Thank you for reading and for all your support! See you in 2016!
Tag Archives: quilted
Day 214/365: Set of 3 Quilted Placemats, Completed
We got back to Morro Bay this afternoon and I finished sewing the binding to the third placemat in the set of three that I’d been making for my cousin.
Here is a view of their backsides:
Reversible!
This was a fun little project and a good way to use up scrap fabric. I’ve been enjoying the sewing and quilting process. Now I’m thinking of sewing more napkins or making a quilted table runner.
Day 213/365: Quilted Placemat #3, So Close to Done!
We’re at the Ventura homestead this weekend, and once again, the problem with keeping two residences has reared its ugly head. I was hand-sewing the binding on my third quilted placemat, and I ran out of thread. I hadn’t thought to bring more thread with me, and all of my sewing notions are up in the Morro Bay house. So I can’t finish the placemat until we drive back to Morro Bay tomorrow.
This isn’t the first time that Sean and I have been at one place and realized that something we needed was sitting at the other place, 150 miles and two counties away. Last week Sean brought his computer up to Morro Bay and discovered that he’d left the power cord back in Ventura.
But there are worse problems in the world.
In the meantime, I have this:
So close to done!
Day 210/365: Quilted Placemat #2 of 3, Completed
Day 199/365: Fusion Breakfast with Handmade Placemats
Sean is the breakfast maker in our household. He always cooks my eggs exactly the way I like them, over medium. This morning’s eggs were so pretty that I had to take a picture of them. As I was framing the shot, it occurred to me that a lot of objects in the photo tell you a lot of things about us. There are the quilted placemats that I made, along with a luchador cocktail napkin that I sewed. In the background to the left are an aqua chair that I upcycled (I should post a blog entry with Before and After photos of that project), along with a white side table that I also painted. And Sean’s t-shirt tells you who he’s supporting in Major League Soccer.
Our meal is also reflective of our backgrounds: you take a Filipino girl from Hawaii and a Southern boy from Florida, have them living in coastal California for a dozen years, and you’ve got a breakfast of rice, eggs, vegan sausage, and unsweetened iced tea. Total Hawaiian-Californian-Southern fusion. And it was good.
Day 188/365: Week 6 of Half Marathon Training
I got home from work–10 hours of what is my Monday after a 3-day weekend–and I was fully prepared to camp out on the couch for the rest of the evening. But, nooooo. Sean said, “We have to run today.”
“Can’t today be a rest day?” I asked.
“No,” Sean said, “because tomorrow is supposed to be the rest day.”
Drat. He was going to be disciplined and stick to the half marathon training plan that I’d printed out and stuck to the refrigerator door.
So I changed into my running clothes and put on my running shoes, and we went out for a forty-minute run, according to schedule. I spent the first half hour alternating between being mad at my husband and trying to distract myself from the various aches and pains that were developing along my hamstrings and shins and the arches of my feet. I spent the last ten minutes focused on just getting home and putting this run behind me.
Just as it is with every long run that I complete, by the time I got home, I felt pretty good about what I’d accomplished, and I was back to liking my husband again. Especially since he’d made puttanesca while I was at work, and we would be able to sit down to eat in a matter of minutes.
I didn’t take any photos of our dinner, but here is one from our 4th of July breakfast that Sean made. My contribution was the handmade quilted placemats and handmade napkins.
Even though he won’t let me slack off the training schedule, he does make the best breakfast.
Day 186/365: The Day of the 2015 Women’s World Cup
Sean is a huge soccer fan and right now we are waiting for the 2015 Women’s World Cup game between the USA and Japan to start.
Earlier for lunch, I made sushi rice and we ate fresh vegetarian hand rolls.
Both Sean and I love sushi and Japanese food, but today Sean is a USA fan, through and through.
P.S. The table runner is the reverse side of this table runner from this post, and the quilted placemat is this one.
Day 165/365: The 28-Year-Old Block Project, Quilted and Completed!
Remember last week, when my mom was visiting from Hawaii, and I started piecing together the appliqued blocks that she began hand-sewing back in 1987?
Twenty-eight years later, it’s finished!
If you missed the earlier posts about this quilt, here’s what we started with:
My mom began this project back in 1987. She cut those blue squares with scissors instead of a rotary blade. (I don’t even know if rotary blades and self-healing cutting mats were available back in 1987.) Then, sewing by hand, she appliqued those little sun-hat-wearing figures to the blue background, using embroidery thread and the blanket stitch. Her original plan was to hand-sew each of the blocks together to make one large sheet to cover a bed.
I’m not sure exactly when she stopped working on this project, but she didn’t get around to seriously picking it up again until just last year. About three months ago, she sent a photo of the blocks to me with a text message: “Look at what I’m working on.” She had completed a huge pile of them.
I texted back and offered to sew the blocks together on my sewing machine. She was planning on coming out to California in June for my nephew’s high school graduation, so I figured I’d do it while she was in town for her visit. Fast forward to last week, when she arrived in Morro Bay with her luggage and goods from Hawaii.
When I saw the actual blocks, I realized that they’d look a lot better against a contrasting fabric, rather than sewn side by side. So I purchased some yellow cotton and went to work.
Here is a recap of the steps:
Cutting fabric with rulers, a rotary blade, and a self-healing mat. No using scissors here!
This cute little guy needs a yellow frame to really stand out.
Each one getting his own frame.
Filling in the squares.
Sewing strips, and then sewing the strips together.
The finished quilt top!
I didn’t take any photos of layering the backing/batting/quilt-top sandwich or any photos of the actual quilting, but here’s what it looked like toward the end:
So close to being done!
And there you have it…
Ta-da! The finished quilt in all its glory.
A labor of love for my Mama.
Day 164/365: All Bound Up!
It took a few hours, but I finished hand-sewing the binding to the quilt.
I thought you would enjoy seeing what the back of the quilt looks like.
Stay tuned– I’ll post more photos of the full quilt tomorrow!
Day 163/365: Almost Done…
Remember this photo from yesterday?
I sewed together those two ends. The last thing I need to do now is hand-sew the binding to the back of the quilt, using the ladder stitch. It will take me a couple of hours, I think, and then this project will be done!
365 Days Handmade 
