Fancy a Jane day?

Design: Fancy a Jane day? Designer: The Sampler Girl.  Fabric: 32ct Belfast Flax 2/2.  Floss: DMC 3721.  To be finished into a pocket

This design has been growing on me and since Tanya of The Sampler Girl was having a Black Friday sale, I couldn't resist ;)

My miserable attempt at a red & white school house block :(  I was inspired by a post by Laurie of Minick & Simpson.  Love those red and whites. I think the school house block will have to wait till I figure it out some more or look into foundation paper piecing.  However, I need to put a start to the Red & White Bear Paw quilt inspired by Moda's Bakeshop ... soon ...  I was playing with Cheri's Home for the Holidays quilt called Season's Greetings and decided to go larger.  Those 1/2" squares are causing me grief!

Started on another Christmas Star block.  Going very quickly with the help of Lori's HST tutorial.

 

 This is a quilt weight that I made a couple of months back.  Since my sewing machine was in the shop for servicing  ... finally ... I had table space to do some hand quilting.  The quilt weight worked wonderfully and it was a great tip from Katell on SQT.

My lunch today with brown rice.  I know it does look a little icky because the egg is supposed to be smooth but I wasn't bothered since I've steamed it in the rice cooker basket with the rice cooking.  It's a Chinese dish called 3 egg yolks or something like that.  There's Chicken egg, Century egg and Salted egg sprinkled with sesame oil, soya sauce and oyster sauce.

Design: Orange Peel Quilt  Designer: Kathleen Tracy

So while my lunch was cooking, I did some applique!  Yes, horrors of horrors!  With the encouragement of some friends and a dare from another (you know who you are), I will give applique another go :)  I bought an e-pattern from Martingale when they were having the Black Friday sale.  Again I couldn't resist ;)  Orange peel?  Bring it on!

Soot & Ashes - Quilt Top

I wasn't too inclined to get the vines, leaves and the berries applique done.  Applique and me just don't jive ... for now at least :) Never say never?

The scrappy binding is also done more because I would like to put away the fabrics used.

A skirt in the designing process.  I wanted to make the A Plus A Line skirt by Twinkle's Wenlan Chia.  But I gathered there were too many sizing issues and I needed to print 50 pages of pattern.  Just ridiculous in my opinion.  So I'm using a pattern that I drafted myself a few months ago for a basic A Line skirt that was quite successful if I am allowed to boast and re draft it for Wenlan's skirt.  We'll see how that goes.

The Ellen pants this time around is a success!!  It's true what they say about perseverance. Although I could work more with the fit but it's good enough for me.  The pants fabric is cotton drill, nice to work with.  I'm using a different cotton fabric for the fly shield and pockets, it just reeks individuality!  I need to top stitch the waistband down and get on with the button hole and button and I'm done.  Oooh ... nothing come close to conquering a challenge!

The Underground Railroad doll quilt is pieced, it now requires an inner and outer border.

Need to think on how I would like to finish this piece by Primitive Bettys. Most likely a SIMPLE pillow! :)

Ellen Pants - Revisited

I am giving the Ellen pants another shot.  I've enlarged where needs enlarging :p and I've added a pocket too.  It's a cotton drill fabric and quite nice to work with.  I am using a different fabric for the pockets and the fly shield.  I've joined a 1 year membership to Angela Kane's patterns.  And looking forward to her shirt and skirt videos.

The Ute blouse is completed.  Very happy with it despite the mishap which is rectified with a silly label!

Some cross stitch on the stand.  It's been about a month since I've cross stitched.  Enjoying this small stitch immensely.

Sewing a plenty

The kimonos are all sewed.  The bias binding was tricky as I could not get a roll of 3/4" coordinating ribbon.  So I cut my own and used the Clover bias binder, it worked like a dream.  You can get the kimono pattern from Habitual.

The receiving blanket got a small linen loop to facilitate hanging.  Lined with flannel and top stitched on all the sides.  The tutorial can be found here.

Lunch - Hong Kong baby kailan with salted egg.  I only eat the yolk as the white can be too salty some times.

Have almost completed the Ute blouse from Burda. Look at the mishap :(  I uttered some choice words!  But the collar will cover it ... hopefully ... and I intend to put on a label at the back of the fabric to cover it.  Just so that I don't get sick every time I see it.  Apart from that I think it turned out pretty well.  It needs armhole serging, button holes and buttons.

As usual I did the hemming by hand.  I may try to use the blind hem by machine one day, we'll see.  I followed this tutorial for the classic hem stitch.



And there's a great article by Carla Crim re hem width on Sew Mama Sew.

A Joan Elliot cross stitch piece done by my sis. Needs to be finished into a wall hanging.  Still in the thought process on how I'll go about it.

Soot & Ashes - Applique WIP

I've only appliqued hearts until this.  It's an experience, an adventure no doubt.  I don't think I'm doing a good job of it.  Since the applique comes in small doses, I suppose I'll be okay with it.  No Baltimore quilts for me for sure!  There's another block with a bird to complete and then I hope to piece the blocks together.

Ellen Pants

Since I wear pants mostly when I work, I wanted to try to sew me a pair of pants.  So I started out with a free pattern from Burda ... you know I am cheap.  And I bought 1.5M (60" width) of Tetron synthetic fabric (June helped me figure out the fabric).  I think it's a low quality fabric with lots of fray and great price for trying out ... a muslin if you will.

Since there were some comments saying that the pattern ran large, I took one step down from my normal size.  Big mistake :(

 

This might sound like sour grapes but my objective was to grasp the pants sewing process and the instructions being beginner unfriendly did not help.  So from the onset I approached it as a lesson.

I ignored the belt loops, pockets and ironing the seam allowances apart.  It frayed badly and I think my room needs a good vacuuming.  But I get it now.  And I will go for a larger size and I will know where to take in or put out the next time I try this pattern for my less than ideal figure :p 

 The Soot and Ashes block are now auditioned for comments from Jess on how I will go about adding applique and laying out the quilt.  Cheri's come up with a fabulous finished quilt and if I can only manage half of the applique I'll be happy as a pea.

One of my lunches last week.

Got an 8' run dowel where the shopkeeper kindly cut for me the lengths I require.  I sand papered them slightly and now their hanging my quilts in my room!

 

I really loved this design (freebie) by Betty Dekat of Primitive Bettys.  It says so much especially with the impending crazy Christmas season!  I've changed my mind re the white linen.  Hah ... talk about simplifying :)

Fabric stash

Fabric stash from Fabric Shack.  Their the best!  6 days flat delivery from the US ... must be the Autumn winds or the efficiency of the postal staff of Malaysia.  They just got a well deserved salary hike in the recent budget.  The background is David Walker's Spring Fling  for a baby girl's receiving blanket.  Got the idea from Paul and the freebie tutorial  from You Can Make This. I only got a 1/4 yd each of the red and green A Dicken's Christmas fabric.  It would suffice for another Christmas Star block quilt.

Some Judie Rothermel and I'm good to continue with the Amish Star blocks.  The Kona Gold on the left will be the inner border.

The Underground Railroad doll quilt is coming along industriously.