Weekending

A gifted stash all the way sent from East Coast, US to Taiwan and have been playing with these lately.. 
In house today, an under the weather child, a pup that hasn't get to play much and a busy mama to keep them both well and happy! Hope the fever goes away soon...

Happy Weekending
xxc

weekending

to be continue...

Random: Friday

to be continue...

Random: sewing

to be continue...

Random: Has it Fall yet?

Have you heard of {Fall Tiger}?? It is a saying here;  it refers the last minutes of summer heat and humidity give the last push. It is hot during the days, but early mornings and nights have some nice breeze come in from the windows and doors. I think I need to start accepting no sweaters for me this Fall and no quilt making. I did feel sad when I realize that I won't make a Fall quilt this year. Normally, it is the time of the year, we pull our quilts out and wash them. Rotate summer quilts into Fall quilts. Lots pie making; we love apple pies!!  I wish  to make a big quilt when I return! Yes, that big roll of batting has been calling my name!

Another fabric pull for a new project. I started over the weekending and it is almost done and hope soon to show and tell.  It is always fun to pull out fabric boxes even I have limited prints here with me. { sometimes, I hear my fabrics are calling my name over thousand miles away, but I know my dear friend is taking great care of them for me}.   Lucky has been missing S being home! He is bored with me! He spends little time in the room with me and most of the time on the other side of the house. When he walks in, he doesn't do much, then quickly walk out not even a goodbye sniffle. Every afternoon he waits the the sound of keys and he knew it is time to pick up S. At that time, I am his best friend again.

The sewing table is really messy! During the day, I take it over with all the scraps, threads, and cups; once S return from school it will transfer into a study table. S is doing fine in the new school, but there are some parts that we are still working on together. The difficulty of reading every subject in Chinese and sometimes to understand the meaning is hard for her. Her favorite time has been Lunch time. It is the time she gets to relax and have a nice meal in the classroom. There are many homework from school and S needs to spend extra hours to work on them, but she never complains. I knew it is not that easy for someone who have never learn to write in complex words. School days are longer and schedules are different, hopefully she will adopt the differences.  Thankfully we have finally found a piano teacher last week. S is over the moon to have a teacher to help her to learn again. We do need to travel a little far in distance, but it is worth the scooter ride.

Many small projects keep me going and my dear aunt just brought me all the last photos fabric to play with. My aunt makes lovely handbags for herself. It is so sweet of her sharing her stash with me. I can't decided what to make, maybe a quick market tote for me and bottle tote for S to bring to school.

{Thank you so much} for the {mini ipad tutorial}. It is always fun to write up a tutorial post! Hope you have enjoy it and the photos are being helpful~ Almost time to pick up S from school. She gets off at 4 today and surely she is going to look exhausted from the heat in the classroom and a long day at school, but I love to hear how her day went.

xxc

Tutorial: mini ipad pouch

After made the {mini ipad pouch} for my sister. I was ready to make a second one to edit the size of the pouch. It is really a simple design and I love how this turns out. There are few things that I have changed and added.  This might be another long tutorial post again, 43 images and hope everything below will explain the process and materials clear for this project. You may adjust the size of the block cuts and make into a regular ipad pouch or pouches for letters or store notebooks when you go on a meeting.

Supplies:  

{Fabric}

Cut 60 pieces of 2"x2" 

Cut 2 piece of 8"x9.5" for lining

Cut 1 piece of 4.5"x9" for closure/cover exterior

Cut 1 piece of 4.5"x9" for closure/cover lining

Cut 1 piece of 3" of elastic or leather trim for making loop   

       1 wooden button

{ Sewing tools}

Sewing machine

in-between needle

quilting thread 

cotton batting 

sewing thread 

rule

rotary cutter

your faviorte cup of tea/ coffee

{{Set your seam allowance at 1/4" unless noted!}}

 1. sew 6 pieces of 2"x2" together into a row

 2. For the front and back of the exterior; each needs 5 rows per one side.

 3. join the rows together. flip the seams to the opposite side to avoid the bulky seam allowance

 4.  after join the rows.  The piece will have 6 pieces of 2"x2" across and 5 pieces of  2"x2" down.

 5.  the back seam look

 6. You'll repeat step #4 for second exterior piece

 7. press the seams with warm heated iron in the back

 8. Open seams help later hand-quilting or machine quilting

 {{prepare for hand-quilting}}

 9.  baste the two patchwork pieces onto batting { i used warm and natural cotton batting}.
Check on the {hand-quilting tutorial} for more hand-quilting details

 10.  hand-quilting gives nice texture look if you never try. Even it is not even, it gives nice characteristic. It is a very nice way to give patchwork handmade additional care. It does require extra time and carefulness on each project. It is great for road trip or waiting someone special to finish school/ lessons.

 11. After finished hand-quilting/machine quilting, You'll have two pieces the exterior front and back piece.

 12.  now set your seam allowances to 1/8" inch.

 13. use 1/8" seam allowance and baste the perimeter of the front and back patchwork pieces. It is a way to avoid the loose seams between sewn fabric pieces.

 14. trim off  the excess batting; both patchwork pieces. :::: note::: often time, there is possible that the finished patchwork measurement is off from what planned. I encourage you to remeasure the finished quilted patchwork piece before cut your lining. Sometimes, it might be off by 1/4" or 1/8".

 15. cut 1 piece of 4.5"x9" for the front of closure/cover; baste on the cotton batting

 16. begin {hand-quilting}/ machine quilting

 17.  finish quilting patchwork piece for closure/ cover

 18. set 1/8" seam allowances and baste around the piece.

 19. trim off the excess batting

 20. take the elastic/ leather core and fold in half then sew onto the bottom edge of the cover piece.
::: note::: the loop will be towards to the top and the end of the loop will be at the bottom edge of the cover piece.

 21. Cut 1 piece of 4.5"x9" for the cover lining. Set your seam allowance to 1/4" sew around the edges of the closure/cover piece, but leave the side that has the elastic/leather core end open.

 22.  Find a round shape of object then draw curves on two sewn corners of the piece. Mark.b.gone pen would be perfect pen for this marking.

 23. turn the cover piece inside out. press the cover edges with medium heat. Set your seam allowance to 1/8" sew around the edge of the cover piece.  Set the cover piece aside.

 24. Bring two patchwork pieces out. Set them right side together.

 25. to match the seams. I always pin around the pieces together then flip corns up and check if the lines are matched.

 26. sew the pieces together; leave the top open . Now the patchwork pieces are joined and turn it inside out.

 25. Take the patchwork pouch and cover piece out; lay the open side together.

 26. Find the center point of the patchwork pouch piece and center of cover piece. Join the center point together then pin   ::: note::: Likely you can fold the pouch and cover pieces in half. Careful use be.gone. pen to make center point marks for both pieces. 

 27. set the seam allowances to 1/8".  Sew the edge of the cover piece to the patchwork pouch.

 28. take off the pins and check the back of your sewn two pieces.

 29. check your front sewn two pieces. set the joined pieces aside

30. Cute 2 pieces of 8.5" x9". This is for the patchwork pouch lining.

 31. Set two lining cuts right side together

 32. Pin two lining pieces together. At the bottom of the lining pieces mark a 2.5" wide opening for later pulling the patchwork piece out. Remember use back stitches at the purple markings on the both ends. That give nice reinforcement for later patchwork pulling.

 33.  Turn the joined lining pieces inside out.

 34. Turn the patchwork pouch piece outside in.

 34. place the lining piece inside the patchwork piece.

35.  First line the lining and the patchwork piece on two sides of the sewn seams. This would allow flatten the exterior and interior pieces flow better in the pinning stage.  Pin around the edge of both pieces together.

 36. Sew the edge of pouch with 1/4" allowance.  :: note:: I tend to start from one side of the sewn seam then go around the edge to give a nice complete finish. 

37. remember the 2.5" wide opening that you left on step #32

 38.  Now, gently pull the patchwork piece out from the opening.  When pulling the patchwork piece out the both ends of the opening tends to open wide if didn't add the back stitches to reinforce.

 38. Bring the lining piece inside the patchwork pouch. Make sure the lining and patchwork line nicely together. Gently press with warm iron  .  Top stitch the edge of the patchwork pouch; use 1/8" seam allowance to sew around. { sorry I miss the photo}.  Now you are getting closer to the end...

 39. Use ladder stitch to close the lining opening. It gives a nice and clean finish.

 40. Attach the wooden button in an appropriate space. It will depend on your elastic/ leather core's finish length.


This mini ipad gives 1" empty space at the top of the pouch when it closed. I purpose design it, so it won't be so tight when it closed. If you prefer fitted case, you may sew joined 4 rows down instead of 5.

Hope you enjoy your way down here and I would love to see if you make your personal mini ipad pouch.. or just a special patchwork pouch is done! As you noted, that I changed the elastic to leather core during the process. I thought I'd give a different style look. This tutorial took a very long time to write. I went a bit fancy to create a little watermark for each photo and it took longer than then I though. While S is in school I was able to focus on the words and hope it all make sense to you.   If you ever make one please join us at {made with 1/4" mark Flickr group}.

xxc