Didn't think I would be doing any sewing for a while but "An idle mind is the devil's playground" they say. So, I've been keeping myself busy. Finished the borders yesterday.

It's just the backing that's left now...

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork Blanket

It's good to know people who are IT savvy. Better still if that happens to be your daughter - you'll have no qualms about asking for free services (Lol). See? Now I have a brand new look without cracking my pretty little head (nope, not even a hairline split) :-) :-) :-)

Of course, the old must not be forgotten so I'm locking it away here (below) for posterity.

You know your visits always make my day so throw in those comments please :-) Thanks for dropping by...

P/S And thanks, Deb. Love you to pieces :-)

Labels: 2008, Ramblings

Just in case anyone of you are wondering about my mega project, I've progress to show :-) and it's all thanks to my small group of sewing buddies. We have been motivating each other. It started out with 3 of us, now we have 5. We don't sew when we meet (don't fancy lugging the sewing machine around, however portable they claim to be), we just show off our work ;-) , usually over tea of course :-) :-) :-) Well, I'm done with piecing my blocks. The next thing is to pick out some coordinating fabrics for the borders...

Meanwhile, here's a peak at my friends' blood, sweat and tears :-)
















Ahem! Have you seen mine?








(Lol) Well, until the next post, thanks for dropping in. Have a good week ahead.

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork Blanket

Nothing is more therapeutic than stashing :-) The picture says it all. I'm guilty as charged! Don't you just love the colours? So, English-y. And the patterns? Roses. of course... so romantic :-)















Now these... these are the materials I helped a friend to pick out for her patchwork project. She has no blog but I will let you have a peek at it when she has something to show later :-)



Well, so much for my unexpected lovely weekend, time to get back to reality.....

Labels: 2008, Craft, Stash

Mamma mia, here I go again. My my, how can I resist you?..... YEEEEES! MAMMA MIA here we come! After all the publicity (media as well as friends), I just couldn't think or act like a rational woman anymore. No more second thoughts (or third, or fourth...). I threw caution to the wind and called up a dear friend in KL to book us 4 tickets for the performance. Good thing too - any later and we would probably be standing outside Istana Budaya crying our eyes out! The response was that good. Nothing surprising actually when you have crazy folks who have no qualms about making the 5 hour long journey down to KL... and dragging the whole family with her too! Well, it's the year-end school break you know and if that's not enough justification, hey, we can always throw in some visitations? ;-) Anyway, come New Year day 2009 (the second last performance), we will be stomping our feet to the music of ABBA :-) :-) :-)

Tickets are EXPENSIVE. The cheapest costs RM150 - on a weekday - and we were out of luck on both counts. Of course, the premier and tier 1 seats are totally out of the question for yours truly. So we settled for tier 2 and on a weekend / public holiday, that's RM300 pax but we got a 20% early bird discount. Boy, this outing sure is going to cost us an arm and a leg... never mind, I'll spare the arm and hubby can contribute the leg (Lol). By the way, Deb and Sarah, this will be your present this Christmas... and for the next FIVE years!!! :-) :-) :-)

Labels: 2008, Mamma Mia, Ramblings

First, a round (OK, so it was many rounds) of good ole English Earl Grey to energize the brain. You need to psyche yourself up, especially for the uninitiated :-) Tea was served in style of course - got to justify buying my tea set (Lol) .

"Work" finally got started... Everyone chose their own fabric and came up with their circles. The machining took a while... and the stuffing was like forever.

At the end of an hour, we had these to show. Some managed to complete their pumpkins, others took back "homework" ;-)

This is the pretty pumpkin I helped AJ7 fix. Guess which one it is in the group photo? The one right in front with its maroon bottom up! The front is camel corduroy print with scattered maroon rosebuds. Sigh! Soooo pretty and romantic, don't you agree?












As mentioned earlier, plain maroon velvet for the back - so as not to compete for attention, I guess (Lol). Overall verdict: An enjoyable fruitful afternoon.

Labels: 2008, Craft, Pincushion

Aren't they just the loveliest tea set you have ever seen? And they're mine, they're mine :-) Decided to pamper myself today and splash a little. There are actually 2 sets here. I had my eyes fixed on the 17-piece - 6 cups & saucers, a teapot, creamer & sugar bowl - when my friend - God bless her quick thinking (Lol) - suggested adding in an extra smaller set of 6 cups & saucers.

Just look at the roses - catch me, I'm swooning (Lol) - so sweet and romantic. And the cups - so squat-looking. Wait till you see the teapot ...

A joy shared is a joy doubled... I called up some dear friends and we played masak masak! (Lol) In plain words, we had tea... and a pumpkin pin cushion class!!! I'll leave that for another day to tell the story :-) :-) :-)

Labels: 2008, Crockery

Bitten by the pumpkin bug (Lol)! Shhhhh! It's a secret. Tomorrow, I shall be going up to my sister-in-law's place and this is going to be her gift. It's a little different from the previous. This round, I experimented with velvet. I love the outcome. It has that old antique-ish look.

No time... so I just pulled out the first available matching fabric for the back - BLACK. Hmmm... a bit dark and uninteresting but it's velvet... and who looks at the back anyway ;-> It's the iridescent front that's going to do the talking! Hope my sister-in-law likes it - as if she has any choice (Lol).

Labels: 2008, Craft, Pincushion

I have been mulling over Bucilla's works and am truly inspired to do a little bit more for my pumpkin pin cushion. So here is my second attempt :-)

Two words: Instant gratification... well, compared to some of my other projects :-) Didn't take me too long - just one night. Had no particular design in mind but since I go weak in the knees over roses, I knew I just had to incorporate them into the embroidery. The Internet is really such a good teacher and I love how the spider web roses came out at my first try :-)

Surprise of surprises, I didn't find any really matching fabric (in my mountain of stash) for the back but thought I could get away with the red gingham... and I did (Lol)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Pincushion