How to Make a Quilt Cover for Your Food Processor

Finally made a quilt cover for my Philips food processor. I wanted it in happy rainbow colors, but thought it would be interesting to use triangles. Here's how it turned out -

Here's a video on how I made the quilt cover -

Materials:

Rainbow colored fabric

Black fabric

Backing fabric 

Quilt thread

Sewing machine thread

Batting

Gigantic Wonder Woman Quilt Blanket

I finished this Wonder Woman quilt blanket project in less than three weeks. I had this crazy idea in early November to make a quilt blanket for friends who were tying the know in early December. I first worked on a very simple design since I was pressed for time to finish the project.

Theme: Wonder Woman (bride's favorite character)
Colors: selected to highlight the design and be a happy color
Design: squares
Size: king (I'll probably never do this size again)

I had to travel quite a bit also in November so I only really got to start it two weekends before the wedding. I spent one weekend just cutting fabric. The next weekend piecing it together with a sewing machine. And brought it back to Manila from Singapore. Crammed like crazy by hand four days before the wedding. I finished it in the wee hours of the morning before the wedding.

My original plan was to use my Mom's sewing machine to quilt and add the binding. Lo and behold she sent me her 25+ year old 110-volts sewing machine! I ended up finishing everything by hand and here's how my thimble looked like by the time I finished -

I burned the midnight oil to finish the project because it was important for me to give something from my heart. The blanket was so huge it didn't fit the box I bought! I enlisted the help of friends to lay out the blanket in the couple's room during the reception. We snuck in the room and successfully surprised them when they went back to their room after the wedding. Here's a video of how we successfully snuck it in -

I have a super cute photo of the bride and groom rolling around the quilt, but they're very private people, so this photo should suffice :)

It's been almost six months now since I finished that project and I'm just slowly going back to my evening quilting hobby. I'm working on another quilt blanket project for another couple who had their church wedding almost a year ago now (yup! I haven't finished the project!). I hope to finish it before their first church wedding anniversary. In the meantime I'l share first the projects I made in the last two years.

Welcome back to my blog!

Quilt Project: Wonder Woman Bag

I found this really nice fabric from Spotlight and thought I'd make a project for friends who love Wonder Woman.

I thought about making a bag and realized that for character fabric it's better not to cut it up into small pieces. I decided to put it as a spread so that the design can be better appreciated. I matched it with light colored jeans-like fabric since the Wonder Woman fabric had a vintage tinge to it.

I had fun piecing together this project. I was stuck in the San Francisco Airport for a couple of hours waiting for my next flight. I parked myself in the food area to kill time. I made two sets to give as gifts for my friends.

It just took me a few more nights to finish the project. The most difficult part was putting the strap on and making sure that the zipper was evenly placed.

Here are the measurements of the fabric:

Wonder Woman fabric - 2 pieces - 7" x 12"
Bottom - 2 pieces - 2" x 12"
Sides - 4 pieces - 9" x 1.5"
Base - 15" x 3"

Hand Quilting Tips and Tricks

I've now been quilting for almost 2 years now. I started to spend more time in Singapore (and away from my family) in 2015 when I moved teams so I had to fill up my evenings with something that would help me de-stress. The last time I quilted was 20 years ago and most of the time my Mom would finish my projects since I found it difficult to put the bias and attach bag handles. This was something I forgot when I started to quilt again so I had to learn by myself. Thanks to the many resources available online and quilt books my friends gave me I learned a lot.

Here's a few things I learned and re-learned in the last 2 years:

1. Plan your project - I normally get inspiration for my projects by reading quilt books and magazines. I've started to make a list of projects I want to do, but I decide on whatever I feel like doing at the moment. Once I decide what to make I start by plotting the project on a math notebook. I do this mainly to know how much fabric I need to cut and what other materials I'd need (i.e. zippers, buttons etc.).

2. Set a cutting day - before I embarked on my Christmas project I set a full weekend just to cut all the fabric I needed. It's also less messy when you cut stuff one time big time.

3. Making your quilt less clumpy - I never had formal training so I had to learn and unlearn stuff as I went along. I noticed that sometimes parts of my quilt would be clumpy. I read that it's better to sandwich your project by putting loose thread on it. I used to use pins which made it clumpy.

4. Use tiny clothespin for holding bias - better than using pins! This also helped make the wadding more evenly distributed across the quilt.

5. Needles do affect the number of stitches per inch - I've been trying hard to make my stitches evenly distributed per inch. The tiny quilt needle does help in making the stitches more even. I use different needles though and realized that they affect the size of your stitches (especially if you use thicker needles). Try to stick it out with the recommended quilt needle.

6. Iron before sandwiching your project - one of the reasons why my earlier projects ended up clumpy was because I didn't iron it before I sandwiched it with wadding. I bought a tiny iron and it's done wonders to my projects and have been handy in making bias too.

7. Use the right wadding - I had no idea there were different types of wadding since they only had one type in Manila. I read up more about wadding when I saw that there were many types in Spotlight. I like using the thicker one although it's easier to quilt with the thinner ones. I've yet to try the bamboo type though.