Archive / Quilt

Sashiko Coasters

Finally got round to completing the set of 5 coasters after choosing the backing fabric. Although the Sashiko coaster kit just require you to sew up the sides without any batting or backing, I chose to add on a lightweight iron on interface and a backing fabric.

I chose a dark Japanese print Kaufman fabric (almost black) with Kanji prints on it. I feel that it brings out the Japanese-ness of the Sashiko stitching.

I’m looking forward to completing the rest of the Sashiko kits!

A couple of busy months…

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!

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! ;>

Star QAL Top DONE

Okay, I’m sorry that I could not take a better picture. But the weather has been dreary and wet for the past 2 days and I only have my mobile phone handy now :p I will try to get a better picture when I have more hands on deck to hold this baby up! :>

The top is DONE DONE. I’m so glad!!! But it is HUGE. My back is already aching just THINKING of the basting I have to do on my hands and knees :p

I’m not in a hurry to quilt this one yet. I will probably quilt it when I complete my Zoo Stack and Whack baby quilt top, buy a few more needles and get into the mood before I tackle the quilting.

Thanks to AmandaJean, this has been fun, fun, fun :> Yes, its true that you can work out a quilt all by yourself. But when you have so many others quilting along with you, and someone committing herself to lead this project, you appreciate the effort and heart in this :>

Already looking forward to the next project! WOOHOO!

Good Buy

I have a small working area and a smaller ironing board. and I HATE it when the wire gets in the way (and cause more creases) when I have to press those backings or bigger quilts.

And I found this beauty at the departmental store today. It costs about US$40.00 and I HAD to have it. It is a medium weight dry iron, different from my regular steam iron (I don’t use the steam function for the quilts) which weighs next to nothing :p These lightweight steam irons are good for clothes, but not quite the thing when it comes to quilts!

Hubby was surprised that I would want an iron this heavy :p I explained that quilting is about PRESSING, not’ironing’… I think that left him more confused than ever! haha.

I’ve just applied the border to one side of my Star QAL and I’d love to try out this iron on the quilt then. I have not fired up this baby yet – not in the greatest shape to stay up in the studio tonight and sitting at the machine. I think I’m coming down with a flu or something… throat’s a little scratchy and bones a little achy… not in the mood to get on the floor to pin the borders on tonight. Guess I will continue with my handquilting my sampler in bed then! ;>

Have a great week ahead!