Archive / Fabrics

Baby Quilt Top Done! Yaay!

Phew! My Gram’s Fairy Tale baby quilt is done! I bought this kit from Fabric.com ages ago, and I’ve been progressing slowly with it for a long long while. I mentioned this quilt previously in a post here.

I dug it out of cold storage and started working on it again. The tedious bit was joining the triangles that made up the outer borders and joining them to the main body required some concentration – matching points, making sure that the points don’t get cut off, easing in, etc…

Amanda Jean inspired me to work on this baby quilt with her Theme of the week. Although I’m a couple of days late in delivering this baby, there’s nothing for me to lose as the top is now completed! :>

The instructions are clear and easy to follow and I do love the blocks and the fairy tale prints. I’m looking forward to basting and quilting than the Queen-sized Star QAL one :p

Sorry for the poor lighting again. Took this picture at around 3am in the morning when I put in the last stitch in the border. Well, the title of my blog is MIDNIGHT CRAFTS indeed! ;>

About Stars and Sashiko

I’ve made some progress with my Star Quilt-A-Long project and I’m happy to say that I have completed all 30 blocks and cut up all my sashings/cornerstones, waiting for sewing now :>

There has been a number of completed tops at the group’s flickr folder and I thought that the quilt is ‘too square’ to fit into any rooms in the house. haha. A quick calculation shows that I can turn this into a Queen-sized quilt with an additional row. So, I added 2 more Stars and 3 more setting blocks.

And I also took some time to pick out my border and backing fabrics too, and they are washed and ready to go when I’m done piecing the top together.

You can see the preliminary layout below, without the sashings/cornerstones/borders. I have a piece of tape on each block to indicate which row/column they belong to, so I don’t have to bother with laying them out again until they are joined.

Here are my 2 additional blocks – Dutchman’s puzzle and a 9-patch star.

Recently, I found that my quilt shop carries Sashiko needles and I got really excited (for nothing). Unfortunately, the shop does NOT carry the Sashko kits/fabrics or even threads. It has been very painful looking for Sashiko stuffs in our local craft shops . And that of course gave me an excuse to shop online ;> Bought a bunch of placemat kits, some samplers and also sashiko threads. Of course, I did not have the patience to get my camera and snap a picture of the parcel as-is, but I remembered to take a pic of my spree here after I started stitching on a few coasters.

I felt that the threads supplied in the kit are not as good as the ones that you buy ‘ala carte’. They seem to be more loosely twisted and a bit harder to pull through the fabric. So I’ll probably just buy the sampler or the marked fabrics in the future. This is my 1st attempt at Sashiko sewing, though I’ve known of it for a while. Never got the chance to try my hands at i till now, because they are almost impossible to find in Singapore.

Then I visited the bookstore and bought The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe which is really packed with loads of Sashiko history and patterns for reference. I. Love. It.

Loads of WIPs since the beginning of the year, and I sure hope I have more finished projects to show for in the coming months.

Thanks for sewing with me!

More blocks!

Completed 2 more blocks for the Star QAL. Saw a completed top at Flickr and I can’t wait for mine to get done too! :>

Here’s Week 8. See how hard I’m trying to use up the ugly yellow flower fabrics? I must be careful that I don’t turn it into the main feature fabric of the quilt! hahaha. But I think this print is going along quite well with the rest of the yellow prints :>

Here’s Week 9. More ugly yellow flower. But I kindda like it here :>

As if I don’t have enough UFOs, WIPs and what nots lying around. I started on yet another project with my quilting friends – Stack and Whack. Its really fun fun fun! I’m using a Quilting Treasures print for this Baby Quilt, for my son. I REALLY love how the blocks turned out. I guess if with better pinning, cutting, sewing, and pressing, the kaleidoscope effect would be phenomenon. So, gotta practice some more then ;>

First 6 blocks…

Then another 6 makes 12 blocks!

I LOVE the zebras & flamingos…

One of my favourites! :>

Before I go, here’s a look at my latest spree on eBay :p Bought some AB fabrics online too. Can’t wait to get started! MUST start at least ONE pattern this year! hahaha… I don’t dare to commit to COMPLETING a project… to be able to finish one would be a great X’mas pressie for myself then ;>

Goodnight, my sewing friends!

PS: Amy has a new book Little Stitches for Little Ones… LOVELY… :>

Playing catch up

My Yellow Star Quilt has been quite neglected (along with other UFOs). There is so much to do – work, baby, house, MarioKart Wii (:D) that I feel bad sewing with all these stuffs at the back of my mind.

The thing about sewing is that once you start, it is VERY hard to stop ;>

Last week, I cut up all the fabrics for Weeks 6 through 11 in a single night and went to bed with a sore back… Today, I put aside my work and sat at the sewing machine for a while and I completed 2 blocks (Weeks 6 & 7) and finished ALL my setting blocks! YAAY!

I think that the setting blocks look pretty on its own, but when I placed a star block next to it, I find that the setting block pieces look very bright orange. But as I laid out more blocks, I think it is turning out okay as the setting blocks act like ‘frames’ for the stars. Nope. I don’t have a picture of the blocks laid out here. Spent the time sewing instead! HA!

Week 6’s block. I’m using up the ugly flower fabric here :> Gosh, I’m glad to get rid of them here!

Week 7’s block and this one I LIKE!

Week 7 and 8 pieces laid out here. I have the week’s cut pieces separately bagged. And I’m doing them 2 blocks at a time. The missing bits of the blocks are at the sewing machine :p

I really had a good time doing these setting blocks. I like the fabrics and I like the easy piecing that turns out so neatly too! Took the ‘production line’ way and chain pieced, chain sewed and chain pressed the pieces. And I had the greatest satisfaction by completing 12 blocks at one go!

Another reason why Star QAL took a backseat for the past couple of weeks is because I started on a really fun quilt for Benji ;> More pictures coming up soon! :> Till then, happy stitching!

Sweet dreams…

Benji’s back into teething mode again. Approaching 16 months, and only 5 little pearlies, he has a lot of teeth to catch up with! We have to change bibs so often that I’m running low on stock by midday. And when we put him to bed, we noticed that he is trying to chew on the pillow covers, etc. Poor boy.

Benji goes to bed with a bolster and I can’t simply find reasonably priced and attractive covers for it. So, I decided to use the pattern off the ugly one that we bought off the shelf and make him new ones. Here’s my first attempt at it, and also at machine applique too! The ‘insects’ came from some fabric I bought from Spotlight. Great for a ‘quiet game’ of I Spy at bedtime then ;>

A close-up of one of my favourite patches. I also added in the cords at the seamline of the 2 fabrics, so that Benji can ‘gnaw’ away.

It was super quick to make and great fun too. I really wanted to get it done fast (started it yesterday afternoon and brought it for wash moments ago) so that my baby can go to bed with a cool cover! :>