It has been a while since my last entry. And this blog, quilting, fabrics and sewing have been consistently on my mind! There have been several knitting projects completed (not photographed yet), many yards of fabrics bought (I can’t even begin to keep track of them!) and many projects stated (I need to tweak the WIP column very soon!).
Last week, I found a really neat shop, Sin Hin Chuan Kee, along North Bridge Road. It’s a traditional wholesaler shop (read: old and not great with displays) that packs lots and lots of goodies at great prices. I found Chaco paper for tracing Sashiko patterns, elastic threads, tweezers (for getting paper backing out from appliques), and there are a whole of goodies in the store! I bought 2 reels of ribbons at just about US$1.90 each for X’mas crafting too.
I was packing up my stack of WIP the other night, then I saw my Zoo blocks looking so cheery and bright… and neglected. I remembered planning for the borders to be a deep shade of red. What a perfect X’mas gift for Benji! And I started to get into the swing of things (if I leave it till ‘later’ again, I will not get it done!), and started tracing the fabrics, cutting them, and taped up my layout mat on the wall. I’m now sewing the rows together, then will put up the borders hopefully by end of this week! Yippee!
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! ;>
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 ;>
We were notified earlier that Splatter was coming to Singapore for an exhibition. I meant to go down and visit the booth to see if I can get more paintings for the home.
At Splatter’s last show in May at Journey East, we bought his paintings from his Year of The Rat collection and he did a quick sketch for Benji too. Spelled his name wrongly, but we are cool with it. ;> Oh, its a piggy because Benji’s born in the year of the Pig!
Totally bummed that I missed it… but I think DH is secretly happy that his wallet is saved! :p
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! :>