Wensleydale Quilt for My Son

At the end of last year, I decided to make a quilt for my oldest son. Sure, I made several quilts and blankets for him in the past, but not as a grown man. The great thing is, I already had a pattern in mind. It was Wensleydale by Jen Kingwell. Jen came to town last August and I attended her trunk show with my friend. I enjoyed looking at all her quilts, but the Wensleydale quilt stuck out to me and I thought to myself; that would be perfect for my boys.

Textured Gauze Top with Baby Lock Sashiko

I wanted to make a light and versatile top using gauze for a while. Also, at the same time, I wanted to add texture and a unique element to it. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to use my Baby Lock Sashiko and experiment with it. I bought 1 yard of gauze at Joann’s and used Madeira premium quilting thread for this project. I made a very simple pull over top; no buttons, no zipper, no fuss. Also, I usually wear XS or S, so for this project 1 yard was enough. If you have a sewing pattern you want to use it may require more fabric or you are blessed in stature, you will need to adjust the amount of the fabric you buy. Let me share what I did to make this top.

*You will Need

1 yard of gauze (as I mentioned in the beginning, adjust this according to the design or your size)
Good quality thread
T-shirt or knit you love and want to use as a template

*How to
1. I prewashed the fabric first just in case of shrinkage and then I lightly ironed it. There is a great blog post on prewashing at Seamwork, if you are interested. Then,I trimmed the top and the bottom of the fabric to make it into a nice rectangle. I drew a diagonal line from one corner to the other corner. This is the first line you stitch on. After that I attached my quilting guide to determine where to sew next. I set it so that there would be a 1 1/4" width between the lines. It is a simple tool, but it's such a time saver when you don't have to draw each line by hand.

2. Start stitching with the Sashiko machine. It is a very different machine compared to a regular sewing machine, and it might be a bit intimidating, but once you get used to it, it is such a fun machine to play with to explore and expand your possibilities. A bit of advice I can give you from my experience is to use quality thread and keep a slow and steady speed.

3. Once you are done with stitching the whole fabric with diagonal lines going the same direction, draw another starting line in the middle from opposite corner to corner. This way, once you are done stitching, you will have a criss cross design.

4.I used a French sleeve sweater as a template. The textured fabric I created is not stretchable like a knit or sweater, so make sure to use an oversized t-shirt or sweater as a template; unless you are making a shirt with buttons or zippers. Otherwise you might not be able to pull it over your body.

Make sure to add 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance when you cut.

5. Because the fabric will not stretch, I cut the bottom wider than the actual sweater.

6. I cut the bottom of the front panel shorter than the back, but this is totally personal preference.

7. Cut around the neckline.

8. Sew the shoulders, then I used my serger to treat the edge to keep it from fraying. You could use different stitches from your sewing machine if you don't have a serger.

9.Use the serger on the side of the fabric, from one end all the way to the other end. Mark where you want to sew on the sides. I used the sweater as a guide to where I wanted to start sewing under the armpit towards the bottom. I didn't want to sew all the way to the bottom, So I marked a few inches from the bottom as a stopping point.

10.Sew the sides, open the seam and press with an iron.

11. Sew the seam around the armhole and stitch down.

12. Press the seam around the bottom and stitch it down.

Front view...

13.I cut 1 1/4" strips to make bias tape and sergered one side and sewed the other side to the neck line.

14.Fold and press the sewed bias tape with an iron. Stitch it down.

Done!

This is just an example of what you can do with textured fabric. The possibilities are endless and I think it will be fun to make a light Jacket for fall.

Time to test drive this new top!

Jen Kingwell Halo Quilt Finished!

I finished piecing this quilt in September of last year (no I didn't remember this info, I just went back and saw my post on Instagram), and I finally finished hand quilting it last month. I have a good excuse for why it took so long... I was making two other quilts for my son who was getting married. That will be another post, but today, I am ready to share this one. The pattern is designed by one of my most favorite Aussie quilt designer Jen Kingwell and called Halo.

Not only do I love scrappy quilts, I just love her authentic design and warmth. To kick start this quilt, I went through all my fabrics from scrap bins to fat quarters to larger pieces. It was so fun to coordinate fabrics and unexpectedly to find great combinations. That is one of the thrills of quilt making in my opinion.

I started a quilt group over a year ago and we meet twice a month. I hand quilted this during those times and machine pieced other quilts when I was by myself. Oh, how I love the look of the stitches going through the quilt!

When people ask me who this quilt is for; my answer is, "For me!". I will have some posts soon about my son's quilt and his wedding quilt. Until then, Happy quilting!

First Time Ever Podcast Interview! ~ with Creative Japan

Emi of Emi & Ko Studio reached out to me a while ago to be a guest on her brand new podcast. To be honest, my initial thought was to decline, because I am usually terrified of public speaking and am insecure about speaking English as a second language. But, I thought to myself, "When am I going to have such an opportunity to try something like this?" It was a bit scary but exciting at the same time! Big thanks to Emi who made me feel very welcomed and I felt it was more like having a conversation rather than an interview. Surprised to say, I had a great time!

Please check out my episode. There are several places you can go to watch. Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Emi's blog

Laptop Sleeve with Baby Lock Sashiko

I have been sewing for many years, but my children have had very little interest in what I do. They think it's great that I have something I love to do and respect what I do, but that's about it. So when my daughter asked me to make a laptop sleeve for her, I was so excited. Hold on, it is coming right up!

There are various sizes in laptops, so I can't give exact measurements to suit everyone in this tutorial. Please measure your laptop to come up with numbers before you cut the necessary pieces; use this tutorial as a guide. Also, this sleeve is to protect the laptop from scratches and minor spills, but not from drops. Lastly, I used 1/2" seam in most places except for the sewing zipper.

You Will Need:

• Fabric for front and back - I wanted a pieced look but you can make this from a solid piece of fabric.
• Batting
• Thin muslin
• Lining fabric
• 18" zipper - purchase a zipper 2" longer than your fabric panel width
• Thread

How to

1. Measure your laptop. My laptop was 10" high x 14" wide x 7/8" thick. Considering the seam allowance, enough room to store the laptop in and pull it out with ease, I wanted the finished pieced fabric to be 12" x 16". So basically I added 2" to the original height and the width. It is pretty easy to do this when you choose to do it with non pieced fabric. If you decided to do a pieced look, make sure that your pieced panels are large enough.

2. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, my measurements are just a guide to give you an idea. I cut 2 pieces of 12" x 10" for the larger panel and 2 pieces of 12" x 4" for the smaller panel from large floral print fabric. I wanted to use various scraps to run through in between the large and the small panels. I cut them 4" wide and randomly pieced and trimmed them to be 12" long.

3. Piece the large panel, pieced strip and small panel together. Press with iron.

4. Cut 2 pieces of thin muslin and batting larger than your finished piece and lay them flat on the table. Layer them with the pieced panel to get ready to machine quilt. I used pins to secure them together. Make another panel.

5. I set the stitch setting on my Sashiko machine before I started quilting. Stitch length to 2 and stitch spacing to 3. This is a great feature to achieve the exact look you are going for. I used smaller stitch setting for my Halloween Trick or Treat Bag project.

I wanted different quilt designs on the front and back to have fun with the Sashiko machine (who said it has to be exactly the same! haha) and here are the results.

6. Trim off the excess. I wanted slightly rounded corners on the top, so I used random objects I found in my sewing room, traced them (mine are 2" in diameter) and trimmed them.

7. Find the center of the top seam of the panel and on the zipper. Pin the right side of the zipper to the right side of the panel. Switch the walking foot to zipper foot and sew slowly and carefully, especially the rounded corner. Do the same with other panel. There are some great tutorials on how to attach zippers on Youtube if you are unsure how to do this process.

8. Put together the panels right sides together and sew the sides and the bottom. Make sure to leave the zipper open during this process, otherwise you won't be able to turn the fabric inside out! Trim the bottom corners for a clean finish.

9. Sew the liner. I cut 2 pieces of 12" x 16". I started to sew about 2" from the top seam and ended 2" before the top. You will need that opening to fold the sides to fit and stitch to the zipper and create the rounded corners. Press the seam with an iron for a clean finish and press the top seam slightly more the 1/2" except the corners.

10. Put together the quilted panel and the liner and hand stitch the liner to the zipper. I carefully created the round corner as I was stitching. There are other methods to do this, but I just did what I was comfortable with.

It is time for a test drive. I inserted my daughter's laptop and it was a perfect fit!

This tutorial could apply to other devices such as iPads and Kindles. Isn't it fun to think about how you can have your very own personalized laptop sleeve? I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!