Archive / Hand Quilting

All about April

Its been a while. Son falling ill (twice!), helping my dad to close his shop, projects, etc have kept me away from my sewings and from adding more new posts. Ironic as I’m logged on almost everyday – mainly for work!

While waiting for my new sewing machine to arrive, I decided to hand-quilt the sampler quilt. It is turning out better than I had expected! I thought it would be REALLY tough, but it is actually enjoyable! Of course, I’m not quilting 20 stiches in 10 seconds, I’m taking a really long time to get it done, but it is rather therapeutic. :>

I have chosen a nice mint-green hand/machine quilting thread. Did not want the quilt to turn out too country and I’m hoping that the green thread will give it a modern twist.

At the slow rate I’m going, with so many other projects up my sleeves, I’ll be lucky if this will be completed before end of the year!

Slow and steady

I’m really excited about how the projects are turning out! The ‘banana milkshake’ shrug is waiting to go into the wash and then it will be ready for wrapping up! Still thinking about how I can package it as a belated birthday gift for my good friend. Hmmm… For my own 2-yarn shrug, I’m just finishing picking up the seams with the crochet needle… Exciting! 🙂

And then my sampler quilt is still waiting for me to finish up the border, but I’m still saving my sewings for the new machine when it arrives early next month! 🙂 Here’s a shot of the quilt just before I added all the sashings.

In the month of February, I treated myself with a couple of online shopping sprees, growing my stash just a bit more 😉 Bought beautiful fabrics from Norton House and also found some really good buys from Fabric.com. BUT I have to tell myself to keep away from the shops in March to let my wallet cool off just a little. It felt really good to have those parcels coming through thedoors! Here’s a peek at what came out of the box from Norton House!

Wish I could work more on the projects but work has been busy and a bad case of stomach virus kept me away from the studio. The upcoming arrival of the new sewing machine will be a great motivator to get the projects moving. Can’t wait! 🙂

A Quilt waiting to happen

I think the my ‘domestic instinct’ was super strong when I was pregnant with my son in 2006. After my ‘pre-natal’ holiday with my hubby in Dec, I signed up for a quilting class with Bridgette Lee from Quilts & Sew Forth.

It was all very exciting and fun! By the time the class started proper, I was already into my 3rd trimester. BUT I should have made it to my last lesson just about 2 weeks before my Estimated Due Date. My son, Benjamin, arrived 6 weeks before due date and of course, I was stuck with 4 completed blocks, and 3 more lessons to go! :p

Bridgette has been very understanding and after a year, I’m back in her workshop picking up where I left off. And already, I have a list of quilting projects that I’d like to complete in ’08.

Here are the 6 completed blocks for the quilt top. Will be adding my sashing, border and binding soon. Think I will be machine quilting it.

I know I will take another year or so to complete this quilt if I’m going to quilt by hand :p

Think I will be done with this before end of April’08? I sure hope so! :>