August and September ATCs

My birthday ATC for Sharon McGrath (Australia) is slightly late. I made use of a part of a bigger tatted square motif for the background.

This is the corresponding August ATC.

And the full square motif I tatted as a model for Georgia Seitz.

I had to tat and sew up the September 2012 ATC too, so that I have 9 pieces for our current ATC exhibition in the Bishan Library.

Here is my fabric ATC calendar I did so far, dedicated to the birthday gals in the StitchinFingers Birthday ATC swap.  A blogsite has been set up for the exhibition (18 Aug - 12 Sep 2012).

August Green Paper Collage Challenge and Tatted Bookmarks

Remember The Green Paper Collage Challenge I did every month from Jan to Apr this year? The dear lady, Mary Green, has been sick, but she is feeling better and is now back to issuing the monthly challenge.  I almost missed it and just saw it today.  I did my ATC in the last moment and I just made up the crown as I tat and did it in one attempt without any blocking.  Certainly could have been better, but well, nothing is perfect.  So, here's my August entry for the challenge - "Royal Tour" ATC, with a yellow tatted crown. 

What have I been doing?  Tatting away!  For 3 colleagues who resigned in August, ...

and for Ivan's teacher, Mrs Jenny Wong, who accompanied my boy and 4 other boys to the University of California, Berkerly, for 6 long weeks.

And a musical comedy with bedazzling cabaret dances by the glamorous diva, Zaza (Ivan Heng)!

Swaps Received from Inchies-onexone Group

Finally, March, April and May swaps came in!  I have almost forgotten what I have sent in for these swaps - see my March (1), March (2), April and May items submitted.  

March swaps: Debbie House's Pocket ATC (oops, Debbie missed the inchies!) and Stitch in Time ATC.  The feather Simple Fold ATC with inchie has no name - wonder whose work is that?

Debbie House's Animal People ATC (for May swap) and Window ATC (for April swap).

Top 3 cards (March swaps), going from left to right...

Debbie House's paper punch inchies (1st 3 on the top left corner), Polly's paper punch inchies (2nd 3). 

Patricia Ann's Easter inchies (top 2), Polly's Spring inchies (middle top), and Debbie House's Spring inchies (bottom 2).

Candy/gum wrapper rinchies: Patricia Ann's kiss, Marjoeie Grace Sayers' Trident, Debbie House's Halloween and Polly's sweetie.

Mid-row cards - A to P alphabet inchies (March-May):

A, F, K, P - from Debbie House;

B, G, L, O - from Sandra Hanson;

C, D, E, H, I, N - from Marjorie Grace Sayer;

J, M - from Polly.

Last row cards -

Rinchies (choice) for May swap - Nuts from Lynn Lipchak, purr from Debbie House, yellow flower from  Marjorie Grace Sayer and flutterbies from Polly. 

Debbie House's spring flowers moos (April).

Last but not least, Debbie House's sleeping babe betwinchie and Lynn Lipchak's betwinchie cat (April).  


A set of inchies (choice) for May swap seems to be missing :(

Nevertheless, kudos to everyone for the wonderful, colourful, creative works, and Debbie for hosting the swaps!!

Catching Up on More Swaps

The latest Birthday ATC was done for Kalona Simmons (UK), with crocheted flowers and tatted butterflies.

A similar piece but done on a different felted background was sewn up for The Linen Shelf's July ATC.

June and July inchies/rinchies/ATC swaps sent to Debbie House (USA), plus 2 extra ATCs for Debbie herself.

The background for this ATC and the one on the top left-hand corner above were made up of scraps of torn fabrics (waste leftover from my previous fabric book project) and yarns weaved and fused together.  I'm quite happy with the result!

Rinchies "Flowers", "Happy" and inchies "Garden" - all embellished with tatted elements.

Inchies - Q is for Quiet, R is for Ring, S is for Snowflakes, T is for Tulip, U is for UFO, V is for Vase, W is for Wreath, X is for X-ray - all done with die-cuts/punch; Inchies "Oriental" and "Stamped images with glitter".  

I just love the challenge of squeezing sufficient details onto the 1-inch squares to bring out the themes.  Try it out if you don't believe!

Back in June, Kayenderes Green (Canada) surprised me with a mail in my letterbox, when I wasn't expecting any overseas mail.  

Kayenderes wanted to learn to tat and I have previously sent her some threads, so I sent more threads and simple patterns to her.

For Jun doll-ATCs swap, Sevgul Sumer Dielemans (Belgium) sent a pair of very lovely shimmering mermaids. 

My ATCs sent to Norma Soulet (USA) - cut from free postcards.

Last Thu ATC session in Bishan Library, we used postage stamps to create ATCs.  

The theme for the night was "Under the Sea".  For my "Riding the Waves" ATCs, I used the inside of envelopes to create waves and made some slits for fish to jump in and out of the waves.

Origami ATCs I received from swap with Rita, and beaded fish from Vicki.  The water lily pond was what I did using a postage stamp. 

In conjunction with our annual August ATC exhibition "ATC on Parade", our group planned for an international swap "I Am Hungry".  I did some ATCs ...

and developing the idea further into paper dolls - Ms Ambassador of Food 

and The Hamburger Boy.  These are done for the ATC-ArtDolls group July Challenge "Food People".

Jun Challenge was "Bird Cage Lounge".  These were what I came up with, putting my die-cuts to good use.

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".