Owl key chain holders

       I planned to make some small Christmas gifts for some ten children, who came to my house every Sunday night to recite Chinese classics. Surfing the web for inspiration, I stumbled across Craft Passion's owl key chain holder. I fell for the design right away and made them. And voila!

       Darker colors seemed to work better with this pattern. My nephew and neice preferred the blue ones. I told them, though, that they had to work hard in class to be in the running. Fair play is important after all.

       I'll try to post pictures of the children with these owls, that is, if I remember to do that. Before that, let's listen to these owls' hooting.

Owl language interpretation: Merry Christmas!!



Puzzle quilt

Yesterday I finished the second quilt in the year.

Like the name of this quilt, I was quite puzzled after finishing it because I planned to have six rows but I ended up with only five. I still couldn't figure out where the last row went.

I had so much fun shopping for fabric and trying to get the best look.  It is going to a baby girl of my friend, to thank him for the helps he had given me before. I even attached a label to the back.

Though hand stitching creates a unique look, I am not really into it that much.








If you hold the quilt against the light, you get this amazing effect:
















Finally, to show you a complete look of the quilt.

Giveaways

A few giveaways:

1. Corrie at Retro Mummy is giving away fat quarter fabrics. It's a generous one and 3 people will be chosen.



2. Tea Rose Home is holding a Thanksgiving giveaway.
There are some good prizes. Pop over here if you're interested!

Good luck, everybody!

Pinwheel quilt finished

Ta-da. Here is my baby quilt which took me 10 months to complete.

My dad was holding it for me this morning. I love this picture. Can you see the pinwheels turning? Sit further back in your chair and I'm sure you will.

Here is the back--shells and stars.

I thought there should be a sky, some sunshine and cloud above the pinwheels, so I appliqued some on. I liked it how the quilting made the sky looked filled with cloud.



About the width of borders, I sat brooding about it for an afternoon, net-surfing for ideas. Finally I decided to cut the bias strip 2.5" wide, which allowed me just enough leeway for the stich in the ditch finish. The finished width on the front is 1/4".

I also spent some time doing the square root calculating to determine how much fabric was required for making the strip. It turned out that a mere 24" square of fabric produced the length I needed (about 234"). I'd have to write a formula for this on excel at my leisure. Arithmetic made me dizzy.

See those little clips? They were so handy during binding process. No pins, no fazing pinpricks! When I came to the corners, I used double-sided tape to secure the mitre. They made my life easier.

By the way, I followed the tube method to cut binding strips. Check out the super clear video tutorial from the link. It was fun and saved me the hazard of joining all those ends. But you want to be extra careful when cutting the tube not to catch the fabric under the layer you're cutting. 

That's what I have to share. I find it helpful setting deadlines for my quilts, otherwise I have no idea when it can be done. I'm off to start piecing another quilt which is due the end of November.

I am Free Motion Quilting!!

I can't believe finally I get to use the darning foot I purchased more than 1 year ago. I've been studying about FMQ and practiced doing it for some time.

I finished piecing and basting my quilt, and the quilting is in full swing. When I was basting, at first I put the quilt on a mattress but found it didn't work as it got wrinkled. Then it dawned on me why other quilters laid their quilts on the kitchen floor when basting: because other areas are carpeted. From this I learned that only flat and solid floor worked. Hours of basting almost finished me and I decided to use an adhesive spray for my subsequent quilts.

My sewing table was quite small. But I made the most out of it by adding a few things to reduce the dragging force of gravity.

 Books! Literature books came in handy at this time. They were just the right width. Don't I love literature! Thanks, Charlette Bronte and all! 

I also used my ironing board, which is the same height as my table, for suppor on the left side. With them, I was all set.

About the quilting pattern, I wanted to try circles to create the turning effect of pinwheels. But the result was funny so I switched to meandering right away.

Meandering proved to be much better and I stuck to it. I'm almost half way through. Free motion quilting was a lot quicker than I had thought. I could literally "quilt in a day", if I wasn't disturbed.

Off to continue quilting right now. It's my first time free motion quilting a big quilt. Hopefully it turns out alright.