Fluttering Butterflies, Colourful Blooms, All Tatted

Joey need some little gifts for her 10 senior school table-tennis team players who are graduating this year.  I tatted for her a whole lot of flowers and butterflies with magnetic bead centre.  They are not very strong to hold paper to metal surface, but look quite good though on their own to brighten up any place and will certainly work as a needle minder. 

I really did a lot of tatting this past month, not just the flowers and butterflies, but also  bookmarks.  They are for a bookmark exchange on the NEEDLESnCRAFTS group.  I sent mine to Maria Silva in Portugal.

  

For last Thu ATC session in Bishan Library, we did drawing using the carbon paper way, but with crayon instead of usual carbon paper.  I never really like working with crayons, I can't stand getting bits of crayons all over my hands!

The theme for the ATCs we swapped was "Everyday".  I used the paper bags of the peppermint and licorice tea I drink to do tea-bag folding, and cut the black outline of the tea cup.  Background embossed with embossing folder and painted with watercolours.

(Going clockwise from top right) Swapped ATCs from Maggie "Cubism", "Rabbit, Circus, Circus" from Rita, "Smile - Bow B" from Moses, "An Apple "Everyday" Keeps the Doctor Away" from Jennifer Lum and "Teh-C ("Siew Tai")" from Richard.  I especially like the way the clown holds the rabbit on his palms - the composition and add-on to the background clown look just perfect.

Kristine is having her floral arrangement lessons in school again.  This scored 83/100.

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!

Tatting Gifts, ATCs and The Garden Festival

I'm back to tatting after a break of embroidering work. I like to tat leaves and make them a gift. A new leaf represents a new chapter in life, what's more suitable for colleagues who are moving on to study. Leaf pattern by Karey Solomon, and I modified it into a smaller leaf for the end.

And more tatting for birthday boy, Paul in Malaysia, for a Birthday Exchange - a pair of Paprika, the dragons, (pattern by Martha Ess), a snake bookmark and my tatted lucky clover paper clip, plus a birthday card, lots of threads and yarns and Apple beads.

Next is a tatted heart, not done by me, but by Cindy Michele, and mounted on a fabric, with felting and beads sewed on. A very pretty piece of ATC, no doubt about it.

Another heart, but this time, it is a felted one done by Satu of Finland, and adorned by simple yet effecive sewing and beaded flowers. I love the striking colour combination too.

More beading embellishment in this Morning Mist ATC done by Mary Strong of Australia. Such sweet and feminine colour combination!

A second piece from Mary, an oriental design, but with the texture magic for the background fabric. Very bold yet classic with red, white and black colours.

Just yesterday, we spent a good afternoon at the Singapore Garden Festival strolling the exhibition halls at Suntec City amidst the wide array of displays from themed fantasy gardens and landscape gardens to cut-flower displays by local & international floral designers, and seeing the diverse heritage of orchids. Just wanted to show you these 2 photos - these bonsai are simple yet one can imagine how much time and effort the cultivators had put in.

This first one has the Chinese words meaning "success".

And this second one has the Chinese word "Tea"growing out from a Chinese teapot!

Gifts, Ribbons and Bows for Motif No. 5

Tatted more gifts for another 3 colleagues who are leaving these few days. The pattern of the alphabets forming their names is Teri Dusenbury's, tatted using Guttermann Sulky threads.

Next up are gifts for Teachers' Day. It suddenly dawned on me - does Teachers' Day falls on an universal day? Apparently not, from a check on Wikipedia. Here in Singapore, it falls on 1 Sep. Every year, my children and I will handmake something for their teachers. We had done shrink plastic tags, quilled cards, beaded flowers, embroidered bookmarks cards, to name a few. This year, it's something new for them - needle-felted bookmarks!

I cut strips of felt, and gave them the needles and wool, and all of them were happily punching away! They worked pretty fast, and saved for an accidental punch of the needles into Kristine's fingers twice, the bookmarks turned out well with minimal guidance. Next, I cut plastic sheets and sewed up the edges. We are all so pleased with what we have created.

[Apologies that some of the photos are not in the right orientation, I have this problem recently and I just couldn't solve it :( ]

Ivan's

Joey's

Kristine's

I believe Faizon's birthday is the last lap of the current birthday exchange for the SnN group. Paul sent me my birthday gifts in Feb, and now, I sent these to Faizon. We are supposed to decorate a card, but after browsing a few gift shops, I decided to make one from scratch. Wishing Faizon a very happy birthday filled with happiness, laughter and crafts!

Paperclips for the month: Ribbon and Bow! My girls hanker after the ribbon rose bows, aren't they just sweet? The patterns are available on Georgia's Online Tatting Class. These will be Motif No. 5 for my Round 2 of the 25 Motif Challenge.

Birthday Presents, Bookmarks, Day 3 of TIAS

Jon organised a birthday exchange for the SnN group with 8 participants, each with just 1 partner. My birthday was the earliest of all on 23 Feb, and Paul started the ball rolling. Look what I received from him!

The floral fabric is SO sweet and pretty! A very cute touch to the Hallmark card too. Thank you, Paul, for all the Anchor threads, beads & heart confetti!

My 2 little girls are so creative, they whipped up a decently-looking present, all wrapped up and with bows. It looks so good that I really don't feel like opening up and spoiling the packaging! A "petite" bouquet of roses from DH, and not forgetting the 2 Celestial diamond rings he bought for me earlier.

Here are the 2 bookmarks I tatted from this Japanese book I bought recently. Both are tatted with Flora 20 threads, but with different tension, 1 came out larger than the other by quite a lot! And what differences when I work on different computers, the photos were edited on different computers, the first 2 were much darker than these last 2! Anyway, this is my Day 3 of the TIAS. I'm not any wiser what we are heading for.

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.

New Year Bag Exchange from Usha, Tatted Hearts Paper Clips

Having previously exchanged with Usha, I know she is an accompolished crocheter. So when I received this crocheted bag, it was no surprise. Besides this pleasant blue-toned bag, Usha also did a set of 6 coasters and some pretty roses and flowers! Thank you, Usha! I would have taken ages to crochet all these! But they really make me very tempted to take out my hooks to try those crocheted flowers.

I have been working on some new ideas for a while, but have not reveal them so far. It's hard to keep secret. Last year, Georgia asked if I could do a project with paper clips for the Online Tatting Class. Now, this is the first of the series - Hearts for Feb 2009.

Check out Wally's beaded version - stunning! Wally also tied the ends of the interlinked hearts into a bow, that sure save the sewing. Great idea, Wally!

Cranes, Zen Mozaic, Celestial, SS Exchange Received

Is this pretty ?

Can you guess where this picture come from ?

Well, a jewellery box !

DH bought this mother-of-pearl lacquerware (together with the smaller one below) from Korea when he made a transit there on an official overseas trip a little while ago. Simply stunning and very fine workmanship!

This is my Christmas gift from DH. It was no secret as I chose it myself, there's what I prefer - to have what I like. I was considering a 4-GB pink one or a 8-GB black one which were what they had in the store, I decided capacity was more important than colour.

And those are not all, these are my early birthday gifts ! Of course I selected them myself, couldn't decide between the two, so I ended up with both!

And look what came in the mail today - a parcel from my Secret Santa!

Thank you, Tara! Love the colours of the beads and thread, and I like to collect buttons. I remember this brand of chocolate from a previous exchange, it was real delicious. The lovely ornament is tucked in the pretty box. So lovely!

I'm a very happy girl today!!!