Placemats and New Books

 

Patchwork Placemats

I made more placemats! Not really make a dent in my mini charms bin but I'm pretty happy with how these placemats turned out. Mini charm is my most fave pre-cut and t is also my mood booster. When I don't feel like sewing anything, I just open the mini charms bins and start piecing. 

As I started piecing, all sorts of ideas come into my mind but I decided to make a couple of placemats.  The placemats finished at approximately 12 x 15 inches each. The pink ones are slightly smaller. 

I thought of making all charms for the top, like this one, but decided to make it differently. So I added borders on both sides. For the mustard yellow placemats, I used Indian block print fabric for the patchwork and handloom cotton for the borders. On the back, I used pretty paisley print glace cotton in a matching color and quilted diagonally. It turned out very soft! 

Mustard Yellow Placemats

As for the pink placemats, the fabrics are mostly leftover from wallet and bag projects. I used cotton poplin for the borders and the backing. As usual, black and white striped binding when I could not decide what binding to use. 

I love to use these placemats as a center table mat too or to put in my side tables. My MIL used in her dressing tables. They do make the room brighter and I always love to see the quilts being used. 

Pink Patchwork Placemats

Patchwork Placemats

OK, let's talk about quilting lines. My fave of course is serpentine but sometimes I am just too lazy to set up my HV machine! I always end up using my Jack machine and doing either grid, diagonal, or organic wavy lines. Hmm, it's time to read WALK - Walking foot quilting book by Jacquie Gering again! 

OK, I admit the downside of the digital era is even if you have the books, you  I still first go to Pinterest or Google. 

Recently I bought 2 books! First is Raina Gillman's Create Your Own Improv Quilt which I bought after watching her video on Youtube.  And I am glad I bought it cos there are a lot of basic things to learn from the book. 

The second one is Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy's  Shot and Stripes. Well, the book is packed with knowledge. I decided to buy it because I love working with shot cotton fabrics (even though not the Kaffe Fassett brand).

 Sometimes, we see the preview on Amazon and the quilt looks simple and then think "I can do that too" but actually there are a lot of small important details (at least to me)  in the book. However, there are many books that have a preview of attractive projects but very little "educational" information, and some even do not have "proper" tutorials. I feel like this kind of book is only for visual pleasure, which we can freely get from Pinterest or Instagram. What do you think? 

But I still love buying books, especially Japanese Craft or Quilt Books. They have detailed diagrams (which I personally prefer), full-scale patterns, and also additional step-by-step photos. And of course the visuals!

What about you? Do you love buying craft books? Let me know in the comment below! 

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Sewing

Elvira

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Linking up to this wonderful BLOGS

I love green!!

It's been raining for the last 2 weeks, though the weather become more tolerable but the lawn become muddy. Luckily the rain always comes at night, at least we get to see the sunshine during the day. And the flowers have gone bad to my MIL's dismay. But I love rainy season, cos even though it's humid at least the garden is greener. 

and who doesn't love green?

Yes, I finally completed this one. Simple table runner using charms and a slim blue border make it more charming.

The runner is available for grabs in my Etsy Shop

I love the feel of mulmul cotton in quilt. It's so soft. it's challenging to work with cos it's stretchy, maybe I should use more starch next time I work with mulmul.

So, that was last week, this week I've finished baby quilt for a friend, which 2 years overdue (ha!!)

I wanted to make the quilt when her baby was born but then you know....it's got delayed.

I washed and ironed it today and will take a proper pics tomorrow and hopefully will write a blog post about it.

if not, you can find my pics and mini stories in my Instagram, Facebook or Google+

Until then,

Happy Quilting

Warm and Cold Pinwheel Table Runner

This winter, it blows warm and cold. One day the temperature will dip as low as 10C and the next day it will be 21C. Well, for me, who grew up in tropical friendly weather Indonesia, to be in 10C is like living in a igloo. The kids are laughing at me, cos I'm bundled up in heaps of clothes plus woolen cap.

I told you in previous post, that I love pinwheel. So now it's done. I don't know why I love working with triangles, I found it very challenging. This pinwheel was supposed to be my second entry for the Indian MQG January's Challenge, but then I couldn't resist the baby blue and pink. I don't know whether it's still qualified as a WARM? what do you think? 

Pinwheel table runner

Another one I finished today is my 3rd Quilt Block for my Friendship Quilt. I call it "whirlwind love". The original plan was to collect enough blocks to make mini quilt for wall hanging. But I hope, other participants will make at least 3 blocks so it will be a bigger quilt. 

whirlwind love

This one I made based on quilt I saw in magazine. It was just one part of the big quilt. I took the design and instead of plain square at the top left I put pinwheel (again!) there and in the bottom right. It gives quite a effect, doesn't it? It's quite challenging this one, since the mag didn't give the measurement, so I have to count it my self to make it into 12" squares. Hopefully I can make a simple tutorial later on...meanwhile now my mind is onto finishing my almost-forgotten Quilt Along #shame on me#

Until then, Happy Crafting ~_~