Valentine's Day Project

J's schools gave out a Valentine's day project that sounds like fun to do but because we had the 100 day project last weekend, he was dragging his feet when it came to doing this one. So, this weekend, I found myself working on 20-something Valentine's Day cards for the whole class. The instructions are found at Enchanted Learning which was a quick project using paper and aluminium foil. Some chocolate will be stuck on to the cards when they are done. Last year, J came back from school with a basket of sweets, small erasers, chocolates and hand made cards from each of his classmates. As Malaysians do not really get into this occassion - it is seen to be an event between lovers instead of classmates, he and another child were the only one who did not do anything for the classmates. Yikes! I didn't want J to do the project this year, as I wanted to give him a break seeing that he had so much homework after school that it sometimes spills over to the weekends. So I ended up doing it myself! (Not that I minded anyway!)

Teapot and Cups Wallhanging Quilt Part 2

Was working simultaneously on this quilt while working on the denim one. Here it is, I will give this to my mother.

I had an unexpected two days off work and I was very productive! I had to go out shopping for some fancy ribbons. There are not that many good craft stores in Singapore - I went to Spotlight and Quilts and Sew Forth to search for these ribbons. The lady who worked at QNSF referred me to a shop just around Aliwal Street, which sold wholesale amounts of ribbon! Unfortunately the name was not an easy one to remember, like Chye Keng Siong shop or something like that.


I went into the shop and looked everywhere, so I asked the man who ran the little shop if he had the woven ribbons (he was tailing me, which I found disconcerting) He replied, without looking for the item, "Oh, don't have." Another sterling example of customer service there! As it was a quirky shop with goodies hidden from view, I finally spotted the ribbons behind another stack of ribbons. These were expensive. The shop generally sold ribbons by the rolls but he sold these by the metre! He told me that it was old stock I was buying and it had been in his shop for more than 10 years!

Sorry about the picture quality, it was taken with one hand and a shutter speed of 1/15 per second....

Happy with my purchase, I headed home and got down to work.

I cut out 9 pockets, deliberately making angles and lines which were not symmetrical.

I used my scrap fabrics, given to me by my girlfriend, Christina who had used them for her upholstery and curtains. These are a mixture of silks and heavy cottons from Jim Thompson. I love how the ribbons add a bohemian look to my quilt. This is the first quilt that I truly LOVE - all others I like but they are usually made for others in mind.

Front

This is the backing. I combined the fabrics - it seems like this is the latest trend now, to make the backing as interesting as the front. It won't be seen though because I am going to hang it up.

It ended up to be quite a heavy quilt. I did not use any batting at all because it was so thick.

By the way, I am a little challenged in the photo taking department at the moment. The sensors in my D70s has become weaker, thus the photos look very dark in natural light. I have to stand in the sunlight AND use a flash! Time to upgrade I think. The camera has been around since 2005.

Denim Pocket Wall Hanging

A while back, I passed a shop which was closing down and it was selling these larger sized jeans for $3 each. I went mad and ended up buying something like 8 pairs of jeans. It was left in my wardrobe for a while so I was itching to make another quilt when I suddenly remembered those good old jeans.

Excuse the cheesy self potrait here.

I had bought 7 brand new jeans in plus sizes. They had pretty pockets.

So I cut them out.

Stay tuned...

Teapot and Cups Wallhanging Quilt

Working on another quilt, I just love applique work so I was looking for a smallish project. I came up with one I had already made last year for my friend. Who says we can't make a quilt twice? :)

Next come the borders but I have been so busy at work that I have no time to do it!

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.