Little Purl of the Orient

Two bags full

I've promised my 2 girls new bags for quite a while. And here they are. Heather Ross polka dotty one plus yellow for JY.

A sheepy badge for decoration.

White vintage buttons.

This one in fishy fabric is for CY. She chose this fabric herself when we went to Shamshuipo, HK's fabric district, together.

As I have only one sheepy badge, we went to the department store and found this Kerokerokeropi name tag. Now froggy and fishies are friends.

Plus vermillion buttons. As always, I'm having problem with the iron-on interfacing. Look at the lumpy surface.

Three blankets

As always, I'm over optimistic in thinking that I could do more than I have time for. There was only time for me to complete half the list of little knits that I planned for the Kisiizi Appeal. I'll show you those in the next post because I'm going to show you some blankets I sewed over the past two weekends. All fabrics are from stash and I'm so happy for that.

I emailed Bridgid, who's collecting the items for the Appeal, earlier on whether I could send some sewn wooly blankets too instead of knitted ones and she said yes, so I got sewing.

The first one is brown and pink. Looking at it now, it looks a bit Denyse Schmidt inspired. The brown is a wool fabric which I'd wanted to make some winter bags with. I think a kiddo in Uganda will have more use of this blanket than I with the bag.

I threw in some pink Heather Ross cotton to pick up the pink herringbone in the brown and backed it with a Japanese cotton floral fabric.

The second one is green and orange. The patchwork portion, made up mostly of terry cloth, was started ages ago when I first got my sewing machine. Sewing the terry cloth gave me so much trouble (it's too stretchy and the puckering is a nightmare) that I gave up. Now I think it is put to good use. The backing is a cotton fabric left over from CY's new fitted bed sheet that I sewed her. Yes, I've been sewing fitted bed sheets and pillow cases for my girls lately and I haven't blogged about that.

This blue robot one is for our friend's son, L, that I mentioned here. JY helped me with the layout as I haven't got too many robot fabric squares having scored them on ebay eons ago.

My mother sewed many scrap patchwork blankets for us when we were small and she backs them with flannel, nice and comfortable for the warm summer weather so I'm using the same formula. I've still have got some flannel leftover from backing nephew's Moderne Baby so I used that here. The blue is a lightweight denim and I didn't use any batting.

I remember Rose, a reader of this blog, telling me that she sews ribbon with some red inside a baby's sweater to ward off evil spirits. So I added some red chickie ribbon over here for little L.

All ready to be gifted.

I did do some sewing

I did do some pre-summer sewing. Just before the last day of school back in June, I decided to get my act together and sew JY's teacher a bag as a 'Thank you'. The intention has always been there but I didn't get around doing it until the last minute, as always. So, I made a wrist bag and like doing it so much that I made 3 more.

This greenish one is given to the teacher who's favorite colour is green. The construction is really simple. One handle shorter and fatter than the other and just slip the thin one through the fat one.

The inside is lined with Amy Butler fabric. You could choose to use all different fabrics like in the Cotton & Paint Summer '07 where I got the inspiration to make these bags. But I chose to keep things simple and use just 2 fabrics. I forgot to add my woven labels again but did remember to put them on the other 3.

I decide to throw in some stitching (the inspiration also came from the above-said C&P). My favourites are the natural linen ones but I decided not to add any stitching for those.

Meanwhile, inspiration came to me when looking at my bath towel this morning on a workable quilt top using the batiks . And I've got some ideas for the robot patchwork blanket too. Now I just need more time or less sleep. Have a great weekend, all!

Log cabining

It all started with a trip to Ikea on the second day of the New Year of the Pig. We first saw the crib blankets and Mil thought they are good for the kids to use in summer. And I thought I could add patchwork 'quilt' tops to them. Then futher in store, I saw a mini ironing board perfect for doing patchwork at an incredible price of USD2.50 and I had to get it. See it fits just right behind the sewing machine on the dining table.

I decided to make a log cabin top inspired by blankets here, here, here and from this Japanese book. And all these incredible log cabin pillows. It is a tedious process. I have to bend down and squat on the floor to sort the fabrics, cut and get back up onto the dining table to sew, reach out to the ironing board to press.

After an afternoon of doing this, I'm now having a sore neck. And I didn't get a lot done. Just four 8.5 inch square which I reckon I would need 20 to cover the whole blanket, and some smaller squares. I'm not confident yet with matching colours so I'm using all the blue fabrics in stash.

And here's the knitted log cabin (Baby Moderne Blanket) that I'm making for little nephew. Here's the wrong side, not very neat, is it? So I'll be backing it with the green balls flannel fabric that a dear friend sent from Canada. I hope the blanket will keep him comfortable in his treatment. His 4th chemo session is schedule for next week. And did I mention that the wee boy is only 16 months old?

Flower Power and Friends United

Long time visitors of this blog might recall that I mentioned about my knitterly colleagues. There is Terry, the turbo-hands, who churned out something like a dozen Ruffled Scarves from Scarf Style and at least half a dozen Clapotis in the Winter of 04/05. Then there is 'Shrek' who helped me grab a bag of All Seasons Cotton when he visited the mecca of Rowan yarns, Liberty, a couple of years back. He's an occasional knitter himself and made this scarf for his girlfriend who is also my colleague and good friend. And the couple are also the photographers behind some of my FO photos like the Ab Fab, Spring Bag and Ribbed Wrap Top.

Two months ago, Shrek and his Princess Fiona finally tied the knot and set up their own home. I decided to get my act together and finish the Floral Quilt as a TV lapghan for them. I haven't posted about the completed quilt as I'd wanted to give it to them first which I did just before Christmas. See the extra pair of feet there? CY wanted to be included in the photo too and wouldn't budge despite my yelling.

The quilt back is made up of different blue floral fabrics and a main pale-blue-pin-dots-on-white fabric. The batting is polar fleece bought locally at Kam Wah, the notions store at Jordan. And I bound the quilt using the 'quick' method as laid out in the Modern Quilt book with the aid of a bias tape maker. This is the second time I used it, I practised this binding technique on another blanket earlier on (see below).

The Purl Bee has a step-by-step tutorial on how to do the binding.

When I look at this quilt, it brings back many fond memories; how I began sewing it, how the fabrics came together. It didn't start with a grand plan with all the fabrics bought, laid out and cut. There was no design wall to speak of. The quilt evolved over many months, with experimenting, sewing a bit and then ripping a little bit more. Some of the fabrics were impulse purchases on ebay, and some received from my pals like Joy and Eva and from friends living in different parts of the world. I'm happy that it is now completed and in the home of my good friends who appreciate craft work.

Herebelow is the blanket that I practised the binding on. It is just a piece of cashmere blend fabric I picked from a bin in Shamshuipo and I bound it using an Amy Butler fabric. It is now permanently in the car as it is just the right size for covering up the kids when they doze off on the road trips.

Another 'Gift Wrapper'

The idea of 'wrapping' a gift in a pouch that I sew myself is beginning to grow on me and it seems to add that bit more personal touch and environmentally friendly too, in the sense that the pouch could be used again.

And so this is the latest one that I made to hold the scarf for my friend. When she saw the Zig Zag Scarf that I made for JY, she called me and asked me to make one exactly the same for her. Now, the yarn is specially hand-dyed by Sundara a while back and might not be repeatable. I quickly ordered another artist's hand-dyed yarn which arrived last week but there's no way I could whip a scarf up in time for our gathering yesterday afternoon. So I did a little 'swap' as agreed with JY of course (she loves the new yarn colour!). Inside this pouch is the Zig Zag Scarf ver. 1 and I'll knit Zig Zag Scarf ver. 2 for JY.

After making the pouch, I still have a small piece of the same fabric left for a small zipper pouch to hold my lipstick and stuff.

And here, back by popular demand, is ver. 2 of the Zigzag Scarf by Debbie Bliss from the book Scarf Style. This time, I'm using the self-striping yarn from Yarntini, the colours (Gimlet colourway) and the yarn is just super! This time, I'm using sport weight yarn and knitting the 39-st width in contrast to the 51-st previously. Hopefully, it won't take me too long to finish it.

It must be from Narnia

If you're wondering what this creature is, it is a bunny. 4 out of the 5 friends I asked told me 'oh, I thought it was a dog.' The 5th person, dear Maryann, exclaimed without any single doubt that it is a girl Jar Jar Binks. As I'm no Star Wars fan (neither is my husband), I've no idea which side he's on, the good side or the dark side. I do hope his type is good though.

My two girls of course took it as a bunny as I've told them and JY has grown quite fond of it over the months that took me to make it. She calls her Jasmine. CY on seeing her with clothes, says that she's a superhero. And I think I can see why, the reversible dress looks more like a superhero cape worn on the front. I made the dress following Lynn's tutorial but somehow it's just not as nice. As for the bunny pattern, it's from the book Animaux en Recup by Charlotte Vannier.

I realized that it is just too difficult to create cuteness and I laud the softie creators out there who just seem to so effortlessly create sweet and adorable dollies/puppies/bunnies/etc. Cuteness completely eluded me this time. It took me some time to get used to Jasmine, for a while, I just couldn't get over those spooky eyes, kind of remind me of the Londinium Dolls by Pure Chemistry whose website doesn't seem to show those dolls anymore so I'm linking to a blog with a photo.

Can I at least think that it is a Narnian bunny, one of those special Talking Beasts that is bigger than their non-talking counterparts? It now resides with Marjorie. Actually, it is a 2-month late birthday present.

Knitting? I knitted some with my friends on Saturday but spent my other spare minutes devouring Case Histories. I just couldn't put it down, read too late into the nights and started worrying about my daughters and what kind of world do we live in. I finished it on the bus this morning. Now I can focus on my knitting again.

Stepping back in time

I had to do some 'homework' last weekend. The current unit of inquiry JY is doing in class is learning about the past, along the line of what toys do people play in the olden days? What type of food do they eat? So daddys and mummys have to write a 'letter' to our kid telling her something about what we did when we were young. It would also be nice if we could let our child bring something from the olden days to school for show and tell. I don't know about you, but this kind of homework usually gets entrusted to mummy in our household.

So the letter was written and I did have a good time reminiscing. Looking back, I did have an enjoyable childhood. It also reminded me of a post of last August. After writing the letter, I decided to sew some four/five stones and show JY how to play. They are actually pyramid-shaped rice or bean bags and we are supposed to throw and catch them in a variety of patterns. While I sewed, I tried to remember the variations we had to do and couldn't. Surprisingly when I had the stones in my hands, they just came back to me. My hands seem to have their own memory.

These are the two sets remaining in the house. I made 6 sets for my children and their cousins. I forgot to take a picture before the cousins took them home with them. JY is very happy with them and is putting one set in the 'school museum'. I also made a set for my colleague who has children about the same age as mine, plus a drawstring bag to contain them.

Do you have a favourite toy when you were young?

Closing in on the gifts

Just a very quick post before going to bed after a tiring but fun day at the park. I sewed a little pouch to hold a gift for my friend. The base is crocheted using Bouton D'ore, Dune yarn. I've got lots of that in 4 or 5 different colours, originally meant to be knitted into a Rambling Rows Afghan which never happened.

The drawstring closure and a peek at what's inside.

Why, they are the K2, Seed 2 socks in Kissed, Sweet Georgia sock yarn. As the recipient's feet are smaller than mine, I didn't want to model them and stretch the socks out. 2 hanks of yarn, 60 sts using 2.7mm needles. No swirls for the second sock (on the left)...

WIP Friday Sunday

So. This post was meant for WIP Friday but I was down with a bad cold plus those terrible menstral cramps (who said they'll go away after child birth?) and went straight to bed instead. Desperately needed to finish the above for Saturday but was in the most unsuitable state for operating a machine the last 2 days. The book is a chance find in the local bookstore. It's a Chinese translation of Charlotte Vannier's Animaux en recup.

Here are some fabrics that came in recently from ebay. Mostly for my next quilt for JY and some for garments for my children, if I ever come to it.

And the latest wip, started yesterday evening because I missed tennis due to the stuffy nose. And I surprised myself that it went so fast, about 2 hours' work and I almost finished 1 ball of All Seasons Cotton. The thing is such 2 hours uninterrupted knitting time is a rare commodity around here. The cables are lovely to work with, not difficult to remember and is a good project for me to warm up to cables once again. Of course I didn't swatch and didn't realise until at this point that my gauge is way off because it seems to be able to fit my 3-year old instead of the 1-year old nephew. Time is precious and I'm going with the flow as sometimes things just have a mind of its own. So this Trellis Cardigan will be for CY and I'll think of something else for the nephew's birthday present.

Where has the week gone?

Life buzzes quickly by and another week has started before I even noticed it. Last week has been a busy one both at work and at home, I somehow can't find time and my voice even for a quick blog post.

So let's begin this week with an overdue FO, JY's new crochet top/dress/whatever. She wore it yesterday to attend a new classmate's birthday party. It was a pizza making party and all the children there got to make their own pizzas and they all had fun.

But look ma, no smile, great super-model potential.

Some closer looks but the colours are off here as they are taken indoors. A close-up of the back can be seen here.

For the top, I followed an old Richmore pattern using the yarn leftover from the rainbow cardigan. The skirt part is just half yard of Martha Negley fabric joined together and gathered.

5 years passed since the horrific events that unfolded before the worlds' eyes. Let's give a thought to all those who have lost their loved ones, and remember to treasure yours too.

The machine - revisited

The sewing machine made a reappearance again last Saturday and I finally joined up the crochet bodice to the fabric skirt. Turns out that it fits JY just right so she'll have it after all, plus the top-down vest that I'm still knitting. Little sister is now left with nothing but I'll love to make her something soon. Do you see a pattern here? It's been a spate of making things for the elder one lately. She's grown so much and most of her clothings don't fit anymore. And most of the time, I can't shake off the pragmatism that making things for the elder one means both of them will get to wear them.

I also redid some of the squares of the floral quilt. The white-ish squares (as you can see an older photo here) are replaced with other coloured shabby chic type of fabrics. And I added a light blue stripey border. I think it seems rather more pleasing to the eyes now. Next would be the backing. I'll use the pale blue pin dots on white fabric that Joy gave me and mix and match with other blue-ish fabrics in stash to make it the same size as the quilt top. I hope it'll not be another 3-month interval before you see this again.

A bit of clothing surgery was done too. One of my favourite top's sleeve got torn.

Inspired by a photo in, if I didn't remember wrongly, the current issue of Cotton & Time, I cut off the sleeves and attached a lace trim. I had wanted to make cap sleeves but was afraid of cutting too close to the armhole so now he top became short-sleeved instead. Not as groovy as cap sleeves would be but still wearable, don't you think?

White Top, check

It has been extremely helpful psychologically that the Chinese calendar has pronounced a stretch of good sewing days this past weekend. I finally finished my white top for the sew along! In fact, my first top ever.

I know what makes me stressed when sewing. It's the precision required. Oh, and the wrestling with the machine, and the eye-hand-foot coordination. A couple of times, I found myself tugging at the fabric frantically then realized that I was still stepping on the pedal. Yes, that implies I should be banned from driving. Knitting is so much more forgiving, I need to use only my hands and sometimes my eyes. And if I knit too much, I’ll have at most aching wrists instead of a pounding headache, neck and shoulder ache plus shortness of breath every time after sewing.

Well, so, the top is sewn. The pattern is the keyhole top from Female. And I made it in a white eyelet cotton fabric which is so nice and cool, perfect for this hot weather. Just that the top is not so perfect. I made the M-size, the width is just right at the shoulders but the cutting is too baggy for me. JY, my coming-to-6-year-old was going, I told you so. She saw the cut pieces and commented that they're too big. She does have a good eye.

The set-in sleeves were big trouble. I had to rip both umpteen times before I got them right. Luckily I'm not use to swearing or your ears would have hurt. And the binding around the neckband is a killer too. This is potion in the photo is the best part, beyond that, my machine is like an intoxicated one, bendy andy all the way. The problem with the binding is not so much the sewing but the folding the narrow strip (3 cm) as evenly as I could into 4s and pressing them. I think I need to get one of these binding gadgets from Clover but just don't know where to.

And next time, I'll have to be more generous when I buy my supplies. Besides having just enough fabric for the main pieces, I ran out of the trim by a teeny weeny bit, 2 cm to be precise. I had to be so careful for the sleeve bands and ended up having to stitch one of the bands close by hand. Luckily, it was not noticeable. Here in the below photo, the blue trace from the carbon paper is still visible.

I wore this top to yum cha on Sunday morning with my in-laws and sisters-in-law, the eldest one was really excited about it so I gave it to her afterwards which made her very happy. The top fitted her much better and she jokingly encouraged me to keep sewing all my garments too big. She intends to wear it to work this week and that alone is making me feel good.

Sail Away Set

1 + 1 is not always equals to 2, that's what I found out when I tried to make a zipper pouch with 2 compartments, one on top and one on the front. In my mind, I visualised that it will simply be a combination of this and this tutorial but I found out that it is not the really the case. I had to wrestle with exposed seams and was just able to wing it before the sun sets to take these photos today. One conclusion is that the faux suede fabric is not good for experimenting, the clingy fabric just added to the problem.

This goes inside the Sail Away Tote previously talked about here and complete my marine-theme bag set.

A closer look at the applique.

Fancy

Sailing away

Is it already Friday? The week has whizzed by even faster than before now that JY's officially off from school for summer since Monday. You might think that there's no difference for me being a working mum, I'm not at home anyway, right? Not quite, let's just say that among other things, the number of phone calls I receive from home while at the office multiplied, and evenings are filled with activities planning for the long days ahead. So I still have yet to start experimenting with the suggestions that have been shared with me with regards to the so-called dress, thanks again for the pointers, I'll come to them as soon as I can.

Since it's Friday, I'll show you yet another WIP.

It is meant to be a detachable zipper pouch to be attached here:

Which is the inside of the Sail Away Tote.

Comfortably sized but still not yet quite roomy enough for me. I carry a lot of junk with me whole day long. I think I need a bag with a wider bottom. Don't ask me to do one of those 'What's in my bag' thingie, you'll be appalled. However, there's one thing inside today that's making me excited and I have to show you. The Everyday Skirt book, rediscovered the other day while looking for a blouse pattern. I've brought it to the office today to seek my style consultant, aka Terry's, advice on which skirt to sew, after I sew the top, that is.

I know bags don't have to fit but you might want to see how it looks in context.

My Tuesday is random

According to the Chinese calendar, yesterday (3rd July) was an auspicious day for cutting of fabric for dressmaking. The calendar is my mil's and I seldom consult it but feeling the need for some good luck, I'd plan to start cutting for the keyhole top (#1 from previous post) yesterday evening, however, time (or rather, my children) was not permitting. The next auspicious day is 9th July, this Sunday. I would need to give my two kids as much exercise as possible during the day and hopefully they would be asleep by 8 pm.

A new pair of knitted socks done, totally enabled by Grumperina who sent me the Greenwood Fibreworks sock yarn plus the pair of Inox aluminum dpns to knit this pair with as Kathy warned that this yarn doesn't like the bamboos that I normally use. And soft is not a good enough word to describe this pair of socks. They literally hug my feet when I put them on this morning. Thanks, Kathy!

Remember the crochet I was working on earlier? I've joined it to half yard of Martha Negley fabric from stash hoping to turn it into a dress for JY. The idée is not mine, it is from Marie Claire (in the magazine, the bodice is knitted though)! And I remember Erin did something like that too last year.

Le problème: The crochet is too loose around the bust area (click here for the uncrinkled photo) but JY is already having a bit of trouble getting into it. I've thought of ripping off some rounds and adding a slit as opening for buttons but as it is worked in the rounds, the change of direction of the crochet when worked flat would be very noticeable. So the shortest cut solution I thought of is presented in the photo above: thread a ribbon through the crochet stitches (so convenient!) to act as a drawstring, then attach two narrow grosgrain ribbons as straps. I'm thinking, one end of the strap would be sewn in while the other end would have a button which will be buttoned into the natural 'buttonhole' created by the gap between the crochet stitches for ease of putting it on. From experience, I know that crochet straps are very stretchy and will sag in no time hence the idea of using ribbons as straps. The amount of yarn I have left is rather limited, maybe about 10g of each colour.

My solution seems to me to be workable but my husband thinks it's not good enough. Hence I'm all ears to any advices that you may give, I'm sure 10 heads are better than 1 (mine)! If you think the dress is a lousy idea, please do say so, it's easy to rip it off and I'll maybe turn the crochet into a … bag?

WIP Friday

Fiona is asking to show our WIPs and here's a look at other WIPers. I'm definitely one that would not be short of WIPs.

This is what the pile from the previous post working out to be. I'm tyring my hands at applique. The initial idea is to applique using the satin stitch function of my sewing machine. The base fabric is the faux suede that my machine doesn't like on previous ocassions. So thinking to save myself trouble of wrestling with the machine, I decided to applique by sewing tiny running stitches along the edges by hand. As such, I need to turn in the seam allowances and the pointy tips of the sails are giving lots of trouble, even some of the edges are crooked, so don't look too closely.

The inspiration comes from the June issue of Marie Claire Idees (pictured above) that Laurence sent to me. Plus the flashing of my blue stash also reminded me that I have lots of blue fabric to use. My intention is to sew a handy marine-theme bag to bring along with me to Macau tomorrow. As usual, things don't quite get done when they should be chez moi (Too tired tonight to burn the midnight oil, there's still packing to be done too).

We haven't been to Macau for quite a while and I do miss the food there but honestly, my first thought was whether I would be able to find chita fabrics like these there? You know, Macau being an ex-Portuguese enclave, etc. I'm not sure what chita really means but seeing Rosa mentioning it from time to time, I take it to be Portuguese fabric, please correct me if I'm wrong.

And the bag is not the only thing that I'd unrealistically wanted to finish for the trip. I'd wanted to wear Short 'n Sweet this weekend in Macau too. Maybe I could just drape whatever I have right now over my shoulder. At least it looks like it might fit this time (read here for my earlier blunders).

Tot totes

A very quick post before going to work (lots of pictures though). Sewing two bags is faster than one, that's what I found out during the weekend. Earlier on, I made two distinctly different mini-moopy bunnies for my two girls and who would know that the little one wants one exactly like her elder sister's. I guess she's at such a stage right now. So I learnt my lesson and when I sew a tote for each for them, I made them exactly the same, well almost.

Some details on the bag. First the inside.

The front packet is double layered with no exposed seams. The kitty denim fabric is a gift from Marjorie's Mum who brought it back from the Philippines!

Here's the difference: One has a 'J' and the other a 'C'.

And here you have CY modelling her bag.

She can't stop playing with the buttons.

CY is happy with the bag, so it seems.

After a while, she just needs a break.

Breathe

Nothing beats stocking stitch. Nothing beats soft, cotton-y, stocking stitch on the feet. Now I can breathe. So can my feet.

Okay, I'm lying. My feet can now breathe but I combusted (I stole Wendy's term. BTW, do go and take a look at her stunning latest creation). Long story short, the same 10 adults, 5 below-7 kids, 3 days in a row this past weekend, I am still trying to recover.

Meanwhile, enjoy this wonky flower pincushion for the Pincushion Challenge. Why is a circle SO difficult for me to sew ? Next time, I really should make one of Lyn's Stress-busters.

Flowers Overload

Earlier on, in my must-buy-some-fabric days, I won a set of floral pink-white-green Hannah Bella 4" pre-cut squares on ebay. As cutting fabric is quite as stressful as attaching zippers to me, the idea of pre-cut squares is very attractive. When I realized that 80 4" squares are not enough for a decent sized quilt, the squares just sat there in my stash waiting for a pattern.

Then I saw Jane's awesome Chlorophyll Quilt and I quickly check the Kaffe Fassett Glorious Patchwork that I took out from the library for the Rosy Quilt. Here's another beautiful one. The 4" squares could be 9-patched but I haven't much luck finding similar shabby chic type fabric locally to fill in the big squares. Thanks to a swap with Lyn, I received these beautiful vintage Laura Ashley and more Hannah Bella fabric.

My lunches these few days have been hurried ones with fabrics shopping squeezed in because I have been thinking of nothing except this quilt and I don't want to break my sewing momentum. In one of those desperate must-find-fabric-now moments, I bought this wonderfully soft Japanese cotton fabric at Western Market which I knew would just be right for the backing.

Last night, I pieced all the blocks I have toghether and now it seems the above fabric is not that suitable as the backing afterall. Flowers both on the quilt top and back, a bit too much, don't you think?

See the blue square there somewhere in the middle? It's an impulse addition, incorporating Kaffe Fassett's sprinkling some 'mistake' colours there, adding a 'maverick' something here spirit. I guess this is as Kaffe as I can get. I had wanted to make all the big squares in the same fabric but then I let myself go. I'm a bit burnt out now with this quilt, time to step back, take a breathe and think about issues like: 1) It's too small (42" x 42"), JY will outgrow it in no time. Maybe there'll be a good excuse for me to make another one? 2) How to make it bigger? Add another row of squares or two? Or add a border? (3) What fabric should I use for the backing and what about fabric for the binding? (4) How should I quilt it?

Any ideas, suggestions, tips, pointers will be gladly welcomed.

I think I need to knit some stocking stitch right now.

The machine starts again

Once the machine started, it cannot stop. The sewing machine came out again onto the dining table on Saturday and piecing squares is so soothing compared to attaching zippers. In no time (in fact, one whole Saturday afternoon. It rained and we didn’t have any tennis), I pieced the squares and sewed two mini moopy bunnies.

Who would know that this pancake would become a dolly? Turning around the softie made me think of a breech birth, the legs had to come out first.

First, there's Rosy for the elder daughter.

Then there's Lily for the little daughter.

Despite the different eyes and ears they have, they are really sisters. They have the same body and the same hands.

Although they like to pretend that the library is their favourite haunt, they just love to lie around and daydream.

Just try not to talk behind their back. They are very good at pulling hair.

Orange-green

I'm still stuck in the orange-green mode. Remember I mentioned there are a number of cushion covers I need around the house. Here's an unfinished (or rather, a start of) a log cabin one. I still need to fill up the entire big square.

Although it is already the green month for Project Spectrum, I'm really behind on my orange knit but I also want to start on my green knit. I really wish to have more hands to finish these quickly in order to make time to study the Knitting Nature book when it arrives. So without further delay, I swatched. And as you can see, I'm pretty stingy with my swatch. They are still swatches nevertheless and serve their purpose.

The orange is cast on and is actually the back for JY's Rainbow Cardigan. The pattern is from Phildar Pitchuon S/S '05 and it seems to be a quick knit. I'm already up to armhole shaping. If I'm ahead of schedule, I'll promptly start with the cardigan's pink fronts. One word about the pattern so far. Although it is plain stocking stitch, I love the little attention to details. Like the ribbing which is K4-P2, the pattern is written such that the start and end is a K3 which when sewn together with the front, will exactly give you a continuous K4-P2. It's simple things like that which makes me happy with the pattern. If you look closely at the below photo, you'll see something green. Yes, my attention has been distracted and I have started the green knit too. There are sizing issues and I'll show you when I have a bit more to show.

Spring Bag

While the OLs (which stands for Office Ladies, the colloquial term for, obviously, all those ladies who work in the office) in Central strut and parade their designer handbags, I have my homemade Spring Bag.

The shape is the same as the Backtack II bag that I sewed for my exchange pal last year. This time, I used a different set of handles and left out the side slits. The fabric was purchased back in October in Singapore together with my mother. I used sturdy denim fabric in a burnt orange colour for the lining (see previous post) and did not add any interfacing so that the bag will have a nice soft shape. Once again, the inspiration for the Spring Bag came from the lovely bags made by Lynda of Little Odd Forest.

Spring Bag in Central, HK. Photo credits: courtesy of my brave colleagues who, not afraid of the stares of the lunch crowd or worse, being spotted by other colleagues, went around with me in Central taking silly photos.

I love my new bag! It is really roomy, just my kind of bag where I can chuck everything inside. I still have some small pieces of the fabric left which I might make into a zipper pouch.

There's been some knitting too. My ears stood on attention when I caught the words of my colleagues discussing about the weather for the coming weekend, which will be cooler with rain. Hey, I might just be able to wear Something Red! I would love to wear it at least once before the red, hot summer comes.

The other day, I borrowed two books from the library, Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Patchwork and Asa Wettre's Old Swedish Quilts published by Interweave. The latter is pretty new to me and presents some interesting information about Sweden and the quilting culture there.

The author wrote that in Sweden in the olden days, many poor families have only beds filled with straw and on the coast, some people even slept on seaweed. Patchwork was every meaning what it is, sewing various fabric scraps together because the people just can't effort to buy a big piece. Our ability now to acquire a relatively large piece of fabric to be intentionally cut into smaller pieces for patchwork really is such a luxury.

In one of the chapters, the author interestingly pointed out that in the 19th century Sweden, people were judged by their beds. And there is this amusing remark:

"... ... A polite visitor would count the quilts. If she pretend that she did not see them, she was considered jealous, and the refreshments were adjusted accordingly."

The author researched about the quilts that people around Sweden made. The designs are mostly very simple yet effective. Here are a few that I like.

Close up here.

A variation on the 9-block.

Another closer look.

On another issue, Helene mentioned to me about a book on recycling old jeans. Click here to see the cover and some project ideas. Interesting ideas and I can’t wait to one day make my own denim quilt.

I did sewing of another type during the weekend, a bag for the Sew-i-knit along. It's a shape I've done before but with different handles. It is almost done now, save for some stitches that need to be sewn by hand at the bottom of the bag and the lining. Here's a peek at the inner pocket just before I sewed the lining to the bag. This is the first time I made an inner pocket with depth instead of flat and it is for my mobile phone.

Some recycling

My elder daughter has been on Easter break and I took two days off work this week to spend time with my two girls and I advanced to another level of motherhood, so to speak. I could now bring both of them out without any help! A feat for me, as I don't drive, I could normally only manage 1 kid at a time to the library, etc. Especially since the little one is still at an age when naps are needed mid-trip or wants to be carried. So for the past two days, I was happy that I managed to take both out to the park and the Heritage Museum at Shatin, and the younger one could walk on her own the whole time.

Talking about the Heritage Museum, there's a kid's section which is like a big playroom to the children. One of the sections exhibits toys of the olden times and have life sized chess sets like this Animal Chess which I used to play with my brothers when we were kids.

And our old favourite, the Aeroplane Chess which is still popular now. Look how at home my little one is, no shoes!

I did squeeze in a bit of sewing time in the long Easter break. My brother has a pair of blue jeans which he can no longer fit and my mother made them into cut-offs for herself and she too no longer wants them and gave them to me the last October when I visited her and told her about my sewing adventures. I pulled this pair of cut-offs from the cupboard as I had wanted to cut some squares to make a patchwork picnic mat from the old jeans but then decided last minute I could actually turn the pair into a biggish carryall when we go on a barbeque or picnic to hold all the children's knick-knacks.

Here you go, from cut-offs to a big carryall with short handles and lining which neatens the insides.

My girls took turns to use it as a jumping bag too. Very versatile. One day, I would still love to make the denim patchwork picnic mat.

Home Improvement Sewing Programme (Part Deux)

My mil asked me a couple of times to throw out the torn and tattered pillowcase but I had wanted to use it as a template to cut out the fabric for a new one I'm going to sew and I can even re-use the zipper too. How thrifty of me.

I finally sewed the pillowcase with the suede-y fabric I got the other day at Prince Edward. I don't want to just sew a plain pillowcase and tried to adorn it with craftiness.

First of all, I got inspired by 3 peas' beautiful quilt squares.

The floral striped is sewn on. And in a Denyse Schmidt moment, I decided to add random zigzag lines over it. It was fun! Here's the less busy back,

The square on the front is appliqué on using blind stitch (new technique learnt), a bit wonky but imprecision is my forte. I experimented with adding some orange sashiko-style running stitches.

Then the zipper, I carefully ripped out the old zipper but the zipper head got detached from the zipper body and I couldn't squash it back on. I looked into my small notion box, and found a zip that's usable and quite close to the colour scheme so I just used it. Isn't this just so in the use what you have spirit?

It's been a good experiment. And the best part is, I didn't break any sewing machine needle during that session. I need another cushion cover but what's up next? Maybe a log cabin one.

Sew-y Sunday or Home Improvement Sewing Programme?

Here's the second instalment of the craft report of the previous weekend. I managed to sew on Sunday because the elder kid went out with her aunt, little kid took a loooong nap, Mil and Fil went out for mahjong leaving the flat to me us, and Husband was engrossed in the movie, Nikita.

First of all, take a look at this corner of our tiny apartment. On a good day, the softies of all shapes and sizes sit properly atop the sofa. On a usual day, they are strewn all over the sofa and sometimes even the floor.

The true meaning of stuffed toys. Toys stuffed onto a shelf in JY's bedroom.

So sewing a softie cannot be classified as part of a Home Improvement Sewing Program but why do I still want to make one? Because it's just too cute, don't you think? A Kitty Cat for Project Spectrum.

Look at the tail!

It's a good way to start. I made Kitty Cat from the Hema kit that Karin sent me in a swap and it's easy to make except that there should be 5 stripes instead of 4. I cut the felt wrongly and there's not enough left for a longest stripe.

I definitely would love to try making some other softies but it might take a while.

Something rainbow and another thing red

I took two days off last week on Thursday and Friday, and I had imagined I could go on a crafting frenzy, knitting this and sewing that. However, that was not to be had with the kids around, granted that JY's home only in the afternoon as she still had school and I tried to administer a rather heavy dose of Busytown vcd on the little one to buy myself some free time. Thing is, I'm such a structured person, I need my time-table and routine to function, and with my two days off, I was like a kid presented with a box of very delicious candy and don't know which to choose. There are one thousand and one things I wish I have the time to do when I'm at work but when I'm actually on leave, I just don't know where to start.

Well, I did something entirely unplanned, folding lucky stars with my girls. When I was a kid, we had to cut the stripes ourselves but now readily available in most stationery shops are pre-cut stripes in all sorts of paper. Here's how you do it. If you like words, here's another link for the instruction.

Anyway, I did succeed to strike out one more item on my red list.

I bound the red quilt with some orange fabric in stash and I'm happy with this very first quilt. Nothing grand, no special themes, just reds stripes, very simple piecing and machine-quilted in straight lines. And it's only crib size. I followed Denyse Schmidt's instruction in her book for the binding which happens to not require bias cutting. I didn't hand stitch the binding in place but instead machined it. I'm so excited with finishing it and nearly wanted to dig into the orange or blue fabric stash and make a similar but bigger one for JY. My plan is dashed as she wants neither orange nor blue.

Some Sewing FOs

After breaking my fabric diet on Saturday, I figured that I should sew faster to justify my purchases so I sat down and tackled the sewing machine. I found and cleared out a lump of fibrey ball in the bobbin area, oiled it and it is now almost good as new, no more grunting sound and I could sew again. And sewed I did.

First, the red quilt, I tried using the walking foot, liked it and ended up machine quilting it and ripping out my earlier hand quilting. The machine-sewn lines although still a bit crooked, are a lot straighter than my hand-sewn running stitches. However, I couldn't go on with the binding, too much figuring out to do so I went on to the baby patchwork blanket.

Here it is, done. I guess I've got to start somewhere with patchworking and this is it. Red, pink, white and a bit of blue. The backing is a flannel blanket (Mrs. Pilkington, do you recognize it?) and I make the top the same size and sew the two pieces together. Below is a closer look at the fabric and the backing.

And I finished the black floral skirt for Sew? I Knit! too and wore it to work yesterday and went on to a lovely evening meeting up with my local pals and Kimberli at Cheerwool after work. There I was at Cheer Wool in my usual style of work attire, black, black and more black.

Although it seems presentable, the skirt is at least 2 sizes too big for me. I dithered about the size I ought to sew as I'm not familiar with American sizing, so I thought cutting bigger is safer than smaller; at least if it is too big, I can take in more seam allowance to make it smaller. So I ended up with a skirt that now sits on my hips instead of on my waist and hence longer than I intended it to be.

All in all, I can say that sewing makes me very tired, after the sewing sessions over the weekend, I felt that I've had a good work out. Just like I'm a tight knitter, I sew with quite a bit of anxiety too, and I don't know how it happened but I broke two sewing machine needles just on the weekend alone. Anyway, I wonder what's up next on the agenda for the sewalong. Garments for children, maybe? I would really like to try that.

Big Red Quilt Plan

The Blue Sky Cotton for Something Red arrived but all (well most) red knit plans need to be shelved for the moment. My cousin is coming to Hong Kong this weekend and I absolutely need to pass her the red quilt to bring back to Singapore for my brother whose first kid is born today. I'm thrilled for my brother and his wife and am so happy to be an aunt!

There is a bit of reds in my fabric stash (but definitely nothing compare to Jan's) thanks to Mrs. Pilkington, Anne and Polly. My mother will so approve of the auspicious colour red for her new grandchild. And like Elizabeth Zimmermann said in Knitter's Almanac about choosing colours for babies, "And what's wrong with scarlet?".

I'm making a simple striped one with minimal cutting and piecing, inspired by these:

Quick Quit by Molly Chicken

Swim Quilt by Swim

Hamster Quilt by Yarnstorm

There are plenty to learn for me. On the technical front: a) Will I be able to piece straight lines? b) Can my machine (or rather, I) take the quilting? c) What pattern to quilt, straight lines or freeform? d) How in the world am I to do the binding? On the aesthetic front, which red fabrics to use and how to coordinate them into a pleasing format? Which fabric to use for the backing (I've got two choices for this) and the binding (I think I need to go shop for fabric for the latter)?

Question a) is partly answered. Here's how far I've gotten, various stripes of 3, 4 and 5 inches x 32 inches. I guess this is the easiest part of the quilt making process.

It is way far from the pretty quilts that you see but I've got to start somewhere and I guess my learning curve might be steeper than others. I hope with the help from the few books I have and support from online friends, I'll be able to make it step by step. Next, I'll try and figure how to make the quilt sandwich.

But wait, see how easily I get distracted even with a deadline loomi