Simple Kantha Coasters for Two

Today is quite a busy day. Besides the usual home chores, I have several orders to send out in the afternoon, so I spent the first half of the day packing and printing labels. I am using DHL e-com and FedEx to shipping out my Etsy orders. 

Sometimes, we're scared to start something new because we're so comfortable in our current situation. This is what's been happening to me in the past year or so. As much as I enjoy making wallets and small bags, I truly miss the joy of "just create" something! Experimenting with my crafts and sharing joy with others. And if you're an Etsy seller, sometimes the pressure is more. You feel like everybody is doing much better than you, especially if you spend more time on social media (Instagram or Facebook). This year, it will be about me enjoying making my craft. I will not take too many custom orders so that I will have more time to learn new things, experiment, and sharing a few tutorials or sewing tips with you all. 

Ok, so this is what I've been working on after the Heartbeat Kantha Coasters! I have this beautiful block print fabric and want to make something with it. I guess, when you start your first step, the inspiration will just flow into your brain. I know I wanted to do more kantha but not sure what design. I wanted something simple and one day after dinner, I thought, why not using the design from the fabric, and this simple linen Kantha coaster is born. The design is about 3" in diameter and the inner circle is about 1" in diameter (I used my machine's bobbin to draw the circle). I used tricot interfacing for these coasters. I'll write more about it in my next post, Insha Allah. And if you want to try the design, be my guest! I'm trying to draft the template, hopefully, I'll have more time this week to complete it. 

Kantha and Block Print Coasters

I sent out 2 sets of Kantha coasters today and I'm so happy and grateful for the response I received on my small quilt shop! I really love making these small quilted coasters and practicing my hand quilting while I binge-watching my C-Drama on Viki after dinner. 

    

A customer wanted a round and rectangular coaster set. The round coaster was a bit of a challenge to do in a kawandi style of quilting, but it was a great experience. Maybe I will make a few more round coasters. Hmm, another idea to try! 

It's been quite cold in the past few days but today is better. After dealing with couriers almost the whole afternoon, I decided to make muffins but didn't turn out so good, because I found out afterward that the oven was set on upper heat only. This is why you should not multitask or arguing with your son while baking LOL. But the boys enjoyed it, anyway. I need to lookup more muffin recipes! 

That's all for today. Thank you for stopping by! 

Take care & stay safe!

Elvira

Linking up to these wonderful BLOGS

Kantha - More Than Just a Running Stitch

 

my first Kantha Embroidery

I joined a Kantha Embroidery Online Workshop early this month. It was a 3-day workshop and I really had a great time learning. 

Brinda Ma'am and Nafisa are really patient with all of us and encourage us to take our time. I was pretty slow with my progress cos it was a busy week for me. 

We started making a sampler stitch on day one. It's amazing to learn that all the beautiful Kantha designs are done only with one simple stitch. The art of creating design with one stitch is really challenging. Creatively challenging! Kantha is an embroidery art which is originated in Bengal (West Bengal, Orissa, Tripura, and Bangladesh). 

The purpose of doing a sampler stitch is to familiarize us with the stitches and flow of work since it's different from regular embroidery. I have not done embroidery for years so the sampler really helped me. As I progress I noticed, my stitches are getting better. I used poplin cotton fabric and 3 strands of embroidery thread. 

Once we're done with the sampler, we moved on to work on a design. We were given 4 designs by Nafisa and I chose this one below.  Nafisa and Brinda Ma'am kept telling us to take our time deciding what stitch we want to use in our design. That way everyone will have a different result. It's really inspiring to see others embroidery even though we're using the same design but the end results are different. You can check others' works on the Moments of Quiet Facebook Page.

If you're interested to join the workshop, check out Moments of Quiet Facebook Page 

While Kantha is widely popular, it is also loosely interpreted as just a big running stitch in quilting, which is basically not. Kantha is more intricate than that. 

Nafisa showed us her 100 years old Kantha quilt belongs to her great-great-grandfather and also a few samples of Nakshi Kantha of Bangladesh. 

Nakshi Kantha (Source: ich.unesco.org)

Kantha tells the story of cultures and history. While the Indian Kantha has evolved in terms of design, including animal and intricate floral patterns, the Bangladesh Nakshi Kantta still sticks to the original Kantha with geometric patterns. 

I am glad I decided to join the class. Learning the history behind this ancient art is really refreshing. There are several books available on Amazon which I think I'll buy. Thank you Brinda Ma'am and Nafisa for the great workshop! 

Here's our virtual selfie moment! Learning and sewing with others are really fun! I'm looking forward to join in more online workshops! 

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoy your visit to my blog.

Happy Crafting,

Elvira

Linking up to these wonderful blogs

Personalized Family Passport Wallet

"Denim is a love that never fades - Elio Fiorucci"

Denim Travel Wallet

Well, I guess the quote is right! I always love working with denim and collected quite a few of blue and black denim from my local fabric shop. I've been meaning to make Denim Passport Holder and finally I did it. 

I thought it will be difficult to hand stitch the binding, but surprisingly it was not the case. I used a light denim of course. I have a thicker one which I use to make this Cross Body Bag and this tote bag.

Choosing the combo fabrics took a bit of time since denim will look good with anything! I decided to use the linen London theme fabric and red lining. Red is always a good idea! 

London Denim Passport Wallet

At the same time I was working on a custom order of the same style of passport holder. The one with passport slots and card holder. She wanted to gift the wallet and wanted me to add personalization. Nowadays personalization using leather or faux leather is popular but personally I prefer hand embroidered one. 

I used running stitch since the label is pretty small. I printed the names from my computer including the border lines and later trace it on linen.  It's about 3/4 inch wide and just perfect to add to the passport slot.

Personalized Travel Wallet

The buyer messaged me that she loved it and that made my day!! 

If you'd like a personalized wallet with hand embroidered letters, simply go to my Etsy Shop. I'd be happy to assist you!

By the way, Insha Allah, I will be away for holiday in the first week of July,  however the shop will remain open but I will process the orders after I come back.

Thank your from dropping by! 

Have a nice day!

- Elvira-

Personalized Family Passport Holder

Hello,

It's Saturday already and I've been pretty busy finishing orders before Ramadan month starts next week. I won't be taking custom order from next week until the 2nd week of August. 

Today I'd share one of my recent orders. She asked for personalized passport holder. I have an embroidery machine but somehow I prefer hand embroidery. Why? #1. it's fun  #2 it's faster ( at least for me). 

Hand Embroidery Family Name

I did the embroidery on the flap with a small backstitch. I thought of doing a slip stitch embroidery, but with pearl cotton, this will look better. I copied the main letters from a Japanese book and the rest was my free handwriting. 

Personalize it with Hand Embroidery

The main musical fabric is imported Japanese linen. She wanted to combine it with green and it took me several days to get a matching solid green. 

Family Passport Holder for 6

I searched in my stash and found the perfect green shot cotton fabric. I love shot cotton or handloom cotton. It's very versatile and the color is very unique. Also, it's a breeze to embroider. 

Now you can order your wallet and bags with a personalized name on it! I add a listing in my Etsy Shop as an Add-on service. 

What do you think?

Thank you for stopping by

Until then,

Back from Holiday

Hello...I hope I don't miss much during my holidays. I really miss reading my blog rolls and admiring the great crafts everyone is doing all around the world.

In short, the holidays are quite FUN and hectic. Though we went away for almost a month, the kids were sick for a week and spent another week for recuperation since we already planned to go to Sumatra. Anyway, all's well that ends well, right? ^_^

I still haven't downloaded all the pics of our trip. Got busy with housework and the boys' school work plus my sewing projects and also Ramadan is on. So all the photos will have to wait  ^_*. But, here are a few that I love. These beautiful beaches and the durians...yummmmm...can't have enough of it:)

Sewing is always my stress buster, to release tension from too much housework and the hustle-bustle of Indian household ^__*. Esp. after long holidays, and I feel like the dust in my house just won't go away and made me wondering my India has so much dust..;).

I haven't told you about the mini quilt swap that I do with my friend in Indonesia. I made this simple one and hand-embroidered it my self.




I took it to Indonesia to send it to her and guess what?? it got LOST in the mail. I just can't believe my self, it's domestic shipping and they LOST it. I felt so terrible since I got mine. She made this pretty pinwheel quilt using Balinese Batik.



Thus, I decided to make another one for her. I got the idea from Love of Quilting Magazine. It's a double nine patch. I had so much fun doing the tiny squares and just finished the quilt top last night. I hope she will like it ^_*

So, that's all this week....I'm glad to be back to my sewing machine...^_^

Happy Sewing

Elvira

Give me some sunshine

"Give me some sunshine

Give me some rains

Give me another chance 

I wanna grow up once again"

(Can't stop  humming this song from Amir Khan's 3 Idiots....)

This what I completed yesterday. I used smaller size hexies (1") and did the simple butterfly embroidery there. This one is so cheerful with lime green and yellow combination. Inside I put white cotton with pastel color polka dots. yeah..It's yummy pouch..:D

(detail pictures are in my FLICKR)

I still wanna do a few more small patchwork/hexies project but I got some packing to do....wohoooo...I'm going to my home country for holiday...Yay!!..

OK, time to do a serious packing now...I hope I made enough for my friends back home...^^

have a great crafty weekend everyone...

Elvira

Little Dress for Little Missy

A dear friend of mine had a baby girl a few months back. She asked me to make one simple dress for her Darling Daughter...and I came up with this today...I will make matching bloomers tomorrow. I was just too anxious to post this one

The A monogram is hand embroidered by yours truly.

Now, she can show off in style ^_*

Thanks for looking & have a great week ahead..^_^