Personalized Book Cover

 This is the new book cover I made for my daughter.  She wanted to have a plain background fabric with her favorite cartoon characters appliqued on it.  These are characters from a Japanese cartoon called "One Piece"    This book cover took less than 30 minutes to make!!  My kind of project. 

Before I made the book cover for my daughter, I went through my collections and found these two covers I made a year ago.  The one in the middle is a wallet-sized business card holder .  I choosed panel fabric for this particular one.  The one at the bottom is also a business card holder.  For this one I needlepunched the heart design before I sew the fabric together.

It's really quite easy to make a personalized book cover.  All you need is the dimension of the book and  two strips of fabric.  Then you'll be on your way...!

Stay Tuned for Personalized Book Cover Tutorial coming up next week.

After the rain...

After a few days of continued rain, these lovely flowers sprouted from the ground to grace my garden with their beauty. 

Do you see a pot of orchid at the bottom right hand corner of this photo?  That orchid is one of my husband's orchid collection.  It has never bloomed before.  We don't know if it's because the weather is too hot in Kaohsiung or we need to place it under the shade during the hot summer days.

I feel embarrassed to say this, but does anyone know what kind of flowers (has bulbs) these are?  My husband said it might be in the narcissus family!  When there aren't any flowers, all we see are the long green  leaves. 

So, after the rain... I finished another oilcloth tote!  The oilcloth is a MIT (Made in Taiwan)  product.  It has that English countryside/ Laura Ashley feel to it, don't you think?  

This time I challenged myself to sew a tote that's made of oilcloth both inside and out.  Some helpful hints when sewing oilcloth can be found at my last post. 

Happy sewing!

Oilcloth Tote

This is my first oilcloth tote made possible by participating in a tote bag quilt along hosted by Hana.    I've had these oilcloth for ages.  Though they are not Cath Kidton's design, the color and print are timeless classics.

I encountered a few technical difficulties while making this tote. First, it was difficult to run the oilcloth under the foot because the foot grips the oilcloth. Usually you can just buy a "leather foot" designed for sewing specialty fabrics like leather and oilcloth. I didn't want to spend the extra money on this accessory. So, I remembered that there was one fellow blogger who had suggested placing a piece of paper on top of the oilcloth to help the foot "glide" through the fabric. I tried it but didn't work that well; plus I would had to tear off the paper afterwards. Then I remembered seeing one seamstress placing a drip of sewing machine oil on top of the oilcloth. It worked. But got to remember to use a larger size needle and adjust the stitch length to about 3 (on my Bernina)

The second problem I had was that the seams wouldn't stay tucked under because I didn't want to pin the seams fearing that the pins would have left holes on the oilcloth.  Hence the solution of using   double-sided tape (designed for fabric use) to tape down the seams. 

After thought:  We had rain on and off during the end of May and beginning of June.  This oilcloth tote sure came in handy on those rainy days.  I love it!

Crazy Patchwork Handbag

Do you have a favorite pattern? I love log cabin and crazy patchwork. My first log cabin pattern shoulder bag retired 2 years ago. So this time I made a crazy patchwork hand bag.



This is a machine sewn bag using Japanese yarn dyed cloth. The bag handles and leather accessory were hand-sewn.









Another reason for me to make this bag was to learn how to sew the middle zipper compartment. It wasn't that difficult but there were lots of steps to follow.

I carried this bag all of two days before I put it away in the closet. Why? It just doesn't fit into my lifestyle. I need my hands free when I go shopping. One hand to hold on to the kids and one hand on the grocery. I guess it's a long way to go before I become "Jackie O".

Peggy in Texas USA Swap

Finished in March 2010

I made these presents for the swap hosted by Peggy in TexasUSA.





I've been meaning to make this Grab Bag ever since I saw it in a quilting magazine. I used Michael Miller's fabric for both the outer and inner lining for this bag. It's difficult to see from the picture, but I also used Mettler's varigated thread to quilt around the bag opening!






I love ribbon embroidery and the touch it gives to a project. For this needle pouch, I used ribbons Made In Taiwan. These ribbons are not silk, but the end result is the same... classy!

I hope the recipients will love my handmade projects!

Beginner Level Sampler Quilt

I've finally completed my machine quilting certification program's beginner level sampler quilt!







This is the most colorful quilt I've ever made. Fabric used included Rowan, Daiwabo, and other American made fabric. It's completely machine sewn and quilted.






Here's what the backing looks like!

Completion Date: February 17, 2010

Waiting for .....camellia

Every year my husband tends to his camellia tree hoping for beautiful blooms in March. However it was unseasonbly cold in Kaohsiung these past 2 months. The camellia buds started to open up a few days ago.













This is the first bloom. There are at least a dozen buds waiting to bloom just in time to add a splash of color for the Chinese Lunar New Year!!