Made Multiple Hearts

I like making heart quilts. I saw this really cute heart quilt on Pinterest a few years ago. It took me awhile to figure out the measurements, but that's part of the fun whenever I make a quilt project. For this summer I thought I'd make different quilt projects using this design. 

The least thing I like doing whenever I make quilt projects is measuring and cutting fabric! I know it could be easier if I use a roller blade to cut fabric, but I'm scared of the roller blade (plus I'm a bleeder). I also noticed that roller blades get dull easily. I'm probably not using it correctly, so I just cut fabric the traditional way (ruler + scissors). It takes longer, but it's a safer way for me. 

So I got busy the past week measuring and making multiple hearts. Here's how I made it:

After I'm done making multiple hearts I'll work on several cute projects. There's going to be a disruption though since we need to vacate the basement again for some repairs. It means I need to empty my craft room again. Gah.

Measurements available on my sewing blog: https://www.needleadventures.com/2024/03/make-multiple-heart-quilts.html

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A Baby Quilt for Daisy

Tested my endurance and speed when I made a pinwheel baby quilt for my grand niece, Daisy. I rushed because I wanted a free "ride" for the quilt to reach Australia. Haha! It's expensive to ship stuff abroad. Well, the baby quilt is currently stuck in Indonesia since Kuya and Ate Joy had to delay their trip. Hopefully, they won't forget to bring it!

Since I was pressed for time, I decided to make another pinwheel quilt. I've made a number of these quilts, hopefully next time I can try out a different kind of block quilt. Anyway, I had fun making this quilt because I got to use fabric I got from Japan and Singapore. The wadding is from Australia. I used to buy some quilting stuff whenever I traveled (so for my former colleagues who were wondering where I'd go after work, I was normally in craft shops haha). 

Sweetie said it looks like a quilt my Mom would make. I told him that's what I wanted to do since Daisy never got to meet her in person. I did ask help from Miggy to make sure I got the colors right since I was confused whether I should use pink, blue or apricot for the sashing. I think it turned out well and hope Daisy will enjoy the quilt. 

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Lightsaber Quilt Blanket

I completely forgot about making this blanket! Found it when I was looking for a photo of a blanket Mom made. I wanted to make a compilation of some of the quilt projects she made. I instead found this cute Star Wars lightsaber inspired blanket I made for Jet when he was still a baby. 

I had just picked up quilting again when I made this piece. I made it with square and rectangular pieces. I wasn't too adventurous yet back then. Made it purely by hand and I remember it was quite hard to finish because of limited space.

Of course, I promptly forgot to take a photo of the finished product. Gave it to Carissa a few weeks later and she brought it back to Indonesia. I have no idea if it stood the test of time since I just hand quilted it. It's probably stuck at the back of a closet by now, haha. I think I made the lightsaber blue because I was planning to make a green one for Miggy. Probably got distracted with other projects since I haven't made a Yoda lightsaber quilt blanket yet. 

Still on sewing hiatus. I'll probably ask for Miggy and Sweetie's new ortho to take a look at my arm and vitamin D levels soon. 

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The Handmade Quilt Blanket I Made for Mom

I gave the first queen sized quilt blanket I ever made to my Mom. It was a huge yellow pinwheel quilt. I toiled over it for over a year. 

I pieced it together by hand. I wrestled to properly sandwich it with wadding. Quilted each stitch by hand. Manually made the binding (I didn't have tools back then). 

Putting together the quilt was a journey to show Mom how much I love her. I wanted to show her my appreciation for everything she taught me. Quilting a blanket by hand is an enormous task.

I told myself back then that I needed to make the quilt blanket for Mom to complete what she was trying to teach me. Summers were always filled with crafting sessions. Mom didn't teach me how to cook, but she taught me to love creating. 

I don't have a photo of the full blanket when I finished it. I am hoping I'd find it in her things. I'm not brave enough yet. Hopefully soon 🙏

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The Journey of Making a Memory Quilt Blanket

I collected a massive amount of shirts since I joined Google in 2006. Through the years though my shirt size grew from extra small to never mind. Chalk it up to achieving the Google 10 (now 15) a few times. I joined during the time the company used to give a lot of shirts for employees. I kept all the shirts because I thought I'd eventually lose weight and be able to wear the old ones. Of course, that did not happen. 

I took a break back in 2019 and cleaned out my closet. Found my collection of t-shirts and thought it was a good time to start making a t-shirt memory quilt. Cutting the shirts was a painful process. T-shirt fabric isn't the same as the cotton fabric normally used for quilting. I gave the leftover parts of the shirt to my Mom for her rug project, so nothing went to waste. I didn't finish cutting the shirts so I brought it back to SG with me. 

Did some research to understand the process of making t-shirt quilt better. Got the fusible interfacing and other fabric I needed online. I managed to finish cutting the shirts while in Singapore and intended to fuse the interfacing with the shirts while in quarantine. Ended up sleeping through quarantine hahaha. Only got to work on it again early this year when the boys set-up my sewing area in the living room. 

I've been toiling on it for many months now. I spending two to three hours about four times a week. It is tiring and progress is dependent on my health too. My doctor asked me if I get tired working on it. I said no since it's fun for me. I also used a sewing machine to work on it, but I did hand stitching to piece the fabric together. It's hard to align pieces via a machine and I wanted the lines to be more precise. That's what I wanted to improve from the last pieces of blankets I made. 

I think I'm 80% done with the blanket now. I pieced two sets of two rows together. I'm now in the wrestling match phase of quilt blanket making, hahaha. I call it a wrestling match because it's hard to manuever heavy pieces of fabric that's been sandwiched with wadding. Good thing I got lighter wadding from Spotlight. I think I'll finish merging all seven rows this week. I'll add the backing next week and then make the binding. I should hopefully finish before end of the month! Yay! 

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It's Sew-Time!

Jumped out of bed when I woke up because I'm excited to work on my t-shirt memory quilt. I started working on it in 2019 during a break. It's my collection of Google shirts I used for 15 years. My shirt size leveled up through the years. I was an extra small when I started and that progressed haha. I was truly an achiever because I gained the Google 10 multiple times! They adjusted it to Google 15 after a few years because it's true, you'll really gain at least 10 pounds on your first year. 

I asked help from Miggy last weekend to arrange the cuttings for me. I normally go to him to make sure that the colors of my quilts are appropriate. He has an eye for it (skills honed from being an animator). Here's what he came up with:

Miggy agreed I should use maong-like fabric for the borders. I thought it would be nice to match the shirts with maong since that's what you wear with t-shirts. I look forward to finishing the quilt blanket since we really need a new blanket haha. Each shirt comes with many happy memories of trips and events, I never parted with any of it because it holds so many memories. Hope to finish it this quarter!

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