The Cat Cabin
http://thecatcabinjakarta.com
Jalan Kemang Raya No. 31, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta, Indonesia
Phone:+62 21 71795243

Cutie Cats Cafe
​Jalan Kemang 1 No. 12F, Kemang, Mampang Prapatan, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta, Indonesia
Phone:+62 811-1004-560

First, cut all your pieces. I like mine to be sorted, and since I used a mix of full strips and scraps, I also made a note of how many I had of each fabric. This helped me to lay out my strip groups, and not end up with too many of the same strips at the end. 

Next, sew 14 strips together in a pleasing order. Use a 1/4" seam, and check after your first block that the whole is between 6-1/2" wide 6-3/4" wide. If it's not, adjust your seam allowance accordingly. 

Because you have so many seams, any little adjustment will make a huge difference to the end result, so make only tiny changes!

Make at least two of these. For 48 blocks, make 24. 

Now, trim your blocks. 

Lay the 6-1/2" square ruler on your pieced block. Trim the block to the size of the ruler - 
6-1/2" x 6-1/2".

Next, sew two blocks together. 

Lay the string blocks right-sides together, one with strips laying horizontally and one with strips vertically.  

Now, stitch around all four sides of the blocks with a 1/4" seam allowance from the edges. 

TIP: In order not to flip your many seams as you sew, you can sew two sides at a time, then flip the blocks over and sew from the other side. 

Looking at the block at right, you'd sew the right side plus either the top or bottom side - whichever has the seams towards you when it's in the sewing machine. 

Then flip the block over and repeat, so that the seam allowances are always pressed away from the machine & are less likely to flip as you sew. 

Open up the blocks and check the corner which has the horizontal strip. 

It may have a funny bit of the next strip that you can trim off. 

The one at the top has a simple little bit dangling off, it's easy to see how to trim it - just snip off the extra bit. 

For the others, you may want to use a ruler to check...

Turn the block over and use a ruler to see if there is enough seam allowance in the 2nd strip to allow you to remove the small end bit. 

As long as the 1/4" lines show that you have a decent amount of fabric for a seam allowance inside the end of the 2nd strip, go ahead and unpick that end triangle.

To finish up, simply press the final seam towards the single, horizontal strip (no seams are pressed). If the last seam on that side is in the way, simply trim a little bit of it away.  

Ingredients & Tools

• Stiff outer fabric such as laminate, canvas etc
  
• Lighter lining fabric such as cotton or satin (optional)
  

note: amount of fabric depends on pouch size, mine is either 6" x 10" or 10" x 12"

• Zipper at least 16" long (should be several inches longer than the opening)
  
• Bias tape to finish seams (optional)
  

Rotary cutter/ruler/mat for accuracy
Clips for laminate
Zipper foot for sewing machine

Moving into any new house, one of the important tasks is to stock the new home with houseplants. In our case, we have a yard for the first time in many years, and so we're also adding some new outdoor plants. Since this is my first time in the tropics, I'm finding the distinction between houseplants and outdoor plants is quite different from places with more extreme weather fluctuations like Canada and Dubai. Most of the plants that would only survive indoors are of course outdoor plants here, and many things that would be completely hopeless in Canada are possible - like my two new lime trees! 
Here in Jakarta, we are extremely fortunate to have Joko - who is a master gardener - as one of our housekeepers. In a few short weeks, he's taken the neglected yard of our new home and transformed it into a lovely tropical oasis. He also kindly accompanies me on my plant-buying forays, both to help me make suitable choices and as a translator and expert negotiator. I've even come to be able to read his looks, from "that's way too expensive", to "no way I'm taking care of that ridiculous princess of a plant". 
Like with many commercial enterprises in Jakarta, plants are often sold from sidewalk vendors. And the sidewalk vendors here are no fly-by-night hucksters - the shops take up kilometres of roadside, with dozens of permanent shops set up. Our first round of plants came from several of these vendors, but for round two, our driver found a much better place to shop. After a typically long and confusing drive, he pulled into a lot behind the Jakarta Zoo and revealed a huge area filled with covered greenhouses all bursting with tropical foliage. We learned that this is where the roadside vendors go to get their plants, so of course the prices were much lower. 
We browsed and negotiated, finally leaving with a carload: two 4" schefflera plants, a palm-y thing, three hanging plants for the water feature, 2 little lime trees, and two 6" Japanese bamboo plants for the back deck. All this broke the bank at about $30CAD. (We'd paid more than that for one bougainvillea at the roadside shop). 

Now we're back home and the latest acquisitions are getting planted. I hit a few of the roadside vendors for pots today, but sadly cracked them on the way home - I guess they were so cheap for a reason. At least the hanging plants are in, the lime trees are planted, and the bamboos seem to be doing fine in their pots. Just need to find some more solid accommodations for the indoor guys and we're set! Until next time, of course. Joko promised we could get some pretty orchids next time we're planning a party...