Craftsy

I am lucky to have chanced upon this website (http://www.craftsy.com).  This is a place where creative people share their crafts, patterns and tutorials. They also have free online courses. I became a member a couple of weeks ago and already have 4 followers! :) It feels good when others appreciate our creativity! :)

I have joined their Quilt block of the month course. (It's free!) I love watching the tutorials; I am yet to try them out. You can also join if you are interested!

Quilt using Sizzix Die Squares

I am so excited today. I finished a throw for our niece and it came out very beautiful. This is my first project using my Sizzix Bigshot die cutting machine. This is my first patchwork quilt as well! 

This is how it looks from the front.

Here is a close-up shot.

 

The flip side looks like this.

As I have used fleece as backing material, I have not used any batting for this quilt. All the blue and white squares were part of an unused T-shirt. I cut the squares using Sizzix Bigshot machine with Scallop Square Die. Click below for full tutorial...

Good Old Days - Paavadai

During all our childhood festival days, we were made to wear paavadai preferably pattu(silk) ones. A paavadai is a South Indian traditional dress. It is an ankle length flowing skirt usually in silk with border at the hemline. 

We would twirl around in them. Sometimes, when we twirled and sat, the paavadai would be all puffed up with air and it felt like we were popping out of a balloon!!

Recently, I got a chance to make a paavadai for my friend's daughter for her birthday. Oooohh!!! It brought back all my childhood memories. Here are some pictures of the paavadai. I was so excited that I took a lot of them! :)

I embellished the paavadai with some pearls and crystal beads

I hot ironed some rhinestuds to the border. The paavadai is made of two layers. The outer layer is of mesh fabric and the inner layer is of yellow silk.

The chokka (blouse) matches with the border of the paavadai. I hot ironed rhinestuds on the chokka.

The chokka has puffed sleeves.

I love it! Wish I could go back to my childhood days and wear this one! ;-)

I hope the birthday baby likes it too! :-)

Fabric Box/Liner Making - Simpler Way

Remember the last time I tried making Fabric boxes? Making one box took most of my Sunday afternoon. I badly needed a simpler and faster way to make them. Why this obsession with fabric boxes? I really don't know. I need them for storing my fabric, yarn and other craft stuff.

This is more a fabric liner than a fabric box. 

Time to jump right into the tutorial...

I took a 12 X 14 X 8 cardboard box

Placed it on a fabric to cut the bottom rectangle. The bottom fabric should measure  one inch more than the bottom of the box. For me, I took a 13 X 15 fabric rectangle.

For making the sides of the box, take a strip of cloth 5 inches more than the height of the box. I took 13 inch strip of fabric of length 54 inches . The length of the strip should be 2(LENGTH + WIDTH + 1) inches

Join fabric strip to the bottom rectangle as shown below (Sorry for the rough sketch)

After stitching, the fabric cover's height will be more than the height of the box. The extra height helps to wrap it over the edges of the box. It fits snugly. I like it!

I glued colourful paper to the cardboard box and then covered the insides of the box with the fabric liner.

These are so quick to make and I can always toss the liner in the washer if it becomes dirty. They are re-usable too! I love them! :)

Fabric Boxes

I have been looking for fabric boxes in the market and was wondering if I could make one. Here's what I did. I took a small cardboard box. And then:
                          
                                   Pull the box apart

 

Put it flat on the fabric for measurements

Cut two long pieces (this is for 2 sides of the box and the bottom) and four small squares (for the other two sides of the box)

Place the long rectangle pieces on either side of the box as shown below

Mark the positions where the small squares need to be joined to the long rectangles. Stitch them. 

We should get two huge plus signs (I don't know any other word to call those pieces :D) Place these two plus fabric pieces on either side of the cardboard piece and stitch as close to the cardboard as possible. I hand-sewed the whole thing. 

Now fold the sides of the box so that the edges are together and staple them up

 

Trim the raw edges. Take a 1 inch bias tape and hand-sew the tape to raw edges to cover them up

Hem the top edges of the box so that there aren't any raw edges on the top of the box

This whole project took me the greater part of my afternoon. I was thinking of machine-stitching everything. But the cardboard kept moving and it was very difficult to stitch right at the edge of the cardboard so that the fabric lays snug on the box.

May be I should come up with a quicker and easier method to make these fabric boxes!

Funny Gait

It is very funny to watch a California Quail walking. 

These birds do not have any inclination to fly even when being chased. They move their feet so quickly that the feet are just a blur... Watch the video and tell me if you find their walking funny. :)

P.S: This is my first video upload. I think Blogger is compressing my video. The video clarity is better only if viewed in the small screen.

Dumb Bass

Did you know that even fish have nick names? I came to know of this during our visit to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Kelp rockfish is also called as "dumb bass". Why? Because it hangs upside down and motionless near kelp. Even when divers approach, it does not swim away. 

"Dumb Bass"!!! What a weird name? Initially I thought it was "Dumb Ass". Some diver may have scolded the fish, "Dumb Ass!", when it was not getting away from his/her path. That is what I thought! :-)

After a little bit of research, I found out that "Bass" is a common name given to a variety of gamefish. "Dumb" Me!! ;-)

Restroom at Charlotte Airport

Charlotte. I did not know the existence of this city until it became a via point of our flight journey.

Charlotte Airport. A place where I waited for V to catch up after we had taken our separate flights from San Francisco. 

Charlotte Airport restrooms. A pleasant surprise! 

I found the restrooms so unique. It was a pleasant surprise to see a bowl of candy with Welcome sign at the entrance. The caretaker was greeting everyone with a genuine smile. The whole place was spick and span. The caretaker would flush and mop right after the person came out of the restroom cubicle. While we washed our hands at the basin, she would pull out napkins and place them handy, right next to us on the counter, or hand it to us. I never had such an experience in any restroom before!