SEW MY NAME

On BYOBD, shoppers here are encouraged to bring own shopping bags or purchase reusable bags available at the participating supermarkets or donate 10 cents for each plastic bag taken at the checkout counters . Proceeds from the donation will go to a registered charity to fund environmental activities.

The other day I was at the shopping center when I saw a simple foldable carrier in a mini bag selling at about USD9 similar to the one I sew in the picture. It’s really cute and the material is the sort of the ones used in umbrellas. It gave me idea to make one for myself so that I can put it in my handbag and not get caught not bringing own bag on BYOBD. Sometimes after going out I make unplanned visits to the library. That is when I wish I have a carrier with me to carry the borrowed books home.

It’s really easy to make, cutting 2 pieces of rectangle, 1 for the mini bag and 1 for the actual carrier, a small piece and 2 longer pieces for the handle of the bags. The big carrier can be rolled and fit into the mini bag which is small enough to fit in most handbags. If you can’t get the material that of the umbrella, use a sturdy material for more rugged use such as those used for cushion covers or curtains. I got my material from remnants which I bought very cheaply on clearance sale.

See how small it is next to my favorite small handbag. It measures 5.5″ by 3.5″ excluding the handle. Lets do our bit by bringing our own bags to reduce excessive use of plastic bags and in this little way we can do our part for the environment .

Happy BYOBD.

I have been quite tied up these days and did little sewing and beading. Just a little update for my second son’s quilt in progress. I have finished with the piecing of the top layer and hoping to do the quilting this weekend. I am using the quick-piecing method so please don’t think I laboriously join small pieces of colorful materials together. I just don’t have that much time. Housekeeping and cooking already take up a lot of my time. Sometimes I’m too tired that I end up surfing and reading blogs only. But whatever little time I have for my sewing and beading hobby gives me much satisfaction and nothing beats that joy when you get something nice done with your own two hands.

I simply love the vibrant colors and the scallops at the edge of the quilt which remind me of crayons. Until my next update, take care all of you.

Just a quick update on my eldest son’s quilt which I have finally finished thanks to the motivation of being a member in the Blogger craft club.
The part I enjoy most is the piecing of the patchwork and watching as it slowly gets bigger and bigger when more pieces are joined together. Then comes the tedious part, which is the quilting of the patchwork. I do not hand quilt my patchwork projects as I am a very impatient person. Instead I do machine quilting on my general sewing machine , usually sewing on the ditches of the seams. And boy, it is not easy doing a quilt due to the narrow space of my machine.

I wish I can buy one of those quilting machines (see picture below) but they don’t sell it here. Patchwork and quilting is not popular in Malaysia and Singapore so there is no market for it. If I can get this wonderful machine, patchwork and quilting will be much more fun. Probably the nearest I can get is to have it shipped from Australia which I’m sure will cost me a bomb.

Talk to you again soon. Now I have to finish the next quilt for my second son before starting a new one for the small one.

I have just came from visiting Katrina, one of the Blogger Craft Club members and a very active one. I can see she’s making great preparation for the arrival of her new bundle of joy with lovely pink fabrics. Do drop by at this sewing momma blog and take a peek.

In our Eastern tradition, sewing is a taboo when we are pregnant. But stubborn me has never conformed to that tradition as I have always enjoyed sewing. But now with changing times many traditions are lost which might as well as most represented unfounded fears of our elders. Some of the customs which are now losing popularity are- not able to bathe for 40 days, cannot go out for 40 days and many more restrictions for pregnant women or new moms.

I did not finished my sons’ quilts as I have been out of the house most of days. Usually I visit my sick and aged parents twice a week. And when at home it’s back to cooking, cleaning and washing. I couldn’t find a good stretch of uninterrupted time for finishing my quilts. Doing big projects is no fun if you can only afford to squeeze little time in between the chores.

I have sewn 3 simple nappy stackers from my stash of fabrics. I am trying hard not to go to the fabric store and instead try to sew projects from my years of fabric collection. And my sister-in-law has just given birth to a baby boy so the blue nappy stacker is for her baby.

My niece is giving birth to a baby girl soon and I can give either the green or the peach one as I have sewn 2 more and could not make up my mind which one to give.

I love giving nappy stacker as a gift as it is a very handy and useful to store diapers neatly. It is also easy to sew and does not require much of my time so I can easily squeeze making them in between my busy schedule.

I’m hoping to finish the quilt for my eldest son this weekend so until next Monday’s update of Blogger Craft Club, I wish you all happy sewing and crafting.

I’m making slow progress with my quilt but still progressing, slow and steady! I didn’t do much sewing this week except putting the borders. At this point I have sandwiched the batting in between the quilt top and the backing. I will machine quilt it and bind the whole quilt and soon it will be ready.

On Sunday night I went to Ikea to get new computer tables and Ikea happens to be on sale now. I bought plain flat sheet 100% cotton made in Ethiopia for US$ 2 only for a finished size of 150cm by 250cm. It’s just perfect for the backing of my son’s quilt. It’s really a steal and I’m so happy with my purchase. After washing, it shrunk a little by about an inch length and widthwise but the material doesn’t wrinkled so much which is common of the cheap materials.

I have also prepared the bias binding for the quilt . The binding is using the short-cut method of making bias strip. I love shortcuts and easily make this bias strip to bind the quilt in a breeze. For this single quilt, I cut 21 in by 21 in of material and get 7.5 meters of bias strip with 1.5 in width, more than enough to bind the whole quilt. If you are not familiar with making continuous bias strip click at my instructions.

To the BCC members - Happy sewing and crafting.

I have been busy for the whole week that I did not touch my patchwork quilt. For those who don’t know me I love to sew patchwork and fabric crafts, I love to make beaded jewelry and I also love blogging and surfing the internet. Let me see what I have been doing for the past whole week.

I managed to do a matching set of pearl beaded watch, bracelet and ring for my youngest sister. She wanted in combination of black and white. I did a simple white freshwater beaded pearl watch for my younger sister-in-law who is a sweet, simple person and a teacher by profession. And my eldest sister-in-law who happens to be my favorite for she is a very good cook, wanted her pearl watch in gold. And I can see that she loves it very much. All my sisters and sister-in-laws each has got a watch hand-beaded by me. So, one woman’s craze is other women’s gain.

I have always loved the classic look of pearls so the reason why I bought many strands of pearls. Moreover Swarovski and freshwater pearls are quite reasonably priced here. But not gemstone or semi-precious stones which are quite expensive. I guess that is why many enthusiastic beaders use crystals, pearls and other glass beads for their beading projects. Jewelry making hobby is popular here because it is not as difficult or time-consuming as sewing and patchwork. But it is also an expensive hobby once you are addicted. Each time I visit a bead store I can easily spend a hundred dollar, so I try not to go often. And I do not want to calculate or keep track of my beading hobby expenses, else my hubby faints.

Recently my dear friend Liudmila has bewitched me with her malachite beads that I have been busy buying them and other gemstones over the internet as I cannot find malachite beads here. So, soon I will be beading gemstones instead of just pearls and crystals. And guess what else I did? I have just bought another domain name www.beadedgemstone.com and right now cannot figure out how to make time to maintain another site. So I shall just park it with my hosting company until I am ready.

One more thing which I have been busy with is that I am helping a friend who is a Forex trader to produce and launch his Forex Ebook. Digging another grave for myself? The reason why I do this is because I get to learn by helping others. I don’t have a product or Ebook to sell right now but who knows in the near future?

And I have just changed hosting company and many graphics are missing and need to be restored. So pardon me if I am slow in updating my site but I intend to get the quilts for my sons ready as soon as possible.

Talk to you again next week for update of my quilts and meanwhile happy stitching, crafting and happy blogging too. Please check out Mr Linky at Blogger Craft Club to see what others did.

I am supposed to do the third quilt for my youngest son and complete main patterns for all 3 quilts before adding borders. But I may have to look for more materials to match well the earlier 2 pieces sewn. So I decided to plan for the borders for the first 2 quilts before going on to the last quilt. So the last quilt will be designed on the left-over materials of the first 2 quilts revolving around Overall Sam applique which I have just sewn.

I drew Overall Sam onto a drawing paper and when satisfied I cut the paper patterns to transfer to the materials mainly using scraps which I have collected over the years. It is simple and fun pattern to sew for young boys.

Sunbonnet Sue or Sunbonnet lady is also one of my favorite patterns which can also be sewn on projects for young girls as it is also another easy pattern to reproduce. I did this Sunbonnet Sue patchwork bag many years ago when my daughter was younger.

This is what I love about patchwork, able to use scraps to make other projects. The designing,the color-matching and co-ordinating is also the fun part.

Until next Monday for the quilts update. See you soon.

This is my second quilt (in progress) for my son Zurikh. I love it as it is bright and cheerful and suitable for my fun-loving son. I have finished with the main pattern and will add sashing and borders before sewing it with backing and batting. Like my first quilt with BBC (WIP too), I will only do that after doing the third quilt for my youngest son so as to be able to use the materials effectively.

Last night I asked Zurikh what color border would he like for the quilt showing him my colorful collection. He said orange and I asked him why not green to which he replied that it didn’t really matter as he will use the quilt for sleeping only. I told him that I like to make a nice one so that he will think of me when going to sleep. He just gave me the ‘whatever look’ answer .

And I remembered reading a joke somewhere of this lady at check-out counters with very slow-moving queue to the point that she felt being ignored. She then lamented that if she wanted to be ignored she might as well stay at home and get ignored by her kids. Poor mom but I believe in most cases this is just a passing stage in bringing-up a teenager.

Just for a laugh and see if we can identify ourselves guilty of having said similar craps in times of exasperation.

Things My Mother Taught Me:

My mother taught me LOGIC.
“Because I said so, that’s why.”

My Mother taught me MEDICINE…
“If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they’re going to freeze that way.” My Mother taught me TO THINK AHEAD…
“If you don’t pass your spelling test, you’ll never get a good job!”

My Mother taught me ESP…
“Put your sweater on; don’t you think that I know when you’re cold?”

My Mother taught me TO MEET A CHALLENGE…
“What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you…Don’t talk back to me!”

My Mother taught me HUMOR…
“When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me.”

My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT…
“If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.

My mother taught me ABOUT SEX…
“How do you think you got here?”

My mother taught me about GENETICS…
“You are just like your father!”

My mother taught me about my ROOTS…
“Do you think you were born in a barn?”

My mother taught me about the WISDOM of AGE…
“When you get to be my age, you will understand.”

My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION…
“Just wait until your father gets home.”

My mother taught me about RECEIVING…
“You are going to get it when we get home.”

And, my all-time favorite - JUSTICE
“One day you’ll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like YOU…then you’ll see what it’s like.”

My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
“If you’re going to kill each other, do it outside - I just finished cleaning!”

My mother taught me RELIGION.
“You better pray that will come out of the carpet.”

My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
“If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!”

My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
“Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident.”

My mother taught me IRONY.
“Keep laughing and I’ll *give* you something to cry about.”

My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
“Shut your mouth and eat your supper!”

My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
“Will you *look* at the dirt on the back of your neck!”

My mother taught me about STAMINA.
“You’ll sit there ’til all that spinach is gone.”

My mother taught me about WEATHER.
“It looks as if a tornado swept through your room.

My mother taught me how to solve PHYSICS PROBLEMS.
“If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you; would you listen then?”

My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times - Don’t exaggerate!!!”

My mother taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE.
“I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.”

My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
“Stop acting like your father!”

My mother taught me about ENVY.
“There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don’t have wonderful parents like you do!”

It has been a frustrating week for me. My internet was down due to some modem problem since last Tuesday but my nephew has managed to fix things yesterday. Also, since last Saturday I could not get connection to my website and only a few minutes ago things were restored. Some server problem it seems. In addition, my second son has been having problems too and was at that stage when the whole world seems to be against him. He ran foul of the law and shook the family a little. But I’m happy to announce that he is putting in a lot of effort to get back in the right track and things should be back to normal pretty soon. So Mommy dearest has been real busy running around.

Here I am behind time as I am in the Blogger Craft Club and we are to update our progress each Monday. It is good to be in the club as there is more motivation to get things done. Each member can do any craft not just restricted to sewing, so do feel free to join us if you are in any kind of craft.

I have been wanting to make new quilts for my 3 boys and with the club’s motivation has started with the first one. Just a simple quilt from my fabric collection for a kick start. Being a member of Fabricoholics Anonymous, I have a huge pile of cotton collection to make as many quilts I wish to. And another blogger, Sewing Mom did a pretty bag and I just love her choice of colors in her sewing. Do pop over at Hadias and click at Mr Linky to see the awesome things the members did so far.

So here is my progress. It is all using quick-piecing method and easy to follow for beginners or those hard-pressed for time. I will put a border around the quilt before attaching to batting and backing. But not now. I will do it now only after I have finished planning for all the 3 quilts. In this way I can effectively used all the solid colors as planned earlier which I have bought each in half a meter.

Please drop me an email for anyone wanting the method of quick-piecing method until I have put up the instructions when the project is finished.

Happy crafting and piecing everyone. Update you with my progress next Monday.

I am sew excited!

Today is the official launch of Bloggers Craft Club. It is a project initiated by Hadias, a blogger who I admire tremendously. Before I continue with the rest of my post let me tell you a little about this amazing lady. She is a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) with 4 kids. So what’s the big deal, there are many SAHMs around? Ok, the difference is her kids are all home-schooled and she is their very own teacher. She personally educates them. Isn’t that amazing? Take a peep at her course study designed for her children. Don’t say to teach my kids, I need to take most of the courses for my very own self! How many of you are like me, frequently losing tempers and screaming at our kids just to get their homeworks done?

Anyway, Hadias would like bloggers to join in and share a small piece of themselves in bloggityville or blogosphere through crafts and sewing. Each Monday beginning on January 28th Hadias will post pictures and updates of her progress. So I am planning to do likewise, except that I am just about to start my first project. We can either choose to work on a common project or do something on our own.The idea is to motivate bloggers to work on crafts or sewing projects and complete them. Join us if you like.

For my official first project with the group I am making 3 new quilts for each of my 3 sons, of course 1 at a time. I have been wanting to make new quilts for them for quite sometimes but never get round to do it. I have rough patterns in mind and it will be a combination of patchwork and applique. Honestly speaking I am an impatient person, so my quilts will be using quick-piecing methods so that I will not end up with UFOs (unfinished objects).

What I did today was going through my stash and I have just decided that I will be using these combinations. I got 9 solid colors plus the cream cotton with small heart prints.

Every Monday I will post news or pictures of my progress. As I am doing other things at the same time (which mothers don’t!), please bear with me if I make slow progress with my sewing.

Update you again on next Monday on my progress. See you soon.