Quilt – Page 20 – The Little Mushroom Cap: A Quilting Blog

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My new sewing space setup

April 15, 2019 3 Comments

I thought I’ll put this here on the blog too. This was my insta story a couple of weeks ago.

I love looking at sewing spaces and I would love to share a little more of mine, so you’ll feel like you’ve been here sewing with me at some point.

Besides, it always nice to look back at all the setup I used to sew in.

Sewing Space 2011

Just look at this one – when I first learned how to quilt. That table was just beside our bed.

I think that is when the name The Little Mushroom Cap came from. I was just sewing in a small cute little space under the roof of a mushroom cap. Well it felt like that.

I loved it.

There are also many times when we don’t dine on the table because there’s fabrics and sewing machine on the dining table.

One quilter’s life is that one whole family’s life. Right?

My current space – 2019

I recently moved the furniture back into the space when I was feeling most productive. I would say, I love the setup but I haven’t yet still manage to maximise the sewing potential. You see, I am most productive in the wee early morning around 4-5am.

My kids are not up at the time, thankfully. I love them, but I really do think some quiet time is necessary.

In the early morning, I could have all the peaceful me time praying, meditating, blogging and sewing.

Do you have a morning routine?

My Morning Routine is a game changer. I love it so much. I read about it from this book and has never looked back.

However, since the current space is shared with my kid’s bed, I haven’t been able to sew much during my mornings. But, things have been progressing with this space and I am getting back more sewing mojo, even if I have to sew after cooking dinner just before bed time.

Whatever it is, I am so grateful.

Grateful for the space. Grateful for the joy sewing has brought to my life.

Well, I hope you enjoy this short insta-story video.

If haven’t followed me on instagram, you can find me at amira_littlemushroomcap. I wish to do more insta stories and videos in the future, but it does require more time just uploading and editing. Hope I’ll get more efficient at that.

I promise, I’ll try and do along video tour of the space.

If you are interested in some of the organization I have in there (besides all the mess too) – I have a post HERE that shares some those.

In 52weekshotpads

Week 12 of 52 Weeks of Hot Pads | Hot Plusses

April 3, 2019 2 Comments

Welcome to the 12th week post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders.

Here are the list of past week’s posts in this 52 Weeks of Hot Pads Challenge:

I thought it would be a great challenge for me to do a pot holder a.k.a hot pads every single week of 2019.

I am planning on having it displayed in my kitchen. They make great decor don’t they?

While I am at it, I am going to be sharing with you a simple tutorial on the process.

You can join in the challenge and make the same hot pads I make every week with the same design or any of your own choice.

In Quilt

Quilt As You Go Finish: Sewcial Bee Sampler V1

March 31, 2019 8 Comments

Second finish of the year!

I put this off for so long. Quilt blocks were ready to pieced together a long while already.

You can find the archive for each of the block quilting HERE> (with tutorials to FMQ design)

And I think some of the reason why I was reluctant to proceed was because the final blocks didn’t excatly turned out the exact 12.5″ after quilting and the tedious process of cutting sashing.

But I finally did it.

And this is how I went about it:

Trimming the blocks after quilting:

First, I had to just clarify myself that the truth and a fact that my quilt blocks are not all equal size.. After quilting each blocks, the blocks are likely to be a different size. This is due to the difference in the density of quilting. I always find samper quilts are challenging due to this fact.

Then I had to tell myself that it is okay that I had to trim all of them to the same size and may need to sacrifice some points. Gladly most of them had borders, which didn’t matter much when trimming them.

I reminded myself that I should never aim for perfect.

I should embrace imperfection. It is way better done, learned rather than an unfinished project due to the perfectionist me.

With that I finally took action to just move it on.

So, here it is today. All done and bound and it feels great.

I used the same technique used here (tutorial for piecing quilt as you go blocks with tiny sashing).

Pretty happy with the finish.

I think the stripes is perfect for this version of my Sewcial Bee Sampler as it has lots of white background.

The colourful backing is also something I look forward to when piecing the blocks together. It couldn’t be any better. I love the colourful backing!

I did enjoy quilting all the different textures on this quilt and I love it now that I have 25 different quilting design to refer to as well. It was well worth the trouble and had a lot of practices too with this project,

Now I need to finish my other version of the quilt. That one I intend to do a larger sashing but I doubt that I have enough fabrics for it.. so again another procrastination. We shall see when that one gets done.

Here is one photo with my dear husband holding up the photo for me.

It is so relatable when someone posted their family members holding up their quilts for them, again and again, after each quilt finish.

Have you tried making a quilt with quilt-as-you-go technique before?

In 52weekshotpads

Week 11 of 52 Weeks of Hot Pads | Mom’s Sugar Cookie | Round Hot Pad

March 24, 2019 2 Comments

Welcome to the 11th week post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders.

Here are the list of past week’s posts in this 52 Weeks of Hot Pads Challenge:

I thought it would be a great challenge for me to do a pot holder a.k.a hot pads every single week of 2019.

I am planning on having it displayed in my kitchen. They make great decor don’t they?

While I am at it, I am going to be sharing with you a simple tutorial on the process.

You can join in the challenge and make the same hot pads I make every week with the same design or any of your own choice.

In Quilt

In Progress : Grandmother’s Flower Garden English Paper Piecing

March 20, 2019 4 Comments

A slow but a moving one for sure.

I have made some progress on grandmother’s flower garden.

It just crossed my mind that this might be done when I am a grandmother myself. Haha.

I don’t mind the slow progress, I love the process itself already.

That’s the fun thing about crafting or quilting. The process itself is already worth the effort.

I shall be updating from time to time to make a record on the progress of this quilt.

So here are some progress photos for today:

In 52weekshotpads

Week 10 of 52 Weeks of Hot Pads | HST Stars with Mitred Border

March 14, 2019 1 Comment

Welcome to the 10th week’s post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders.

Here are the list of past week’s posts in this 52 Weeks of Hot Pads Challenge:

I thought it would be a great challenge for me to do a pot holder a.k.a hot pads every single week of 2019.

I am planning on having it displayed in my kitchen. They make great decor don’t they?

While I am at it, I am going to be sharing with you a simple tutorial on the process.

You can join in the challenge and make the same hot pads I make every week with the same design or any of your own choice.

In 52weekshotpads

Week 9 of 52 Weeks of Hot Pads | Flying Geese Half Square Triangles (HST)

March 8, 2019 1 Comment

Welcome to the 9th week post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders.

Here are the list of past week’s posts in this 52 Weeks of Hot Pads Challenge:

I thought it would be a great challenge for me to do a pot holder a.k.a hot pads every single week of 2019.

I am planning on having it displayed in my kitchen. They make great decor don’t they?

While I am at it, I am going to be sharing with you a simple tutorial on the process.

You can join in the challenge and make the same hot pads I make every week with the same design or any of your own choice.

In Quilt

5 of the best recommended sewing machines for beginner quilters

March 3, 2019 33 Comments

Here are the list of my top 5 recommended sewing machines for beginner quilters.

If you have been thinking about starting to sew, or learn how to make a quilt, then you may want to start investing in a good machine.

But how would you know which one is the best machine to start with?

I know from all the questions I get from beginner sewer or quilter, that there are a few things that they are concerned about.

One: the budget. You don’t want to spend a lot just yet, cause you’re just testing the water.
Two: The complexity. You fear that the if the machine is too complex, then it’ll be too hard.
Three: Easy to keep and carry. You don’t have the dedicated space for sewing just yet, so you may want to have something that is easy to be stored away.

If you resonated with any of those, don’t worry I’ll address those while picking the right sewing machine for you.

In this post, are the list of sewing machines I would highly recommend for a dear friend who’d want to start sewing or quilting. That is definitely something I am passionate about! Inspiring others to start sewing too.

With close to 15 years of sewing experience and an owner to many sewing machines before, I’ll try my best to assist you with this choice.

I shall pick the best budget-friendly, simple sewing machine that you can start with and begin your own adventure! So here goes, 5 of my top recommended sewing machines for beginners that is going to make learning how to sew and quilt so much more fun!!

In 52weekshotpads

Week 8 of 52 Weeks of Hot Pads | Rail Fence

March 1, 2019 1 Comment

Welcome to the 8th week post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders.

Here are the list of past week’s posts in this 52 Weeks of Hot Pads Challenge:

I thought it would be a great challenge for me to do a pot holder a.k.a hot pads every single week of 2019.

I am planning on having it displayed in my kitchen. They make great decor don’t they?

While I am at it, I am going to be sharing with you a simple tutorial on the process.

You can join in the challenge and make the same hot pads I make every week with the same design or any of your own choice.

In Quilt

Scrappy Trip Quilt 2: a fun strip quilt

February 27, 2019 3 Comments

The finish of The Scrappy Trip Quilt 2.

Scrappy Trip Quilt 2, because my first one was completed long ago HERE>.

First quilt of the year 2019 to complete. I guess this quilt should have been the last one in year 2018, but procrastination wins over and when I had just a tad bit more to quilt, we decided to rearrange the sewing room to fit in the kid’s bed.

Since we currently only have two bedroom, the sewing room now is shared with the kids, and though it sounds weird and possibly dangerous, the kids are settling well in the room and I had to give up my wee early morning sewing as my kids are still asleep when I usually do so.

There’ll be a sewing room one day but that is for another story.

Today I’ll share with you the finish of this quilt which I previously talked about HERE>