AND THEN… I realised it was too SMALL for our tall tree! 🙁 What a HUGE disappointment!
I should have at least measured the size of the tree stand when I started on this project, but I didn’t. I’m so disappointed with this, and I even contemplated running out to buy a baby tree so I can dress it up with the skirt. But what am I going to do with 2 trees in the house? 🙁
So, I’m going to think up a way to use this skirt then… More pictures later.
I’ve been busy sewing up coasters for our Christmas dinner this year. And the cat is enjoying all the activity because she has a nice warm board to cosy up to after I’m done with it. :p
Let me go have a think about the Skirt now… headache, heartache! 🙁
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!
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! ;>
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.
It’s been a while since my last post. Not to say that there has been much going-ons, but on the sewing side, it has been a bit more quieter ;> Not a bad thing, actually.
Let me explain.
We took another road trip with the family to Malaysia again, and it was great! We enjoyed the cool air of Cameron Highlands and of course, the yummy food. I packed away my sewing machine and cleared out my sewing corner before we left because there was some renovations done in our absence. I have not reinstated the machines, mats, etc because the work is still not done to our satisfaction yet.
BUT I have been hand quilting every night for the past 2 weeks, and it IS getting easier and quicker (relatively) for me. I have completed 2 blocks and starting on the 3rd one now.
The other reason why I have not caught up with AmandaJean’s QAL is also because of this:
My hubby bought this for my ‘small’ 3-0 birthday. And we have been racing each other at MarioKart at every chance we get! :>
Ta, for now. I will be back with more news of ‘gifts’ I bought for myself! hahaha.
