Completed a number of projects in the past 2 weeks – all of which I can’t show till they are gifted. Sorry! 🙂 But it felt really good to have a quilt in the lap, and handsewing the binding down. Best of all, it also meant clearing out half a drawer of WIPs!

Since I have no pictures of completed projects, I will share a fun video instead! We made this of my brother during Mother’s Day gathering at my mom’s. He gamely changed into his ‘sporty’ outfit, while we prepared a plastic tub ready for him to spit out the mouthwash. We took about 3 takes before we were happy. Er… WE as in the rest of us – my brother was complaining that his arms were aching and mouth tingly after all that rinsing!

And hopefully he will get his 30 seconds of fame on TV! The video could earn him (or everyone who helped that day!) some cash and Listerine products too. And we signed up for free samples here too.

On the subject of mouth wash, I had always argued that it was redundant and the dentist said that flossing and brushing well are good enough. But I bought my 1st bottle of Listerine a few year back after one of my wisdom tooth surgeries. Brushing/flossing was really uncomfortable then and I felt that I could not brush well enough so I had to resort to mouthwash to help ensure that I could get the mouth really clean.

The feeling of Listerine in my mouth for the 1st time was literally eye-popping/tearing. But it felt so good after that. We have found other uses for Listerine since then.

– disinfecting Benji’s chew toys (well, its cheaper than using Medela wipes)

– disinfecting our toothbrushes by soaking the heads in Listerine weekly. I do this more frequently when we are down with any bugs, and so I don’t have to toss the toothbrushes prematurely. This tip was passed on to me by a really cool blogging mom when we had a chance to meet last year.

– emergency disinfectant for small wounds and bites during our travels

Recently a friend suggested using the cool mint Listerine in a spray bottle as bug repellant in her baby’s room (I’m not too sure about that!). But we agreed that if its good enough for our mouth, it is good enough for cleaning our kid’s stuff with.

No. this is NOT a paid endorsement for Listerine, at the risk of sounding like one. Just want to share an interesting ‘project’ that we did over Mother’s day! 😀

With fabrics still strewn around the room, the cutting table’s a ‘hot mess’ and the machine snowed under by items seeking temporary asylum while I sort out the storage situation, I didn’t much sewing done in April. BUT I did try to make good use of some waiting time with some handsewing. I grabbed a WIP Lanarte project, with thread snipper, threads, etc in the kit, on the way out to my son’s music class. And I spent a productive 45-min putting on the final stitches in this cross-stitch kit. This is just 1 of the 3 kits from Lanarte’s Babushka’s collection.

And so satisfied with the completion of this old WIP, I grabbed another box with a WIP awaiting backstitching (I hate backstitching!), and completed it while Benji napped in the afternoon. Here’s one of the kits from Permin of Copenhagen’s Peanuts collection.

To end off the perfect sewing weekend, I just had to start on a new kit! Here’s what I ended up with: Autumn from Lanarte. It’s only about 40% completed, so it still look a little abstract here.

I have learned to embrace kits now. Having all the threads and fabrics ready to go is just so convenient. It also means I have less excuse to start on them right away.

Over this long May Day weekend, our little family went for a short off-road camping trip, so I didn’t get to sew at all. But I have dedicated one day in the upcoming Polling Day long weekend to sew, sew and sew. Actually, my list goes something like this:

1) Clear the cutting table

2) Complete basting the baby quilt sandwich

3) Attach borders on my queen-size Hourglass quilt

4) Start on my Japanese quilt blocks.

Of course, there are other items that I would love to complete: Pillow cases for Benji, cushion covers for our bedrooms, a shirred dress/top for myself, a gadget bag for Hubby and a coupon caddy for a friend. BUT I’ll be extremely satisfied with items 1) to 4).

So, what will you be up to this long weekend?

Clean your machine, oil the bits and change your needle.

It’s really not difficult or take you long to get your machine cleaned. The best part is how nice the machine sews after you have done this 5-minute mini-servicing.

Read about the steps and the tools that I use to keep my sewing machine running smoothly in the ‘Tutorials‘ section.

We are almost 1 quarter through 2011, and guess how much fabric have I added to my stash so far?

2011 fabric stash

There you go! Just 3 miserable meters of fabrics from Ikea. I guess you can call it a fabric diet, but its really unintentional! Due to my work schedule, Benji’s health, holidays and family ‘events’, I really haven’t had time to sew much for myself or shop/surf my usual haunts as much I wanted to!

When we were at Ikea earlier in Feb, picking up some storage tubs for my boy’s bricks, I just had to buy SOMETHING for myself. Hence, this little bolt of black/white print (with red accent print).

So, what yummy fabrics have you bought lately?