Pinwheel Quilt in Progress

I have a pinwheel quilt in progress. This quilt was meant for my boyfriend, who broke up with me soon after I posted my quilt plan.
After that I stopped quilting for several months; the quilt started to incur guilt within me.

Now that I want to give it to my father, the quilt needs to be bigger than previously planned. I am making it into a 4*6 feet quilt. I've finished piecing the pinwheel blocks:

I'll add several borders to it and it'll be ready for quilting.
I've also been musing about the quilting patterns and ideas keep coming up. I'm so excited about it.

Besides joining the blocks together, I made several hexagon bookworms. Aren't they cute? They're easy to make and practical in use. Here's a tutorial from Sew Many Ways.

Garden this morning

r since I picked up quilting, I started to appreciate mother nature more closely. The morning sunshine, the ever-changing sky, vegetation, and all. It seems that all quilters' got a garden or something.
This is what it looks like in my home:

See that green pepper above? It grows really fast.

I just love these pinky flowers. They're pretty common; I see them all the time.

And some lotuses. It's a pity I can't upload their scent.

3D white flower bag

A few weddings of my cousins are around the corner.
I made this bag for Mom to make her the most graceful aunt at the banquets. I call it 3D because I used four layers of white fabric and interfacing for petal applique to override the black tone underneath. The petals were thick enough to stand out before I quilted around them.

Pictures at different angles:

Did you get it right? My hexagons are used for the side of this bag.

The bottom. It's pretty wide and will hold a good many items.

Two pockets inside the bag. One is zippered. (By the way, I'm thinking about posting a zipper pocket tutorial on here.)

It took me eight whole days to finish it. My sister-in-law said whenever she sees my work, she rejoices. Guess what? Me too!

Hexagons First Attempt

I am so tired from sewing hexies which I've started 3 days ago.

Now that the top is finished and I'm tired of any more stitches, it's perfect time to show them up here.

There aren't many of them, about 60. I used paper piecing and had much fun through the process. I especially loved the crispy feeling as I sewed through the paper and fabric. But later it took me much time to rip off the threads on the front. It's part of the reasons I'm so tired now. (Yawn~~) Here is a new and detailed tutorial on hexie paper piecing from Sew Many Ways.

It's quite scrappy because I managed to use up remnants from quilt kits I bought last year, and I did use them up! Most of the fabrics came from Japan. Somehow we idolize Japanese quilting in Taiwan. From the photo, you can instantly detect the cultural difference: Japanese fabrics are darker in tone, and so are the finished projects.

I'll quilt them tomorrow. It's not a quilt apparently.

I'll leave you wondering for some time before I finish the whole thing. ^^

Tinkering: bag handle

A week or two ago, a friend of mine brought her bag to me and asked if I could help her fix the handle. Her bag came here like this:

The fabric at the middle of the handle was broken due to constant use and the batting was showing.
I ripped off one of the handle and checked how it was folded and attached to the bag.
As I had a clear idea, I started "tinkering".
I cut two strips of fabric, each measured 6*47 cm
(The finished handle should be 2*45 cm)
I also cut out batting and ironed it to the wrong side of the fabric.

Folded each end 1 cm inward.Pressed two sides of fabric toward the batting. Made a French seam on the wider side and have it cover the other side.
Then, went to the sewing machine to close the seam.

I hand sewed the straps onto the bag, following the original placement.

I used pins to mark the places. It's crucial to make sure the placement is correct, otherwise you might end up with uneven length.


Voila, a tote with new handles!