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!

Motif No. 12 - Joy and Joey's Paper Clips

Just a short and quick post on the paperclip pattern for this month - "Joy". The pattern is available on Georgia's Online Tatting Class. Hope they bring lots of joy to everyone!

And since I was at it, I have also created another one specially for my girl, Joey. Thought these turned out quite well.

Keepsake and Japanese Doll ATCs and A Great Sing-Along Event

Whenever I received mails, expecially from exchanges, I would try to keep everything, the cards that came along naturally, and even the envelopes. Since I started creating ATCs, I look through what I have and couldn't resist using the envelopes and cards to create the first 9 keepsake ATCs. Do you recognise your mail?

I love Japanese stuff - Japanese food (especially sushi and sashimi), Japanese handicrafts, and these Japanese paper dolls. These dolls are very popular during my school days and I did a number of them then (around 1992 to be precise). I found these in pretty good condition in an album and re-mounted them on to ATC-size cards and tried my hand at stamping again. All the backgrounds were created with rubber stamps and coloured with chalks.

It was a first time for me and my boy to attend a Sing-along event yesterday and sure a big one too, attended by 12,000 people, from very young children to old aunties and uncles. The songs were a good mix from evergreen classics to local xinyao, and from the 1970s oldies to new favourites on the pop chart. Mainly Chinese songs, but there were a few English, Hokkien and Canto pops too. Lyrics were printed on complimentary booklets and also flashed on 2 big screens for all to follow and sing along. A lot of us, including myself, brought along honey water to nourish the throats so that we could sing for the 3 and a half hours long. It was a great time reminiscing and singing old songs I have sang during my student days by the breeze from the sea at the Marina Bay.

A Pleasant Surprise, Gifts and ATCs

I had to mention this first - I received a package in the mail and was pleasantly surprised to receive it. A Thank-You package from Randi, the winner of my blog giveaway. She had sent me some of her hand-painted thread and a sweet pink beaded butterfly, and some postcards. Thank you, Randi, I love everything you sent! Let me see how to assemble something into an ATC. Watch out in the next post how I have recycled and assembled the little stickers, cards, postmarked stamps and what-not I received from tatting exchanges into ATCs. Some of you may recognise some stuff ; )

I tatted this up for Daphne Yap, whose last day with the company was on Thu. These alphabets by Anna Valeire, are quick to tat up and the effect is just great. And a little cute Sun for Wen Yng, who also quitted on Fri.

We had our monthly ATC trading session on Thu. Moses asked for a tatting demo, so I did a short one, giving a brief introduction to tatting, explaining some tatting terms, showing some tatted works and demonstrating the execution of the double stitch. Hopefully, everyone who was present would be able to recognize tatted works when they see it in the future. And here I was presenting a tatted bookmark to Richard, as a prize for a little lucky draw for the session. (Photo taken by Moses.)

The theme for the session was "Self-Portrait". These are what Kristine and I did.

More ATCs drawn by Kristine
What we traded.
"Fishes" by Pei Ling, "One Man's Mess is Another Man's Art" by Terence, "Lotus" by Moses.

"Pieces of Me" by Laura, "Joe Cool" by Becky and "Flower" by Pei Ling.

I was particularly excited I received my ATCs from my first group trade. They are paper-cutting ATCs with an open theme, and so interesting to see different styles and varieties in the paper-cutting from across the world.

From top left going clockwise: "Tiger" from Florinda, "Putting on the Glitz" and "Lighthouse Stairs I" both by Susan S Hahn (our hostess), "At The Ball" by Melissa Clark, Birch Bark Cutting by Edie Johnstone, unnamed by Florinda. Susan sent me extra for a tatted bookmark I sent. Thanks, Susan!

The ones I sent were more of a Chinese style - all cut using 80 gsm acid-free papers. Going clockwise from the top left-hand corner: Poeny, Chattering, Floral Spray, In The Dusk.

A special mention of Ambitatterous's Giveaway, you need to put on a small thinking hat but a fun one to read what everyone wrote!

Motif No. 9 (Parrot), 10 (Peacock) & 11 (Becky's Paper Clip)

I'm finally done with the Extreme Round Robin and sent out my last motif (or rather, motifs) to Becky, to make up for her long wait.

This parrot (Motif No. 9), tatted with mainly Flora and Coats size 20 threads, is the main one which I have been working on for months, which I feel there is still much for improvement.

Next is a small peacock (Motif No. 10) tatted with Olympus 40. Thought this might make a nice brooch.
And a pair of paper clips specially designed for Becky (Motif No. 11). Hope Becky likes the selection!

Next is the butterfly which I received from Camille earlier for this Round Robin. See those clunies! And it is tatted with fine thread! Now waiting for the last one from Wally.

So much for tattting. Kristine drew & coloured all the 4 panels and frame for this lantern, and I assembled them up. She was so happy when her teacher complimented it was super nice and it was picked to be hung up for the mooncake festival celebration in the school on last Fri.

Joey's BD Party, Motif No. 8 - Jolly Sun Paper Clip and Some Giveaways

We planned a simple birthday party for Joey over the public holiday on 21 Sep, inviting a few of her friends, classmates and little cousin. They did 2 stained glass (or rather plastic) pieces each, had some finger food and a few games, and ended off with the cake cutting.

Kristine did this card on her own, using marker pens for the butterfly and some leftover of the embellishments from the scrapbooking party she attended earlier. It is so colourful that I'm thinking how to take a photo of it to print into an ATC perhaps!

The 2 girls always like to doodle in the afternoon, instead of studying, sigh. Well, at least that's better than playing computer games or watching TV. It's their combined effort to come up with this drawing, fully coloured using colour pencils. (And again, I have problem uploading this the photo in the right orientation!)

I almost panic coming up with the paper clip pattern for this month, but luckily, inspiration came just barely a few days before the deadline. This will be Motif No. 8 for my 25 Motif Challenge and for Georgia's Online Tatting Class this month. It's rather hot this month here in Singapore, made me think of the sun. Well, these are my first attempt working Catherine Wheel joins! I think normal shuttle joins or onion rings would work too. To make it more adorable, add a pair of eyes and a pair of glasses to it. I have so much fun with this pattern, hope you will too! Only simple instructions given since it is more of a free-form design, the stitch count really depends on your tension.

Had to mention some fabulous giveaways. Over at Aileen’s Wicked Tats, she has a Hallowversary Mystery Giveaway. A very special and apt way to do a giveaway for the festival! Then, the Lady Shuttlemaker, Sherry, is having an on-going weekly giveaway while prizes last. And last but not least, here's something for the Breast Cancer Campaign, the Charming Exchange Breast Cancer Auction, with a giveaway and a preview of the auction for a great cause.

Lots of ATCs and Motif No. 6 and 7 "Dream Garden"

We had our monthly ATC session in Bishan Library on Thu. This month, we tried our hand at paper glazing (liquid embossing), as demonstrated by Jasper. Our ATC sessions are now an officially endorsed activity by the National Library Board!

ATCs done by everyone, finished with glazed.

Our theme for the month was "A Way with Words". These were what Kristine and myself did.

Terence gave Kristine a piece of what he did in zentangle that was inspired by her Kitty. He did it with such details!

So far, Kristine has traded her cards for these:
I did more ATCs with flower petals in a series - The Little Petal L Missy Series, with their names starting from A to Z.

And a cover for my ATC file:

These were what I traded recently.

Finally, I tatted these 2 motifs based on a base motif from Sharon for the Design-Tat group. These will be Motif No. 6 and 7 for my 25 Motif Challenge. The first motif was intended to be joined up to more of the same motif to form a bigger piece, while the second motif was intended to be on its own. Both were designed on a flower garden theme, so I'll call them "Dream Garden"; these will be Motif No. 6 and 7 for my 25 Motif Challenge.