Still Trying To Catch Up!

Don't know where my time went to, but every day passed in a flash - buried under files and memos at work, swamped with issues and endless tasks for my children in the evenings and weekends, coaching them for exams in May, accompanying them to school functions after exams, meeting teachers, and arranging everything for their school overseas trips.  Nowadays, students fly more than even the average working adults!  Never have I felt so overwhelmed.


I did not managed to do much craft, just couldn't find the time to sit down and concentrate, not to mention updating my blog.  Luckily tatting is so portable, at least  I could tat on the go!  Stitchin Fingers' May swap was on the theme of "Witch" - something I would not have considered previously, but a concept suddenly struck me.  The background was painted, the witch was highlighted using a black fabric cloth for the cloak and a tatted hat which I just made up.  Not too bad for a piece which I managed to finish in record time!

My witch flew over to Trillian (Germany), and another witch arrived in Singapore from UK from Kathryn Cooke.

My Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann with a modern feel!  


All the clothings were recycled from mailers sent by departmental stores.  This first pair of ATCs is done for Mary Flower (USA). 

And Lisa Wagenhurst (USA) sent a real cute pair of Raggedy Andy and Ann paper dolls in place of ATCs. 


For the birthday ATC swap, Eileen Carket (UK) likes colours that are close together.  I tatted this Celtic butterfly for her ATC.  This tatted pattern of Ruth Perry is one of my favourite butterflies so far.

Another piece tatted and sewn up for the month of June for The Linen Shelf's monthly ATC challenge.

June comes so quickly, I still haven't managed to catch my breath.  Okay, I went for a 2-week trip (so, there is even more backlog!), but hope I'll find the time to blog about it soon.

Catching Up

I have been real busy with lots of things in hand.  I have quite a bit to catch up and to show.  And this new blogger is giving me problems :(

After the first "Butterflies and Buttons" ATC, I tatted more button flowers to sew 2 more ATCs - 1 for Linda Keller (USA) for the Birthday ATC swap (her birthday falls in May), and another for the month of May for The Linen Shelf's ATC Challenge.

I finally decided to dig out my semi-precious stones to make these bird nest pendants, but personally, I still prefer flowers and butterflies to bird nests.  

  

Nancy Tracy's free pattern for April was a bumble bee. I think white wings would look better, but nevertheless, they are real fast to tat up with just 2 colours.

Here are my April inchies swaps sent to Debbie House (USA), the host.  Besides inchies, there are betwinchies, Moos and an ATC.  

The alphabet inchies are totally done using die-cuts.  I just love to challenge myself to squeeze in the details in the 1-inch square.

The Moos with tatted flowers and betwinchies with roses assembled from punch/die-cut. 

The ATC with windows "Who Are Behind M & R?".

My May inchies swaps are also mailed out to Debbie. 

Continuation of the alphabet inchies, all done with die-cut so far.  

ATC "Playing Pirate" - animal head with human body.

The April doll-ATC swap was Tooty Fruity.  My ATCs with Mr Pear and Miss Grape.  

And dolls received from Mary Flower (USA).  Mary's dolls also look so lovely and colourful.  I'm so happy to be swapping with her finally!!!

Button fairy, Ms Papillon Chic, created for the ATC-ArtDolls April challenge. 

And finally, for the May ATC session in Bishan Library, we did some collage work with painted textured papers, taking inspirations from Eric Carle.  We produced some really awesome works within the half hour!

Here's my piece, and the ATC I swapped with Mdm Au "M is for Mouse".

I Love Owls, Flowers and Butterflies!

Have you heard of "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", works of Dr. Betty Edwards? We, at the ATC session for Apr, were given a brief introduction and a little try out using a frame to draw. Just a small simple exercise, but truly amazing!

The theme for April ATC session was "Make It Stick". I used stickers for the first piece "Give Me a Hoot". The background was done with watercolours and pen. I love owls!

The second ATC I did, "Just Living is Not Enough", an assembled girl in a pretty collage dress and I adapted a quote by Hans Christian Andersen.

It was a variety of ATCs I traded for - an Iris-folded duck, a clay flower and collage works.

I was the lucky winner of Sally's giveaway for her 200th blog post milestone. These goodies came a while ago, but I was too busy to thank Sally yet. The cocobola rosewood hook is a super fine one, yes, both the hook size (0.4) and the workmanship! The silk draw-string bag is a big one, with more motifs tatted by Sally herself. The English oak dove is cut from a plinth that was underneath an alter in a church for more than a century long, oh wow! A very BIG thank you, Sally, for the lot of goodies!

I'm one of Sherry Pence's test-tatters for her newest book "Branching Encapsulation". No doubt it's a bit of time consuming to encapsulate all those threads, but if you like flowers and like them in a number of colours, then you would like this technique and the book.

Seeing the garden of tatted flowers certainly brighten up the day anytime!

A token of appreciation I received from Sherry - a skein of her HDT! Thank you, Sherry!

More tatted flowers. This is from one of the earliest Japanese tatting books I have, it's one of the prettiest flower designs in my opinion.

My ATC went to Elizabeth Watson (Australia) for the Stitchin Fingers' March ATC swap.

And from Heike Thurecht-Funk (Germany) for the March swap.

Heike's ATC was a very bright and sparkling piece of applique with beads and sequins. Thank you for the fabrics too, Heike!

April swap was in too - "Butterflies and Buttons" done by Patricia Gellon (Ireland).

And my tatted button flower piece that went to Heike (Germany).

Some more tatting done for Joo Hwee, a long time colleague and boss, who has quitted her hectic job to find new directions in life.

I haven't managed to get the alphabets right yet, still need more tweaking. Owe her first.

I have not done art doll for a while, so I jumped in for this butterfly fairy doll swap. I made up these paper dolls with different parts I found on pamphlets and combined with die cuts, they are butterfly fairies resting on their favourite flowers.

I sent to Norma Soulet (USA)

and received from Barb Glasier (USA).

I love owls, flowers and butterflies!!

April ATCs

Susan Highfield (Australia) is an English and she loves the Tudor, Elizabethan & Victorian era's. Susan also likes flowers, particularly roses. I thought this is the perfect thing for her birthday ATC - tatted Tudor roses! I love this design of Rosemarie Peel though it was sometimes back since I last tatted this pattern.

As again, the same tatted motifs from the birthday ATC made up the my piece for The Linen Shelf's ATC Challenge. This is my April ATC.

My April entry for The Green Paper Collage Challenge is an ATC titled "Dear Rose", with a red tatted rose.

OK, I managed to find the last set of inchies for the March swaps - scraps from round paper hole punch. The white circles are the scraps from the puncher, the metallic honeycomb background is what you can purchase, a by-product from the manufacture of sequins if I'm not wrong.

Here are the rest of the ATCs with inchies that I'm sending in to Debbie H. for the March swaps - "Who's Hiding?", a simple fold ATC with an origami frog inchie.

"What I Sewed" ATC with a pin-cushion inchie.

These are ATCs with a pocket, housing inchies inside. I made them into corner bookmarks, the hearts all adorned with tatted flowers.

Got some tatted alphabets done too. You might have guessed it - they are for a colleague who has resigned.

I have a lot more photos to load, especially swaps and gifts received. Will try to post again real soon!

Tatted Poppy ATCs for March

Jeannette Luttmer (Canada) likes flowers, trees and gardening and her favourite flower is poppy. So, I decided to tat a poppy for Jeannette's birthday ATC, and ended up running late trying to design one when I couldn't find any which I like. This tatted poppy may not look quite like the real flower especially when it's 2D, but I hope this unique ATC will further brighten up the special day for Jeannette, whose birthday falls on 1 Apr.

After I sent off the ATC to the birthday gal, I worked on a second piece for the month of March for The Linen Shelf's ATC Challenge.

Click on Feb ATCs to see all the Feb ATCs everyone has created.

I'm back to creating inchies and rinchies. Here's are the Easter sets embellished with tatted eggs, rabbits and flowers.

and rinchies with candy wrapper as the base.

I have done another set of inchies, but where have I misplaced them??? Hope I can find them soon enough to mail them out for swap.