Labels: 2008, Ramblings

Are you seeing stars already? I don't blame you. This design is what quilters call "crazy patchwork" and I have been working on it for the past two days like as if there's no tomorrow (LOL)!!! You see, I fell in love with this pattern when I saw my friend's and...

Ta dah!!! What do you think? This is only half done (not counting the borders)... Difficult and time consuming piecing all these odds & ends you say? I thought so too until my friend shared the wonderful technique called "stack & slash" with me. This means you literally stack a few pieces of cloth together when cutting. If you look carefully, you will see some repeated blocks (though never in the same colour arrangement). See the top right pix below... Neat huh?

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork Blanket

Getting carried away, I know! Just can't seem to get tired of making these - which is a good thing cos I keep remembering dear friends I have left out... but these will be the last batch... The rest, I will have to make do with some other gifts.


I'm looking forward to the new year. I hope to get back to my patchwork quilt after this... and maybe some cross-stitch projects too. There are two or three that have caught my eye. Meanwhile, have a great weekend! I know I will. Love the last minute Christmas shopping - such fun :-)

Labels: 2008, Crafts, Patchwork

Dim sum at the Ming Court Restaurant... This is one of our favourite haunts for breakfast. Plenty of variety but prices are steep for these tiny dainty servings. That morning set the nine of us back by RM80... and we are small eaters... well, most of us anyway (LOL).


For lunch, it was fried koay teow. Back in the good ole days, the small portion served had already earned the stall its name "the gold noodles". Well, nothing has changed. It's still little compared to the price you pay... and it's still as YUMMY!



Saved the best till last... this is the famous Cowan Street kai yuk hor fun which we had for dinner - twice!!! Besides the chicken and noodles, we always order bean sprouts too... and innards! We never fail to visit this place whenever we are back in Ipoh. Their success lies in the secret light soya sauce used for each dish. You have to taste it to know what I mean... after that, I do believe it's what you call "pure addiction"!!!

Labels: 2008, Family Reunion, Ramblings

What sex is a Christmas tree? Male or female? FEMALE, of course - it wears a skirt!!! LOL!!! Almost forgotten about this little treasure of mine as it has been so "safely" kept away :-) Don't you think it's beautiful?


A dear friend of mine sewed this some years ago and it holds many precious memories of her, especially so now that we are thousands of miles apart. Just love all the bright and Christmas-y colours :-)

Labels: 2008, Christmas Tree Skirt, Craft, Patchwork

Simple things that make me happy - coming home with unexpected stash, especially at a great bargain :-) I found these trimmings for half their usual price!






These stars were a steal at 95sen! I already had this great idea for one of them... **grinning from ear to ear** !!!








Ta dah! See it transform from hanging on the branch to shining atop my mini Christmas tree? ;-)

Labels: 2008, Christmas Tree Trimmings, Ramblings

Completed another two runners over the last couple of days (in between spring cleaning and house decorating... LOL). This one is going to be a Christmas gift for a friend in the States, which means I better rush it off to the post office later today.

Notice that the table runner can also be used as a chair back? :-)

Here's the other displayed as a Christmas wall hanging...

Told you I was running out of Christmas fabrics :-( but I think this one got away! Adding the wreathe gave it the right feel. I may just keep this for myself - I kinda fell in love with the paisley borders :-)

Hope I can make a few more before "closing shop" for Christmas... Wouldn't want to turn this passion into a nightmare!!! LOL!

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork

Time to deck the hall and bring on the festive cheer. I love decorating for Christmas but I admit, some years I just let it go. This round, I wanted to do something. Nothing ostentatious though, mainly recycling stuff I bought or made over the years. Here are a few pictures. First, something welcoming... a variegated tinsel, faux fruits, bells and ribbon twisted round some stiff wire resulted in this huge luxurious-looking Christmas wreathe now sitting at my front window facing the road.

Hanging on the front door is my good ole year-round plaque, changed into her festive best :-)

Next, we have our 6-ft artificial tree. Nothing beats a live one, of course, but short of growing it yourself, you will be hard pressed to buy one in this little town. The multicoloured running lights kaput-ted just after Christmas last year but hubby says "Can be repaired"... and we are still waiting!

Meanwhile, we are making do with this smaller table-top pine which we got the other day at TESCO for a song. Actually, I was trying to pass this off as the tree but my younger daughter would not hear of it and that's how we ended up with 2 trees crowding up our lounge!

Christmas is not Christmas without poinsettias so I've got a bunch on the the coffee table.

Finally, the dining area - marked simply by 3 candlesticks of different heights...

And that, my friends, brings us to the end of today's post. Thanks for stopping over and do come by again :-)

Labels: 2008, Christmas

Our patchwork group met for tea yesterday and although a few had gone off for their year-end break, we still had a good time... and quite some ambitious plans!!! There's been a suggestion to do a friendship quilt for the church. For this, we need at least 10 - 12 kindred spirits. At this juncture, we are even thinking about "importing" back a few friends who have moved away from our area. The idea is to take up only one block each. It's going to be a free-for-all and the design will be controlled only as far as colour and size are concerned. This should be interesting - if it comes to pass (LOL!)...

We are also thinking about putting some of our stuff up for sale (to finance our passion!). However, none of us has any experience in business or marketing. For starters, an IT savvy friend has helped me put up a table runner on e-bay to test out the market. Nope, not this one here :-)

This is a piece I churned out this morning... which already has a home and is therefore not for sale :-)... A friend shared this design with me. It's a freebie from Cherry Lane.

More table runners before long? Probably... LOL!!! Thanks for dropping by and happy stitching, patchwork or otherwise :-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork

Another table runner sewn up and ready to move to its new home. This time a more Christmas-y effect was achieved using red tartan (I totally forgot I have this in my stash).




Let's see how it looks displayed on my old cane furniture... OK, passed the test ;-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork

Taking a break from sewing to try out this easy peezy (so claims my friend) no-bake cheesecake recipe. Used digestive biscuits for the base and blueberry pie filling for the top. See the result? Not bad, huh? ;-)











And it's yummy too... so the guinea pigs told me (Lol)!!!

Labels: 2008, Cheesecake, Food

With me and my big mouth promising to come up with Christmas gifts for friends (the kind that you make yourself!), I thought I had better get my act together today and start the production line moving! Three hours on and this is the result...

Hmmm... maybe I should not have stinged on my Christmas fabrics (but I'm in short supply and I have to ration that if I'm thinking about doing more). Can you see my little snowmen? Aren't they just adorable? ...Maybe I should dig deeper into my stash, I think I need more reds and greens, yes?

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork

With Christmas round the corner, I was inspired to piece up a table runner. I couldn't find any ready pattern so I cooked this one up! It took a tad longer than expected... lot of trial and error... and plenty of patience (Lol).

Well, it turned out pretty neat, I must say. I just love the star in the centre (it took like forever to get that together) and the Christmas-y colours. And just to let you into the secret, my initial idea was to have 3 stars in a row but I was just too impatient to see the outcome!

Here's the back... I used red checks... and a little red tassel to finish off the end. And now to let you see how it looks displayed...

There! What do you think? And my display table? It's just an old sewing machine but it has a pride of place in the house. Quite an antique actually. The machine was already missing when we found it but I wasn't too bothered because I was more interested in the legs. It didn't cost us much those days but I'm sure I would have to pay a small fortune by today's standard.

Hmmm... some what bare, you say? I agree whole-heartedly! Time to go Christmas shopping :-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork

Update on my Mega Mega (that's what I've resorted to calling my on-going project!). If you remember, I explained earlier, it's another patchwork blanket but double the size of my just completed work.

A closer look at the pattern of scraps :-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork Blanket