Zippedy

I was in a crafty mood that day. I completed the last stitches to that 80" quilt that I promised I'll make for my mother and started playing around with the fabrics for design ideas for a cushion cover for my mother-in-law's birthday. I've since completed the cushion cover as well but I'll have to delay showing both pictures on this blog until the presents have been received by the recipients.

In the midst of all the scraps and ideas, I managed to complete a little project that I've long wanted to do. A coin pouch for my husband. He's always used a coin pouch in addition to his wallet and way back (I can't even remember when), his coin pouch started falling apart. First the metal handle to the zip broke. I managed to attach a spare metal handle to it and he was alright for a while until that metal handle broke the hinge that held it. The zip still worked but opening and closing it was difficult without a handle. We had tried to buy him a replacement back in April for his birthday but that cheap pouch's zip came off even before it was used!

So it is a long overdue project. I'd bought the 4" zip weeks ago from Spotlight and finally I manged to zip it all up! Both the coudroy and white denim material are recycled from old jeans and I chose them because they're stronger fabrics. Hope you'll like it, Hubby! All that's missing are the letters "LV".

Sister's Gift

Happy Birthday to my dearest sister!

I sent her a little gift, a homemade tissue box cover. It's small and light, easy to mail over to Singapore.

This one's my favourite creation so far. I love the bright blue and green colours, it's so cheerful. I got the blue flower material from Spotlight for only $1 as it was on clearance. I tried adding a self made organza ribbon trimming this time and although my workmanship is not up to standard, the effect is very pretty.

Another Bag

This bag features a clutch handle and a rounded bottom shape. It took me some time to get the handles, trimmings and figure out the shape pattern. You see, I followed the project from a borrowed issue of the Handmade magazine but forgot to scan the pattern. So I traced another flower design and tried to figure out the shape of the cloth from the picture. Well, glad it didn't turn out too awful. And I really enjoyed stitching the flower embroidery.

Roads & Tracks Quilt

I completed this quilt for KK some weeks ago but has delayed the taking of photographs and the blogging. Finally, my wish to make something for my 2 boys as a keepsake has been fulfilled.

I got the inspiration for the name of this quilt from my Dad when he saw this quilt and described the log cabin zig zag design in the center as "Roads & Tracks". I admit I never saw it as that and indeed a fresh perspective sometimes really helps. Based on this concept, I added more "roads" to the top, bottom and sides to complete the quilt. So we have Big Bird and Elmo skating down the tracks in the center and fire engines, trucks surrounded by circuits on both sides. All around, I quilted "road dividers" stitches on the green roads.

Patchwork That Works

I love making small patchwork projects.

They're fast to complete, giving satisfaction in seeing the end result easily. Also, I enjoy running through my 'scraps bag' to see what pieces of leftover bits of cloth I can use to turn them into something I can use.

In a span of 3 days, I've completed 3 small crafts - 2 tissue box cover and 1 toilet roll holder.

Check them out!

No more running out of paper!

'Coffee & Cream' Tissue Box Cover

The colours remind me of a Spring Garden!

Bead Necklace Collection

Presenting Pinklavender's bead necklace creations!

Cushions Big and Small

Here are a series of cushion (and a bolster) covers that I've made so far.

This is my first cushion cover, inspired by the lovely cupcake print material that I could not resist buying, especially when it was on offer. Not too perfect for a first attempt, the size of the cover ended up slightly smaller than expected. Thus the cushion cover was very 'tight-fitting' and the back of the cushion needed some buttons to make it stay close....hehehe.

This bolster case was pieced within hours as a gift for my cousin's 18 month old son Alexander. They had left his familiar bolster on the plane and were looking for a substitute to hug at night. I used a favourite piece of flannel fat quarter as the body and matching lilac ribbon. I have been wondering how to use up this cloth effectively. The cartoon prints were so cute that I felt it's not right to cut it up to use in patch work. So with this bolster case, I used up almost the whole piece without cutting it up to much. I hope my little nephew will like it.

This 2nd cushion was made from scraps leftover from making the quilt. I decided to make a matching cushion and voila, it turned out quite well. I'm happy with the size and the final look.

I made this cushion cover using a large piece of red cloth, kindly donated by my mother. I had borrowed this book "Cushions and Throws" from the library, which featured very interesting self-made designs. I didn't exactly follow any of its designs, but was inspired enough to venture outside of the usual cotton to experiment with a soft material. I finally bought 4 red buttons recently and tried for the first time to sew button holes for this project.

I made this little pillow for my mother, including the cushion insert. She, like many people I know, also needs to hug a small pillow when she sleeps. I had borrowed this book on Appliques and there was a project to make felt bags. The circle flowers designs were appliqued onto the bags and I liked them a lot. I used some scrap materials and followed a similar design for this pillow. Nothing too difficult and very fun to make!

Old Fabrics, New Bags

One of my favourite part about patchwork is the recyling or reuse of scrap fabrics and turn them into something beautiful and useful. It's challenging and also gives me the satisfaction that I've not wasted any materials. My little contribution to Mother Earth....hee...





Here I've used some really small scraps of cloth to make into a pin cushion, which my mother has taken a liking to and requested that it be given to her.





I know my mum has a collection of cloth which she'll sometimes use to make clothes (eg nightdresses) for herself and us. I asked her to give me some that she does not want. Who knows what I can use it for. In patchwork, the more cloth, the merrier.




Sure enough, when Hubby brought back the goodie from Singapore, I was inspired enough to use some of her fabrics immediately to make 2 new bags.




The maroon red cloth on this quilted sling bag is from her collection, while the printed ones are from 2 pieces of left over fat quarters. This bag is useful as I can put all the little barangs barangs (purse, handphone, keys, camera, sunglasses and whatnots) and have my hands free to carry things/XX.






Would you believe this blue and white denim bag is made from what used to be the legs and pockets of 2 denim/cargo pants? I found them in the stack from my mom as well.









Besides using them, I've had bags of fun making them.

Lots of Love Quilt

Finally, after months of on-off patchwork sewing and tedious hand quilting, plus some help from my visiting mother, the quilt that was meant for my son is completed!

Lots of Love (60" x 48")

This is one of the earliest project I've started but it is not my first completed quilt. (More about the FIRST quilt later.) I was new to patchwork so I started experimenting with fat quarters, making small square blocks. I played around with different combinations and added more pink and blue blocks to make the centre quilt top. This piece was folded up and stashed away for a few months until I cut up a flannel bedsheet for its border.







Once the border was added, I started to add in some details. I appliqued big and small hearts into the squares and around the borders. After binding and quilting one round, I decided to hand-quilt the borders further to join all the hearts in a "wavey-dotted" manner. The stitching of the hearts were all done by my mother. (Thanks!)

Sweet Dreams Baby

I'm quite happy with the final look of the quilt. Thank God my lack of planning (not recommended) and last minute ideas did not turn out too bad. Its bright and bold colours makes this quilt very vibrant and cheerful. I have used 100% cotton batting and a flannel bedsheet as its backing, so I hope that it will also bring warmth to my son when he covers himself on cold nights. I hope he'll keep this quilt forever and remembers mummy's love to him always.

Quilt Crazy

I created this blog mainly to showcase some of my hobbies' creations.

I used to do beading and have created quite a few necklaces, mostly for myself and as gifts to family and friends. But since I've stopped working and thus the need for dressing up with accessories, I've all but given up making any new creations. Nonetheless, I'll endeavour to post up some pictures of my beading creations.

The current hobby I've started is stitching, patchwork and quilting. It first started as a little handmade project making a personalised pillow case for my husband's Christmas present. Then I got ambitious and started to think if this could be a business idea? I love the idea of personalised pillow cases, with names, special thots and dates of special occasions stitched onto the fabric.

Hand-stitched 'Merry' with a snow man and christmas tree made of felt

Hand-stitched 'Christmas' with a Santa's hat, gift and christmas stocking in felt

This idea soon evaporated when I realised it's quite tedious to do handstitching on a commercial basis without an embroidery machine. Guess I can only manage time to do small time projects for the people I love.

I can't remember how but my stitching and playing with felt fabric soon evolved into me reading up and learning about quilting. One thing leads to another and very soon, I found myself looking around and eventually buying my first sewing machine - a Brother XL-2230 for $169. I actually cannot believe that I'm suddenly into sewing! The last time I touched a sewing machine was when I was doing Home Economics in Secondary School and I don't remember I liked it that much.

With the machine, I started to create more craftworks. Some are still Work-in-progress, but here are some things that I've created so far:

A wall hanging "Love and Live Happy" for my parents' anniversary

Another wall hanging "Always Love You" for Valentine's Day

Playing around with quilt blocks design