Teddy Bear

I made this courtesy of a pattern freebie from Hillary Lang. (She is just such a talented lady and I LOVE her website!) There is something very therapeutic about hand sewing and I had a lot of fun making it. C wanted it so I gave it to him.

Cat Wall Hanging

Made this for another friend and I started it off like this:

As it had a very busy border, with an equally busy centrepiece, everything looked too cramped. So, I had to unpick and inserted another border like this:

Finally finished it last night! Hand quilted.

Table Runner - Part 2

Finally finished hand quilting 1/4 inch all around the blocks. I put a blue binding to bring out the blue flowers in the fabric. Even though it is a small project, I have been very pleased with how it has turned out. I hope my friend in Australia will like it. It is a Christmas gift but I did not want to put any Christmas fabrics on it so that she could use it whenever she wanted.

Table Runner

I am making a Cherry Lane table runner. My photo quality has been very inconsistent, even though I am using my DSLR and making adjustments to the Kelvin temperature.

It took me 2 nights to put it together and I will start hand quilting it tonight.

Ok, it doesn't look like much but C had a birthday party today and the theme was "Mermaids and the Sea!" I had been thinking about a costume for him, after being very inspired by Halloween, and was wondering what would be appropriate? Pirate? Possibly. Starfish? Too difficult.


I left it till an hour before the party started and C gave me the idea himself.

"Mum! I want to go as seaweed!"

What a great idea, I thought and luckily, had some green bubble wrap. I cut them into strips and stuck them to a ribbon. I put in some darker green streamers for more depth and effect. In the end, it looked kind of cheap but it was made in less than 20 minutes so I really couldn't have expected more.

Coasters

Made this last night for my first batch of Christmas presents for friends. It was quick and simple and I was glad to be able to use up my scrap fabrics. Instructions for this great idea are taken from this blog. However, I took the photo in very dim conditions and that is why there is a blue tint to my photos

Friendship quilt Part 2

This is a continuation of my quilt after leaving it aside for several days. I followed a pattern from the Australian Quilt Magazine and the measurements were all wrong!!! I had to unpick, throw away precious fabric to re-do borders. Even the actual muslin size was wrong, there were meant to be five dolls on the centre. I have finally completed the outer border but it was given at a measurement of 1.5 inches and after sewing it all together, I realised that it did not include the quarter inch seam allowance! Argh! I am not going to make any more changes but the border will be thin.

Halloween 2008

I told someone that I am re-living my second childhood through my boys.  Everything about it was fun.  Making their costumes was fun and even more rewarding when people in the streets were exclaiming, “Rubicks! Lego!” There were about 3,000 people who came from all over Singapore to this small American neighbourhood.  What a crush of people there were! Some of them go all out to decorate their homes with all kinds of skeletons, spider web, etc. There was one which had a cat the size of a motorbike on the roof - it was moving and meowing in a scary way.

Getting ready for trick or treating!

The start of the crush of people coming!

Houses Decorated

Friends!

The boys were asked repeatedly to pose with strangers as they liked their costumes. J wanted to be Darth Vader but now he is beginning to see the benefit of wearing a little more unique. He was very happy with his costume in the end.

Snarling Werewolf

There was this werewolf who stood in front of his gate and would scare away the children coming in for trick or treat. I thought he was very good, he carried C high up and snarled convincingly.

Grim Reaper

 It was a very hot day, with a threat of rain but it was all perfect in the end. By 7.30pm, J and C were grumbling because they were tired and melting inside their boxes. However, Halloween celebrations will be one of our many treasured memories of Singapore one day.

Rubicks Cube Costume

This is C's costume for tomorrow. As you can see, both their costumes are a little rough around the edges. The collar scrapes C's neck so I have to make a little "cushion" to go around his neck so that it will not hurt him as the night progresses.

First Halloween Costume Completed

I have finished my first costume for J which he will wear to school for the Halloween parade at school on Friday. Now I am working on C's. The paint was absolutely foul, as I was spraying, it was so noxious that my throat was sore afterwards. I hope that the boys will be ok wearing it as it as dried and doesn't smell as bad.

This is J's costume. Not terribly happy with it, don't like the way the back buckles up so I have been working on some finishing touches to make it sit better. On the day itself, he will be wearing red pants and t-shirt to match.

Friendship quilt

I will be pretty busy the next few days as I am rushing to make Halloween costumes for the boys and myself. Anyway, here is a little something I am working on at the moment… I am trying to use up all my scraps. For my applique work, I had been using the old fashion way, with cardboard and turning in the seam allowances. I discovered how easy it was to use iron on transfers! I was adamantly refusing to use them as I did not like the stiff feeling they gave my appliques. There is no turning back for me now as it is modern conveniences for me from now on!

Carmilla's Quilt

I made this in 2 weeks for Isabelle’s baby and at the end, I was not too sure about the combination of pinks and purples. Fortunately for me, she loves purple and loved the quilt.

Sarmi hand quilted some of the panels while I did the others - that helped to speed up the process. One thing I can never do is machine quilt. I took a class but I never know what tension to set my sewing machine to and the thread snaps most of the time. Besides, I prefer hand work, there is something very therapeutic about sitting in front of the TV and quilting at the same time.