Kawandi Lumbar Pillow - New Video

 

Kawandi Pillow Cover

When the stars aligned, I can finish the Kawandi pillow in 2 days! LOL. I bought the lumbar pillow form sometimes in November  and keep thinking to make a quilted pillow cover for it. So a few days ago, I was like why not make the kawandi pillow cover? So I took out these purple and emerald/teal scraps which I keep near my cutting table. As usual, many ideas played at the back of my mind, I thought I will just cut the scraps in 5" charm size and will just go along. But after I cut the charm pieces, I left with different sizes of leftovers and decided to use some of those too. 

Handquilting and Catching up on my Kdrama

I documented the process in the videos below. In the first part, I talked about the thread and needles that I use. Hopefully will help those who are in India and wondering what materials to use and where to get them. Really you do not need much to start a kawandi quilt. 

Materials:

The Kawandi Quilt Top should finish approximately at 12" x 18"

For the Kawandi you need assorted scraps of your choice. 

Quilt Backing: 2 layers of cotton fabrics approx. 12.5" x 18.5", I cut bigger because it shrunk after the quilting is done.

The PILLOW  backing has 2 parts:

The top part is 12" x 5.5" 

The Bottom Part: 12" x 12" 

All-purpose zipper #3 - 12" long or so. 

Note: In the video, I cut the pillow backing longer but in a way it's good. Make sure the backing after putting the zipper is the same size as the top. 

In the second part, I showed how to make the pillow. It's super-duper easy! The pillow closes with an exposed zipper in contrast color. I am so obsessed with this color combo! 

I hope you find the tutorial helpful. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will be glad to help you. 

If you want to know more about Kawandi, make sure to watch Margareth Fabrizio Interview on Youtube!  I really admire her passion and courage! 

The year 2021 is certainly a learning and experimenting year for me, I am looking forward to more learning adventures  in 2022. And kawandi and kantha is definately on my top list to explore more. 

Happy holidays, everyone! 

Elvira

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Placemats and New Books

 

Patchwork Placemats

I made more placemats! Not really make a dent in my mini charms bin but I'm pretty happy with how these placemats turned out. Mini charm is my most fave pre-cut and t is also my mood booster. When I don't feel like sewing anything, I just open the mini charms bins and start piecing. 

As I started piecing, all sorts of ideas come into my mind but I decided to make a couple of placemats.  The placemats finished at approximately 12 x 15 inches each. The pink ones are slightly smaller. 

I thought of making all charms for the top, like this one, but decided to make it differently. So I added borders on both sides. For the mustard yellow placemats, I used Indian block print fabric for the patchwork and handloom cotton for the borders. On the back, I used pretty paisley print glace cotton in a matching color and quilted diagonally. It turned out very soft! 

Mustard Yellow Placemats

As for the pink placemats, the fabrics are mostly leftover from wallet and bag projects. I used cotton poplin for the borders and the backing. As usual, black and white striped binding when I could not decide what binding to use. 

I love to use these placemats as a center table mat too or to put in my side tables. My MIL used in her dressing tables. They do make the room brighter and I always love to see the quilts being used. 

Pink Patchwork Placemats

Patchwork Placemats

OK, let's talk about quilting lines. My fave of course is serpentine but sometimes I am just too lazy to set up my HV machine! I always end up using my Jack machine and doing either grid, diagonal, or organic wavy lines. Hmm, it's time to read WALK - Walking foot quilting book by Jacquie Gering again! 

OK, I admit the downside of the digital era is even if you have the books, you  I still first go to Pinterest or Google. 

Recently I bought 2 books! First is Raina Gillman's Create Your Own Improv Quilt which I bought after watching her video on Youtube.  And I am glad I bought it cos there are a lot of basic things to learn from the book. 

The second one is Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy's  Shot and Stripes. Well, the book is packed with knowledge. I decided to buy it because I love working with shot cotton fabrics (even though not the Kaffe Fassett brand).

 Sometimes, we see the preview on Amazon and the quilt looks simple and then think "I can do that too" but actually there are a lot of small important details (at least to me)  in the book. However, there are many books that have a preview of attractive projects but very little "educational" information, and some even do not have "proper" tutorials. I feel like this kind of book is only for visual pleasure, which we can freely get from Pinterest or Instagram. What do you think? 

But I still love buying books, especially Japanese Craft or Quilt Books. They have detailed diagrams (which I personally prefer), full-scale patterns, and also additional step-by-step photos. And of course the visuals!

What about you? Do you love buying craft books? Let me know in the comment below! 

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Sewing

Elvira

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Patchwork Drawstring Bags

What do you do when you're not in the mood to sew? Well, I took out my 2.5" container and admiring my neatly stacked 2.5" squares, and started piecing idly. I did not have any specific plan, but as I went on chain piecing a few ideas pop up in my head. I even have an ambitious dream of a scrappy quilt. Ha! 

But then I decided to do a humble small project as a mood booster and this cute small drawstring bag is born. It's made up of 64 pieces of 2.5" squares. Padded and quilted by machine. 

Each bag measured approximately 7.5" x 7.5" and it's fully lined. I used contrast stripes for the string/cord casing. I used a macrame cotton cord from Amazon India here and I kinda like the look of it. But next time I'll get a thinner one. For the stopper, I used Chandan wood (sandalwood) beads. 

(Update: If you want to make one the Pattern Kit available in the shop)

Patchwork Drawstring Bag

I was really inspired by Sensei Shizuko Kuroha's post on Instagram the other day. Well, I don't know how to read Japanese but from the translation, she more or less said "make everyday stuff that is small and useful". What she said really stuck in my head. I keep thinking, that often we make something that ends up piling up in the cupboard without being used (Like this quilt or this pillow). For me sometimes just for a sentimental reason :).  Although I also used my makes every day from bags, wallets, pillows, table runners, etc there are a few stuff that I still don't have the heart to use or give away. I guess I must learn to be more generous :D.

And when you're having fun, you cannot just make one bag, right? 

Another great news is the Kawandi QAL is officially started on Facebook Group. I'm so excited but still could not make up my mind what size I'm going to make. Most probably I will do a lap size quilt, cos  I plan to use my dupatta (Indian stoles) for the backing layers. Brinda ma'am explained in Facebook live session last Sunday how to go about it. Now all sorts of ideas running around in my head, so I'll just think about it slowly. I hope I can share with you soon about my progress. 

Thank you for stopping by,

Happy Sewing!

 Elvira

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A finished quilt - Under the Sea Jelly Roll Race Quilt

 Finally a finished quilt!

Jelly Roll Quilt

I finished the jelly roll top early this year and it was approximately 60 x 60 inches. I made the jelly roll from Indian block print fabrics in turquoise /emerald green shades. 

I thought I'll add a white border on top and bottom to make a 60 x 80 inches quilt, but I changed my mind when I found the teal green print in my stash just enough for the border! 

Initially, I thought I will do hand quilting but I don't have to confident LOL. I am still learning to make smaller hand quilted mug rugs and coasters and to jump into making a big one will be too ambitious, I think haha! So, after finished making the quilt sandwich in the afternoon, I went ahead and quilted it in the evening. No fancy quilting, simply wavy lines about 2 inches apart in my Jack machine. I used a stitch length 4 and it turned out ok. 

On the back, I made a panel from Indian batik which I got from Tina a few years ago and I got a matching floral print from my stash. 

I am inspired by Saira's quilts on Instagram. In case you want to make backing like this, I cut the middle panel at 42" x 62" as I want approximately 10" borders all around. The floral fabric has a printed border on one side, and luckily it was long enough that I can put on the top and bottom borders. 

The quilt is a birthday gift for my younger son. He loves green and he's happy with this one. Now, the quilt will be happily used - just in time for winter. He's been using the first quilt I made years ago. 

the elder son is helping me with the photoshoot! 

I posted the quilt on Desi Quilters Group on Facebook and Barbara mentioned that Under the Sea would be a perfect title for this quilt! Thanks, Barbara! 

I'm glad I got one UFO quilt done and I still have 2 more big quilt tops to quilt. I hope I can finish them within this year. I picked the backing already and I got a full roll of cotton batting, so I really have to make an effort and finish them :D. 

Thank you for stopping by!

Stay creative, stay safe!

Elvira

The finished quilts

Hello,

My quilts have come back from Tsala Quilting Studio, Bangelore and I finished the binding last week. I'm so happy with how it turned out. Thank you Vatsala and team! The quilts finished just in time for my elder son's birthday and he chose the blue and yellow marble star  quilt one! 

Now, we have several long arm quilter here in India and Tsala Studio is one of them. I was speaking on the phone with Ranjana Ma'am and discussing about quilts and bag making in general. And we wished we had one long arm quilter here in Guwahati, which is from climate point of view, we should have one, since we have quite cold winter. But I have not seen a quilting culture so much in here. Most people will do knitting or weaving woolen blanket. Hopefully one day!! 

Back to my quilts, the star quilt one, as I mentioned in my previous post, is from the Desi Quilter Quilting bee. I used yellow block print mulmul fabric for the backing. Why mulmul ? Because it's soft!

Here another shot on the sofa :D. I hope you can see the quilting details.

I really love the Batik Double Star Quilt! I did a wide binding, inspired by Laurie on Instagram. I cut the binding 5" wide, double fold it and stitch a scant 1/2" on the back. Deciding which color for the binding was tough! But everyone at home voted for blue. And it looks lovely, IMO! :)

As for backing, I used this ikat print glace cotton fabric. The fabric is also soft. It has a smooth sheen finished. I guess we can use it as a reversible quilt :D

I have 2 more quilt tops, I am yet to decide the backing though. I plan to send it to Tsala Studio by next month so it will be in time for my younger son's birthday! 

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Crafting!

- Elvira-

Finishing star quilts

Hello everyone,

It's almost end of August and I have not written any blog post this month. There are so many things going on this month. Sometimes, I open my laptop and trying to write something but I can't think of something. Too many things going on in my mind. 

source : Pinterest

Well, sewing wise, I finished 2 quilt tops (yay!!) and now are with Tsala Studio in Bangelore for quilting. 

The quilt top above is from the quilting bees we did in Desi Quilter in 2013 (OMG!!). Thank you Sudha Sekhar, Prasanna Narasimhan, Nikhat, Damayanthi Bhat, Manju Narain, Tina Katwal, Sandhya and Aliya Mir for making these blocks for me *group hugs* 

I posted the tutorial for the block in HERE in case you want to try it :)

For the backing, I wanted in yellow. I have another yellow and blue print which I thought I will use but when I put them together, I feel it's too busy. So I stick to the original idea. I found this mulmul cotton fabric in yellow with small white flower print. It's perfect!! 

The second quilt top is this Double Friendship Star quilt. The block is based on MSQC Youtube Tutorial. I started this quilt last year. I posted my progress in Instagram . I used batik Jellyrolls and white cambric cotton for the background. The batik part finish at 40" x 48". I thought I will finish it as another throw quilt but then I want the quilt to be usable. I have a few throw quilt which mostly end up in my cupboard :D

After browsing Pinterest for idea, I decided to add wide borders in white. I added 9.5" wide on the sides and 12.5" wide on the top and bottom. I love how it turned out! 

For backing I chose multi color ikat print in glace cotton. Glace cotton is very soft and it has a glossy finish. I love it!! 

Oh and I have 2 blocks left which I will make cushion covers! Yay! 

Well, finished is always better than perfect, right? Finally this winter, we will have new quilts. yay!

I still have one more bee blocks to assemble. I already got an idea and hopefully it will work out :D

Thank you for stopping by and have a nice weekends!

~ Elvira ~

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TGIF - Hipster Cat

Best Five of 2018

I stumbled upon Meadow Mist post where she has a linky party going on for Best of 2018. Blogging wise 2018 has been amazing for me. I wrote and shared more regularly and in the hype of social media sharing, blogging (for me) has been a steady anchor. I realized that managing 4-5 social media accounts with their ever changing algorithm is just impossible for me. 

So, here is my best 5 of 2018: (Click the Title to go  to the original post)

1.  Quilted Sling Bag Tutorial

This was part of being TGIFF host! I have the tutorial written on the blog but you can also download the FREE PDF version in HERE.

2. Quilted Log Cabin Sling Bag

This is one of my personal fave. This is  when I conquered my own fear of small piecing and making quilted bag. There is always the first time they said.

 3. TRIFOLD WALLET

One of my best sellers in my Etsy shop! You can get the pattern HERE or in Etsy. 

4. Another Log Cabin Sling Bag

This log cabin sling bag was made for order. Improved a few things from the first one. You can read a few tips on the Blog

5. Wallet Binding Mini Tutorial

This is tutorial for hand sewing wallet binding. As you may already noticed that I always prefer hand sewn binding whenever possible, since it gives a neater finish. 

I'm looking forward to write more post in 2019 and hopefully will share more tutorials! Don't forget to subscribe to get latest updates! 

Thank for reading my blog, I wish you a wonderful year ahead!!

~ Elvira~ 

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Handmade Monday
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Book Review - More Adventures with Leaders and Enders

Hello,

If you're a seasoned quilter, the chance is you already know Bonnie K Hunter from Quilt Ville. I'm following Bonnie since years ago, I often watch her Quilt Cam series on youtube.

I finally recently bought her book More Adventures with Leaders and Enders. I must say, it's simply amazing for someone who love to collect tiny scraps like me.

More Adventures With Leaders and Enders

At first glance, you might find the quilt design is a bit intimidating, but after slowly read the instructions it all made sense. Last week, I tried out the Scrap Crystal. I started digging my scrap baskets for blues and greens. But I was so eagerly trying it, I thought I will do with a single color background.

After making one block I showed to a couple of friends and they said, it looked great, but I want the Crystal-y effect like the one on the book!!

So, I started cutting the neutral colors. The best thing is Bonnie includes all the details of what neutral colors she included in her quilt so that we can get ideas.

Here is the first scrappy block look like. I have not stitched them together.What say?

I mostly used Indian fabrics since they have bright and lots of shades. I'm hoping to finish the quilt after I come back from my holiday! Wish me luck, everyone!!

Until then,

Happy Sewing

Elvira

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Patchwork Pillows

Hello,

Pink Patchwork Cushion

I finished a couple of pillow covers this week. Small quilts are really fun to make and if you browse in Pinterest you will find so many ideas of small quilts. I personally love making cushion covers. I always using one around the house. 

Pinwheel Patchwork

I really enjoy making the pinwheel pillow above. I made the pinwheel block based on Missouri Star Quilt tutorial on you tube. I quilted in a ditch around the center block and then do diamond/diagonal quilting on the pink border. The pillow cover is finished with black and white stripe binding to give a modern look. The pillow cover closed with envelope style closure. 

Purple Pink Pillow

 The pink and purple above is another favorite color. I have the blocks from previous quilts and the size is perfect for cushion cover. I quilted using wonky stitch. I find a simple quilting lines is best to highlight the quilt block.

Quilted Decorative Cushion

A matching pink cotton fabric at the back with a strip of purple polka dots.

Green Block Print Pillow

Some fabrics are too pretty to chop, just like this green one.  I used flannel batting for most of my single cloth quilting cushion cover. If you use flannel, you don't really need to add another backing. The cushion covers will have a just perfect structure. With dense quilting, it will last for along time.

And I love different pop up pillows on my sofa and chairs. Handmade cushion covers are always the best, they are long lasting, unlike the mass produce one which at the most will last for 3 washing. Especially if you have teenage boys who always think that pillow is a ball which they can toss or throw around. All the time.

What about you? What is your fave pillow?

Until then,

Happy Quilting

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Finish it up Friday