More Angels - Motif No. 14 Angel Paperclip

More angels!

This is the last in the series of paperclip designs for Georgia's Online Tatting Class. Hope this angel will watch over everyone in the new year! Click here for the pattern.

The dino is here! The trees in the background are real, this is not taken from a picture book, nor a super-imposed image.... more in the next post!

And to everyone,

BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR !

At the Flyer, Lots of Angels and a Stamping Party

We went up the Singapore Flyer a 2nd time this Dec, this time to see Singapore at night. This 1st photo showed the next cabin to ours when we were at the highest point.

All the lights in the distant.

Back to crafts. It was my colleague, Eunice's last day on the eve of Christmas, I sewed up this felt cross for her.

Not enough time to tat up much Christmas gifts this year and only managed these. But there were lots of angels this Christmas -

Tatted angels

and a lot of wire angels

Only managed to tat up a few of these holly leaves:

I love the colours of the Flora threads used to tat up this name bookmark

(Teri Dusenbury's alphabets):

And more earrings and hairclips

Oh, last Sat, my girl and I went to Junior De Artist's Hero Art 2010 Debut Preview Party - Make and Take sessions. We spent an afternoon there and had a great time doing these cards, and of course, shopping for the new stamps!

Last but not least, a MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!

A Christmas Card, A Lots of Fabric ATCs and What's A Pantomime?

I almost forgot about this photo of a Christmas card I did for a Christmas card-making contest organised by Junior De Artist. Actually, the emphasis was on using the die-cuts and rubber stamps sold in the shop, but I added a tatted tree.

The fabric ATCs which I swapped had all arrived. This is the first I swapped in Oct and received from Carol - very strong colours and all blended in neatly. Impressive, and I loved them; thank you, Carol! Next are the Nov Christmas ATC swap I received from Jenna. Very different style, more subtle colours, but in no lesser charm. Thank you, Jenna, and all the fabrics, buttons and fibres you sent!

Another one Christmas fabric ATC I traded with Peggy - real Christmasy looking in my favourite bright red and green. Thank you, Peggy!

I was in the mood to hand-stitch a few more felt ATCs, especially Christmas ones.

This pensive rabbit I sewed with Joey in mind, as she's a "rabbit" who is always lost in her own thoughts!

At last Thu ATC session at Bishan Library, Moses bought lots of rulers for us to try to create geometric art with them. What do you think of everyone's effort?

These I traded from (from top left going clockwise): Moses - Someone I Know (that's me with my tatting!), Rebecca - Paper-cutting "Faith", Pei Ling - Someone I Know (the kangeroo symbolising me and Kristine who I always bring with me to the trading session!) and Joey - She drew her favourite rabbit rushing off to her favourite fried rice!

Then on Sat, me and DH visited Gardenia factory in the morning. His first visit there and who's not impressed with the big bread cooler that can hold 8000 loaves of bread. But the talk by Dr KK Tan of Mycofarm was enriching, we had a better general knowledge of mushrooms and the exotic range of mushrooms grown by Mycofarm. First time I tried all those mushrooms raw!

In the evening, I brought my whole family to W!LD RICE latest production "Beauty & The Beast" in the evening. Since I discovered W!LD RICE Pantomime last year, I found myself looking forward to the next one the whole year through. To quote, the W!LD RICE Pantomime brings together all the elements of a great family entertainment – slapstick comedy, satire, political incorrectness, snazzy songs, toe-tapping dance routines, cross-dressing, fabulous costumes and spectacular sets, audience participation and a Good versus Evil story that is strong on romance and adventure. In short, they take a well-known fairy tale, give them some local twists and with some cross-dressing that bring much laughter and with lots of great original songs to delight the audiences, young and old alike.

Directed by Hossan Leong, BEAUTY & THE BEAST is a spellbinding musical comedy, filled with laugh-out-loud jokes, fabulous song and dance routines. The merchant was Big Boss Bong and his three daughters were Brandy, Desiree and of course, Beauty. At the Beast’s mansion, Beauty encountered the fussy nanny Ah Ma Chow Chow, the excitable cook Baba Pongteh, and the sarcastic maid, Vacula Contessa. And there was this exorcist, Master Kong Tao, who vowed to purge the mansion of its ‘unnatural’ elements!

(The Beast and Beauty in their wedding outfit during the autograph session)

In last year's Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, I felt that Sebastian Tan as the Queen stole the whole limelight and the twist in the story (the Outer Limit and landfill, the rubbish and the environmental message) was definitely more memorable. This year's Beauty & The Beast, the limelight was more evenly spread, but even my DH agreed RJ Rosales as The Beast was so dashing and charming (a little pity he had to hide his handsome face under the well-crafted beastly mask most of the night). The other characters: Karen Tan as Ah Ma Chao Chao was a real darling nanny, Chua Enlai as Desiree Bong and Darius Tan as Brandy Bong (Beauty’s sisters) definitely drew the most laughters! Not forgetting all the stunning costumes and sets and singing utensils from the sewing, food and cleaning departments!

For us, it was a must-see musical of the year! And I can't wait for the next one next Nov/Dec.

Hand-stitiched Books, Motif No. 13 - Snowflake Paperclip and ATCs

Last Thu was the release of the PSLE results and the whole family went to the school together to root for my boy. His results - a score of 272 (highest score this year was 290), 4 A* and Distinction for Higher Chinese! We are so proud of you, Ivan!

Then on Sat, we attended Betsy's KBCC session to make these hand-stitched matchbook notebooks. Thank you Betsy for hosting the session, Moses for sharing with us how to make the books, and Suzanne for the home-made keuh patti!

Time really flies, we are less than a month from Christmas. Have you done all your Christmas tatting? I haven't :( But here's a quick pattern for you, a snowflake paperclip, available on Georgia's Online Tatting Class. This will be my Motif No. 13 for the 25 Motifs Challenge.

These 2 ATCs and a tatted butterfly paperclip went to Lynette for a Oct Fabric ATC swap,

while these 2 ATCs I sewed up and a tatted "Joy" paperclip went to Carol D for a Nov Christmas swap. Can't wait to receive mine!And the extras I stitched up. As at now, the blue X'mas ornament on the top right corner is still available for trade.

And to show you 2 more photos of the bazaar on 19 Nov.

Me arranging my stuff at my store.

My colleague, Sally, and myself.

A BIG Thank You to Sally for helping to man the stall throughout! I couldn't have managed without you!

A Bazaar and A Concert

For the last few weeks, I was partly busy with tatting up items for a bazaar sale at my office on Active Day on last Thursday. Thanks to all the support and generosity of colleagues, I managed to sell close to $500, and as I had pledged 15% of my sale to the relief effort for the Padang Earthquake, I had put a cheque of $73 into the donation box in the office on Friday. Sales aside, it was a most satisfying day! There were a few who have mothers and/or grandmothers who tat (or tatted) and they were so happy to see all my tatted works, some lingered around to slowly appreciate all my works, and of course, a lot were simply amazed :)

Well, I didn't have time to take photos, so I will wait for the photos taken by the officials for the event. These were some of the items I sold, together with more bookmarks and cards.

I tatted this flower and leaf quite some time ago. In fact, so long ago that I could not remember where I took the patterns from! I would take them out now and then thinking about assembling them up, but it was never done. And finally!

I'm not too sure if the shaping of the flower is as per the original pattern, but I'm very happy with it. Of course, I had to show it off, and wore this throughout the bazaar!

As I went through my photos in the camera, found these 2 photos I took on one weekend, when I found them on the bed! I called them Animals Go Camping!

See who were still sleeping!

Joey's favourite Barney and her Star-star (bear) with Care-bear and Honey-bear,

and also Kristine's Bear-bear and Hamster inside!

Joey and Kristine built the "tent" using all the pillows, bolsters, blankets they found.

Perhaps due to the recession, there weren't a lot of concerts in the past year, but they are back. Last night, my mother and I attended Fei Yu Qing Live in Singapore, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, after his last concert in Jan 2008.

Fei Yu Qing, the Taiwanese evergreen singer, has maintained his reign as one of the most famous singers in Taiwan all these years, well-known for his pristine vocals, risqué humour and mimicking abilities. His powerful voice delivered endless hits during the 2-hour plus concert. He never left the stage throughout, singing all time hits from oldies to modern contemporary songs, only breaking in between to introduce the songs, telling a few jokes or to say a few words. His mimicry of 刘文正 Liu Wen Zheng, Lin Feng, 周华健 Wakin Chau, 蔡琴 Cai Qin, drew lots of laughters from everyone! And for the very first time, a specially commissioned futuristic stage featuring gigantic LED screen with 3D motion pictures added thrill and entertainment for the night.

Clyde's Tatted Bookmark, Oct Paper-Cutting ATCs and Nov ATC Session

In Sep, I was a lucky last winner in Clyde's Garden Tour Giveaway, but due to events and medical problems, Clyde only managed to tat and send the prizes out recently. I was so thrilled to receive this fine bookmark Clyde tatted in size 100 HDT, and the skein of thread too! Thank you, Clyde!

In-between tatting and others, I'm enjoying cutting and trading these paper-cutting ATCs on the Paper Cutters Trade group. Our sweet host, Susan, gets monthly trading in the going, and sets the theme to open, which makes it easier for beginners like me. This is only my second trade, but there will sure to be more! I cut these using scissors and knife on 80 gsm acid-free papers.

And what I received: going down from the top, and from left to right - A Christmas Tree from Joan Sulecki (this has a most interesting background), a white tree from Susan herself, the Blue Flower from Ursula in Germany, Places I have hiked this summer: Capitol Reef National Park from Melissa, and the last one from Florinda. Thank you, everyone, love all the cuttings!

Last Thu was our local monthly ATC trading session. This time, Pei Ling showed us what is gesso and how to apply and texture it on the base card. We also tried our hands at painting with acrylic paints over card primed with gesso. Interesting! These were what Kristine (bottom 2) and I (top 2) painted - not too fantastic, but I'm thinking of embellising them with some paper-cuttings.

The theme for the month is "Going to the Movies". Not a lot of cards done as everyone was busy, only traded these few. I quite like this movable kitty playing with the tatted butterfly, which I cut using a free cat pattern I found on the internet. This was traded with Laura for her "Sound of Music" card she drew.
What Kristine drew and traded for the quote from the movie, Spiderman:

ATCs, New GR8 Shuttles and Book and a Bazaar

I have to show this first - Bonnie and myself had a one-to-one ATC trade, and I have just received her fabulous Apple Tree ATC, sewn on fabric. I love apples and the red beads look juicy-licious!

This is "My Love" which I traded with Bonnie, with a tatted bee.

My favourite shuttle-maker, The Shuttle Brothers, added plastic resin to their line of GR8 shuttles a few months back. Naturally I have to get some. I wonder how I have waited till now! Well, hot from the envelope are what Randy did for me: An orangy resin with swirl, the second one with curved roses, the third one with an embedded trinket and the fourth one in olive wood, all with a ball hook on one end, and with my initials scrimshawed on them. These bring my collection of GR8 shuttles to 13! Got my autographed copy of “Tatting GR-8 Alternate Threads” from Randy too. It looked like a Mathematical book with lots of ratios at the first flip, I think I need to spend some time to sit down quietly to digest the text! Should be worth the effort looking at the doodles of the possible flowers to tat up.

Earlier on, when Jon offered her tatting scraps, a few of us jumped on the offer. I received them over the last weekend, and look! Can you believe your eyes - her so-called scraps couldn't be more beautiful, some of the edgings are easily more than a foot long!My intention is to use them for ATCs, I think I should start doing some fabric ATCs right after the bazaar on next Thu.

That's right, I am tatting up some items for sale at the coming Active Day Bazaar at Surbana One, Jalan Bukit Merah, on 19 Nov (Thu). I don't expect a lot of sales, but I hope to generate more awareness for tatting and at the same time to do a wee bit for the victims of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the city of Padang on Indonesia's Sumatra island on 30 Sep 09. I am pledging 15% of my sales collection to the fund-raising effort that is currently in the way in Surbana office. All the donations collected by our office will be passed over to the Singapore Red Cross, which is working closely with the Indonesian Red Cross, also known as Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI), to provide help and relief to the survivors. So, local friends and colleagues, hope to see you on 19 Nov at my store!