What I've been up to …

It’s not really new, because I made it over a month ago, or maybe even over 2 months ago, I can’t really remember. I forgot to blog earlier.

The fabric was bought online. I thought the musical instrument design is appropriate for the bag that she puts her music books whenever she goes for her music class.

I didn’t forget to include a pocket inside:

Oh, yes, the inner lining has loads of musical notes . It’s the leftover fabric from her old (sling) bag that I made her in Feb 2009:

I am quite happy with the new bag, and I think so is Aina . Let’s have another view of it:

No Comments »

This is a long over-due blog. I wish I can write more but time doesn’t permit me to do so. I got many lovely gifts from these great ladies!! I wish to be able to list them one day, but no promise ya!

Date: 27th March 2010

Venue: My house

Time: 10 am – 5pm

Menu: Pot luck.

We certainly had a great time. I only cooked chicken rendang, and fried some beehoon. I also prepared guava cordial. The rest were brought by the other attendees. Nobody came empty handed. So much food and so much fun. There were Malays, Chinese and Indians – no need to listen to the 1Malaysia slogans. We are united in our hobby and passion for Needles and Crafts.

Let’s see the food:

I am going to cheat on this blog by linking you to some that blog entries that have been posted by some of these great ladies:

• Nik Ainun’s blog
• Alynn’s (See Alynn’s gift for me here, and mine to her too)
  
• Tini’s
• Mel’s (see the gift Mel made for me here)
  

Did I miss any other related blogs?

Anyway, here’s the group photo that I pinched from Tini’s page:

Tini, I hope you don’t mind me using this photo! By the time we took this group pix, some of us had left already .

Just the week before that I joined some friends of the same group in attending Rose’s son’s wedding reception at Hotel Singgahsana.

There are a couple of photos that I’d love to add here, maybe later?

1 Comment »

Remember my recent blog about the Valentine Exchange?

I finally managed to open the packet on the morning of 14th February 2010, and here are the beautiful gifts that Nik has sent me:

The other side of the pouch has my name clearly embroidered:

These pix were taken from Nik’s blog .

Nik did the embroidery using her latest sewing machine, which she named Em.  With Nik’s creativity, she has produced quite a number of beautiful machine-embroidered items.

Thank you Nik for the gifts. They are just lovely. I’ve put some of my tatting threads in the pouch.  The little stuff (what do you call them?) will come handy when I do other crafts, I am sure.

As for my gift for the exchange, Usha from Klang is my partner and I’ve sewn her a tote bag:

It’s not so crafty, is it? Hmm….

Neverthe less, I hope Usha will find it useful. I even put a couple of pocket on the inside of the bag for her to put her wallet and othe small items such as her handphone, as shown here:

apart from the tote bag, I also gave Usha a patchwork/hand-embroidered handbag that I bought in Laos (or was it Cambodia) and a pair of panda keychains which I got in Chengdu. Dang, I forgot to snap any photo of these two. I was already late in sending the gifts, so in the rush I forgot to snap a pic of the handbag and keychains.

Anyway… one exchange done, and a few more to go, as listed here.

No Comments »

Yesterday I sewed the fabric that I bought just the day before (during lunch time) to make these:

I just realised yesterday that there’s another nearby window that needs curtains too. So, today, after office hours, just before I came home, I dropped by at Nagoya (Plaza Alam Sentral) next door to my office to buy more of the same fabric.

Tonight, after dinner, I started sewing to get these:

Ignore the messy boxes and containers! I’ve yet to unload the stuff in them.

The leftover of the fabric was turned into the curtains for the only window in the boys’ room (DH calls it “The Men’s Cave” – it’s where the Wii and PS3 are). Since I was short (literally!) of fabric, I combined the fabric with the leftover from last week’s curtain:

Not bad, eh?

So the status now – the only room that is still without curtains is my own bedroom. Nevermind, slowly, but surely….

4 Comments »

Some shots here:

The dark background curtain is to reduce glare from outside, because we want to watch our B.yond Astro here:

The dining area has a lighter background curtain:

This is the guest room:

I like Nuni’s curtains:

DH’s work corner in our bedroom is using “loaned” curtains which are supposed to be downstairs:

Curtains in Aina’s room are still not in this blog. Will update later.

I also need to sew more curtains, including for the glass panels at the stair case. These curtains are functional. The decorative parts (if any) will come much much  later.

I think the pix do not do justice to my curtains, esp with the over exposure at the windows. Anyway, thank you DH for the pix. Don’t forget Aina’s room!

2 Comments »

I’ve been regularly buying some cotton fabrics from the shop, but lately I think Nagoya Textiles has added more to their collection.

A few weeks ago I bought some floral cotton fabrics (no pic), which have since joined my fabric stash . Last Thursday, after a quick lunch, I had a leisure walk into the shop (oh, didn’t I tell you there’s one Nagoya Textiles outlet just next door to my office block?).  At the end of the brief visit, I got myself these:

And also the two pieces that I used to cover the new dining table top:

Nagoya Textiles is now having a sale, so there were some discounts too to most of the cotton fabrics.

Before I left the shop, I took these shots:

I think next week I want to get some of the above.

More here:

I was afraid that I might get told off for snapping photos, but I managed another one:

I was told by a sales girl that ehile some of the fabrics were imported from Japan, there are also others that were imported from Thailand. Whatever it is, the cotton fabrics are of good quality and beautiful prints.

I guess I do not need to go to Bandung (Indonesia) to get my supply of cotton fabrics at reasonablr prices .

7 Comments »

Tonight I managed to finish another red kitty. I don’t think I am going to get any better any more so I am going to stop making these kitties. It’s time to move on with other items.

Here’s the new kitty:

Hey, what’s on this little kitty?

Ah…. just a little bird, where the pattern I got from Spool Sewing Bird Mobile.

Aren’t they cute?

Little bird wants to be near kitty…

No Comments »

I managed to sew another kitten, similar to the one I made earlier today.

Here’s the little red kitten, as requested by Aisyah:

Its eyes are wide open too, thanks to the black beads.

Front view:

And under the flash light:

Again, the pattern is from http://tipnut.com/sweet-softies/ .

8 Comments »

I’ve always wanted to make some soft toys, but never had the time nor courage. My first attempt must have been the crocheted amigurumi of Kirby last year.

Last year I even bought a magazine on Bear making at Coolangatta, when I was on my way back from New Zealand:

I found the bears in the magazines are too complicated for me.

I however came across “20 Sweet Softies: Free Patterns & Tutorials” today, and decided to give a go on the Terry cat.

OK, I do not have any toweling fabric, so I just used the thick cotton I bought from Ikea, and here’s my first soft toy:

The joining at the neck is very crude, so I think I need to cover it with some nice lace or ribbon. Is this good enough to be given to a friend who loves cats, and whose going to celebrate Christmas soon?

7 Comments »

I’ve been working on it whenever I can spare the time. I even took some of them back to Kota Bharu.

Yesterday and Sunday I managed to put some of them together:

So far I’m only using the remnants that I’ve kept for at least 10 years! I will not use any of my “proper” stash for it. I may have to use some old baju kurungs for this, but will not ever use my “bought” stash. I know I’m short of the dark fabric for the contrasting borders but I’ll make sure I find some soon..

Nuni thought I could not make bigger than a computer cover, but I’ll prove her wrong . I know she meant to challenge me to make it as big as I wish (I hope to make a bedspread, at least for a single bed. Yeah… I know… very ambitious!). Let’s hope I’ll succeed.

4 Comments »