Moon and Star Cushion cover

A couple of months ago, I made my first quilt block using foundation piecing method. I made a Sun block and a cushion cover with it. Read more about of it here.

That cushion was getting very lonely and so I made a Moon and star cushion using the same technique. Now my sun pillow has friends! ;)

I hunted online for moon and star patterns. Star pattern was easy one to get I used it and lo, got my star!

Now for the moon! It was a futile attempt to get an easy free moon pattern online! Then I thought how difficult can it be! (Of course it was difficult!) But I was determined to do it myself. And below is the pattern I came up with... It may not work for you; you may try at your own risk!

I added a border and some lace trim to frame the corners!

 I love the look! What say! :)

Another Quick Blankie

Remember my earlier post about buying a quilted fabric and attaching borders??? 

Well, this is one is similar too... but I used fleece instead of quilted fabric... 

To get a clean edge, I folded 1/4 inch of the edge, wrong sides together and stitched it. Then place the ribbon on the edge to hide the raw stitched edge. 

This gave it a nice finish! 

Quick and easy, my blankie was ready! :)

Pleasanton BART

Love the wavy architecture of the Pleasanton BART station...

While the station zooms past us, it feels like a wave dancing alongside us! :)

India at SFO airport

On the floor of the airport lobby, there is a representation of world map with most of the world international airports.... And our lovely India is also in the map with the four major airports: Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Notice how the names are still Bombay, Calcutta and Madras and not Mumbai, Kolkata or Chennai! :)

Click on the below to view a bigger picture!

Vande Mataram!

The apple effect!

While we were busy preparing breakfast, our laptop was basking in the morning sun. And guess what! The sun-rays passed through the apple on the back on the laptop and illuminated the laptop screen! What an effect! :)

Tulle Skirt

Multi-tiered tulle skirt for my darling niece!!!

It can be worn as a petti-skirt to add fullness to her frocks!

I enjoyed every bit of the sewing process... 

A special thanks to the ruffle pressure foot! ;)

Superfast pillow covers..

A pair of pillow covers make a quick gift! :)

Little things that make my day...

V pointing me to a humming bird during a walk...

Watching the shadow of clouds on the green sierra mountains... 

Watching the colors of the sky during sunset...

Watching an uninterrupted episode of Bill Cosby Show...

The pedometer on my phone shows I have walked a distance of 2.5+ miles...

...All these little things brighten my day!

Quick quilt gift

When there is no time to make to new quilt to gift to a baby... Pick one yard of these from walmart and a roll of matching satin ribbon (around 5" width)...

Fold the ribbon into half widthwise and press it with iron.

You can roll the ribbon back onto the spool for easy storage and usage.

Use the satin ribbon to sew binding to the one yard ready-made quilt.

We can use a decorative stitch for binding. As we are using ribbon for binding, we need not worry about the fraying! :)

A beautiful baby shower gift in 15 minutes...

Got another 15mins? You can personalize the quilt by adding the baby's name.

Welcome little princess Vanshika into this beautiful world! :)

Foundation piecing

Attended an ez-piecing class in the quilt and sewing show held at San Mateo last weekend. Tried it out at home... :)

The Quilt and Sewing festival gives me an opportunity to learn new techniques, attend free classes and buy materials at  a good price. Just like I bought the ez-piecing pattern for New York Beauty blocks... :)

Using this technique, the foundation can be left in unlike paper piecing where we need to rip out the paper.

The combo of the quilt block, the lace and the white back fabric has worked out very well. What do you think? :)

Knotty Tidbits: 18

Title: Scrabble

First clash of titans in a never ending game of Scrabble... ;)

Discovered one of the oldest versions of Scrabble at a goodwill store... Gently used and safely handled... The pieces are all in wood... I am so lucky to find it! :)

Christmas lights at book store

At Joann's

Nice caption

Seen at a BART station...

Catchy slogans...

of course some are directed towards motherly love!! :)

Relief work at chipotle

For the first time, I noticed the relief work in some material other than wood and metal... Looked different but in line with Chipotle's interior decoration...

Knotty Tidbits: 15

Title: Mini-golf

Played with each other... Played against each other...
Cheering and booing all the way to hole-20...
What fun! :)

Popcorn

Little secret: I sometimes go to the movies just to feel the taste of popcorn on my palette! :)

Let it go

Watched this movie in 3-D... Awesome ending and hummable songs!!! The song 'let it go...' Was soothing and refreshing at the same time... Could not let it go!!! 

Oooooohhhh!! The ice structures were depicted very beautifully. I love Olaf the snow man too!! :)

Sahasam

After a long long time, I watched a movie that I loved a lot!! It is a Telugu movie by name: "Sahasam". It kept me glued to my seat until the end.

It is an adventure movie... reminded me of Indiana Jones... I loved it!! I hope there will be more movies like these in Indian languages!

Bump it no more

Last December my nephew told me about this app that can transfer photos between mobiles by just bumping the mobiles to each other... At once, I fell in love with the app. I downloaded the app and talked about it with all my friends and they began using the app as well.

We did not have to upload pics and send them through email or get frustrated with why the laptop was unable to connect to mobile phone using Bluetooth... The bump.it app made everything so simple and easy.

But just today I got an email saying this app will be discontinued from this February... I feel so sad... There are very few apps that I use and I am get very attached to them. 

This is the second tool that google is retiring... The first one being igoogle..

I will miss you oh bump!!!

First Zipper :)

Phew! One more step conquered.

I have never felt comfortable with sewing zippers; but now I am!

Materials Used:

1. Outer Fabric - 2 pieces - 10" X 5"
2. Inner Fabric -  1 piece  - 10" X 9"
3. Zipper - 11" length

Place the inner fabric right-side up, zipper right-side down & outer fabric right-side up.

Stitch the edge.

Take the other piece of outer fabric. Sandwich the other edge of zipper between the outer fabric and other edge of inner fabric.

Stitch the edge. Whenever the zipper pull comes in the way, gently unzip the zipper so that the zipper pull will be away from the part of the edge that is being stitched.

Now the fabric is attached to the zipper.

Place the long edges of the outer fabric together, with right sides facing each other. Stitch the edge.

Now consider one of the shorter side. Place the right sides together and stitch the edge.

 

Now stitch the other edge. Ensure that there is a small opening left to turn the purse right side out.

Now with the help of the opening, turn the purse right side out. Then close the opening with hem stitch. Push the lining into the pouch.

Now the pouch is ready for V's swimming goggles! :)

Happy New Year!