SEW MY NAME

I’m in need of a new plastic bag caddy to replace my old one so here I have just sewn one with blue gingham material. I appliqued it with some scraps from remnants and did a simple cross-stitch on it saying ‘Mom’s kitchen’. With the loop at the top end, you can hang it anywhere in the kitchen for easy access.

I find this a very useful thing to have in the house as it keep grocery bags neatly stored. It also makes a useful and much appreciated gift. So if you are running out of time or budget this DIY gift is simple and fast to make for coming Mother’s day.

What you need is a 1/4 m of 45″ width of material or fat 1/4. You can have it appliqued, embroidered or cross-stitched if you like. The design is limited by your imagination or just keep it simple and plain as you wish. Then follow the simple instructions here.

When you need a plastic bag, just pull it out from the open end at the bottom of the caddy.

Pretty neat, isn’t it?

I like this…

Got this from my inbox. Have a good laugh and have a happy weekend.

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions !

Why did God make mothers?
1. She’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mum just the same like he made me. He Just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men’s bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you Your mother & not some other mum?
1.We’re related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s mums like me.

What kind of little girl was your mum?
1. My mum has always been my mum and none of that other stuff.
2. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mum need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mum marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mum eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that Mum didn’t have her thinking cap on.

Who’s the boss at your house?
1. Mum doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because dad’s such a goof ball.
2. Mum. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mum is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What’s the difference between mums & dads?
1. Mums work at work and work at home & dads just go to work at work.
2. Mums know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but mums have all the real power ’cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend’s.
4. Mums have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mum do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don’t do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mum perfect?
1. On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I’d diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your Mum, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I’d get rid of that.
2. I’d make my Mum smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

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.

Simple and cute tote bag. Happy sewing and have a great weekend.

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 am tagged by Sewing Mom and this is the first time I’m doing this meme thing. Never really understand it’s function but I guess the idea is just to have fun and to know more about the person you have tagged. This is 4 x 4 meme and basically it is answering 4 questions on 4 topics and then tag 4 people to continue with the meme. Ok here are my answers to the questions.

4 Jobs I’ve Had in My Life

1. My first job was a tutor to 12 year old group of kids but only for a year. And I did bump into some students many years later and couldn’t recognize them but they recognized me. How could I when they blossomed into pretty ladies and I was still the plain Jane, till today.
2. I tried working as a telephone operator for a short while and quit as the job was too monotonous for my liking.
3. Next I work at the postal department. It wasn’t a great place to work as it’s always dusty with mails and parcels everywhere so I didn’t stay long.
4. My last job lasted for more than 20 years in the airline industry in three departments. I enjoyed working life, especially the many friends I met. I quit after moving into the last department when I met the first and only b**** in my entire life who made things so difficult that my husband told me to quit my job.

4 Shows I DVR (TIVO)
I don’t record shows and in fact has never been a TV fan because I can’t sit still for too long. So I watch little TV which are mainly -

1. Korean dramas
2. Americon Idol
3. Thurday TV forum in Bahasa Malaysia
4. Comedies like Desperate Housewives, Mr Bean( when I remember to tune in)

4 Places I’ve Been

1. Johannesburg - The kids love the safari very much and on our second visit we went animal hunting everyday for 5 straight days.
2. Switzerland - A beautiful place I wish I can visit again one day.
3. LA Disneyland - The place where I get to be the kid again - running around, jumping into roller coasters and see all my favorite childhood fairy tales characters.
4. Cairo - A colorful and enchanting place with the pyramids, museums and arts.

4 Favorite Foods

1. Cheese Cake - love all type of cheese cake whether it is the Japanese cheese cake, traditional cheese cake or the crust type.
2. Spaghetti - I’m a lousy cook but my family love my version of spaghetti. Of course must top it up with cheese.
3. Kebab - Started liking kebab when I visited Cairo. Here we found a nice eatery serving Turkish kebab.
4. Bread - I am more of a bread than a rice person. I eat bread with almost everything and I also have a bread maker.

4 People I Tag

1. Verlyn from http://verlyn.name/
2. Evelyn from http://www.amethysti.com/
3. Serine from http://www.insbeaute.com
4. Doris from http://www.dorislive.com/

Ok gals, happy me- me-ing.

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.