ting tong and things

Innocent Crush::Smitten

2012-01-29T15:06:00.001-05:00

It has been a CRAZY few weeks at work without me being able to do much other than more work on weekends. Things are settling down a bit now, and I finally unpacked my sewing machine and all the things I brought to the sewing retreat in the first week of January (yes, it's been that long), and got myself set up again in my sewing room upstairs. I was able to finish the Innocent Crush quilt I started at the sewing retreat. Smitten, is what I am and also what I'm naming this quilt!

To say that I'm in love with this quilt is an understatement, but Smitten will be going home to my best friend Levy one day in the (hopefully) near future.

A few people have mentioned that they really love the quilt blocks I made for this quilt,so I think I will try and put together a tutorial for it soon, stay tuned!

First quilt top and a half of 2012

2012-01-14T11:17:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Sylvia and I went on a sewing retreat in Pleasant Lake, Michigan with the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild. It was my very first sewing retreat, I had a ton of fun and was quite productive! Sylvia and I left Toronto in the morning (it was a long drive) and arrived at The Hankerd Inn just after 4:30pm. The ladies from the AAMQG have already been sewing most of the day, so we joined in right away and started sewing, all Friday night, and all day Saturday. I was able to finish the first quilt top of 2012.

I took the Sparkling Sawtooth star I made for Sheila's QAL and made it into a baby quilt.

Next I dug up the Innocent Crush charm packs I've been hoarding since I don't even know how long and decided that I should finally make something out of them. I don't like following patterns, so I like to doodle on graph paper and make sketches of possible quilt block ideas. This is one of them I thought I'd bring to life using the Innocent Crush charm packs since it's HST friendly. The blocks are huge which is perfect because I only needed to make 4 of them to make up most of the quilt top.

I really love how this had turned out! I'm not quite done yet with the quilt top though, I have plans to add a grey border and another border of Innocent Crush strips all around it. And I plan on trying out hand quilting for the first time and hand quilt this quilt top. I already ordered some perle cotton threads and a Finca colour card =)

Now I just have to find time to sew. But first, we finally got a real snowfall, the first of this winter, and I have some shoveling to do.

Sparkling Sawtooth Star

2012-01-08T18:03:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! Just popping in to let you know that I was guest posting at Sheila's blog for her Oh My Stars! quilt-along. I created the Sparkling Sawtooth Star block for the quilt-along and you can get the tutorial over here. So please go and check it out, and if you haven't heard about Sheila's wonderful quilt-along yet, it's never too late to join in!

Raspberry Lemonade Plus Baby Quilt

2011-12-04T14:53:00.001-05:00

I've been busy and sick the last little while, so the blog has been quiet. But somewhat regular sewing has resumed, which is a good thing considering how much fabric I have been getting in from my good friend Brenda, there are boxes and boxes of them... Anyway, a couple of weekends ago I had a nice sewing day with Sylvia and Jennifer. We were all pretty productive. I worked on my Habitat challenge quilt (which is not yet done and now ready for show), and basted the plus baby quilt I started back in September for a friend's new born daughter.

The quilt is now finished and washed, in all its crinkly goodness and we'll be visiting the new parents and baby soon, hopefully next weekend, and this happy little quilt will meet its new owner.

The colours of the quilt reminds me raspberry lemonade that I so love to enjoy in the summer, so I decided to call it raspberry lemonade. I know, I'm so creative...

This happy little quilt measures about 34" by 42", and was so quick and easy to put together. I used a yard of Anna Maria Horner's folksy flannel as the backing, and after the wash it's as soft as can be! I hope it'll keep baby Aisha warm and cozy.

Aside from being the first quilt finish for me as a married woman, there was another first for me with this quilt, I sewed on the binding on the sewing machine instead of hand sewing it. I actually enjoy the hand sewing part of the quilt making process, but I figured with this baby quilt probably seeing a lot of use and abuse in the near future, machine sewn on binding seems to be a better option. It was fast, so fast, and very gratifying to have it done in so little time. But I was sloppy, the corners were not lined up straight, and stitches ran wild a few times. I guess this means I need more practice.

The binding was a print I had forever from Joel Dewberry's Chestnut Hill line, it's soft and neutral and I like how it almost blends with the quilt.

I'm really happy that I finished this quilt, I almost feel like I had to prove to myself that I could still do it after such a long break since the summer. I feel relieved that I still find the process enjoyable, and with the long winter days ahead, I hope I can be more productive when it will be "snowmageddon" outside.

And my favourite part of this quilt? These happy little peeps!

I'm back!

2011-11-10T21:13:00.002-05:00

I'm back, thanks to a much needed kick in the butt by a reader (thanks Martha), I'm finally ready to get back to my very neglected blog and sewing room. K and I went to Beijing last month to visit my grandparents who weren't able to make the trip to Toronto for our wedding in September. And since we've been back, work has been absolutely crazy. Anyway, enough excuses! I still want to finish telling you about my wedding and all the projects my friends and I did, and of course some pictures from our week in Beijing. The good news is, I have been doing bits of sewing before we went on our trip, and I finally have pictures!

I have to make some baby quilts for a few little bundles of joy my friends are welcoming into the world =) I picked out this little stack of happy fabrics for a sweet little baby girl quilt. I've been wanting to make a simple plus quilt for a while, and this seemed perfect for a simple project to ease me back into it.

I'm hoping to have this one finished soon as the little princess this quilt is meant for is already here. It'll also give me an excuse to go visit her and the new mom and dad. I can only imagine how exhausted they must be with their first baby, but I really want to meet her =P It's good to be back!

my wedding - part 2

2011-10-02T01:03:00.000-04:00

wow, i must sound like a broken record when i apologize for not blogging after i've already promised to. it's been a while since i posted the wedding video in part 1 of my blog posts about my wedding day. so, again, i'm sorry!

yesterday marked our 4 weeks wedding anniversary, yay! as promised, here are more photos from my wedding day.

our big day started bright and early for my bridesmaids and i at the ritz carlton downtown. the girls came over at 7am and brought coffee, muffins and some yogurt for me.

we took turns and got all gussied up. it was like the ultimate girls day in, hair, makeup, everything!

here's me with 4 of my bridesmaids with our make up and hair all done, and getting ready to leave for the wedding venue, which was just over an hour outside of the city.

and here's my little cousin, the flower girl, and i. she was stuck to me like this the entire day and night, haha.

and then the day kind of just took off on its own. things were happening so fast without me realizing it, i felt like i was on auto pilot. we arrived at the venue earlier than anticipated, so the girls and i had some time and had a bite to eat. the ceremony was to start at 3:30pm, so we started getting changed around 2. the weather was humid and hot since the morning, and the forecast had called for rain in the afternoon. and sure enough, dark clouds have started to gather and it started raining at 3. i was still on auto pilot, but i did start to panic a little. the coordinator at the venue came by and told me that she thought it was just a thunderstorm, and that it would pass fairly quickly. she recommended that we kept to our original plan, which was to have the ceremony outside, under a tree i had picked out, by the pond where a beautiful white swan swam idly by.

lucky for me, the rain did stop very quickly, by the time the groomsmen and bridesmaids gathered around to get ready for the walk down the aisle, the sun had started to shine. the rain also cooled down the air a bit, and there was a light breeze, it was a lot more comfortable than it was before the rain started. it couldn't have been more perfect!

both k and i wanted a small wedding, with just close family and friends. we also wanted an outdoor wedding, and having been lived in the city all our lives, we wanted to have a rustic country wedding. the venue we found was perfect for what we wanted, and it also had a perfect tree where we held the ceremony.

we said our vows, proclaimed our "i do's", and exchanged rings with 50 of our closest family and friends as witnesses.

and just like that, we were married =)

we took lots of pictures on the beautiful grounds. there were romantic ones.

artsy fartsy ones.

and of course, silly ones =P

my bridesmaids were a huge help to me during all the madness that was wedding planning. they were so supportive and thoughtful, and they were the voice of reason at times when i was getting carried away with some really crazy ideas... they helped me look for vintage mason jars, they slaved away for me in my basement sweatshop doing crafts and making props and decorations. i think they only called me crazy once or twice during the whole planning.

while k and i were taking our pictures, we had set up some fun activities for the guests to busy themselves. it was a hot day, but there was still a constant stream of enthusiastic groups of people playing cornhole!

and the photobooth of course. i made the dream on wedding quilt hanging as the backdrop, and lots of different fun props were also created from my basement sweatshop for the photobooth.

after we've all had enough of being silly, we had an amazing meal and delicious desserts. there were speeches that made me cry and laugh at the same time, dancing that got everyone up on their feet, and very unconventionally, a poker tournament that kept the boys happy and entertained.

it was the most perfect day...

part 3 is coming up with all the diy projects including crafts and decor. all the sewing projects will be a blog post of its own in part 4. stay tuned!

my wedding - part 1

2011-09-15T21:59:00.001-04:00

k and i got married almost 2 weeks ago on september 3rd, i posted some pictures last week and promised to show more later. our photographer just delivered 4 dvds full of photos to us, that's over 2000 photos! i'm in the process of going through all of them and will have more to show you very soon, including more of that yellow dream on quilt! but for now, here's a video my uncle took.

in case you are wondering, the song i walked down the aisle to is "i'm yours" by jason mraz. k and i both wanted a modern and non traditional wedding, starting with the walk down the aisle. we heard this song in a japanese restaurant, and right away decided that this would be perfect song for our wedding ceremony. it was perfect for us and everyone enjoyed it!

stay tuned, part 2 is coming up (hopefully this weekend).... a rundown, with pictures, of our big day =)

where i've been

2011-09-07T12:12:00.000-04:00

i didn't mean to stay away from the blog for so long, over 2 months to be exact. to say that the wedding had taken over my world is an understatement, but i'm back now, as a married woman! yay! i have a lot of things that i'd like to share, all the sewing i've done for the wedding, all the diy projects, and of course, some wedding photos! but for now, i'll just tease you with a few sneak peeks =)

until next time =P

finished baby gifts

2011-07-03T16:10:00.000-04:00

i hope everyone is enjoying this weekend (for my fellow canadians, a wonderful long weekend), the weather has finally realized that it's summer, it's been a hot and sunny few days around here! i finished the 2 sets of baby gifts for my coworkers, and they will be off to their new owners on tuesday! to go along with the rainbolts baby quilt, i made a pair of baby bibs for baby s.

i also made a pair of these giraffe soft baby rattles from this book to go with the bibs and the quilts.

they are really cute and so easy to make! and of course, the other set for baby k consists of the nap quilt and the "eat" bib and "wipe" cloth i made a little while ago.

i hope both babies and their parents like their gifts, it had been a lot of fun sewing for babies!

baby quilts!

2011-06-28T19:01:00.001-04:00

i finished this pair of baby quilts last week but the weather hasn't been cooperating so i wasn't able to get some good pictures until today. it feels so good to be productive and finishing things again! here is the first of the 2 baby quilts, the modern quilt guild solids challenge quilt, i'm calling it rainbolts because they look like little lightning bolts and sort of rainbow coloured...

i'm really happy with how it turned out, it's actually even better than i had pictured in my head, and certain better than how it looked on graph paper, haha!

the finished quilt is about 32" by 35", quilting it was sooo easy! now i know why so many people like making baby quilts.

for the back of the quilt, i pieced together some kona buttercup with kona ash, and a P&B textile green solid (i was lazy...), and i bound it with a solid binding of kona coal.

the second baby quilt is the nap quilt. i really love this quilt too, both of these will be hard to give away.

the finished quilt is 33" by 36", and i quilted it in wavy lines with my walking foot on the machine. i used scraps from my stash and free hand pieced the letters, and the 2 grey solids are kona coal and kona ash.

i know the baby who will be enjoying this quilt will be a baby boy, so i used some sunny, happy and boyish colours for the letters, which were really easy and really fun to piece! i think there might be an alphabet quilt in my future...

it's backed with the extremely soft and snugly heather ross riding clothes print from west hill. for the binding i used the urban green print which looks just like the green tiles from flea market fancy!

now i just need to make a couple of quilt labels and they will be gifted to the proud mom and dad-to-be next week at work, we are having a surprise baby shower for them! i hope the little boys and their parents like their quilts, and that they will keep them warm and cozy for a few years!

mom's string quilt

2011-06-20T08:53:00.001-04:00

remember this quilt i made for my mom last year?

it's featured on quilt story today, yay!! if you have a few moments, pop on over and check it out! =) happy monday!

2 quilt tops in one weekend

2011-06-12T11:57:00.002-04:00

yep, that's right, i finished 2 quilt tops in one weekend! even though they are both small baby quilts, that's still one of the most productive sewing weekends i've ever had. and who knows, it's only noon, maybe i'll get even more sewing done =P the first of the 2 quilt tops i finished was the solids challenge quilt. i stitched it up yesterday and i'm VERY happy with how it turned out!

i can't remember what we are supposed to do with our finished challenge quilts, but it will be hard to give this one away though it's not even finished yet. hmm, maybe i'll make the back for this quilt tonight.

also finished yesterday was the beginning of the second quilt top. i finally started making a baby quilt for my coworker who's expecting her first child. i made a bib and a matching wipe cloth a little while ago, this quilt would complete the set!

here it is, the center piece of the nap baby quilt hanging out at the bottom of my "design wall". i wanted to make something simple and modern, and not too cute, so i some colourful scraps to make up the word "nap" and set it on kona coal, and complimented it with kona ash. simple and modern and not too cute!

i also worked a bit on our wedding quilt, i can't believe the wedding is only 2 and a half months away!!

before i head back to the sewing room, i want to show you this awesome package that arrived at my house a couple of weeks ago. do you believe in fabric karma? well, i think now i do! back in may i participated in sew mama sew's giveaway day as a giveaway host for the first time, and for the first time i also won a giveaway during sew mama sew's many giveaway days! i won this gorgeous fat quarter bundle of joel dewberry's aviary 2, a beautiful pin cushion, and a hera marker, all from jennifer of ellison lane quilts!

i especially love that pin cushion, it even matches with all of my pins! and it also reminds me of this gorgeous quilt jennifer has made. thank you again jennifer!

enjoy the rest of the weekend!

work in progress: solids challenge quilt

2011-06-09T22:08:00.001-04:00

i'm making head way on my MQG solids challenge quilt, we are to make a baby quilt with our one charm pack and a half yard of one other fabric to make up the top. i had this idea brewing in my head for a while, but wasn't sure how it would actually look, so i took to my trusted graph paper and pencil and sketched it out. i liked it enough so i decided to go with it.

the charm pack we got was the dusty pack. the colours are bit more muted that what i normally like. i considered mixing all the colours together and having them spread out all over the place, but then decided against it because it might look too busy and random, with no cohesion. i thought doing a colour gradation might be best suited for this design, and luckily there was just enough variation in the charm pack to make it work... sort of...

i paired the charm pack with kona snow and have been sewing away. the blocks came together really quickly. i didn't use a template, just free hand cut the charms on top of strips of kona snow so the cut edges would line up perfectly. then i chain pieced the blocks, and squared off to 5 inches. i also hastily put up a make shift "design wall" by the window because there isn't enough room on the floor anymore ever since i got the new old table in my sewing room to store some of my stash. i have to say, tape + batting actually worked out pretty well.

i was hoping to get some more sewing done tonight, but after work, dinner, a trip to the gym and a hot shower, it's already 10pm and i still have to do dishes and some laundry! sometimes i wish i didn't need to sleep, but then i remember how much i love my bed and love sleeping... hopefully i'll have the quilt top completed this weekend, and then i need to get started on the baby gifts for my coworkers. today we set the surprise baby shower date, it's almost exactly 4 weeks from now, so i reaaally need on them. here's hoping for a productive weekend!

may bee blocks

2011-06-04T19:18:00.000-04:00

i finally had some time this afternoon and did a little bit of sewing, i really needed to catch up because i was officially behind on these bee blocks 4 days ago. may was christine's month in bee {a little bit} japanese, she asked for a cheaters 8 point star block and a transport themed second block. the first one was easy to make, i whipped that up probably 3 weeks ago as soon as i got the fabric which is so adorable!

the second block was little tricky, i wanted to make some kind of a vehicle, but something different from the side view of a car because christine already has a few of those. when i was thinking about it when the fabric first arrived, i realized that i was staring at the perfect inspiration...

i knew i had to make my block into a frontal view of a vehicle! i drew up a few sketches on graph paper right away, but wasn't able to decide which one to go for so i left it for a few days, thinking i'd come back soon to get it done. a few days became a few weeks, you know how it goes, right? anyway, so this is what i went with at the end, i'm very happy with it. i added the z in front because christine is making this quilt for her nephew zac's 4th birthday and had asked us to incorporate some z's in our blocks.

i hope both christine and zac like my blocks. this is going to be one awesome boy quilt!

giveaway winners and attempt to organize my stash

2011-05-28T19:52:00.002-04:00

first of all, thank you all so much for entering the giveaway and giving me so many great lawn game suggestions! so sorry that it took me so long to announce the winners, it was easy to pick the random winner, but i had a hard time picking the winner of the surprise gift, so many of you left creative and thoughtful answers! so in case there's ever someone out there looking for a list of fun lawn games to play at weddings, or parties, i've compiled this list of the most popular choices by all of you.

croquet
bocce ring / bean bag toss
boules
lasso ball
frisbee / frisbee golf
horseshoes
photobooth with fun props
bubbles
pinatas
scavenger hunt
lawn darts
chalkboard message board
ladder ball
badminton
hula hoops
giant jenga
charades

and now what you've been waiting for... for the fat quarter bundle, the random generator picked #56!

and lucky commenter #56 is no other than Jen B! Congratulations Jen, look for an email from me!

the hard part was to pick the bonus winner who gave me the best suggestion, but after reading all of the comments over and over again, camelama has won the best commenter prize, yay! the game she described sounds like so much fun and is so easy to set up, i'm going to try and incorporate it into our wedding, thank you so much!! i'll be in touch with you and see what your fabric likes are and put together a surprise fabric pack just for you =) thank you all for playing along, and i hope you'll decide to stick around =P

in other news, i recently got a new old desk for my sewing room, and decided that it's time to find my fabric stash a new home so they can move out of the ironing board, cardboard boxes on the floor, on top of the batting in the closet, or the guest bed. i started going through all my fabric and refolding and organizing them by colours and by collections. and now i'm stuck. there really isn't enough shelving on the desk to permanently store everything, and i don't have enough plastic storage bins to put them away in (maybe i should go get some).

ugh, what do i do now? how do you organize and store your fabric?

sew mama sew may giveaway day

2011-05-22T16:33:00.005-04:00

giveaway is now closed. thanks to everyone who entered and offered me great ideas of lawn games for my wedding!! i'll pick and announce the winners this weekend!

may 23rd is sew mama sew's may giveaway day, and after being a lurker for the last year or so, i decided that this time around i should be a giveaway host and spread some love around! =)

i'm giving away a out of print fat quarter set! everyone loves some denyse schmidt right? and to make it just a little sweeter, i added a fat quarter of heather ross' yellow doggies.

for those of you who's been following me for a while know that i'm getting married in september and i've been in full wedding planning mode, so today i'm soliciting some ideas from you all. tell me a fun and simple lawn game that my wedding guests can play before the dinner reception to keep themselves entertained while we are taking our photos with the photographer. space isn't an issue, but the key is simplicity (in the game itself and any equipments needed for the game).

so, you'll have 2 chances to win this lovely fat quarter set,

1) leave a comment and suggest a fun and simple lawn game;

2) bonus entry if you are a follower or become one, leave a second comment.

please make sure that you leave a way for me to contact you! this giveaway is open to anyone in canada and the united states, and will be open until 9pm EST on May 25th. the winner will be chosen via random number generator. there will also be a surprise gift to the person who gives me the best suggestion for a lawn game =P so keep those good ideas coming!

and don't forget to visit sew mama sew's blog and check out all the other wonderful giveaways!! good luck!

baby gifts

2011-05-07T14:05:00.000-04:00

finally, some sewing and finished projects! looks like some instant gratification is just what i needed to get back into sewing, because i've already restarted work on the wedding quilt, and cut up some charm squares for my next quilt. but for now, let me show you these cute baby gifts for my coworker who's expecting a baby boy in august. i've never made anything for babies before, because, well, no one in my life has had babies since i picked up sewing, until now! i'm already addicted!

a cute little bib! i had no idea how tiny baby bibs are until i finished this and held it in my hands, baby things are just way too cute! and i thought the gnome pushing a wheelbarrow full of mushrooms would be the perfect thing to add, gotta teach the baby to eat veggies early, right?

and here is the matching cloth baby wipe. now i know usually baby wipes are used to wipe the baby's tush, but i thought it would be also good to have a cloth wipe on hand to wipe the little messy face while he's eating, right?

my plan is to make a 3rd gift to complete this set, a baby quilt that says "nap" on it! i still have plenty of time, but i definitely need to get myself more organized because there are a gazillion wedding projects need to be finished too!

but for now, let me just bask in all these baby cuteness...

not sewing but still buying

2011-05-01T20:50:00.000-04:00

fabric that is. it's not news that it's been a long time i've actually made anything, but that has never stopped me from buying more fabric before, why should it now? a few weeks ago i shared photos of the beautiful quilts from the international quilt festival in cincinnati, today let me show you all the fabric loot i got from my little road trip down south. brenda took sylvia and i fabric shopping in ann arbor while we were there, and we stopped by fabric shack (!!!) on our way to the quilt show in cincinnati (which was every bit as awesome as i had imagined). but because i had to pack and unpack everything, all the fabrics from all the different wonderful shops got all mixed up together, they are now sorted by cuts and that's how i'll have to show them. some lovely fat quarters and couple of large scraps of castle peeps and it's a hoot trees:

half yards of some basic blenders:

and these FFA and FFA2 finds at the quilt show (SO happy with these):

yardage of this cute chalk board print and houses with quilts, how cute are those?

and more yardage of momo wonderland scissors and some erin mcmorris park slope and weekends:

and of course, some new denyse schmidt yardage from joann. we were lucky that we got wind of this new line starting to be found at joann's when we were driving home. we pulled off the highway and found a joann around the corner but they didn't have any in stock yet. the lady working there was very helpful and looked up the sku numbers for us and said that another joann's 20 minutes away had some. so we got the other store and found quite a few bolts still wrapped in plastic on the cart, they were probably just off loaded from the truck. we picked out 8 prints that we liked the most since we only had 8 coupons.

after i got home and saw pictures of the entire line, i really wanted a couple more prints and krista was kind enough to buy them for me from her local joann's. thanks so much! so here is my beautiful lovely stack of new ds quilts collection in all it's retro vintagey glory.

more yardage of good finds. 3 yards of anna maria horner voile on sale for the roundabout dress. a couple yards of 1974, also on sale, found at fabric shack. and some cute and geeky space invader fabric swapped with brenda for some of the 1974.

a few pre-cuts. a dream on charm pack in case i need more than the jelly roll i had for the wedding quilt. and another big score from fabric shack, a 1974 layer cake!

and these are the pretties i got from brenda's shop, woodgrains from the new aviary 2 collection, aqua farmdale blossoms, some lovely alexander henry heath, and these incredibly soft kaffe fassett shot cottons.

and some yardage of basics, kona coal and snow, and essex linen in white.

so yeah, i did pretty well i think, now hopefully these new pretties will inspire me to start sewing again!

playing catch up

2011-04-30T14:27:00.000-04:00

i am most definitely in a sewing funk having not produced anything other than bee blocks ever since the zelda quilt was finished and that was in february! shameful i know... anyway, i was this close to being late for these bee blocks for kristy in the april edition of bee {a little bit} japanese. it seems that these mod mosaic blocks are super popular, after making a pink one for donna earlier this month, i whipped up 2 more this morning for kristy. kristy sent us some super soft chocolate quilters linen with a couple of cute fairy tale prints. i got little red riding hood and alice in wonderland!

i really love the fairy tale theme she's picked, it's going to be such a sweet quilt when it's all finished!

i have already dropped these off at the post office this morning on my way to the LQS to pick up some interfacing to make wedding ties for the boys and to hopefully make a new bag for myself, i ~~picked up~~ hoarded some echino fabrics that will make perfect bags! i also picked up some terry cloth so i can finally start making some baby gifts for my expecting coworker. i know i owe you photos of all the fabrics i bought during my road trip to the international quilt festival, i'm just organizing the photos and will have them posted soon! have a fabulous weekend!

international quilt festival

2011-04-16T11:26:00.000-04:00

last weekend i went on a little adventure with my friend sylvia, we went on a little road trip and went to the international quilt festival in cincinnati! we made a stop in ann arbor along the way and met up with our friend brenda (who owns a wonderful fabric shop that you should check out). on our way to cincinnati we made many many, many many pit stops and bought SO MUCH fabrics! but i'll talk about those another time. today, i want to show you pictures of some of the most beautiful quilts i've ever seen. i'm a quilt newbie, having started late in 2009 and completely self taught, i used to think that having over a year of quilting under my belt, i could call myself a intermediate quilter. but after seeing the quilts at the festival, these works of art completely amazed me. yep, i'm definitely a beginner, and probably will be a beginner for a long long time... anyway, enough talking, i'll let you see for yourselves.

look at these teeny tiny log cabins!! you can't really tell from the photo, but they were really tiny.

oodles of yo yo's!

i love this quilt! i love the eerie darkness in this quilt, such a great juxtaposition next to all the other colourful quilts.

love the depth created in this quilt, just amazing!

a close up of the quilt above, i'm so in love with the quilting details!

gorgeous castle, all the little details, the reflection in the lake.. and if you look closely, there is a quilted angel on the left, and a dragon on the right of the castle!

close up of the dragon quilting detail.

love the winter scene, the quilting in the snow is so perfect.

this is probably my favourite quilt from the entire show, love the colours and the raw edges!

amazing right? the pictures don't do them justice. so happy that i was able to go (it was my very first quilt show too), and i hope that i'll get the chance to go to more of them in the future.

bee blocks

2011-04-03T18:44:00.000-04:00

finally, some sewing! i had some time this weekend and managed to finish up some bee blocks. march was crystal's month in bee {a little bit} japanese (yes, i'm late), she has chosen the scrapbuster block based on this tutorial and sent out some seriously adorable (and tiny) squares - crystal, i don't know how you managed to cut all these little squares for everyone! thanks goodness i have my 1/4 inch foot, i don't want to imagine how badly aligned my seams would have been otherwise. here's my block #1:

and here's block #2:

i'm quite happy with how they turned out, but some of my seams could have been better... crystal also asked us to make a siggy block with our favourite quote on it.

to avoid being late again, i got to the april block for donna for sew modern bee right away. inspired by this quilt by oh fransson, donna asked us to make rainbow coloured mod mosaic blocks. lucky for me, i got pink!

this was so much fun! i have been wanting to try out this block for a long time, glad i finally was able to, and with such yummy fabrics too! i love the stained glass look of these blocks, and with all the blocks in different colours, it's going to be such a beautiful quilt!

thanks to both gals for the fun challenge! they were just what i needed to get back into sewing.

wedding plans

2011-03-30T12:29:00.001-04:00

i'm sure you can tell from the state of this blog, no sewing whatsoever has happened around here for a very long time. it's mostly all wedding planning, all the time, so i thought i'd share a little bit of what i've been up to. the wedding will be held at a gorgeous country estate in the rolling hills of caledon that's about an hour outside of the city of toronto.

the ceremony will be outside under a big tree, simple, organic, and understated, with plain white folding chairs for the guests and minimal decorations. the reception will also be held at the same venue, we will have long harvest style tables with simple white linens and table settings (i'm still debating if i want to make white and yellow striped table runners). there will be vintage mason jars filled with flowers scattered along the tables, and with the help of my friends, i have amassed quite an impressive collection of vintage mason jars. these blue crown mason jars from the 40's are some of the most prized in my little collection, here you can see them all lined up in my very empty living room.

the plan is to have about 40 vintage mason jars along 2 long tables, and have a few extra for the dessert table, lemonade table, and gifts table.

now that i'm crafty, i also wanted a lot of handmade elements in the wedding, so there will be lots of projects with personalized details that will need to be tackled. i'm not a graphic designer nor have i had any design experience, but from the get go of the wedding planning process, i knew that i wanted to design my own save the dates and wedding invitation. i looked at lots of design websites and wedding blogs, drawing ideas and inspiration from other people's designs. this save the date card is my pride and joy, it's my own original design, and i love it to pieces! i spent the last weekend addressing envelopes and stamping away with my new custom address stamp (ordered here), they are now on their way to our guests!

the wedding invitation design was based on a free template of save the date card that a graphic designer made for his own wedding. because our wedding will be outdoors and under a tree, i thought the tree design was perfect for us. and k also loved its simplicity and sweetness. so i took the basic template and made it our own.

this is a super advanced preview as we won't be sending out the invitations until july. so shhhhh... =P

designing these had been such a great and rewarding experience, and i love the fact that i can tell people that i made our own wedding invitations! here are some more shots of the save the date card hanging out with my blue vintage mason jars.

i promise i will have more sewing related things to talk about soon. and if you are interested in my wedding plans, i also promise that there will be more of that =)

good mail day

2011-03-14T20:49:00.000-04:00

we haven't had any mail at the house for most of last week, and i was starting to get worried as i was expecting a lot of swap and fabric mail (yes, i went shopping since going off the fabric diet in the beginning of the month), and then today, i came home to this...

if this is not a good mail day, i don't know what is... the mailbox was full to the brim, so the mailman had to place one of the big envelopes on the ground, lol! and now, the good part... some yummy stashing basics from modern meadow, purchased during purl soho's awesome yard sale.

some luscious plums, purples, fuchsia, and a little bit of brown to go with my mendocino stash from hawthorn threads. i'm planning a quilt with monochromatic improv blocks like this one i made for project special delivery. i think i still need some more good browns. what about the 3 on the right in this pile you ask? they are not plum, or purple, or fuchsia, or brown. well, they are not, but they were on sale!

and some park slope and anna maria horner's roundabout dress pattern, all on sale, from cutter gurl creations. i'm hoping to start making clothes for myself and have been wanting to try this pattern, i was glad to be able to snatch it up!

then i got some awesome fabrics from wonderful flickr friends!

some fmf blue bouquet from amanda, green bubble dots and medallions from another amanda, and the wishing flowers and the birdies are from amber.

don't you just love a good mail day??

blue block and new books

2011-03-13T13:01:00.000-04:00

i'm part of a secret project with some other flickr friends to make a special (and secret) quilt for a special mom-to-be. the quilt is going to be a rainbow quilt made up of monochromatic quilt blocks. i chose blue because i figured blue fabrics seem to be the most abundant in my stash. so yesterday i spent some time in my fabric stash pulling out various blue fabrics. i wanted a good variety of fabrics, fabrics in different shades of blue, fabrics with some white in it so it's not too blue, and some solids so the block won't look too busy. this pile is what i decided on...

i spent the morning sewing away, and this came together pretty quick. i realized how much i love the look of this improv block (inspired by these from elizabeth of oh fransson), i think i finally have found something worthy of my mendocino stash!! i did a rough sketch of the block before i started, and used it as a guide to help with picking fabrics from my pile and the placement of each piece. here's my blue improv block.

some detailed shots... i just love these little gold fishies in bags!

horses grazing...

i saw some of the other blocks that people have whipped up and they are just gorgeous, this is going to be a great secret special quilt!

i also went shopping last weekend and finally bought these 2 books i've been wanting to buy for ages (we'll talk about that other kind of shopping, fabric shopping, which i have done, A LOT, since coming off my diet in march, another time)! weekend sewing by heather ross!

and simple sewing for baby by lotta jansdotter!

no, i'm not expecting, i just love baby things (and hoarding cute fabrics and baby clothing patterns)! but seriously, 2 of my coworkers are expecting their first babies this summer, and i really want to make something cute and adorable for them and their babies. i've been hoarding all these baby things but so far have been able to resist the urge to make anything (because that would be weird, right??), now i can let loose!

sara's squares + rectangles improv block

2011-03-09T20:19:00.002-05:00

today someone at work said to me, "it's almost half way through march"! can you believe that? we are almost half way through march (and it's still snowing outside)! i've been getting lots of wedding related things done... the bridesmaids dresses have been ordered, i booked the hotel, i signed the contract with the florist, booked the date for the engagement photo shoot with my photographer, and booked the makeup and hair trials for the same morning. and i got a call from the dress store this afternoon and they informed me that my wedding dress is here and i can go and pick it up whenever i want!! it's getting more and more real!! and hopefully i'll be going shoe shopping this weekend, and it's time to start hitting the gym!

i've been sewing intermittently, working on the wedding quilt and finished a bee block. the queen bee for march in the sew modern bee is sara, aka one half of the awesome duo that is the kindred crafters, one of the first crafting blogs i found when i first started teaching myself how to sew and quilt, and is still one of my favourite blogs! sara has asked us to make a big, 20" square, improv block comprised entirely of squares and rectangles. she sent us a variety of gray, aqua, and mustard coloured solids along with 2 pieces of prints to break up the monotony of the solids. i really really enjoyed making this block for her. although i did draw up a plan on graph paper before getting started, i actually ended up no where near what my plan was.

i really love how the block has turned out, and i think sara is going to have such a fabulous quilt! i hope sara likes this block as much as i do!

weekend dreaming

2011-02-27T18:35:00.000-05:00

bits of sewing and dreaming going on this weekend...

it's coming together rather quickly, so hopefully i'll be able to show you what it looks like soon...

hope you had a wonderful weekend!

mendocino

2011-02-21T11:37:00.000-05:00

i was totally late to the party, but through some very diligent swapping (and some shopping) i was able to collect most of the prints from heather ross' mendocino collection, which is now out of print and very hard to find. i love my mendocino stash, even though it's not the complete collection, i've managed to get all the prints that i really wanted.

they look so pretty together, i just love the colours!

so now i'm dreaming of a mendocino quilt! after seeing this beautiful shot of jeni's stacks of mendocino prints and coordinates, i was inspired to do some stacking myself!

i still have no idea what kind of a quilt i want to make, but right now i'm having a lot of fun playing with fabrics and colours, and rediscovering my stash.

looks like i have plenty of aqua, peach, and gold/yellow fabrics, but not enough browns, hot pinks, and purple.

the first thing i'm going to do after my fabric ban is over in march is to pick up some more browns, fuchsias, and plums. i already have my shopping list ready, lol!

i'm off to enjoy the last day of the long weekend. i'm making lasagna for the first time for dinner, both k and i are very excited!

february bee blocks

2011-02-20T13:11:00.000-05:00

now that k's zelda quilt is finally finished (and he's sleeping under it), i'm on a bit of a sewing break. i want to make another quilt, i want to make a wedding quilt for k and i, but i'm at a loss as to what to make. i guess i'm just waiting to be inspired. so in the meantime, i'm happy to make some bee blocks!

february is kerry's month in bee {a little bit} japanese, and she's asked us to make floating bricks blocks. the scariest part of these blocks is that we have to free cut the fabrics. i've never done anything like that before, so it took me a while to finally work up the courage and pick up the rotary cutter without my ruler in the other hand. kerry wrote a wonderful little tutorial to help guide us, and after staring at the beautiful fabrics she sent over for almost 3 weeks, i was finally ready! here are my two blocks.

i loved making these blocks, they were a lot of fun once i have overcome my fear of free cutting. thank you so much for the challenge kerry, and i hope you like these blocks!

and in my awesome all canadian sew modern bee, michelle sent over some lovely and bright charm squares to make a block based on this tutorial. it was really easy and really fast to make, instant gratification is the best! she also asked us to sign the leftover HST to be our siggy block.

i'm off to finalizing the designs for the save the date cards and invitation for the wedding. the printer is stopping by today to pick up my designs, and hopefully in 2 week i'll be ready to start sending those off! have a fabulous long weekend!

happy valentine

2011-02-13T20:26:00.002-05:00

for my sweet valentine...

happy valentine's day!

recipe from smitten kitchen. i actually would increase the amount of dark chocolate used than what's called for in the recipe because i don't feel like it was chocolaty enough and dark enough.

first finish of 2011

2011-02-12T10:34:00.000-05:00

sorry for neglecting the blog, but you've heard my excuses before... work has been busy and the wedding planning has pratically taken over my life. but i have been working hard while i've been away from the blog, and almost a year later, k finally has his zelda quilt!

this quilt really has been a long time coming, but you'll understand if i told you that the whole quilt was about piecing together 1.5 inches squares and strips, right?? i think the finished quilt looks awesome, but i didn't enjoy working with the pattern, at all.

the back was my idea. it's the only thing that deserves to be on the back of a zelda quilt, the tri-force! i thought it was pretty clever of me =P here are some detail shots, please excuse the crookedness, i tried my best to line up everything, but it was still not perfect =(

and here's our hero link himself...

k LOVES his new quilt. he wanted to sleep with it right away but i still need to wash it first. aside of being my first finish of 2011, this was another first of mine. i used a basting spray (june tailor) for the first time. i hadn't planned on it, in fact, i did the basting the good old fashioned way first. i taped down the back, rolled the batting and the front on to the back, and actually pinned EVERYTHING. then i picked it up to check the back, and i could already see puckers EVERYWHERE! as much as i didn't want to, i unpinned everything, and decided that it was time to give basting spray a try. i'm now a convert and will be using basting sprays for all my future large quilts. i know lots of people stay away from basting sprays because of all the chemicals, but realistically, you get the chemicals elsewhere anyways (unless you live in a bubble, literally). plus the quilt will be washed before it'll be used, so no big deal!

k and i are heading out in a minor snow storm this afternoon (see picture of my balcony for proof) because we are going for our cake tasting. he is just overjoyed! he loves cake, and especially the cakes from this particular bakery.

snow storm or not, i don't think he'll want to miss it! have a great weekend!!

newest addiction?

2011-01-29T20:41:00.001-05:00

i think i have found my newest addiction. i don't know about you, but i'm a hoarder, and i hold on to the tiniest of tiny scraps. i've watched them pile up for months and months now and i had no idea what i was supposed to do with them. but then late last year i had an idea, why not use them to make fabric covered buttons?! so i ordered myself a starter pack of #36 sized buttons (they are 7/8 inches in diameter) during my christmas break (i had nothing to do at my parents' house so i did a lot of online shopping...), and those buttons FINALLY arrived this week. yep, took them one whole month to travel from new york state to me in toronto... can you say slow mail?!

i'm pretty sure these are addictive, because i'm ready to go and order more buttons to cover (i only bought 8 because i wasn't sure about the size but i think #36 is quite perfect)!

i won't be breaking my fabric diet since these are not fabrics =P yay for new addictions!

procrastinating

2011-01-22T17:26:00.002-05:00

i'm procrastinating. there are what seems like a thousand things, most of them wedding related, that i should be doing, but instead, i'm tinkering away with the compass i just unearthed from one of the many unpacked boxes (from moving into the house almost 2 years ago... you can tell i'm very good at procrastinating)...

i made my very first dresden plate! i always thought dresden plates are gorgeous, but have been quite intimated by them. i didn't have a template or a wedge ruler, and i wanted to make a mini dresden, so i spent a bit of time playing with the size and made my own templates. it's not the most colour coordinated thing i've made, everything was from my scrap bin, i just used what i found.

it was really fun to make, and i'll probably make it again. but i don't see a dresden plate quilt in my future anytime soon... but i did want to make a notebook cover for a new notebook i just bought.

i was planning on using the notebook to write down ideas, notes, and to do lists for all the little things for planning the wedding, so technically, i did do something productive....

ok, maybe i should go fold some laundry and cut out flowers and bouquet inspiration photos from bridal magazines now... have a great weekend!

january blocks: pink stars

2011-01-18T14:52:00.000-05:00

sorry for neglecting the blog for so long, things have just been too crazy around here! my friends and i went bridesmaids dress shopping twice for the past 2 weekends. we found a few potential options, but i think we want to hit up one more store before we decide on the dresses and the colour. we also went to a fun wedding show and i got a big bag full of business cards and brochures, mainly from florists since that's one of the biggest things that i still haven't decided on. i still need to go through them and make some appointments, but that'll happen, hopefully this weekend.

i've also been busy trying to finish up the quilt top of k's zelda quilt. it's been a long time coming, but it's almost there! i'm planning on spending a couple more nights "locked in" my sewing room, and hopefully i can start piecing the back this weekend. the only "finish" i had this week was the january bee blocks for barb in the great white north bee. she sent us some of the most adorable pink fabrics and asked us to make non wonky stars. here's my block #1 with the princess in the centre (i just love this print so so much!):

here's block #2:

and finally block #3:

this is going to be just a gorgeous quilt for barb's daughter! it makes me want to make a all pink super girly quilt! hope you like them barb!

little needle book

2011-01-08T11:35:00.002-05:00

i woke up to 10 centimeters of snow this morning (with another 10 expected later today), and it's beautiful outside! i'm going bridesmaid dresses shopping today with 3 of my 5 bridesmaids (2 of them live in other cities, and one of them is on the other side of the country), so excited! i'm asking the girls to wear the same material and maybe the same colour, but they are free to choose whatever knee-length style dress they want. my hope is that we'll find something that doesn't scream "i'm a bridesmaid", and can be worn again in other occasions.

on the sewing front, i made a little needle book for my mom. she had seen the one i had (which i got as a little extra from an etsy seller) when i was visiting home for the holidays, and asked if i'll make one for her. i used various red, pink, and orange scraps and pieced the front of the needle book log cabin style. the pretty button i bought a long time ago was happy to find a home there.

the back is simply the momo wonderland scissors print. i think it's pretty fitting for a needle book.

for the FIRST TIME ever, i cut into my tiny flea market fancy collection and used it for the interior of the needle book (only the best for my mama even though she has no idea how coveted this fabric is).

this was super easy and really fun to make, i didn't follow any pattern, just kind of looked at the one i had and drew up a little sketch myself and went for it. i think it turned out really well!

it's going to live with me for a while, my mom is going to come and pick it up from me when she comes to visit in a few months. now i must go get ready, have a fabulous weekend!

first blocks of 2011

2011-01-03T09:50:00.000-05:00

i got home thursday night from visiting my family and among a few christmas fabric binge packages was jennifer's package for her sew modern bee january blocks! i was eager to get back into sewing after taking a week long break (it's also my hope for the new year to sew a lot more than i did in the last year), so i got right into the blocks. she sent us some very dreamy dream on layer cake pieces along with a piece of lemony yellow solid and asked us to make an uneven star block as per this tutorial, a little pinwheel on point block from the left over bits of the main block, and a siggy block.

i really loved working with the fabrics and making these blocks! the quilt is going to jennifer's 13-year-old daughter, and she is going to have such a beautiful and feminine quilt! aside from making these blocks, i've also restarted the production on k's zelda quilt and the quilt top is now about 5/8 done! my other goal for the new year is to actually finish this quilt...

handmade gifts

2011-01-02T16:24:00.000-05:00

the holidays have come and gone and so did the year of 2010. before i move on to the first blocks of 2011, i have some pictures of the gifts i made for my family to show.

first is a mug rug i made for k and i as we often fight over the 1 coaster in our home office. this will be big enough for the both of us. i used one of the bee blocks i received for one of my sewing bees. i LOVE the block but it was made much smaller than all the other blocks so i thought it would be perfect to make a cute little mug rug!

and here is a coffee cozy i made for my aunt who is a starbucks addict. i'm going to make a couple more of these coffee cozies for friends who are also addicted to coffee.

i also made a pair of crayon rolls for my little cousins and embroidered their names on the front.

and finally, the big finish! my polka dot string quilt for my mom! i absolutely loved how this quilt has turned out! i ended up doing straight line quilting down the long side of the quilt with the quilting lines close together. i chose a solid binding in kona buttercup. the finished quilt is 64 inches by 72 inches.

for the back of the quilt i used some left over scraps from the quilt top and did a few confetti style blocks framed in the same kona buttercup used for the binding.

and for the first time ever, i tried embroidery and made a quilt label for the first time too.

my mom was so thrilled when i gave her the quilt, she had been waiting for it to be finished since i started it in the summer with the help from the lovely ladies in the great white north bee. this has definitely been my favourite quilt, i hope it can keep my mom warm and cozy for years and years to come!

2011 will be a crazy year (the wedding is only 8 months away, ahhhh!), which i hope to enjoy to its fullest! happy new year everyone!

happy holidays!!

2010-12-24T13:44:00.001-05:00

the presents are done (more on those, in detail, later), it's time to get packing, i'm heading home tomorrow!

have a happy holiday season!!!

string quilt progess

2010-12-19T22:36:00.001-05:00

i'm getting there! after a very productive sewing day with sheila and a weekend of hard work, the quilting is done, the binding has been sewn to the front, and i've just started hand sewing the binding to the back!

i can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

december blocks

2010-12-14T21:54:00.001-05:00

there is only 1 bee to make blocks for in december, which is good because this month has been crazy! december is jennifer's month in the great white north bee and she asked for a couple of confetti blocks. these blocks are super fun to make, and what made these confetti blocks even more fun is the fabric she chose! she sent us some of the most amazing heather ross munki munki along with some pink/yellow/orange kona solids and a grey kona for the background. here's my block #1:

and here's block #2. i just love the brides print, those bridesmaids are so cute!

and i did go a little crazy in the beginning and cut up way too many confetti bits and i barely had enough grey background fabric left to complete the 2 blocks that were requested. phew! but the upside is i'm sending back a ton of half finished munki and solid confetti to jennifer so she can make up more blocks!

i wish i could have made a few more for her just so i can keep playing with these munki munki scraps!

string quilt basted

2010-12-13T20:22:00.003-05:00

i spent much of last week and the weekend finishing off the quilt back for mom's string quilt, and with the help of a friend (thanks so much levy!!!) the quilt is now basted and ready for the machine. the only problem is, i still have no idea how i'm going to quilt it....

free motion is pretty much out of the question at this point. i haven't free motion quilted since i made my first quilt and that was a quilting disaster. i wanted to ease back into it by making a few pot holders but i don't think i have the time to practice right now. so i think i'm going to do straight lines on the diagonals, that should be quick and easy. what do you think?

sample blocks for bee {a little bit} japanese

2010-12-05T14:05:00.003-05:00

2011 is fast approaching, and with it, my month in the bee {a little bit} japanese. i'm going to be asking for denyse schmidt drunk love inspired improv blocks with some fussy cutting bits in the blocks but no intentional wonkiness. i picked out and cut the fabrics earlier this week, and whipped up a couple of sample blocks this morning to make sure i'm giving out enough fabrics in the packages. here's block #1:

here's block #2:

i figured that it's about time i make a boy quilt, so i've picked out a colour palette with lots of blue, yellow, grey, and some orange and beige.

i hope everyone will enjoy making these blocks. we have such a great group in the bee, and i can't wait to see where the creativities will take them!

the packages are all made up and ready to go. i'll try to get over to the post office on monday to get them on their way.

fabric love

2010-12-04T01:41:00.002-05:00

wow, is it another week gone by already? and is it actually december??? so i'm working away on mom's string quilt, making blocks for the back with leftover scraps but unfortunately i don't really have much to show for at the moment. my sewing machine was acting up tonight and i could not wind a bobbin properly for the life of me. frustrated as i was, i decided to stop stressing myself out and maybe i'll have better luck tomorrow. but in the meantime, how about some fabric eye candy?

i've been trying to put together a little mendocino collection (because, you know, my future daughter would love a mermaid quilt one day) and i'm getting there! these are all the pretties arrived via swaps in the recent weeks.

a little bit of hope valley and farmdale love from pink panda fabrics.

and these are actually the main reason for the purchase.a while back i emailed cheryl to see if she had any mendocino fabric left. it was a long shot, but cheryl has always been so nice so i thought why not? she wrote back to me and said that she did have some small scraps of mendocino and lightning bugs and would be happy to send them to me with my next order, on the house! these are actually good sized pieces, plus i didn't have some of them, so it was a double score! thanks so much cheryl!!

then there were these from sew fresh fabrics.. when i saw that peg and becca had some of those fabulous pearl bracelet back in stock i immediate snatched up a yard of each. then i had to pick up some hope valley and nicey jane on sale to make the most of the shipping cost (which was half off too)!

these are the most random and lucky fabric find of mine by far. i came across this online store and found some very hard to find and out of print heather ross fabrics, so lucky!!

i think i can stare at them forever...

hope you have a wonderful weekend! i'm looking forward to another weekend spent busy sewing and maybe quilting (if the sewing machine decides to cooperate)!

a quilt top and a winner

2010-11-29T23:26:00.000-05:00

i had an ambitious plan for the weekend (ambitious for me at least), i wanted to finish up the quilt top for the polka dot string quilt that i'm making for my mom, and i did it! i settled down in my sewing room, and literally sewed for the entire day on saturday, from 11am to 2am (i did take a trip to the grocery store because the fridge was empty). i'm soooo happy with how it's turned out! now i have to figure out what i'm going to do with the quilt back, and how to quilt it....

i debated about whether i should leave the paper foundation on for the piecing, but decided against it at the end. i spent a good 2 hours peeling off all the paper while watching random tv shows online, and another 2 hours to press each block with a healthy spritz of best press.

i was warned about the trickiness of piecing the string quilt so i was fully prepared and didn't faze at all!

for the coming weekend, i'm hoping to have the quilt back design nailed down and hopefully finish piecing the back, or at least most of it. and that will give me enough time to baste it, quilt it, and bind it before i have to leave for home on the 26th (i also have 3 days off work between now and then so i'm pretty sure i'll be ok)!

and now what you've all been waiting for... the heather ross fabric giveaway winner. thank you all so much for your congratulations, thoughtful comments, and practical advices for my wedding planning!!! so many of you left me such great advices, some even followed up with emails with even more details, project ideas, links, and pictures. i wish i could give something to each and everyone of you! but for now, the lucky winner chosen by the random generator is...

#44 krista from anchorage, alaska!! she has a wonderful blog (and very cute kids), and she makes beautiful quilts! congratulations krista! i will send you an email to get your mailing address so i can get the goodies over to you! thank you all once again for entering the giveaway, offering me advices, and for reading my blog!

weekend plans

2010-11-27T18:53:00.002-05:00

i have big plans for the weekend, ambitious plans...

think i can do it??

by the way, there's still time to enter the heather ross giveaway if you haven't done so already =P

november bee blocks

2010-11-24T19:12:00.000-05:00

finally some sewing was done! i have been really busy with work, house, baking, and wedding planning that i barely had any time to sew. i got to work over the weekend and finished up all my november bee blocks.

november is linda's month in the great white north bee and she asked for these fun pick-up sticks blocks. they were really fun to make, but i did struggle a bit at first with matching up seams along the diagonal, but i think i managed ok, i hope...

in sew modern bee, sarah asked for large liberated churn dash blocks for a quilt she'll be making for her husband. i love the colours and the fabrics she's picked out, the block came together rather quickly (to my relief... i've never made a churn dash before).

she also asked for a house block as a siggy block, and asked us to sign the door, which i thought was a great idea for a siggy block.

i really enjoyed making the 2 blocks for sarah, i hope she likes them too!

november is rick's month in bee {a little bit} japanese, he sent over some great red and green japanese fabrics and asked us for log cabin blocks. i had some fabrics left over after making one block, so i started making a second, but didn't quite finish before i ran out of fabrics. hopefully he'll be able to finish it up when he gets them.

aside from the november bee blocks, i also finished all of my blocks for the 4th quarter 3x6 mini sampler bee for the ladies in beehive 11. i had chosen a block design inspired by this quilt by ashley from film in the fridge. i really love how they've turned out, i think i need to make one for myself, or maybe a whole quilt! this one is for adrienne who asked for red, white, and aqua.

and this one is for michelle, she wanted a surprise but in more gender neutral colours. i hope this one is ok for what she had in mind.

this one is for dena, she asked for pink, red, and white.

and this one here is for kelly who asked for grey, white, and yellow.

the next one is for patice, she asked for green, white, and yellow.

the last one is for judy, she had asked for black, white, and yellow.

i'm so happy that i got so much work done, it was a very productive weekend indeed. now i just need to find some more time and work on all the other wip quilts. oh, and if you haven't entered the heather ross giveaway yet, there's still time! the giveaway is open until this sunday. i'm also trying to find time to type up some of the cookie recipes from my baking class to share with you, they are perfect for the holidays and you'll love them, i promise!

art of cookies - week 8 & 9

2010-11-20T00:55:00.003-05:00

if you are looking for the heather ross fabric giveaway, click here!

so it appears that i neglected to share my latest cookies from baking class, again. so once again, we are having a double post, here are the cookies from week 8 and 9!

week 8 saw some delicious chocolate mint pinwheels coming home with me, and very quickly into k's tummy. they were very easy to make, and very festive looking, don't you think? these will be added to the christmas cookie list, which is getting very long.

then there were the orange pecan cookies with shredded coconuts. yum!

this week we made apricot coconut cookies. i loved the freshly squeezed orange juice and orange zest that also went into these cookies, they made the cookies so much better! these were amazing, i'm definitely making these again, and probably sooner than christmas...

and lastly, we made coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate which k said were much better than any macaroons he's ever had. i'm not a big coconut fan, so i let him have all of these =)

an early christmas wish list

2010-11-13T20:37:00.002-05:00

looking for the heather ross fabrics and pin cushion giveaway? click here or scroll down!

have you started your christmas gift shopping / making? have you started making a christmas wish list of your own? i just got a head start. melanie from above all fabric is offering a chance to win some gift certificates to her lovely store and make a wish list of your own. want to see what's on mine?

i've been obsessing with sandi henderson's henna garden prints, i want all of them! and of course, i have to throw in some AMH little folks voile. i think i'm finally ready to make a shirt for myself. or maybe a scarf? so hop on over to above all fabric and give the wish list a try and maybe your own personal santa will see it and make all your wishes come true! if not, maybe you'll get lucky in melanie's giveaway =P

a heather ross fabric giveaway

2010-11-09T21:58:00.007-05:00

as promised, i have a little fabric giveaway for all of you heather ross fans out there! i have won my shares of some fabulous giveaways since i started sewing and quilting and joined this great online crafting community a little over a year ago, it's about time that i give back a little =) so without further ado, here are the goods that are up for grabs.

the lilypads and riding clothes are FQs, the orange dandelions and matryoshka dolls are just short of FQs at 22"x15" and they came straight from the studio of heather ross herself (i got them at this year's studio sample sale)! accompanying these lovely fabrics is a little pin cushion i made, the very first one i've ever made. i can't believe i've never made pin cushions before, it was so much fun!

front back

and how do you win? well, i'm actually planning my wedding right now (big day is september next year) and like most brides planning their weddings, i'm freaking out!!! i'm a very hands on and picky person, so i'm not hiring a wedding planner and i'm going to do everything myself. there's going to be lots of diy projects, i'm planning on doing everything myself, from table decors, flowers, to invitations and the guest book (with the help of my lovely bridesmaids of course). so i'm looking for your advice on how to make the wedding planning process easier on me, my fiance k, and my bridesmaids, lol!

you will have 3 chances to win:
1. leave a comment and offer me a piece of advice for wedding planning, or a link to a great diy project that's suitable for a non-religious, outdoor, country chic wedding.
2. follow my blog and leave me a second comment, readers are ok too!
3. share the giveaway on your blog or on twitter and leave a third comment.
please make sure i have a way of contacting you! i will leave the giveaway open until sunday, november 28th at 9pm est, and it's open to anyone from anywhere in the world! good luck and thanks so much for stopping by!!

****comments are now closed. thanks to all who entered and offered me great advices! i'll pick a winner via random.org early next week.****

art of cookies - week 6 & 7

2010-11-04T18:19:00.000-04:00

oops, looks like i forgot to post about my baking class last week! so today i'll double up, 4 different kinds of cookies in one post!! so first up from week 6 i made some good ol' sugar cookies with raspberry jam sandwiched in between 2 layers of cookies and dusted of with some icing sugar. don't they look pretty and super festive? they'd be the perfect holiday treat!

and second type of cookies from week 6 was rugelach. i've never had or seen or even hear of these before, but they were SO delicious! they are shaped like little croissant, with apricot jam, sugar, brown sugar, a touch of cinnamon, chopped raisins and toasted pecans inside. i'm definitely making these again!

and then this week, we made chocolate crackles. they were super easy, and so chewy!

k was very excited for these and he wasn't disappointed. these are definitely high on the favourites list and will definitely be made again!

also made this week were split second cookies. these are essentially shortbread cookies rolled into a long log, and then the handle of a wooden spoon is used to create a indent that runs along the length of the log, and the indent is filled with thick cherry filling.

after it's baked, the log is sliced at an angle to make biscotti like cookies. these were also very very delicious and festive looking!!

all the cookies so far have been great and with only 3 more classes left, i can't wait to make more! thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to come back next week for a giveaway, the one that rhymes with feather loss... lol!

sunday stash #2

2010-10-31T16:16:00.001-04:00

there have been lots of shopping and swapping around here lately, lots of great loot was acquired, adding more adorable stuff to my "hoarded for future children pile", mostly heather ross fabrics. exhibit 1: heather ross' newest line for spoonflower, macaroni love story!

i was able to find a group of ladies on flickr to split a yard set of the whole collection. i've heard bad stories about spoonflower fabrics, but i just couldn't resist the cuteness!

2 yards of the original far far away princess and the pea print i found, i love this fabric so much!

here are some great swaps i received in the last couple of weeks. more princess and the pea, far fary away snails, and some very hard to find lightning bugs, i love those pink bikes!

and here we have mendocino mermaids also received from various swaps.

ebay scores - mendocino giant octopi, westhill lily pads and russian dolls, and some lightning bug polka dots.

more shopping... the orange dandelion, green lily pads were all ebay scores. the rest were purchased from cheryl at pink panda fabrics as they were all on sale. i bought more of the FFA2 sleeping beauty in charcoal because i had to swap a FQ of it. so to compensate for the stash reduction and to make sure that my FFA2 stash is complete, i went and bought more.... but hey, they were all on sale! and of course while i was at it, i picked up some meadow sweet butterflies and grey + yellow polka dots.

and one last ebay find - dream on jelly roll!!! i love this vintage sheet inspired line and its soft colours, there's nothing more feminine than that!

i was able to track down some obscure online shops (one is in the UK) that still carried KJR basket weaves, i bought everything they had left. i'm going to be swapping some of them for the other 2 colours that i don't have.

now back to swaps. i got some tula pink ladybugs, michael miller apples and pears, more FMF and some momo wonderland!

i also bought a lot of stuff from the creativ festival a couple weekends ago, jennifer and i had a great time (it's always fun shopping with a fellow enabler)! we found some oliver + s patterns on sale for $9.99 so i grabbed a whole bunch. i love these patterns, so cute!!!

and we found some FQ bundles of american jane's look and learn. we *had* to pick those up.

some miscellaneous FQs - i don't have a lot of purples and oranges in my stash so i thought these would be good additions, especially for bees and such.

i came across this big scrap pack of mostly black and white pieces with a cute red + white flowers for only $3!!!

yes, i realize that the fabric shopping has gone a little out of control (i still have some packages that are on their way to me), i'm seriously going to try and refrain from making any more purchases until christmas time, really, i promise! oh, and happy halloween!!

heather ross studio sale

2010-10-29T23:03:00.002-04:00

i've mentioned before that i was organized enough to take advantage of heather ross' studio sample sale a few weeks ago, and had been eagerly awaiting for my package to travel first from heather's studio in new york, to sunny southern california (i had to send it to a friend because the sale was limited to within the us), then finally making its way to me in toronto. and well, today, it came (along with a few other packages but more on that later, this is about heather ross)!!

see that big one on top that says "extremely urgent"? yep, that's the one! even though i had an idea of what i'd find inside as my dear friend in cali took a teaser photo for me, i was still very excited to open it up and see for myself what i'd got.

a brief thank you note from heather for taking part in the studio sale (like i could resist it), a munki munki farmer's market pajama set, and a bundle of joy!

i had asked for munki fabric but was told by heather that she didn't have any more left, so she sent me these soft poplin pajama pants instead. i don't think i will wear there, as cute and soft as they are, the quilter in me really wants to take them apart and make something wonderful out of them. i think i will let her have her way this time.

and here are the fabrics. i will admit, i was expecting more fabrics, quite a lot more actually, but i am very happy with what i did get, i asked for FFA, mendocino, rabbits and racecars, and west hill, and they are exactly what i got. but the fabric pieces are fairly small, smaller than a FQ. i guess i shouldn't be too greedy, afterall, there were people who didn't get their packages filled. so thank you heather for a wonderful package and i can't wait for next year's sale!!

art of cookies - week 5

2010-10-21T23:15:00.001-04:00

is it really thursday already?! where did my week go?? i have been looking forward to the weekend though as i'm heading to the creativ festival (for the first time!) with jennifer from the TMQG (who is also in 2 of my 3 quilting bees, such a small world!), there's much shopping to be done! speaking of shopping, i've been very very bad lately (i discovered the wonderful world that is ebay...), on top of all the swaps that are going across the us-canada border, i've also been buying up a lot of stuff. i feel like i should do a little sharing, so come back in a couple weeks for a giveaway (i'm still waiting for some packages to arrive)! what will be up for grabs? well, i don't want to spoil the surprise but i can tell you that it rhymes with feather loss.... have i said too much?? now back to this post about cookies! monday marked the midway point of my art of cookies classes, we made lemon blossoms and peanut butter blossoms. they were delicious, adorable, and perfect for christmas (there is going to be so much baking come christmas time)!

i made 2 kinds of lemon blossoms, half of the batch was coated with chopped walnuts, the other half plain, and both had just a little bit of raspberry jam in the centre. lemon and raspberry jam go so perfectly together, a little bit sour, a little bit sweet.

the peanut butter ones were the favourite of both k and i. the cookies were lightly coated with some sugar, and a hershey's kiss was pressed into the centre as soon as they come out of the oven. so simple, yet so good! yum!!

这一周过的真快！周一的烘烤课做的是柠檬果酱，和花生酱巧克力饼干。它们一个个小巧玲珑的又好看又好吃！看来今年的圣诞节会有好多好多品种的饼干！

the making of zelda quilt - part 2

2010-10-15T22:34:00.001-04:00

here is proof that other than buying fabrics (and cooking and baking and reading), some sewing has been done! i'm back to working on k's quilt after taking a long break, it's now half way done! i'm hoping that i can squeeze in some more sewing tomorrow morning and on sunday, maybe i can even finally have it finished before christmas... a girl can dream, right? it's looking pretty good if i may say so myself. k, of course, is very excited, as he had been since february when i first promised him this quilt.

other than working on zelda, i pressed all the wonky star blocks i've received so far from the sew modern bee, and trimmed down the blocks to 9". i need to start thinking about layouts for the overall quilt, but one thing is for sure, i'm going to need more wonky stars!

我终于又开始在小卡的zelda被子上花时间了，一点一点的做了这么长的时间，一半做好了。争取这周末我能再找到时间继续做，说不定圣诞节前整个被子都能做好。除了做小卡的被子，我还把我从我的其中一个缝纫合作社收回来的布块儿都从新熨了一遍，把边上都裁好了，下一步就是该想想整个被子的设计了。

the best wednesday

2010-10-15T00:39:00.004-04:00

i have the week off from work and instead of sewing like i was planning to do, i ventured off to faaaaarrrr north of the city to visit a new-to-me quilt shop yesterday. while i was on the streetcar on my way there i received a phone call from a number i didn't recognize. i usually don't pick up the phone if i don't recognize the number and just let it go to voicemail, but for some reason i felt like i should pick up yesterday. it was a good thing that i did because on the other end of the phone was HEATHER ROSS!!! that's right, heather ross called me!!! a while ago she hosted a studio sample sale online and i was organized enough to submit my order 5 minutes into the sale (it was sold out after 20 minutes) and used a friend's address in california to be my shipping address because she was only shipping within the US. well, miss heather called me to ask me what sort of goodies i wanted her to include in my package. she is as nice as everyone says she is and more. i probably sounded like a complete idiot because all i managed to say was how much i love her work and how great it was of her to host the studio sale (i should have asked her to extend it to canadians next year so i wouldn't have to wait for my package to get shipped to california and then back to me). it was only a very short conversation, but it was so great to know that she's putting so much effort and personal touches into each and everyone of the packages to make sure that the recipients would be happy with them. i know i will love mine, whenever i get it!!!

anyway, i was so psyched after the phone call, and this probably also contributed to the ensuing shopping spree... i came home with a bag full of goodies!

i got some cute boy prints because i never have any boy prints (and also don't have boys to sew for but we'll just ignore that fact for now and look at the cuteness). the blue airplanes on the left is from traffic jam, and the rest are from david walker's robots collection.

and some adorable and very pink lizzy dish. when i laid all the bolts of fabrics on the cutting table, the lady said "aww are you making a baby quilt?" to which i replied, "ummm, no, i'm just... hoarding... for.. my future children..." and she burst out laughing. i should have just said yes... yes, i'm making a baby quilt.

and then i stopped by the sale fat quarters bins and picked out some fat quarters. some of them i actually picked out with the upcoming 4th quarter 3x6 mini sampler quilting bee in mind as i don't have a lot of black or red in my stash. see, i'm buying with purpose!

as for the other ones... well they are just too darn cute!

and then i saw some precuts and my eyes lit up when i saw some hunky dory jelly rolls on sale. i almost grabbed two of them but i stopped myself in time... when i turned around from the jelly roll shelf, i saw the moda scrap bags... and guess what was in the one that i picked out?! fandango!! score!

while i was at the checkout counter i saw that they carry mary ellen's best press, the starch alternative that i've been wanting to buy! of course i had to get one of those (i tried it out today with k's zelda quilt, i'm very impressed and i think mary ellen and i are going to be the best of friends).

what a great day it was! i wish everyday was like yesterday... haha.

scenes from the weekend and october bee blocks

2010-10-12T16:16:00.004-04:00

hello! did you have a restful weekend? we just had our thanksgiving long weekend and i hosted thanksgiving dinner for a small party of 4 (k and i, and my cousin and his girlfriend), and for the very first time in my life, i roasted a turkey! i made the brine on sunday and had the turkey soaking up all the flavour overnight before i started prepping it for the oven in the afternoon on monday. i was so nervous, worried that the turkey will burn or it will be too dry. i didn't have a backup plan and we would have to order pizza or something if the turkey didn't turn out. but luckily it did! thank you martha!

along with turkey, i also made stuffing, mashed potatoes with green peas, turkey bacon wrapped green beans, and of course, gravy (i'm not a cranberry sauce girl), and bought freshly baked bread from the market.

and for dessert, i made chocolate chip cookies and also served the hazelnut rosette spritz cookies from my backing class earlier. everything turned out great and everybody was extremely full afterwards =)

aside from making and eating turkey, i was also able to get all the october bee blocks done. october is cilvee's month in sew modern bee, she asked for asterisk blocks based on this tutorial. the fabrics she sent over were gorgeous and the colours are so fresh and clean. i've never made asterisk blocks before but they were straight forward enough, the blocks came together very quickly.

for the great white north bee, brenda is making a lovely christmas quilt and asked for wonky quarter log cabins in the most adorable christmas prints! i've made these before for kristy back in june, so it took no time at all to whip these up.

and lastly but not the least, it's natalie's month in bee {a little bit} japanese, she's asked for a long strip of forest block from everyone. she sent over lots of green and brown based prints and said that we pretty much have free reign over what we'd like to make, as long as it's a forest! i had so much fun making this big long block for her, i think it's going to be a fabulous quilt!

there are lots going on over here, so let's take a closer look... here is a big tree with a green owl peeking out of the branches. next to the green owl's tree, the house of rabbits just had a visit from miss little social butterfly the fawn, and she is now on her way to visit the gooey eyed owl.

on the small tree, the red owl is snoozing while the sheep are grazing peacefully in the field, and the giant green bird is on his way home.

this is the giant green bird's home and his favourite tree. mr brown owl is sitting on the chimney welcoming him home.

i hope everyone likes their blocks because i had a lot of fun making them, thank you all for the challenges! i'm taking the whole week off from work, can't wait to settle back down into the sewing room and get some much needed work done!

a lovely package

2010-10-07T21:10:00.005-04:00

so i started swapping fabric on flickr recently and i'm absolutely addicted! i guess it's a good thing, i get to go shopping from my own stash, kind of =) k thinks it's a great idea, i think he's just happy that i'm not spending so much money buying fabric anymore (i don't think he knows about my heather ross studio sale order which i had to ship to a friend in california and then get her to ship it back to me, and neither does he know about the macaroni love story order i'm splitting with a few lovely ladies on flickr, but let's just keep it that way). this is just the most recent package i received, from australia!

the lovely lisa sent this little bundle of joy to my door earlier this week, i couldn't have been happier with it! isn't that the most adorable thank you card?! so happy and so cute!!

i got a FQ of the much coveted FMF (i'm just starting my collection), and a FQ of this cute writing pad fabric with numbers and alphabets, it's like going back to grade school! along with those goodies, she also sent me a lovely fabric brooch that she made! she sells some of her other handmade cuties in her etsy shop!

thank you so much lisa!! it was such a pleasure swapping with you! i have a few other swapped goodies to show you but i need to take photos first! work has been insane the past 2 weeks so i hardly entered my sewing room. but monday is the canadian thanksgiving and i'm taking the whole week off! can't wait!!! hope you are having a great beginning of october! and if you haven't tried swapping fabric yet, seriously, you are missing out! here are two flickr fabric swap groups to get you started =P

art of cookies - week 4

2010-10-05T23:01:00.003-04:00

did you try the chocolate chip cookie recipe from last week? you should if you haven't, i promise they will be some of the best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever have! this week i made piped spritz cookies, 2 different kinds in total - chocolate spritz cookies and hazelnut rosettes. the dough for both were really easy to make up, but the piping part was not fun. spritz cookies are a scandinavian tradition. the dough is soft and smooth (almost like ice cream) so you can't shape them with a cookie press. they are usually piped into rosettes using a piping bag with a star tip, but the dough is just hard enough that the piping of the cookies is not the easiest and not the most pleasant thing to do.

they are a ton of work, but the results are delicious! i made mostly rosettes (because they are just so cute and pretty), and added a dab of raspberry jam in the centre to give them some extra sweetness. i also made some heart shaped chocolate cookies, they are not perfect, but they sure taste good =P

i'd love to make these again, but i really didn't enjoy the piping. i was pretty sure i almost got carpel tunnel from it, my right wrist still hurts when i move =( but for now, k and i (and our friends) are enjoying these 3 (i could only fit 2 in the picture) big boxes of scandinavian goodness.

being practical

2010-10-02T11:12:00.002-04:00

tanya whelan's practical bag pattern has been one of my favourite bag patterns since the first time i saw it. i had the pattern sitting on my sewing table for quite some time before i was able to finalize the fabric choices. first i wanted to go with the big floral print marilyn in grey from tanya's latest fabric collection dolce, but decided that i needed something sturdier without having to use interfacing. so i settled on some denyse schmidt's decorator weight county fair prints.

i love how it turned out! the size is just perfect, i can take it to the market, the library, or a day out with k. the only change i made was that i added a pocket inside so i don't have to fumble for my blackberry and metro pass.

the pattern was very well written with clear instructions and very easy to make. i prepared the pattern and cut the fabric pieces in an hour on a saturday morning, went out for the day with k, and finished it that same night with another 2 hours of sewing.

the bag was actually made a couple of weeks ago when my mom was here visiting us, and when i showed her the bag she asked if i could make one for her too. i don't (usually) say no to mom, so happily obliged. she loved the fabric i used for my bag, but unfortunately i didn't have enough to make another one. so she had to settle for pink. really really pink.

the second time making it was even faster than the first around. i made another modification and added a zippered pocket inside for mom at her request, she wants to be able to put money and keys in the zippered pocket.

she's very happy with her bag too, we actually went to the mall together after i finished it, and we were carrying out own matching practical bags, ha!

想了好久一直打算给自己做个好看的包包，琢磨了2个月终于决定了要用的布和颜色，很快在一天之内就把我的新包包做好了，又好看又实用。上次妈妈过来的时候看到我刚做好的包，也想要一个，我就又做了一个，这次被第一次还快。唯一修改的地方是给妈妈的包包里面加了一个带拉索的口袋，这样她可以把钱包什么的放进去，又方便拿，也不会被偷。我们俩都对我们的新包很满意！

the little things in life

2010-09-30T21:31:00.006-04:00

at the end of a long and busy day at work (we are doing business planning for 2011, yuck!) i was catching up on my google reader when i saw that kaelin had a surprise for me! she had got "the versatile blogger" award and was supposed to post 7 (fun) facts about herself and pass the award on to 5 other bloggers. one of the people she chose was me! thanks kaelin, i'm so very honoured! =)

i have no idea where this award was originated from but i intend to keep it going, so here are my five favourite versatile bloggers - rebekah from don't call me becky, rebecca from chasing cottons, lynne from lily's quilts, carina from carina's craftblog, and faith from fresh lemons.

and here are 7 facts about me....

1) i am an only child but i grew up with my (younger) cousin and spent most of our time at our grandparents' house so i always felt like he is my brother. he is 2 years younger than me and we never fought or argued when we were growing up, in fact, all of our aunts and uncles who have young kids now wonder just how our parents and grandparents got us so well behaved. my mom always jokes that when i have a son one day, i should give him the same chinese nick name that my cousin has (tiger because he was born in the year of tiger), and they will be big tiger and little tiger together =) i think i just may do that!

2) i learned how to play the piano when i was 4 years old. even though i haven't played regularly in almost 8 years now (since moving away from home for university, i haven't had a piano to practice on), every time i sit down in front of a piano, i can always play the last few pieces that i learned like i've never stopped practicing. i owe it all to my grandma who started me early and sat with me during practices everyday for an hour for years, and went to every lesson and never missed a single recital. she is gone now but i think about her everytime i play the piano, and i plan on getting one in our house and teach my future kids to play, to sit with them everyday during practice, and to never miss a single piano recital.

3) i'm extremely emotional and cry at almost every movie. yes, that includes avatar, iron man 2, the dark knight, 2012 (which, by the way, was stupid and one of the worst movies i've ever seen, i still cried), and according to my boyfriend, wall street 2 (i don't remember crying, but i'll take his word for it). i won't even mention the disney movies, up was particularly hard on me, i cried from the moment we were introduced to little carl and ellie playing in the abandoned house all the way until the movie ended. every single episode of grey's anatomy ends with a pile of used tissue paper, and please don't get me started on last season's finale of private practice, why? why dale?! yes, i'm that crazy.

4) i got my credit card a few years ago when i was in university and the credit limit is still $500 like it was when i first got it. i refuse to raise it, because let's face it, i already go out of control buying fabrics, can you imagine the damage (and allllllll the pretties) $5,000 or more could do? self control... i have none.

5) you probably won't believe me, but i used to be a HUGE wow addict. k got me started when he went away to california for a summer internship when we were in university. he convinced me that we could have fun playing together online and it would be like we went on an adventure together. yea, bad idea. even though i only played for a little over a year, i was really hooked at one point and had a raid schedule where i played with 20 something other people from all around the world 3 times a week for 5 hours at a time. i was a bad ass mage (who threw fire balls at people and wore pretty dresses) and used to be one of the best on the server i played on. eventually, after 4 months of hardcore raiding, i realized how much i was missing in the real world and decided to quit cold-turkey. hey guess what? i picked up sewing (and fabric hoarding) exactly when i quit wow, i guess you could say that i traded one addiction for another, eh?

6) i studied electrical and biomedical engineering in university and was supposed to go on studying neural engineering in grad school when i decided that i didn't want to spend another 6+ years in school (to get the education needed to stay in that field). it's been 3 years since i graduated from undergrad and made that decision, i'm now a quilts-making, cookies-baking, house-decorating, dinner-cooking business consultant and i couldn't be happier, yay!

7) my name in chinese means "a little kid who catches fish", my parents named me while watching an old chinese cartoon of the same name from 1959 before they even had me! i used to tell other kids that i was so cool they made a cartoon after me (just ignore the fact that the little kid in the cartoon is a boy)! teehee =P

art of cookies - week 3

2010-09-29T18:32:00.003-04:00

i'm late, again, to post about my baking class. ugh, sorry, it's been really busy around here and not exactly sewing related, plus i think i'm coming down with a cold. but i'm taking a week off work in 2 weeks, i can't wait! there are some much needed sewing projects that need to get done. but back to baking. this week we made chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies, 2 of the best classics.

everyone knows these 2 kinds of cookies and they are probably most people's favourites too. the recipes we used were very good. i love raisin and cinnamon, there is nothing that can go wrong with this combination!

the chocolate chip cookies are the softest i've ever had. but we used small chocolate chips and next time i will opt for bigger chocolate chunks.

i thought i'd share the recipe i used for the chocolate chip cookies (it's super easy), you can thank me later when you become the favourite house guest or the best mom in the neighbourhood! =P

chocolate chip cookies - yield 30 cookies

ingredients:
unsalted butter - 270g
granulated sugar - 150g
brown sugar - 125g
salt - 3/4 tsp
pure vanilla extract - 2 tsp
large whole eggs - 3
pastry flour (all purpose flour) - 450g
baking soda - 2 tsp
chocolate chips - 450g (you can use dark or white chocolate, and chunks for more tastiness)

method:
1) cream butter, sugars, salt and vanilla until light and fluffy on medium speed. scrap bowl when needed.
2) add eggs one at a time, make sure they are fully incorporated before adding the next one.
3) sift together the flour and baking soda, along with chocolate chips, add to the above mixture and mix until just blended (don't over mix or the chocolate chips will break).
4) using an ice cream scoop or a spoon, scoop out the cookie dough onto a paper lined baking tray approximately 4 or 5 cm apart (using an ice cream scoop ensures that the cookies are uniform in size and will be baked evenly).
5) bake at 375 F for 10 minutes or until the cookies are lightly brown. you do not want to over bake them because once they are removed from the oven, the cookies will continue to bake for another 8 mins or so on the baking tray!!
6) let cookies cool on the baking tray before moving.

if you like your cookies flatter and crispier, you can add more brown sugar to the recipe (225g instead of 125g), the more sugar you add to the dough, the more the cookies will spread. and now go make some chocolate chip cookies!!! =)

art of cookies - week 2

2010-09-22T17:51:00.003-04:00

i'm a couple of days late for this post, but better late than never, right? this week we made biscottis. 2 kinds of biscottis actually, and they are amazing. these are now officially my go-to baked goodies for parties and gifts!

the box on the left are espresso chocolate and almond biscottis with a bit of orange zests and dipped in chocolate. the box on the right are chocolate and almond biscottis with cinnamon sugar. there was more than what's shown in the picture, but as soon as i got home from class, k and his friends (who were here for their weekly poker night) raided them. i also packed up a few of each to send to my mom. i sent her a picture of them fresh out of the oven during class and she replied "can i have some please?!" how could i say no? as i am typing right now, the entire box on the left is gone, and there are maybe 8 left in the box on the right.

these are really just amazing. so flavourful, sweet, and crunchy. perfect with a glass of milk or your favourite coffee.

they are surprisingly easy to make for goodies as good looking as these. but no one needs to know about that, they will just be impressed with my mad baking skills. =D

anyway, time to go eat more!

这周的饼干艺术课我们做的是意大利式饼干，非常的香，非常非常的好吃。我们一共做了两种，第一个是巧克力，杏仁块儿，橘子皮，和咖啡味儿（听起来很怪可是真的很好吃），外面还裹着巧克力。第二个比较简单一点，是巧克力，杏仁块儿，上面撒的桂香糖。我以后要是出去或送礼，就一定会做这些饼干，又简单又好吃，而且看上去还很有架势。

september bee blocks

2010-09-19T18:55:00.001-04:00

wow, it's been a while since i posted anything sewing related. it's been slow getting things done. it's getting colder and colder, so i'd rather spend the last bit of nice weather outside when i still can. there'll be plenty of snowed in sewing days during our canadian winter. i managed to finish all the bee blocks for september, and they will be in the mail on monday. september is paula's month for bee {a little bit} japanese, she's going to make a wonky town and we would each contribute 2 blocks to her little town. this is the first block i made for her, 2 neighbours going about their business - the girl on top is walking her dog, while the girl on the bottom is on her way back from the mushroom fields with her basket full of mushrooms.

the second block is the town park, which, unfortunately, has been having problems with a pack of wolves and little red riding hood and the 3 piglets are doing their best to fend off the wolves.

i hope paula likes the 2 blocks. i realized that they are not exactly wonky after they are already done, so i hope they will still fit into the wonky town. i had a lot of fun making these!

september is vivian's month in the great white north bee, and she has asked us for 2 straight forward 9 patch blocks. the fabrics were great, and they came together quickly. they are the perfect sewing project for a lazy saturday night.

during our last TMQG meeting we decided to make a charity quilt. each of us who were present at the meeting purchased a matching FQ and we were going to make the same 2 blocks using the FQ and other fabrics from our own stash. we were trying to make a boy or gender neutral quilt, so i went with blue, green, yellow, and grey. i can't wait to see this quilt come together!

天气逐渐变凉，但还是有几个好天儿，趁着天气好我们每个周末都出去，所以没有怎么做缝纫，但我还是晚上抽空把9月份的缝纫合作组的布块儿都做好了。头两个是个小村庄，有人散狗，有人采蘑菇，还有公园里的小红帽和3只小猪智斗大灰狼。中间的两个很简单，9块布很快就缝好了，但中间的那个猫猫的布很可爱。最后两个是我们多伦多现代缝纫设一起准备要给charity做的花被子。我们每一个人提供2个布块儿，大家都选的配套的布和颜色，做出来应该会很好看的。

art of cookies - week 1

2010-09-13T23:03:00.002-04:00

i'm taking baking classes at george brown college's chef school again (following my baking arts and art of cakes courses) and this time i'm doing art of cookies. yes, that's right, 10 weeks of cookies. i am on my way to one day become the mom who makes the BEST cookies. tonight was our first class, we did a lot of talking (introductions, course outlines, tools, expectations, etc.) and started off the baking easy with some good old short bread cookies. delicious, flaky, buttery short bread cookies.

they were super easy and super fast, and so soft and crumbly they practically melt in your mouth. apparently this week would the only time we'd take it easy as for the following 9 weeks, we'll be making 2 different kinds of cookies every class. i'm very excited for this class, and needless to day, k is even more excited. mom has been staying with us the past week visiting from ottawa, and she intentionally stayed over tonight so that she can have some of my cookies. i packed her half of the cookies i made, she said that she'll probably end up eating all of it on her way home, ha!

今天是我新上的烘烤艺术课的第一天，这次上的是饼干艺术，10周每一周都做两种不一样的饼干。今天第一堂课简单，做的是很传统的脆饼饼干。烤出来以后奶油味浓浓的，别提多香了！以后的课还会更好，等不及学更多的各种各样的饼干。

The Story of Bottled Water

2010-09-05T23:47:00.001-04:00

do you buy bottled water? maybe it's time to rethink that habit.

check out the other great short films from the story of stuff project too!

sunday stash #1

2010-09-05T17:13:00.003-04:00

or my most recent fabric binges... a while ago i finally gave in and bought a couple of flea market fancy scrap packs on etsy. this pathetic little stack is all the fmf in my possession =(

they are all small pieces measuring at about 8x10, but i love them to pieces! i doubt that i'll ever get enough to actually make a quilt out of them, but for now, i'm happy just looking at them.

these are a couple of fat quarters i got from the workroom during TMQG's july and august meetings.

the one on the left was the fq i picked for the fq swap in july and linda made me a lovely ohio star and added some adorable ginghams from her stash! the fq on the right was picked up during the august meeting. we decided that we are going to make a couple of blocks each for a charity quilt, and we all picked out matching fqs (in green and blue) that we'll use along with fabrics from our own stash.

i've been wanting some anna maria horner's little folks voile for so long, and while browsing etsy (one of my favourite past times), i spotted this stack from this cute etsy store calling out to me, obviously i had to bring it home.

you hear people talk about how soft these voiles are, but you really have no idea just how soft and how nice they feel until you touch them. i can't wait to turn these into the most luxurious quilt!

along with the voiles i also picked up this cute fq bundle of lecien's my folklore, i just love these colours!

no, i'm not done yet. i bought some more anna maria horner's voiles and good folks during buttercuppity's shop closing sale. it's too bad that ari had to close down her lovely shop, but i did appreciate the opportunity for these amazing deals.

i was lucky enough to be the link of the week winner from quilthome in august and got a $20 gift certificate to the shop, yay!! here are the pretties i picked up there. some heather ross mendocino (i recently picked up the mendocino bug), one of my favourite prints from heather bailey's pop garden collection, and some bicycles from erin mcmorris' weekend.

and some more anna maria horner good folks. i love these bold prints and vibrant colours!

ok, we are almost done here. lastly, i picked up some of these cute elephants from a new canadian online shop, omiyage, which is full of cute japanese craft supplies. there was a cotton canvas sale and i got 1 meter each of these 3 prints for $30!

with all these new purchases, i better go and get some sewing done! happy labour day long weekend (although i wish the weather was nicer, it's so cold!!!)!!

the making of zelda quilt - part 1

2010-08-28T18:35:00.003-04:00

we are having a beautiful late summer weekend here in toronto. k and i went to the 11th annual buskerfest in support of epilepsy toronto. the festival is a gathering of the best street performers from all over the world, and has been going on since thursday (much to my dismay as my office building is right next to the festival area, and nothing is more frustrating than you trying to work on a thursday / friday afternoon while people are yelling and cheering outside with loud music blasting non stop). frustrations aside, it was a ton of fun actually being a reveler and watching all the amazing and talented performers put on their best acts.

on the sewing front, i've been plugging away at k's zelda quilt. i finished cutting all the pieces last weekend, and had been busy sewing them together this week. so far, 1/8th of the quilt top has been assembled. i haven't made very many quilts, but this is by far the most difficult quilt i've done (can you spot the boo-boos?) maybe partly it's because i'm following a quilt pattern for the first time, and not being able to create something entirely my own has put a damper on the enjoyment level of the making of this quilt. but k is so very much excited for it, and that gives me all the motivation i need to keep it moving along!

so i think i'm going to go and do a little more zelda. oh and tomorrow is the TMQG's august guild meeting, we'll be swapping back the fat quarter swap ohio star blocks from last month's meeting. i hope my person likes what i've made her and i can't wait to see what has become of my fat quarter! hope you are having a glorious weekend and enjoying the last bit of summer to its fullest!

这一周以来一直很凉快，但今天的天气特别的好，我们能好好享受一下今年的最后一点夏天。我们去了一年一度的buskerfest，好多来自世界各地的街头表演艺术家都来到多伦多参加这个节日，非常的好看。这周我一直都在耐心的做小卡的游戏主体的被子，8分之一做好了，真的好麻烦！明天是我们的现代缝纫合作社8月的聚会，我们上个月给互相做的布块就该换回来了，也不知道我的搭档给我的做成了什么样子？

3x6 sampler quilt mini bee

2010-08-22T15:50:00.001-04:00

i'm participating in the 3x6 sampler quilt mini bee this quarter for the very first time, it's been fun making blocks for other people from my own stash. i was able to do a complete stash inventory (found a few surprises that i forgot i had), and also realized that i have way too much greens, blues, and pinks, and not enough orange, yellow, red, and purple. i guess that means my stash needs a more "balanced" diet going forward. i finished all the blocks for the quarter yesterday, and i'm quite happy with the results. i can only hope that the recipients of these blocks feel the same way.

red / aqua / white for melaniemade

grey / orange / white for danaandthread

orange / red for orange queen1

grey / purple / red for *amisha*

blue / green / white for sarasquilts

blue / grey / orange for mollie2010

and here is all of them together.

yeah, i had wonky stars on my brain lately so naturally i went with more wonky stars for this bee. i hope they are ok! i've also just started resuming work on k's zelda quilt. i finished all the cutting this morning and started sewing, but i was only able to go through 2 rows before i ran out of steam. i told k that we needed to do laundry, which was actually true. he's been very eager for his quilt, so i better get working again soon!

more bee stuff

2010-08-15T12:15:00.001-04:00

september will be my month in the sew modern bee, and i've already picked my blocks back in april when i first joined the bee. i made the princesses in the castle block to be the centre block and focal point for the quilt, and picked out all my fabrics last week. this week, i was able to prepare the packages to be sent out and made a couple of test blocks. these are only 9.5" unfinished blocks, they are super cute!

all the packages are ready to be mailed out, just as soon as i run to the store to pick up some more envelopes and print out the instructions!

in other bee news, in case you are wondering what's going on with my string quilt (i know that's you, mom), this is what it looks like so far. i've received the blocks back from a few of the bee members, plus what i had made myself earlier. i must say, this is looking pretty awesome, i'm excited to get everything back (there are still quite a few more to come) and start putting the quilt top together! hope you are having a great weekend!

在其中一个缝纫合作组里面，9月是我的月份。上周我已经把想用的花布都挑了出来，这周我把要寄出去的包裹的收拾好了，还抽空做了两个样品。等我去再买些信封回来就可以往出去寄了。如果你像我妈妈一样，在一直惦记着我的条条儿被子，不知到它做的怎么样了，现在给你一个汇报，我还在等着缝纫合作组里的几个人给我寄回她们做好的布块儿，我现在手里的都在照片里。看着不错，等到把没收到都收到了，估计应该就差不多可以往一起缝了。