It's back to quilting and sewing!

It’s been two months since I last attended class at Epal. Life has been so hectic – at work and at home. There have been so many weddings to go to on weekends the last one month or so that I cannot seem to find time to work on my projects at Epal.

But, last week, I took a day off to give myself a much needed break from the stress at work. I wanted to be able to spend some time to work on my project, and the same time, I also wanted to be able to spend some extra time with my son.

Due to our (hubby and I) hectic schedule at work, our son has sort of `suffered’ from the lack of attention. We found out just at the end of the school holiday recently that he has not been doing all his home work, he has not been practicing his spelling and two subjects which he has been getting A’s every semester, but last semester, he got a C.

We realized the urgent need to try to be there for him more often than usual, and to be able to have time to go through his homework each day. So, lately, we have been taking an extra effort to come home early each day from work where possible (is 7.30pm early? LOL!), and since I did not have any meeting on 17th June (which is very rare these days), I decided to take the day off so that I can cook him a more nutritious breakfast, pick him from school, have time to go through his homework, and spend some quality time with him.

As my son is only done with school at 3.20pm, I had some time for myself to work on the ABC quilt which is long overdue. I am happy to report that I progressed quite a lot that day. What is left to date is just to finish off the binding.

This is, however, not one of my best works. I am not that happy with the quilting of the ABCs as I know I could do better, but I know that if I were to unpick and redo, I will never finish this quilt. So, I told myself that I will just have to accept this one the way it is for now. But, should I decide to do another similar project (like as if I will…LOL!) when I have more time to work on it, I will do a better job of it. *wink*

However, there is a part of this quilt which I am quite pleased with myself……the quilting on the sashing.

The design calls for birds in flight to be quilted, but I did not like the birds, and so changed the quilting to one that I had bought the template at Quilt Gallery some time ago. I hope the teachers at Epal will not mind me making the changes, as the important thing is that I did the quilting, but quilting of a different design. Opps!

I hope to finish the binding by next weekend, as this week, we have another wedding to attend.

As I am pretty much done with the ABC quilt, except for the binding part, yesterday, after Aiman’s Saturday classes, I went over to Epal to start on a new project – a sailor collared dress for a little girl. Eerr…..I have no daughter, but, as this is part of the class project, guess who will be the lucky little girl that will be getting this cute little dress? *wink*

Anyway, I started this project on Thursday night at home by cutting up the patterns and getting the basics done. On Friday night, while hubby was playing with his new laptop (his laptop was stolen from his office last Thursday), I serged the edges of the dress using my MC6500 machine, and I must say that I am impressed with the results as the serging done by this machine using the overcasting foot M is as professional looking to a commercial overlocking machine. I did not even know that my very expensive machine can do that, and for how long have I had this machine? LOL!

When I went to class on Saturday, I did the appliqué work. I came home, and after dinner until pass midnight, while hubby watched a movie on TV, I worked on the collar which I had to do it several times before I could finally get it right, but it is still not the nicest looking collar. *sigh*

This evening, after coming back from the wedding, while hubby took a nap, and in between supervising my son doing his revision and workbook, I worked on the dress again, and at 6.00pm today, I COMPLETED IT! Yipppee!

I am so proud *wink* of this dress as I think it is SO CUTE! I could do another one if not for the fact that I am 6 projects behind in order for me to get my certificate of completion.

I think the flower appliqué made the dress really cute. Had it not been for the appliqué, it would be just another plain dress. Here's a close-up of the applique. Not too bad, huh? *wink*

Do you agree that this dress is so adorable? I can already imagine my adorable niece in it! Yup, my niece! Which niece? The one born on 12th March. *wink* But, sorry, Sufia, you’re gonna have to wait till I get the dress graded first before I can give it to you for Fatin to wear it. In fact, I want Fatin to put it on so that I can snap a photo of her in it for the blog. Deal? *wink*

Do you think it’s a sellable piece? *wink*

Also, today, I started on a bag for my mum using the pattern she had bought at Joann while she was in the US for 2 months last month. Here are the fabrics.

I hope my mum will like the combination. The purplish checkered/gingham piece will be for the inside of the bag, while the other two pieces are for the outside of the bag. I will be doing the top bag featured on the front of the pattern pack.

I only realized after cutting up the fabric that it calls for pre-quilted fabric, and as I don’t know where to find a pre-quilted fabric here, I decided to quilt the fabric myself, and here’s a photo of the finished quilted pieces all cut up to the pattern already.

Here’s a photo of my son diligently working on his puzzle, taking a break from doing his revision and worksheets.

I make sure that he sits in front of me while I sew so that I can supervise him and make sure that he doesn’t `cheat’ on his worksheets! LOL! *wink*

I don’t know when I’ll complete this bag for my mum as I am only doing this in between doing the Epal projects as I need to complete 6 more projects, and I am way behind. I do, however, hope to complete it before her birthday. Ooppps! I have got exams coming up before her birthday!