From Bundle to Quilt

Hello,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday, my boys had a music competition in their school. It's a rock band competition. Both the boys performed with their own group and too bad parents were not allowed to see. So I had to rely on their information. The younger one was busy practicing with his friend for the last few days before the D-Day. He played guitar and just started to learn for the last few months. When I showed my mom  his practice video, she asked: "what song is that?" LOL.

The boys also got new pets - a pair of rabbits- my BIL brought back from the village. They were excited but I hope this is a short-term thing, though they are really cute.

And from my sewing room, I finally finished this mini quilt. The quilt sandwich was done one year ago or so. I meant to do hand quilting, but I used the wrong batting. I did few diagonal lines of hand quilting, but because the batting is thick and uneven cotton, it was too tough.

After chatting with Mbak Belly - my quilting friend, I decided to just go ahead and finish it by machine. After all, finish is always better than perfect, right?

I used Indian fabric for this quilt. IMHO, Indian fabric has gorgeous colors and prints that even a simple quilt will look attractive.

This quilt size is around 34' x 34" square. I quilted using straight line quilting 3/8" apart. I just kind of eyeballed it. I really love a dense line quilting. It sort of pop the quilt up easily.

Straight line quilting on my Usha Stitch Queen

Don't you love the backing? :D

 Many Indian quilters hesitate to use Indian mulmul fabric, like the one I use here. They are lightweight but have the coolest color shade and prints. The trick is to always starch it. Normally I will prewash the fabrics and dip in a starch solution water. Just like my MIL did with her sarees. That will give just enough stiffness. 

After cutting and after each piecing, whenever I iron the seam, I spray a little bit starch too. You can buy spray starch or make your own solution using starch powder. Nowadays we even get liquid starch! 

After finishing this quilt, I want to make a bigger version. May not be the same design but using the Indian Fabrics. Since I love Indian Kantha Quilt, I thought making my own quilt will be fun. Let me. If the batting is right I might do the hand quilting too. 

As usual, when I am not sure what binding to use, I always use black and white! The binding fabric, I got from Namrata. It was a diagonally print stripe fabric. Simply love it!! Just cross cut it and you get a bias-look binding!!

here are the rabbits

So, what are you working on this week? Whatever that is, I hope you enjoy working on it! 

Happy Sewing,

Linky Party:

Handmade Monday 

Moving it Forward

Large Pouches

Hello again, 

Here is my report from my DIY Block Print experiment. Verdict: I LOVE IT! I am ordering more wooden blocks and can't wait to make more! 

Many asked me if the color stays after washing. I tried washing a small piece and the color stayed. The thing is you have to follow the manufacturer's instructions. I waited for 24 hrs before start ironing the fabric.  Yes, good things come to those who wait, Bon Jovi said so :D. 

So what did I make? 

I made one large pouch with the red floral one and I really love how it turned out. Even my boys loved it! The rest are all ready to sew but after I finish a couple of custom orders. 

This time I am using my metal zipper. I always feel wary to sew with metal zipper, but I think maybe I just lack practice. After a couple of pouches (scroll down for more photos), I can confidently sew metal zipper without breaking my needle. 

  

The above photo is to show the approximate dimension of the pouch. The phone is 6.5" phone and all those fit in nicely into the large pouch. 

Isn't that great, I mean we always need a pouch, small one, medium one, a large one, quilted, waterproof, cute, etc. I always picked up a few pouches whenever I travel as a gift and keepsake. And everyone loves it. More so if it's handmade, right? 

So, the past few days, I've been making few pouches using different of material and they all turned out unique and beautiful. I used heavy interfacings for these pouches and love the result. The pouch feels sturdy and you can carry it as a clutch, like when you go out for lunch or going for an errand. 

The yellow pouch is made using kalamkari mud cloth fabric. I prewashed the fabric and really love the vintage look of it. 

This chevron fabric is one of my faves. Sometimes I feel that fabric also has its own destiny. Just like this one. The Chevron Pouch has 2 different print on each side. 

The above brown Ajrakh pouch is another story. The fabric was a gift from my facebook friend, Madhu Mathur of Betukbandi, when I visited her in Jaipur.  She is one talented lady, I really admire her quilts and quilting innovations. Really inspiring. I am so happy to finally able to use it. I still have few more of the fabrics with different prints. Can't wait to use them!! 

Stay tuned for more pouches from my Indian Fabrics collection. Sometimes, you don't need a fancy pattern to turn your fabrics into a pretty pouch. Let the print speaks for itself! And making simple pouches can be a skill-building project for a beginner. I really recommend it. Don't be afraid to make mistake and experiment with new materials. 

Until then,

Happy Sewing

Linky Party: Bagmaker Tuesday on Sotak Handmade

Ikat and Pinterest

Hello,

Don't you love Pinterest? I know I do. I get lots of inspiration from there. I love a casual and loose fitting dress or tunic. I really want to make something with Ikat Fabrics. Ikat always fascinates me, be it hand woven or printed one. It simply beautiful. 

Ikat Print Fabrics

I browsed Pinterest and found these  red ikat dress  and the white ikat dress that I really love.

 

It will ber perfect for summer, but I will need a longer sleeve since I am wearing hijab ^^. 

Maybe this Blue one will look great for summer. 

or this White and Indigo one?

What do you think?

Check out a couple of NEW FABRICS I put up in the shop! 

If you're on Pinterest, follow my Pinterest boards  . I recently edited my boards as an effort to improve my SEO. 

I've been reading a lots of books on SEO and it's time to implement them, right? 

I will write more about it next time. Hopefully, I can share a few SEO tips. 

Until then,

Happy Sewing,

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Monday Updates

Hello again,

Last week I completed another improv on the family passport holder. This time I converted interior slip pocket into a zippered pocket.

Hopefully, I can write a tutorial for that soon. I forgot to take photos this time. It's very easy and I love how this turned out. I hope she will like it!!

I think I am going to offer this option in the shop along with other options, like an exterior zippered pocket 

 Sewing wallet binding is my favorite. It's like a lava cake after a Pizza dinner LOL. I have a tutorial coming up tomorrow! 

In the meantime, I'll be working on another improvisation this week. Don't you just love when with a single pattern you can make so many varieties?

You can get the passport holder pattern HERE.

It's Monday and here sneak peek to cheer you up this Monday ^^

All these beauty will be available tonight! Limited stock available! 

GO TO SHOP to see what other fabrics are available now 

Pretty Paisley 

  

One of a kind Travel Theme Cotton Fabric

Glace Cotton Ikat Print Fabric

That's all for today,

Until then,

Happy Sewing

Learning about Etsy SEO

After the latest Etsy updates, seller outside USA like me really feel the effect of the new changes. I have been reading Etsy Teams post, blogs, and sign up for SEO tips newsletter. And well...it seems I have to really keep up with what's happening in the WORLD!

If you make good stuff, take  good photos, and many of you friends on social media admiring your work then you start selling online on a popular marketplace and realized after few weeks that NO ONE buying your stuff, you start losing your trust on yourself, right?? 

Pink Ballet Dancer Women's Wallet

Well, DON'T GIVE UP!! All you need to do is STUDY more...just like you little baby start learning ABC...even me after so many years I realized there is so many things that I need to improve and learn. There are so many blogs and youtube videos telling you how to do your SEO right. 

Cherry Blossom Family Passport Holder

Start from research your keywords. I use Google Trends and Etsy Rank. I keep a small notebook and noted down everything that related to my product. 

I've been studying for the past few weeks and slowly start editing and changing my shops. One thing I learned it's beneficial to hang out in Etsy Forum and Teams. Many member shares their tips and tricks and sometimes you will find a good link about how to do SEO. That's how I get to Renae's Blog.  

Rose Pink Couple Passport Wallet 

So, apparently, only making good products and taking awesome pictures do not guarantee your success. You need business plan and marketing strategy for that. 

Yellow Green Fat Quarter Bundle

So, now start searching and doing a little research for your business. 

Green Blue Fat Quarter Bundle

Work a little harder and All the best!!

Happy Learning 

My Bundles of Joy

Yup, I've been busy pulling, ironing, folding and cutting fabrics to make fabric bundles for my Etsy Shop

I've been putting this off for several months since too busy doing lots of things *wink*

There are Fat Quarters, Fat Eighth, and Charm Packs at the moment

Believe me, running your own Online Shop is no joke. Right, you can work on your own time, no boss, wearing your Pj with messy hair bla bla bla

B.U.T

It is a L.O.T of work 

starting from purchasing the fabrics, ironing, carefully cutting, folding, storing, taking good pics, editing, listing until send it to customers. Since it's one woman show, sometimes it's frustrating. 

And when you do sell handmade like I do, there are more works. 

since I am doing the role of CEO right up to the packaging and cleaning lady ;). Luckily the hubby is willing to be my delivery guy {love u, hun}

Well, that's a little bit of behind the scene stories.

All those pretty pics of fabrics and handmade stuff you see in ETSY shops  have been made for you with a lot of LOVE and CARE. 

Until then,

Happy Quilting