My Computer Is Back! New Fave - Haiku and Patchwork

My computer was down and was sent in for repair. It is finally back today, and so I'm also back with my posting!

Haiku ... I don't remember learning it in my school days. I learned about haiku from my boy when he studied it in school a few years back, and more recently, my girl in her Primary Three class. Interesting poetry - the structure - and simple too! Just 3 lines with 5-7-5 syllables respectively, totally 17 syllables, and they need not rhyme!

Lenna organised a Haiku ATC swap, it certainly caught my attention, and soon, I'm composing! My language may not be fantastic, but I'm proud to say I composed them! Here's the first attempt to translate my haiku into ATC. They were done for the Sep ATC session at Bishan Library for the theme "Transition". Mine were titled "Transition~ From Dirt Road to Concrete Road" - a pair of footprints on mud.

And the 3 ATCs I'm submitting for Lenna's swap - "My Favourite Time". Calico painted with water-soluble crayons, my haiku printed and mod podged onto the fabric, buttonhole wheels hand-embroidered on, together with a pair of butterflies I tatted, and backed with an acid-free cardstock.

These are all the 5 I did!

Going back to the September ATC session in Bishan Library, I did another set of cards for trade "Transition ~ From Caterpillar to Butterfly". I love this quote by Richard Bach - "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."

ATCs I received from Rita (dog paper cutting - The Grey Hound, and the Stencil Wolf), Richard (Peranakan lady drawn with pen and colour pencils), Sor Huan (Mother and Child - dried plants with drawing in pen).

Did you know you can paint with those wooden disposable chopsticks? If you don't believe it, see these drawings everyone did with chopstick and Chinese ink in the half-hour!

The ABC's inchies I received from Rae Ann (USA). Cute!
Did I mention I joined a patchwork class? It's a beginner class on a weekly basis, so you know this is my first time doing patchwork. It's a small quilt with 6 blocks of 12" x 12" each. I'm hand-sewing the blocks, you can imagine how stress I am looking at all the patches of fabric! Ok, to make a fairer comment, it's stressful looking at the clock (speeding against time to complete my homework for the next lesson), but it's pretty relaxing to gather all those tiny stitches on the patchwork needle, and so fulfilling to see the blocks building up :) A triumphant feeling when the pieces meet exactly corner to corner, point to point!
Here are my 6 blocks all done up, going on to the sashes and corner stones. This was the progress in the middle of last week. I'm now sewing the border, and too busy with the sewing to take any photo yet!

Teachers' Day Presents

For Teachers' Day this year, inspiration on what presents to make came pretty late. Thanks to a gift I received - the yellow "chick" cable wrapper on the top right-hand corner. This is a useful and practical gift, and not too difficult to hand sew, though I only succeeded on the 3rd attempt. After that, it was a breeze to cut all the fabrics and velcro. The children wrote on the shrink plastics buttons and sew up the edges. We sewed 22 altogether!

ABC's inchies I made for the August Mingle:

And my "S is for Swan" fabric ATCs.

Sherry (USA) stitched appliques for her O is for Overall Bill, P is for Peace and Q is for Quail. Love the tiny stitches!
Mari (South Africa) sent 5 in 1 mail! O is for Owl, P is for Pins, Q is for Quilting, R is for Rhino, and S is for Sheep.

Gayle (UK) embroidered a stunning Cherry Blossom tree for the Textile ATC Jun swap. It was really worth the wait. Do you believe Gayle is new to using textiles and stitching? I don't!