Saturday Recap

Hello,

Today morning I took this photo of my makeshift photo booth. The morning light was just perfect today! Perfect day for photo session.

I found these block in my UFO bag and did a prep work. Now they are ready to quilt! I think diagonal grid line quilting will look good, what do you think?

Another prep work was cutting these batting for pillow covers. So excited for this project. It's simple wholecloth quilt kind of cushion like this one, which I think will be perfect for your summer decor. I will finish the quilting of all the front panels then will finish the cushion covers.

I finished quilting 4 tops for now. I  love this green chevron so I thought just following the gap in between each chevron print and loved how it turned out. The wonky lines turned out really good. I will take a better picture next time!

One happy mail! yes the Hex n More ruler from Jaybird Quilts. I wanted to make something like this and my friend, mbak Belly, suggested I get the ruler. 

and of course I had to try it! Jewel Hexagon - one block at a time!!

And this Nautical theme wallet is what I am currently working on. It's a single travel wallet! So excited to work with new fabric!! I hope to complete the orders before mid of next week

That's all for my Saturday Recap! Most are still in a WIP stage which hopefully I will be able to complete some of them tomorrow. The boys are going for another round of Avengers movie so I have a few hours undisturbed sewing time! 

What about you? What are you working on this week? If you completed something or have a new listing in your shop, do LINK UP in my new link up party Handmade Happiness!

Until next time!

Industrial Sewing Machine Review - Jack F4

Hello,

I mentioned in my last post that I got a new machine! Yes another one. I always wanted to get one industrial machine but hesitating a lot. Reading a lot of reviews and visited the machine dealer in my town didn't help much. So last year I decided to get Singer HD instead. It was after I saw Donna Jordan of Jordan Fabric Youtube video that I decided to get one this year.

Well, I am a firm believer that everything will happen at its own time and place. Man proposes, God Disposes. I was chatting with Raji of Homemaker's Hustle and she told me she got Jack industrial machine. I saw so many video about it last year when I researching for industrial machine. I called up my dealer, and voila he said he got Jack machines! I watched youtube review again and decided to get the F4 model. And the verdict? It's so worth the wait!! Why?

The machine is pretty quiet and you just have to switch on and you're ready to go. This was my main concern last year. Most of the industrial machine that is sold here has a clutch motor. 

I've been playing with it for a few days now. Getting used to the speed and love that I don't have to keep changing machine foot. Not even when I sew zipper! I finished 2 passport holders and a couple of mug rugs and quilt tops.

Other features include: Adjustable speed, half stitch and needle up button, and the best thing it sews beautifully from mulmul fabrics to thick layers of quilt and passport holder. 

Now, I'm looking forward to sew more wallets and quilts! Let me know in a comment if you have any questions! 

Until then,

Happy Sewing

Wednesday WIP Log Cabin blocks

Hello,

Don't you love those fabrics? I got the bundle from my trip to Japan last year. I got quite a lot of fabrics last year and happy that I finally got the perfect project to use them. 

I am making another log cabin bag for a custom order. So excited!!

I cut the stripa 1" wide this time and I am doing a chain piecing. 

I am progressing quite fast and love the result so far. Ah, I got that new tool from my recent trip to the Tokyo quilt show. The roller is perfect for pressing small blocks!  The other one I bought was a needle threader, which really awesome! I always drop my thread whenever I am hand sewing. Definitely by best buys!!

Isn't this cool??

I hope to finish this bag by early next week because I still have a couple of travel wallet orders that I have to complete this week. My sewing room have been quite busy since I came back from Japan and I am happy with the mess! 

What are you working on this week? 

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Sewing,

Linky Party:

WIPs on Wednesday

Moving it Forward

Moving It Forward

Mission Accomplished Part 1 - Meeting Suzuko Koseki

Hello,

Last month, I went to see Tokyo Quilt Festival in Tokyo Japan again with a couple of friends from Indonesia. It was rather sudden decision. My dear hubby asked me if I'd like to go again and I grabbed the opportunity with both hands! ha! I traveled with mbak Belly last year too, so this was our second Japan trip together!

I had 2 missions this time! First, I want to meet Suzuko Koseki again and show my passport wallet I made with her fabrics!! I was so excited (despite having cough and cold).  Suzuko Koseki has a distinct quilt style. Or maybe it's just me. I could recognize her work even before I saw the information written on the special booth.

This year's Theme was Little Women. You can read the details about it in HERE

I love how simple yet attractive her quilts are. 

Thank you mbak Belly for taking this photo for me!

I love how the Japanese make everything so intricately beautiful and beautifully displayed. The quilts displayed are mostly hand quilted and hand applique with uniformly spaced stitches and not a single thread shown on the appliques. One must see closely to see that the leaves are stitched and not glued. 

I then made my way to La Clochette, Suzuko Koseki booth, and I bought quite a few of her fabrics. I did not see her in the booth, so I asked the lady there if she will come back. She could not speak English and tried her best to explain to me where she's gone. 

I showed her my wallet and there was another Japanese lady, who speak quite good English,  told me, that Ms. Koseki was giving lectures in her special booth. Then she sweetly told me to wait, she will take me and introduce me to her, since she's the student of Koseki Sensei. 

I wish I could understand Japanese

We went and listened to her lectures and this generous lady, translated (in general) of what was being said. Generally, Ms. Koseki was explaining the making process of the quilts being displayed in the booth. The most difficult part was to draw the face of the 4 women who each has a distinct character. It certainly took a lot of hard work to be able to capture that in a quilt. 

Thank you!!

Afterwards, I was introduced and interacted for a while with Ms. Koseki. I felt so humbled when she took my wallet and inspected it,  she gave me a thumbs-up and told me to come again next year (I hope hubby will take the hint!!) . I felt like a kindergarten kid who got her first 100 mark LOL. 

The sweet Japanese Lady

I love the hospitality of Japan and how down to earth and humble they are. All the extraordinaire quilters I met in the show this and last year, left me speechless. We can certainly learn one or ten things from them! 

Another best thing was I get to meet Vatsala Kamat of Tsala Studio. A quilt shop owner in Bangelore. I always admired her Japanese style works. I hope to see you soon in India! 

I hope to be able to go back again next year! Maybe I can join a workshop or two or even visit La Clochette store! That would be awesome, right? 

 If you want to see the quilts photos (and some of my weird photos), you can see them HERE. 

Until then,

Happy Sewing,

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

Lemonade Star Table Runner

I finished this!!

I was feeling listless and started opening my scrap boxes when I came across the yellow, blue and green strips, and I thought why not making another friendship star.

and so I did

I like the yellow, blue and green against the white. It give spring-y feeling. Well, I do wish spring come faster. February is sort of my "down" month. Though the temperature is pleasant, but it's dry and dusty in here. This is the season when almost everyone get cough and cold. 

When I work on a project, I choose my fabric as I go. I don't go all at once at the beginning. Many times I will change my direction or preference. 

This was my initial design. I wanted something "white-ish" as the outer border and I love this white with green flower. But after I put it together it doesn't look as good as I imagined. 

so, it's unpicking times. Thank God for Kdrama, unpicking became a tolerable activity :D . 

then I searched for yellow instead of blue or white. and I love it!

Quilting was fun and quick. Though I want to do other quilting design, but I ended up doing meandering again. This time a little bigger than the RED RIDING HOOD one. 

binding as usual is finished by hand while watching re-run of  my "good feeling" Kdrama, My Princess. 

Don't you love the backing fabric? It was just perfect match!! 

et voila!! 

my lemonade table runner!!

another shot!!

This table runner is on sale at

CHEZVIES

and if you need one of a kind Indian cotton print (like the one I used in this quilt), do visit my fabric shop at 

CHEZVIES  FABRICS

Until then,

Happy Quilting

A bright week

This week was quite a busy week and I seem to be in a bright mood as you can see from the works I've completed this week. 

Today I finish this mini runner after watching MSQ Youtube  Tutorial on Double Friendship Star block. It's so easy and fun to make. I made this with  2 red riding hood FQ  and a scrap of solid white. 

And I still love using my variegated thread so I used a light red-white one and love how it turned out. 

Very often when I'm cutting fabric order for my customers, idea will pop out in my mind. This mug rug happened like that. I thought I just had to make a quick mini mat with this one. I made pink one earlier and gave that to one of hubby's aunt. Indian fabrics print and color are so attractive that practically you only have to quilt it. 

Still in orange mood, this mobile pouch was made for a client. She saw my patchwork pouches and wondered if I can make a similar patchwork for iPhone pouch. And why not? 

frankly creating your own patchwork so much more fun than using printed patchwork fabric, right?

and with the same fabric she wanted 2 patchwork pencil cases. 

I did this passport wallet with this african print. I have mini quilt still in WIP state with the same print. I added names in the passport wallet but not in the pic ;)

in the last post, I mentioned about embroidery patches. I did the pouch and add the patch but not happy with how it looked. So, I took out my embroidery machine again and did the embroidery directly on the pouch. Now, I like this better! 

That's all for this week. How about your week? I hope you had a good one too

This post is linked to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Until then,