Daisy Art Dolls, ATCs Received and Tatted Bag from Wally

These daisy dolls were by far the easiest to conceptualize and create, thanks to QuicKutz die-cut! I love this Fashion Doll set, just look at those long slender legs! My girls complaining the daisy skirts were too short though, chuck! I'm still in the mood of salvaging those junk mails into something "useful", so they were created mainly with junk mail flyers, except for the white petals. I tatted simple ring daisies to go with the skirts as an extra touch. One has already reached Charlene in the USA.

This is Margie's daisy doll for me - look at the head and face! It's amazing to see how different people interpret a theme. Margie is so creative with her doll, I learn much through these swaps! Thanks, Margie, for the doll and everything!

Next are fabric ATCs I received in the week. This first one is from Annelie of Sweden, this must be one of the best butterfly cards in my collection. Annelie painted the fabric with watercolours and such sweet tones, and look at the butterflies stitched in threads! Thanks, Annelie!

Here is a swap which we agreed to tat something on them. See what Susan Cuss came up with! According to Suz, the background was hand-knitted varigated pink mohair-blend yarn, with more fibers and bronze organza on top, then all the layers quilted onto a felt backing. The dragonfly was tatted with three threads together: a metallic turquoise, silver metallic, and a sulky blendables to create the shimmering effect. Fire-polished crystals, 4mm, in Capri AB were used for the eyes and tail, and a larger turquoise bead for the thorax.

The background for the flower piece is done the same as the first pieceof and covered it with a layer of burgundy organza. Flower and leaf were tatted with Yarnplayer's 'Garden Afternoon' size 40 thread, and white seed beads were sewn for the flower centre. These 2 are definitely special additions to my collection. Thanks, Suz!

When I signed up for the Extreme Tatters Round Robin early last year, I put in a lot of time and effort to design new animal motifs for my partners. So, it was especially sore when I didn't hear from one of them, somehow, emails didn't come through. But, alright, Wally made up for my long, long wait when the package finally arrived a few days ago.

I love Egyptian things for the mysterious air around them. The postcard (death mask of Tutankhamon) and bookmark (Hieroglyphic alphabets) will be special keepsack. Then there are 5 balls of El Beida pearl cotton threads (and I love dark brown as it is not easy to get them), 2 painted wooden flat shuttles, 2 mother-of-pearl round discs, a packet of the round sequins from Egypt used on Belly Dnacing costumes. Wally has used these sequins to adorn the tatted bag. Although the tatted bag consisted of simple rings and chains, it is in black, and I always admire people who are brave enough to work with black thread (it is really difficult to see!) Last but not least, there is another tatted cord bracelet. I must try tatting this one day. Big Thank You, Wally!

Every year, my children would hand-make something for their teachers for Teachers' Day. We couldn't make up our minds what to make this year, not until I came across Kata Golda's Hand-Stitched Felt in the library. The projects inside look good, yet simple enough for the girls to do. So I cut all those colourful felt, took out the needles and threads and sat down to stitch with them. Joey has used the needle before, but not Kristine, so I had to guide and help them along. Well, they are still stitching a few more of these pouches at the time I took the photo. The cards are of ATC-size, done mainly with QuicKutz dies.

These few pouches and cards (photo below) are done by Joey, while Kristine stitched 11 pouches and made 9 cards.

Finally. here's a little treat for myself - Martha Ess' latest books. And I have tatted the first of the animals in the Critters book - alligators! I can't make up my mind what is the colour of alligator, so I have done them in 3 colours. These critters are just delightful to tat!

Straw Animals and Jon's New Book

Last Sat, the KBCC had a session on making animals from drinking straw. Something new to me and my 2 children who tagged along. Betsy followed a book to show us how to weave the straw. Turned out it was similar to weaving a grasshopper using palm leave, as my boy discovered. Ivan grasped the concept pretty fast, and he completed the goldfish much in style. Joey and myself were struggling, but we consoled ourselves we explored something new :)

Ivan did these 2 fishes himself and I'm so proud of him!

Look what I received in the mail - Jon's giveaway of her new book! I sure didn't notice the specifications of the book, and was so surprised at the size of the book - a petite and handy size to carry around. I have seen Jon's fabulous snowflakes that everyone was tatting but alas, I'm not too keen to tat snowflakes; on the other hand, this book on tatted cabone rings and with lots of beads appeals to me. Let's see what I'll turn them into!

Joey was pleading me to tat 2 "A" for her classmate, who loves her tatted "J" bookmark used in her school diary so much, so here they are: Teri Dusenbury's pattern tatted with Flora 20 threads. They chose the colours, I said they were pretty good choices.

Bag Exchange for Usha & Motif No. 20 - Hearts. Catch the Flowers and Latest Book!

I have wanted to make the dorset bag long time ago, but just couldn’t bring myself to sew it; hand-sew that is, as I don’t know how to use the sewing machine. So for this Bag Exchange, I think it was the perfect occasion to “force” myself to make it. Did some shopping before I found some beautiful thick napkins, the hems all done to save some sewing. Before I knew it, I had been sewing for weeks and I did poked the needle into my fingers a few times; I was so glad it was finally done. I also hand-stitched the pin cushion and attached a bought machine-tatted simple edging. All these went to Usha, hope she won't find my stitching too untidy.

The past week was Chinese New Year. Besides visiting relatives, we went to Sentosa for a flower exhibition. It was pretty crowded and hot, so we didn't walked too far, but these were some shots we took.

These sculptures were made up of fresh flowers!

Despite the holidays, I didn't get much tatting done, partly because I'm still trying more ideas for the paper clips. Actually, I'm only about halfway to the target, I hope I won't disappoint Georgia and participants in the Online Tatting Class. That aside, I finished up the thread on the shuttle and ended up with this tiny heart bookmark! I decided to count all the paperclips as part of my 25 Motif Challenge, so this and the other heart paperclips will be Motif No. 20.

And look, my 11th Japanese book! Author is Sumi Fujishige, I believe this is her latest tatting book printed a few months ago.

I haven't tried anything inside, only flipped through it, so here's just a summary of what's inside:

Simple 5-ring flowers are used to make up bouquets (like on the cover above) and wreath, and to decorate bags and linen coasters, and even to encase beads to turn them into accessories. There are more accessories in the form of flower brooches and Christmas wreath brooch in the book. There are also 4 bookmarks, a number of small motifs of vegetables, and motifs to decorate acrylic coasters, bag and pouch. As usual, there are doilies and edgings, including edgings to decorate linen doilies, sachet, tissue box cover, lampshade and also a stole. Although the set of ring-only numbers looks pretty hard to hold their shapes, mounting them would do the trick, especially on a clock! Typical of Japanese books, texts are in Japanese but with clear diagrams, and as usual, the book is filled with an assortment of patterns for everything, and with bright and colourful presentation of the finished works.

Tatting Books

Received my latest order from Handy Hands yesterday. I was quite amazed at the size of the box that came. No, I didn't buy so many things. I had to put both hands in and felt like I was digging for treasures beneath all the foam pieces! No wonder shipping charges charged by Handy Hands are so expensive, but look at how they shipped orders, the items are sure well-protected!
Ok, these are what I bought and digged out from the box - most of them are the latest books by Christel Weidmann, Martha Ess, Karey Solomon and Iris Niebach.
The animals in Christel's books are as usual, so realistic. My boy is so excited to see the bull, cow and calf. I love the pig and piglet. Joey wants the rabbits, but Kristine is asking where are the horses ? Come to think about it, I don't recall seeing a lot of tatted patterns for horse besides 1 small horse by Jane Eborall and 1 (rocking?) horse by Pam Pamela.

Martha's critters are so cute, I love the heart patterns and variations, and the rabbit the most. Karey's dragons should work out faster than Pam's dragon, but I will need to read the instructions first to figure out the patterns. I just finished my animal for Hanna, and I have also used beads for the scales, loved the effect of the beads, though the way I work is tedious. Must check out how Karey did her dragons! This is a sneak preview of what I did. Any guess what is it ?


Last but not least, I just had to get 3 of Iris' books, including 2 of her earlier books on doilies, after seeing so many tatters doing her doily patterns. Her patterns are sure special, I am not disappointed.