Yimi Handwork

Here comes the 2nd block. Since it's called "block of the month", it's gonna be one at least per month, that's  the bottom line for me.  Pattern

"If making 1 block every 1 or 2 weeks, maybe I can make a queen size quilt in a year ." I said to myself. 6" block, hand appliqued.  I used whatever pieces in my scrap box. It was originally like this. The value of  the yellow petal is too light, it jumps out, but that can be easily fixed with some stitches.                                         Backstitch swirls with dark green floss, voila, the world is saved Old fashion way to draw my pattern

This whole week,  I dug through my scrap bin and sewed scraps together, felt like making my own fabric. I've made piles of pieces,  without making any decision how to use them, a reversed applique wall hanging? . maybe.  but I'm sure they'll come in handy one day, some day when I want to make something.

Finally, Spring comes. I come out of hibernation eventually, and finished this project which was started months ago. It is small, yes, in size, only 4"1/2 (11cm) diameter, but when talking about the effort, Hmm, I'm not so sure, it did require hours and hours of work, including undoing some embroidery. I'm still learning stitches, so I have an excuse for doing, undoing and redoing. Back or front? another side for sure  inside Some details It started with one pink rose to practice bullion knots, then added more in different colors, then added leaves and stems, and two cat tail plants to balance the whole bouquet

Some bags     These are things I made recently, a card holder, a wrist-let, an travel organizer .,  and a recycle round area rug which is made of old shirts.     I didn't use any patterns, actually I  made my own flyers paper patterns. The card holder and the wrist-let were easy, but the organizer went wrong many times. I want an organizer that can hold everything for travel, money,cards, passport, tickets, documents, etc. , so I planned many inside pockets without considering the thickness of those layers of fabric and interfacing would add up together. When I tried to assemble it and found out the seam was too bulky to sew,  I had to cut some inside pockets shorter to reduce excess bulk, with undo and redo many times, it got there.

Here comes the UFO No2, it was started the year before last year, well qualified for a UFO. Actually, I'm quite fond of it, don't know why it's been abandoned for such a long time. Hopefully, I can find a place for it after our kitchen renovation is done, which will be contemporary style. Keeping my fingers crossed, it's a long project after all, although not a big one.

After a long time of silence, I'm back with an ambitious new year's resolution: complete all the UFOs I have created, sounds like a mission impossible. But I'm trying. Ta-Ta...Finished UFO No.1, a patchwork wallet. I machine-stitched a dragonfly on the backside Something green inside, I recycled that small piece of transparent vinyl from a chocalate box to make a photo holder

This summer is not a craft summer for me, I spend a lot of time in my front and back yards. Only after sunset, mosquitoes occupy the yards, I go back to my sewing room and do some craft. I'm quite pleased with this scrappy look backpack, it was made of an old jean and some 11/2"squares. inside look applique the square stripe onto the jeans make a flip cover

Here is the short cut to make tilted windmill, no need to work with triangles. All the measures are good for 5" squares. If you want to see larger pictures, you'll have to click on the picture. 1, make a template like this A. draw a 3 1/4" square on carton (or paper), you can cut it out now or later. B. Find the center of the square by draw 2 diagonal lines, the center is where the two lines cross c. draw a line parallel to borders, passing the center D.use a protractor to draw a line 57 degree cross the line drew in step C, passing the center E, draw a line perpendicular to the line drew in step D. F. clean all lines except the last two lines, and of course the borders if you haven't cut the square off in the first place. (G. Cut off the square if haven't done) 2 sew all the 5" squares you want to use together. I don't have any 5" square left, So I draw the assembling on a paper in order to show how to use the template. 3, use template 4, the bloc...

Finally, it's done!!! I've never thought it still took so long, since it was machine-quilted by my small home sewing machine. I wish I had a long-arm, it was hard to manipulate when the room was limited. Anyway it's done, I'm reasonably happy with myself and my sewing machine. I learned something from this project. Not love yellow very much, I rarely use this color. I don't have much yellow fabric either. But looking at how this area is lightened by the yellow windmill, it goes very well with red, blue and green. I'll buy some yellow fabric next time definitely. It looks retro, isn't it? Red windmills are actually less than both green and blue ones, but when looking at the whole picture, it appears there are more red ones. Red is more dominant, says any basic color book. Now I remember it. And I've been lazy, has anyone found it? I didn't quilt the border part. It's all right when looking at it, but in the photo, it's really showed, I g...

Today it's a happy day. I'm starting a new crazy quilting project! After finishing the top, one of the scrape bins was half empty(I have two of them). And I can start to do decorative stitches, it's the creative fun part. Another good news is my friend got the hand purse and she loves it!! I'm always really happy when people appreciate my hand-made gifts.

Happy New year!!! A another busy holiday season has gone. Except from visiting & being visited, I left many unfinished holiday projects for next holiday season. :) I made a small hand purse for a friend I met on internet. It's being mailed for a while, she should have it very soon, not in time for Christmas, not in time for New year either, but still good for the Chinese Spring Festival, which I believe will be at the end of January. It's small, but took me some time to make a patchwork lid and cross-stitch maple leaf on the purse body. Hope she'll like it. I always worry about people's reaction to my hand-made gifts, do they like them? Shot in action, a zipper bag in the back Inside look, it's good for a cellphone and some card. Here was the gift I got from my dear husband, a fabric trip, 200km drive, 3 fabric stores. He said I was a fabriholic.

One of the projects was completed, I asked my husband to hang it in the guest bedroom. A bout 2 and half years ago, after we moved in this house , I said I was going to take care of all the decoration of the walls. Just when starting to look for pictures/drawings to hang in our house, I started to do cross stitch and addicted to it, then I told my husband I was going to decorate all the walls with my projects. More than 2 years have past, I got into plastic canvas, needlepoint, embroidery, patchwork..., bought lots of kits, threads, yarns, and tons of fabric, but most of walls are still left blank. Feel a bit guilty here. Another shot, it looks very 3-dimensional.

Here comes my first handbag. It's a big handbag, have enough room for everything. :) When I first saw that sparkling brown corduroy fabric, I wanted to make a bag of it. By then, I thought bag-making would be really hard, so that piece of corduroy stayed in a box for almost a year. Last week, I finally decided to try one, if it went badly, I could just hide it in my trash bin, how worse could it be? But it turned out to be much easier than I thought. The fabric looked a little too dark to me, I added some autumn color to lighten it slightly. :) Going out Inside look Here is my home-made pattern,if anyone is interested. Hmmm, yes, I always recycle paper whenever it's possible. My scanner is unable to scan the full size pattern, so I draw them in half. You can just fold fabric along the line as I indicated in pictures. I tried in my own printer,letter size paper was exactly the right size. BTW, you'll have to click on the picture to get the full size image. This is my firs...