The "Marnia" Project

You're probably wondering whats with the weird name ? well ... actually this 27th Nov is my friend wedding anniversary, so Im thinking of making them a small xstitched picture in a frame or maybe made into a small cushion... or something :P
Anyways... they're known as Marnia .. short for Marius and Nia :P hence the name of the project .. hehehe

A few months ago, while thinking what design should I make for them, my lovely hubby jokingly said to make a design for a javanish wedding couple, since Nia is from Madiun (or somewhere close there) ... and I thought, hmmm good idea, but I dismiss it because I have no idea where can I find that kind of design????

Surprise, surprise!! Went back to Indonesia a few weeks ago, and while browsing in HobbyCraft, I found this PERFECT design!! Its traditional wedding couple in Javanese clothing style, the size is just what I wanted!! and pricewise? quite cheap since AUD currency is very strong right now ahhaha so yeah, quite a bargain!

Now, the challenge for me is to see how fast can I finish this project ? I dont have much time....

Korean Xstitch - Finish!!

Guess what?!? After 1.5 months working on it, I have finished it yesterday!! Yayyy soo happy...

Im happy with the results ... its cute, its unique and especially I love the Korean writings on it .. :)

That wasnt part of the pattern, but Ive got my colleague (she's Korean) to write the senteces for me, and I stitch it up :)
Basically the translation is that "Our Love is Forever" .. dont ask how to say it in Korean.. I have no idea hahaha

anyways, seeing the finished projects, my husband suddenly decided that he likes this particular xstitch, and suggest, rather than having it made into a cushion cover, why not frame it and put it on the wall or table somewhere? hmmm... good idea...

That got me thinking, Ive still got another 2 couples wearing this korean dresses (original plan was to make 2 cushion covers having 2 couples on each of it)... but why not instead frame this one in a bigger frame, and then have each of the remaining couples in single frame on both side of it ? I think it would make a great wall decoration... :) Lets see how it goes ! I'll update in a few months later haha

Sewn Up Cushion Cover

Yayyy!! Finally!! My cushion cover got sewn up and ready to use now... after finishing the xstitch projects earlier this year, I didnt manage to make it into a cushion cover until now :)

Just before I go back for holidays, I scored a bargain for a mini portable sewing machine...

I love this machine, it totally suitable for me.. uncomplicated, small, and do all the sewing for me!! It has the little light to make it easier to sew, and has option of automatic sewing or foot pedal on off sewing :) Here it is :)

So, last Sunday, after playing around for some time, I decided to just go ahead and sew my projects.. spent some more time figuring how big it needs to be... figuring how and where to cut the fabric... andddd start sewing!!

Ugh.. not as easy as I thought.. first, I have trouble understanding why my machine got stuck halfway through, then alllll other sorts of problem comes one after another... but after "hard work" (*translate : getting my husband to sort it out for me) I manage to sew and get it all done ... :)

The green is the first one, a little bit untidy, but acceptable by my standard hahaha :) I love the end result... I think its quite good for my first attempt :)

Korean Xstitch Cushion - part 1

Yayy finally got the chance to make this beautiful cross stitch pattern !! Ive bought this on my honeymoon last year in Korea (doh!! where else??) .. and totally forgot about it!!
When going through my craft stash last week I found this pattern, and since Im in between projects decided to make these cute korean couple in a series of traditional dresses..

I love cushion cover so Im gonna turn this project into one as well.. problem is the original chart size doesnt allow me to make the full pattern into a cushion cover... so a bit of creativity is needed here!! I decided to make 2 couples per covers and position it in the centre :)

So far, this is all Ive done... (couple 1 and couple 4) haha needed to buy a few more DMC to finish off the projects!! I'll post up the pics shortly then....

"God Is Love" Cushion Cover

I am totally in love with Precious Moments designs!! When I got married, I decided to make all my cushion cover using PM designs... here is the first one...

Actually it is two separate designs, but... seeing that I wanted to have designs with both the boy and girl together... what can I do??

A bit of creativity is needed here!! Just combined the two pictures together right?? Well... not that easy... seeing that actually the boy in the design is facing left... which is the same as the girl... and it would look weird if I just make the boy and girl facing the same direction.... sooooooo

Decided to make them back to back... a bit of trouble when making the boy.. seeing that I have to calculate everything backwards!! But its WORTH ittt!! Im happy with the resultsss .. The grass is sort of the connector between this two... have to improvise a bit on that too ahhahah

Anyways... still need to sew it to make the cushion cover now.... :)

Cute Baby Hat

On 14th June 08, Nathan was born ... and he is just soooo adorable!! I love him!! Well.. he's my friend's boy but I like to pretend he is my nephew :P Anywaysss decided to make a few knitted item for him... I make this baby hat when he was almost a year... together with the knitted jumper with his initial on the front...
I used eskimo ice blue yarn for this hat... and totally love eskimo!! So soft, bulky, warm, and easy to knit!! It takes me only 2 hours to finish this hat ... :)

Stripe Alpaca Scarf

Few months ago ... (or was it last year??) I went on holidays wid my family to Moss Vale! Nice little town, very good for relaxation :) On the last day, we went past a little town with an Alpaca shop!! **Shopping mode on** I know alpaca is basically ONE of the NICEST and WARMEST and SOFTEST and basically the BEST (well .. you got my point!) for any kind of winter clothes...

So... there you go.. at the back corner, what would you see except a BARGAIN for baby alpaca yarn!! Costin only about $8 each balls, I then decided to take 3 colours and make it into a striped scarf ...

Due to the thinness of the yarn, I had to use 3.25mm needle therefore its taken about almost 1 week to finish the project.. which is more than what I predicted .. Anywaysss Im happy wid the result.. love it!! Would love to go and buy more yarns!!