myself a little extension! But I've had quilted some bit and started machine quilting, but I just couldn't get the tension right, and then I got lots of tucks in the fabric, so I'm unpicking all that and then I'll have to decide what quilting to do........

x

Wednesday Fall Colour Week - Goldenrod

The colour of Jiffy envelopes which the postman brings contain recordings of X-Factor! Yay!!!!

Friendship Bag Swap

I've been beavering away at the bag for the Friendship Bag Swap, and I'm very nearly finished, then I just need to fill it with some goodies and sent it off to it's new European home.



I've been checking out all the blogs from the list of other swappers and so far haven't found one which I think is heading my way, I v much looking forward to receiving mine, and even more excited about my European swap partner getting hers!

x

Tuesday Fall Colour Week - Burnt Sienna

Day Two of Fall Colour Week is Burnt Sienna - Meg from Elsie Marley describes Burnt Sienna as like the rooftops of Sienna - how about a picture of the rooftop of Sophia?

It's not actually Burnt Sienna, some would call it "ginger", others "red", hairdressers have told me it's "Titian" so as Titian was Italian (but from no-where near Sienna) I think it counts!

x

Monday Fall Colour Week - Brick Red

Elsie Marley is hosting a Fall colour week, based on Crayola crayon names, so I thought I'd play along, despite there being a complete lack of seasons here in Singapore!

I'm running a little behind as yesterday was a public holiday here in Singapore and was spent doing fun family stuff, but the way I figure is it's still Monday in the US so I think this post counts! Yesterday was Brick Red, so here's my pic, it's of the Buddha Tooth Temple in Chinatown.

Tomorrow is Burnt Sienna.....

x

WIP

Here's my latest WIP, it's the birthday present quilt for a friend, and here are the blocks all sewup, threads trimmed and pressed.....


Next came laying them out to plan the quilt layout...

Then came the ginger possum destruction unit, and this is the aftermath!


x

Another beach ball and a new project

We're back from a little holiday to Bali, which was fabulous, for the trip I made Possum a little beach ball with some of my prized Far Far Away fabrics, she seems to love it which is pleasing!

And now my next project...... a 1st Birthday present for a friend's daughter. I order some fabrics from afabricoutlet on Etsy, and I pulled together this bunch of fabrics for it, what do you think?

Now I think I will pre-wash these - that must be the worst bit of making a quilts! Then the cutting up, then my favourite bit sewing the first few pieces together. Although I think the bestest bit of making a quilt is that last seem which finishes the top - what's your favourite part of the quilt making process?

x

Snuggy

I've been meaning to make Possum a snuggly/security blanket type thing for a while now, and here's what I came up with....

I used some Heather Ross Far Far Away double gauze for the front, and Princess and the Pea panel, surrounded by little snails. And on the back is leftover pink fleece. I sewed some ribbon loops into the seam on the front panel for some interest and something for little hands to explore, and I bound the whole thing with peach coloured satin blanket binding (not easy to work with!) I hand quilted a loopy line around the border, kind of like a snail trail, and I quilted Possum's name down one side.

So far she has quite liked it, and it's been everywhere with her (my choice rather than hers!), I hope she really takes to it - I still get a warm fuzzy feeling when I think of my Bowie (my baby blanket which I had until I was 11!) and I hope Possum feels the same about her snuggy.

x

Oh Fransson's pincushion organiser.

Introducing my latest sewing project.......

It's the pincushion organiser from this tutorial by Elizabeth from Oh Fransson on Sew Mama Sew. It was really easy to make and the instructions were al very clear. The little bag for scraps and threads is very useful. I used some Erin McMorris Wild Wood, and some cool batik-y type fabric from Quilts n Calicoes.

Spot the mistake? I cut the piece to make the organser section the wrong way round, so the trees grow sideways - never mind!

Definitely a tutorial I recommend - I'll be making my mum one of these for Christmas - and speaking of Christmas - flights back to Blighty book - YAY!!!!!

x

Handmade presents

One of mine and Possum's bessie mates is moving back home tomorrow and we had to say goodbye today : (

As a little token departing gift I made Possum's buddy this little fabric beach ball using this tutorial from Purl Bee. I used some Amy Butler Full Moon Dots, some Jay McCaroll's Wood Maze, some cute birdie fabric and some orange solid. It was really easy to make, except the circles on the ends, the tutorial says to cut out the circles and iron the the fabric in a little, but this was waaaaaay too hard for me, so I used this tutorial for circles, and they turned out pretty well I think!
And for my buddy I made the "Poopy Clutch" from this tutorial. A few things went a bit worng but I gave it to her anyway as I thought she'd see the wonky bits and think of me!

I'll definitely be making more of the beach balls, they're fab!

x

A leson learnt.....

I'm fairly new to the quilting world, and I'm learning all the time.



I've recently learned a great lesson in pre-washing fabric, well I had a pre-washing incident and I am yet to assess exactly what I have learnt.....



These are my lovely owl and mushrooms Alexander Henry prints, and I pre-washed them along with the other fabrics inteded for my next project all together. I bought the other fabrics from Spotlight and they were a poly/cotton blend. I suspect the culprit of the above and below pictured grievous assault was the red!



The pictures don't look toooooo bad, but in real life the fabrics now look murky and horrible, luckily I only prewash half of what I had of each fabric so I'll use the other half in the quilt. Do you think some of that dye-gone type stuff will work to get the fabrics back to their pre-pre-washing beautiful state?

And do I take from this to.....

a. not pre-wash fabrics?

b. pre-wash dark colours separately?

c. don't buy cheap poly/cotton blends?

d. to pre-wash fabric on a very cool wash?

There we have it, still so much to learn!

But the fabrics are intended for an outdoor play quilt - here are all the fabrics together.

I want this quilt to be used and so I want to back the quilt in something hardwearing - any ideas anyone?

x

Another bag

I've made myself another bag - my Heather Ross Weekend Sewing Hold Everything Tote actually holds too much! So I looked around the good old "t'internet" for a bag tutorial. I knew what kind of shape and size I wanted but didn't know how to make one without some guidance. I stumble across this tutorial, and it was brilliant as I could alter the pattern to fit my needs.



I made the strap shorter and wider, and I made the bag bigger all around. I also lined the pockets and made the fastening from velcro. Big lesson learnt here - when pressing a project involving velcro avoid the velcro! I managed to melt the loops! I made it using canvas from Ikea which I bought to make Possum some curtains, and lined it with some orange fabric I have. Here the bag in use - carrying toys!





I'm well chuffed with it! It's just what I wanted! And I loe the super-bright colours. It could maybe be an inch bigger - but I'll just have to make another one with some amendments!

I've also signed up for a Friendship Bag Swap over at the Quilting Gallery - should be good fun, check it out. It'll be my first ever swap - how exciting!


x

I wish I had a studio........

Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, has posted about her studio, and asked commenters to show her their creative spaces. Well this is mine........




It may be my space where I create but it is certainly not creative! It's the end of the dining table! When you live in a three bed 1100sq foot apartment - there is nowhere to claim as my "creative" space : (



Maybe one day I'll have my own little room..................... a girl can dream can't she?

x

Whirlygiggles finished!

Yay! Quilt No. 2 is finished! I started it way back here in May. It's destined for my niece in England as a Christening present - unfortunately I won't be able to deliver it myself, but it will be on a jet plane across the continents in September.



I used this tutorial as a starting point, but modified the angle of the trapezoid/trapezium (big words!) to fit the size of the blocks and also to make it look the way I wanted. I also added on the seam allowance to the measurements and used the rotary cutter instead of making a template and cutting out all the shapes.


Here's how I did it..... my finished blocks are 6.5 " so I cut my fabric into 4.5" x 4" rectangles, I then I marked 1/2" up from the centre line on one side, and 1/2" down from the centre line on the other side, stacked a bunch of rectangles together and rotary cut from the marking on one side to the marking on the other - hey presto a load of trapezium/trapezoid ready to be sewn into Whirlygiggles. More whirlygiggle quilts can be seen here and here. And if you're into paper piecing - here's a tutorial on paper piecing a whirlygiggle.


The fabrics, are left overs from this quilt with a couple of extras added in. I know my SIL is not such a big fan of pink - and she loves orange, so I added in the Amy Butler's Ripple Stripe in Orange, to try to de-pink the overall look, I also added the orange border in linen which I just love! Orange is a very happy colour!

I tried something a bit different on this quilt, I used a fleece blanket as the batting AND the backing, I think it works quite well, it's made the quilt a nice weight for a toddler quilt. And in keeping with the current economic downturn - the fleece was a bargain! I just wish I had put a layer of white fabric between the top and the fleece as the pink shows through a little - but hey you live and you learn.

My lovely sewing machine was purchased half-way through the making of this quilt so it is half hand pieced and half machine pieced. All the blocks were hand pieced and then the whole thing was assembled using the machine. I still really enjoy hand piecing, but I love how quickly things come together with the machine.

For the quilting, I hand quilted a quarter inch in on all the cream bits, and then did parallel lines around the linen border - I think that may be my trademark in borders as I really like how it looks.

This is the first quilt I've labelled properly - the other's are on my to do list! I hand embroidered the label as inspired by this.


I here's my little possum - who generously agreed to model for me!


I hope my little niece treasures this quilt for years to come.

Next project - a quilt for her baby brother or sister who is currently a bun in the oven!!

x

More stash building

I've been indulging myself in a little more stash building, this time from Quilts n Calicoes .

These are some more black and white prints for the picture quilt intended for the grandparents Christmas present. I need to find more greys as at the moment the quilts is very black, and I don't want the stark contrast which too much black and white will give - oh no that means more fabric buying - shame!


These two are kind of intended for the quilt for our bed based around the Heather Ross Matryoshka fabric - but I'll have to wait and see if they go.


And now I definitely need to find a better place to keep my fabric stash than this Canele bag!

Whirlygiggle update

Here's the "Whirlygiggle quilt so far.....



I just need to finish off the hand quilting, including quilting in the recipient's name, machine quilt the border (eek, this will be my first machine quilting adventure!) sew on the binding, and make and sew on a label, oh yes and then wash and dry and wrap up! Phew that sounds like lot of work - I had best get on with it!

x

Things to make.....

I'm so inspired whilst trawling around blogland, I find so many fabulous tutorials out there, and I want to make them all!!

Here's what I really want to make. (I'm not really sure what the etiquette is for using pictures, but I hope all the people who's work I refer to don't mind me using their photos)

This gorgeous Felt Garland from Anna Maria Horner's blog, this one will definitely be on the tree come Christmas (that's how long it takes me to get my proverbial ahem into gear!)

The Kidlet Wall Pocket/Tidy Tote - from JC Handmade this one is way down the "to do" list - not because I don't love it, but because I think it's a bit much to ask of a 7 month old to tidy up after themselves! But I can just see these on all the doors and hanging on hooks in bedrooms in out beautiful house in England - oh how I miss my house : (

This fab Play Microphone - from Blueprints which is again way down the list until Possum is a bit older.

These groovy Soft Trees - from Little Birds Handmade, I'll have to find somewhere for these to go come Chirstmas time, but I also thing they make cool ornaments any time of year - don't you?

I just lurve these little Love Birds - from Molly Chicken
I'll be making six of these to send to my nearest and dearest six best buddies back in blighty.

This well used tutorial for Fabric Baskets by Pink Penguin, is there anyone in blogland who hasn't made one (well me - but I will make one soon!)

Another one for when Possum is older but this Tutu tutorialfrom Plumtickled has got Possum's name ALLLLLLL over it!

The Poopy Clutch - from IS.LY I'll be making one of these for me and many other ladies and ther adorable babies!It's great fits a few nappies/diapers and a packet of baby wipes, and hey presto purse magically turns into a nappy/diaper bag without morphing into some horrendous monstrosity!

This Toy gathering basket - from Sew Mama Sew posted by Kristen, is a great idea, it's a toy in itself with all the little toys in the side pockets, I think it's great to encourage kids to tidy up.

And these Baby Cloth Shoes - from Stardust Shoes, Possum doesn't really wear shoes at the moment, but when she starts walking/cruising she'll need some (and I don't think that will be long the rate she's going!)

Well those are all the projects I want to make, plus a whole load from the extremely talented Elizabeth from Oh Fransson. I made the laptop pouch for a friend but forgot to take a pic before I gave it away - doh!

Now I just need to decide which one to make first.....................

Inspiration

This super cool and groovy art installation stands in the foyer of the National Museum of Singapore. I love the contrast of something so hard and associated with violence and war - turned pink and girly. All the shades of pink together make me want to make a pink quilt! And the batik banners on the walls are just yummy.


And here's a pic of the the Chinese New Year decorations at the Paragon, I love the red and black, with the bright white light shining out - this makes me want to make a Chinese inspired quilt.


But I've made a rule for myself - one quilt at a time! And until the Whirlygiggle quilt is finished I MUST NOT start another! I'm just over halfway through handquilting the blocks, then I'm going to brave some machine quilting in the border (only straight lines!) - watch this space for an update!

x

My first sewing project

Here is my first sewing project from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing.

The raw materials.......

Et voila - the finished article


It's the Everything Tote. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, I'm using it as my combo handbag/diaper bag, and it's pretty roomy so it fits LOADS in. I used red ticking for the body and green ticking for the binding and handles, and the coolest camo print with hearts for the lining.

Of course I made a few amendments to the bag in the book. Firstly my tote is smaller - but still huge. The book calls for 1/2 yard of inner and 1/2 yard of outer fabric to make the tote. However this is way off the mark, I couldn't even cut the bag pattern piece from my half metre, never mind cutting the handles and binding on the bias! So I had to trundle off to Spotlight and get more fabric halfway through! In all I used 1.1 metres of ticking to make the bag and it's about 3 inches smallr in width.

I also used the suggestions from this post on AlewivesGirl to change the instructions to make more sense. I only folded the binding and the handles once, and I even left the straps open so that you can see the lining underneath and so that the straps are wider and stay on my shoulder better.

All in all, I'm pretty chuffed with my first sewing project (since I was at school) and I think the bag looks pretty special! (By the way I think I "forgot"to mention that my sewing afficianado mum was here for two weeks and oversaw the whole project!)

I already have my cogs whirring on making more bags!

x