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!

HDT, Cute Brooch and Knotty Bicsie's Tea Party

The school exams are almost over, well, almost! My boy has finished his PSLE 2 weeks plus ago, and this week, we are done with the DSA selection finally. Now to wait for the PSLE and school selection results. My P1 girl finished her exams on Fri, and the P4 girl will finish hers on Tue. In Singapore, school exams are stressing not only for the students, but parents too!

Didn't have time to take photos and post about these earlier. Zarina has generously gave away her HDT to a number of people and and I'm one of the lucky recipents. This particular colourway is named "By The Seaside". Thank you, Zarina!

Next, I was very, very lucky to win this porcupine/hedgehog brooch from edwardandlilly (there was about 150 entries)! This little critter was hand-stitched on black hemp canvas and about 3.5 cm in diameter. I like this button brooch for its simplicity, and it looks like there is no metal part except the brooch pin, which may be re-sewn on with a new pin, so there shouldn't be any rusting problem which I have with normal button brooches! Thank you, Rebecca!

For yesterday KBCC, Betsy organised a Knotty Tea Party "Handmade-A-Fair", in celebration of Knotty Bicsie's 3rd anniversay. Betsy invited a few crafty friends to set up stalls in her cosy home-cum-workshop place as part of the party. A great turnout and everything went smoothly! I put up some of my tatted laces for sale, and it generated some awareness and interest in tatting. I'm proud to be able to do a part promoting tatting! An eye-opener for me too, seeing all the wonderful works from Betsy herself, another crochet-guru, Jullie, and quilted works of Suzanne, amongst others. Congratulations, Betsy, and Happy Anniversay!

Going back to make sure my girl is doing her revision!