In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler Post #1 : Schedule + Fabric Requirements

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Welcome to the second post for the About A Quilt Sampler QAL! In this post, I will be sharing the QAL schedule and the fabric requirements.

If you happen to land here without having to know what it is all about, please visit the previous post here or you can go ahead to the archive page HERE.

ABOUT A QUILT SAMPLER QAL SCHEDULE:

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In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

Blog Hopping and Quilt Along 2013

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Hi!
YourSiteTitleThis year I plan to join the fun of blog hops and quilt along including my own quilt along “About A Quilt Sampler” here.
(For those waiting for the post of the About A Quilt Sampler, there will be one this weekend on fabric requirements, hope you’ll join in!)


 

 
This January I will be a part of In Your Words Bloghop hosted by non other than the best cheerleader of them all, Madame Samm and for this hop, we have Lindawho have been working hard sorting all of the participants!
Isn’t it a great way to find new blogs and share our love of quilting and sewing. You can hop on the day of their blog hop or hop on now to see what they are already up to! Mine would be on the 10th!
 
Monday, January 7
Tuesday, January 8
Wednesday, January 9
Thursday, January 10
Friday, January 11
Monday, January 14
Tuesday, January 15
Wednesday, January 16
Other than that : 

These sounds fun though I doubt that I have time for them.

the Scrappy Trip Along group icon The informal QAL : Scrappy Trips around the world (tutorial here)

 
 


Herringbone block QAL @ Sew Can She
How about you? Joining in any bloghop or quilt along this year?

Till then,
XOXO
Amira

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In Completed Projects

HST In Color Order Quilt Top + QBSA Dec 2012

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Hi!
My second last post before the final post of the year.
I love spending a Sunday afternoon getting something done. Because that feeling boost my Monday and the week onwards. I got the quilt top for the HST In Color Order BOM done.
By the window pane:
HST Incolor Order Quilt top
By the riverside on Sunday evening while letting my little one splashes himself in water.
HST Incolor Order Quilt top by the riverside
LO in the river
Too windy for a hang-over-the-tree photos though.
Too windy for a hangovertree photo
I also got my December quilting block swap Australia done. Yes I am late. Such a bad partner. I received two great blocks from Erin. A great addition to the blocks I have received. I hope by the end of 2013, I’ll be able to piece all of them up to a quilt top. Still working on my last year’s QBSA quilt top. LOL.
QBSA Dec2012 Received
I made Erin a star block as requested. I chose the Fading Star here and use Jinny Beyer‘s line together with some purple stash to blend the fading star.
QBSA Dec2012 - Fading Star
Before I got to the final block – as usual a little time spent with the seam ripper.I hate silly mistake but I make them every so often. HOHO.
QBSA Dec2012
I need to go through my 100 day hustle this final day of 2012 and will do a last post tonight summarizing a wonderful year! See you!
XOXO

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In Quilt

Planning templates – Free Downloads

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Hi!
Today I want to share with you some of the great planning templates you could use to organize your life and sewing!
Organize Myself
I used the free templates here for cleaning routine, this one for daily tasks and goals, and this one for weekly menu.
As for the sewing one above, I made that myself. And YES, I am sharing it too. Click here to download the PDF file. Should you have any trouble downloading this one, please report to me. Thanks.
For more, Shayla from DesignFinch has listed a lot more with links here.
I have always love planning – and swear by it that it saves time and made me more productive..However, I sometimes fail to do so every now and then, SO, this year I want to really try to stick to them all year round and thereafter!
It might be a good idea to get yourself one of this too! This is a home laminator. for those in Australia, you can buy this one here. It’s only $16! A bargain for stationery freak like me. LOL.
Home laminator
Once the planning templates are printed, you can laminate them and use dry wipe off white board markers or Frixion markers. That way you can re-use it over and over again.
I hope you have fun making plans for next year! I am looking forward to share my plans soon and would love to see what others are planning too!
Till then, Have a great time celebrating New Year!
XOXO,

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In Quilt

W.I.P : HST In Color Order BOM

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Hi!
How are you enjoying your holiday?I hope all of you had some fun times with friends and family! I miss my big family back in Malaysia. 🙁
Anyway, remember this fabric I bought with the voucher I won over at Kristy’s..
Been Shopping with my win of Voucher- FQ shop
I bought Blush Anna Bella Bundle in the intention of making my mum a quilt.
And as she love sampler quilts, I am making the HST BOM by Jeni over at her blog.
From this to HST BOM
HST piecing
Mine has a different twist, as I did not use any solid. I meant to use all the fat quarters in the bundle without adding any more fabrics. Beside, I think my mum’s house matches this kind of style rather than the modern one. Though it was tempting to make as Jeni’s as it was really nice and clean.
HST IncolorOrder BOM - done all 12!
For now, all 12 blocks are done and squared up. I will be piecing the border soon and start on quilting. (I have 3 quilt tops to quilt up to date – hope I’ll get to them soon!!)
A superb win!
On Christmas eve, I received the above! It was so nice of Lisa to come over to my house to send this over before going to her family dinner. I won this bundle of Aurifil from here. Thanks Laura! OOO I love the colours! I am totally over the rainbow for sure to have a grab at this!
Aurifil to try
Well, till then, 
Enjoy the end of the year! I am making big plans for next year and “planning” is a big part of next year, really!
Organize Myself
(I will be sharing where you can get these free planning templates soon!)

XOXO,

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In Quilt

So Fine Threads by Superior Threads

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Hi!
Today, I will be sharing a little experience using one of the Superior Threads. I bought mine here on Sale for a very great value. 
Firstly, this threads is not cotton. It’s Polyester. I know some may have an issue about piecing and quilting cotton quilt with polyester, but I have very little experience and have never used a quilt longer than a year yet. LOL. So, I’ll give it a try anyway. Besides, this threads is meant for quilting. So I think it should be fine in the long run too.
The threads comes in two sizes : the 550 yds and 3280yds spools. I bought the latter one as I figure it is more cost effective and I hate it when threads finishes up so quickly. the only problem I had with this big one is that I don’t have the suitable thread holder. My machine is meant to be used with the smaller spool. 
(You can buy the thread holder pictured on the right here though)
Since my budget is a bit off already due to some splurge of fabrics on sale (ehem), I did a little detour for the threads before it goes to its normal threading route.
Reroute the threads
And it works great! Except that I do have to make sure that it is in the right position every now and then. I do think it is still worth buying the thread holder, but for the time being. I am happy.
Winding is important
Now, everytime we use a new threads, we also have to make sure that it winds on the bobbin with the right tension. The tension on the bobbin is as important as the threading tension. I broke one of my bobbin while adjusting the tension! yikes. After several try and error, i got it fine.
I love how fine the threads is and was quite impressed with how much threads you can wind in the bobbin. I find that I need to change bobbin less often. The threads also doesn’t break as much as Gutterman Cotton that I previously used – I guess that’s due to the material itself. But overall, I like to piece and quilt with it. I am not sure about lint : but I do find lots of lint around the machine (inside bobbin case etc) lately, it could be due to the threads. I’ll try Aurifil soon and compare them!
Till then, I hope you had a great holiday and welcoming the new year with lots of fun things!
XOXO

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In Completed Projects

Jack Attack quilt done!

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Hi!
 
Finally, I made it to the end.. Though Lynne has finished her QAL way back in September, I am glad I made it to the final. Trace back the W.I.P post of this quilt here.
 
jack attack quilt 2012
 
backing of jack attack quilt
 
I guess I should stock up more backing fabrics. That was the main reason for it taking a bit of a little more time. I finally decided that I would make the backing with whatever I have – patch it up. 

Related Post: Quilt Backing Ideas

 
scrappy-patchy backing for Jack Attack quilt
 
Well.. the only problem was, I don’t have a big design wall.. so I work my way through the carpet floor of my living room (which I can only do at night when my little one is already asleep) . The size of the quilt was the maximum that my apartment floor could manage. : p
 
jack attack - one flag
There are affiliate link within this post, read the full disclosure here.
 
Finish quilting it
 
I quilt it simple – echoing double line of the flags. The biggest struggle was turning the quilt around at each point. The wrestle with the quilt was a great exercise. LOL
 
Quilting the jack attack
 
Finally, after several evenings, I was done quilting it… (below is the image of my basting pins removed from the quilt) I use these curved basting pins – one of the game-changer in my quilting journey. It was definitely easy using these pins to baste than the normal pins.
 
whats left after quilting
 
It was time to bind it. I used DS fabrics for Spotlight / Joann. It is then I realized, I only have one ruler. And it’s short.. I think it’s time to get one long one…
 
the only ruler I own
 
I bind using the tutorial by Rita here. I love this method.
 
binding
 
Well, Lets record the quilt stats here;
 
Design : Jack Attack by Lynne @ Lily’s Quilt
Size: ~ 64″ x 90″
Top fabrics: Amy Butler’s, Joel Dewberry’s, White solid (no brand)
Backing fabrics : Some of the top scraps, Oval elements by AGF, Pure elements by AGF, polka dots and white sheets.
Binding Fabrics : Denyse Schmidt for Spotlight
 
Jack attack laid flat
 
Linking up this to : Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday @ Karen’s Sew Well Maide, Richard and Tanya’s Linky A Finish Friday, and Whoop, Whoop Friday @  Sarah’s Confession of fabric addict
 
 
Have a great Weekend and a great holiday!!!
 
XOXO

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In Quilt

Quilting Gallery Bloghop Giveaway Winner

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Hi!

Just a short note, I picked the winner for the giveaway as a part of the bloghop by Quilting Gallery.

As usual, bloghop like these, never fails to introduce us to a lot of wonderful people out there, and a lot more blogs to follow..I had fun hopping around, though i must say I did not have much time as I was busy with conference in Melbourne and touring around this weekend.

We had an amazing time traveling from Canberra to Melbourne by car – 9 hours of travels a few stops and rest. One of the stop was Albury – I love their beautiful was train station / info centre.. We even had a long rest at their botanical garden which was gorgeous!

Anyway, the winner was picked by Random.Org :

Who is : Huesei – who left the 112th comment:

I am a follower
Thank you to all the participants and all of the bright thoughts and comments. Thank you for all the new followers, and I hope that you have fun hopping over my blog from time to time. 
Have a wonderful week!
XOXO

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In Custom FMQ Sampler Quilt Along

About A Quilt Sampler 2013 QAL : A sampler quilt with custom quilting

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This is my first post on introducing you to a “About A Quilt Sampler” Quilt Along (QAL) which I wish to do beginning early next year (2013)

I do wish you join along if you are interested in learning and practicing free motion quilting on your domestic machine, or if you would simply want to make a sampler quilt. A sampler quilt is great as it provides quick exposure to learning lots of different techniques and different kind of blocks. So, I think this sampler quilt it would be perfect for beginners and intermediate quilters.

The idea to this QAL is to keep a good journal of myself making a sampler quilt and to share with all of you tips along the way as well!

So! What is so special about this Sampler quillt?? Well, I have decided to pick just 9 block, all simple and easy, because I rather focus on how to quilt them. So this will be a quilt along where I will not only share with you tutorial of how to make the blocks but also a guidance on how to do free-motion quilting on them! Wait …. before you think that it sounds too challenging… read on.

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