Christmas and the Holidays, part 2

Ok, so here's a little reminder of how I ended my year:

My Bernina broke down right after I finished the final dresden blade on my Dresden Sunburst quilt. 

I shipped her off via train to my dealer in Thailand once they helped me determine I couldn't fix it, and it arrived just in time for them to close for the holidays.

Well, bummer. That was a long 4 days (the Thai love their holidays!), but just one day after they opened back up they put her back on a train to me!

Here's a look at what I did while I waited on my machine repairs...

Temple next to a 5-story mall.

We went to the mall a few hours across the border in Thailand, which happens to be next to a temple...by that I mean they even shared a parking lot!

So after lunch I covered my shoulders and we checked it out. Buddhist temples require modest clothing - shirts with sleeves and pants below the knee are the requirement for everyone and you must remove your shoes to enter. Luckily, I keep a scarf on me for just such an emergency.

Requisite temple photo with handsome

The center here is where everyone goes to worship. They kneel and pray to the statue, and depending on the type of temple (Chinese, Indian, etc.), there are a few different things they may do such as light candles or put kohl (a chalky dust) on their heads.

I'm not sure what they do at this temple because no one was around to observe.

Inside the temple

Temples are always so pretty, ornate, and make me think of quilty things...anyone else see what I see here?

After the temple, we checked out the mall. It included a place advertising books and we decided to see if there were any in English. Imagine my surprise when I saw this in a book store! 

Sewing machines! 

Sadly, there was no fabric, but there were small sections for knitting and cross stitching.

However, I was not to be deterred! I just knew with famous Thai silk there would be a fabric market, so I stopped at Starbucks for some coffee and wifi.

There, via blog searching (the best way to find anything in this part of the world!) I found Ba Nah Ka Silk Village. 

Ba Na Kah Silk Village entrance

I read not to stop at the front for the touristy things, and there was also a ton of black, as the Thai are observing one year of mourning in honor of the death of their beloved king. 

The Thai love color, so all this black is unusual.

So I headed straight towards the back and stopped at an intersection. This is real Thailand, so it was surprising I found a woman who spoke excellent English. 

She showed me her cottons...

Don't worry, these didn't impress me for a quilt either!

But then I stepped behind those and found this prettiness!

Sorry it's a bit blurry, I was excited!

More importantly, here's what I picked out.

On the right are two pretty cottons, though they're a bit rougher than we're used to in terms of quality because a different type of cotton is used here and it has shorter strands.

On the left is just one piece of reversible material, and it's made from Thai silk. There's quite a lot there, which would usually be used to make what's called a sinh, a traditional Thai dress for women, but I'm thinking I might use it to make a scarf or two. 

Through my travels, I've discovered America does cotton fabric quite well. We have much longer strands of cotton that make some of the softest, strongest fabric I've been able to find in the world!

I knew cotton was part of our history, I just didn't know American cotton was such a great thing!



Now, on to my actual sewing!



There wasn't as much as I liked, between a broken machine and leaving for more travels (where I bought fabric!), but there was a bit.



If you recall, I had this beautiful Surfside quilt made from Pat Sloan material, and it had been sitting as a top because I didn't know how to quilt it.

I picked up Angela Walters' Dot-to-Dot Quilting class from Craftsy and finally had my inspiration! 

My colored centers were pebbly...

And here's where Angela's class helped the most. I really wanted to accentuate the pale yellow shapes as well.

And my yellow centers were pointy!

And last but not least, this fun quilt is finally finished!

My furry helper overseeing things

And a view of the back!

I used the Moda 40th anniversary featuring selvages that I stashed last year as the back; I knew it was just waiting to be a back for the perfect quilt!

For my next blog I've gotten overwhelming requests to shoot a tutorial for the infinity scarves I've made after my recent travels.

I'm going to pair that with the fabric store I visited in Malaysia as well! 

This blog is also going to be sooner than regularly scheduled, as there was quite a high demand; you can expect it before the end of the week!