Home Is Where The Heart Is, Everything Made With Love

Crafts are going slow for me now that we are coping without a domestic maid in the house.  Even much lesser time on the computer, hence the much lesser posts.  But still, there are bit of bit of swaps to show!

Here's my last piece of fabric birthday ATC for the Stitchin fingers' 2012 Birthday ATC swap.  It's for Maria Silva (Portugal), her birthday falls on the last few days of Dec.

For the Dec ATC-doll swap, I sent a pair of gingerbreads to Marinda Sundwall (USA). 

In return, Marinda did a pair of vintage-style girls in winter.  I like the colours and composition, and the very different style from the cards I have.  

For the Dec fabric flat Christmas angel swap, I received Judaline's snowman angel and Constance's white angel, ...

and Kim's X'mas tree angel.  This is really real big compared to my Christmas angel girl! I just finished sewing her for myself.

For the supposedly Christmas elf button fairy swap, I received a poinsettia button fairy from Kim and a snowflake button fairy from Sue. What creative people around;  amazing works!

For the inchies-onexone swaps, Debbie sent out all the Sep, Oct and Nov swaps together.  It is always a great joy to receive a big package.

Sep swaps: Pair of elephants (paper tote-style) from Polly (UK).  Zentangle, Zetti, Graffiti, Geometric by Polly again. Spiral glitter also by Polly, Edgar Alan Poe by Marjorie Grace (2 inchies), flower tile print with green rhinestone by KW. 

Oct swaps: "Chamber Pot" by Polly (UK).  Universal Love zentangle by KW, Paint splash by Polly, maple leaf sequin by Marjorie Grace (2 inchies).  Japanese lady by Linda Ellis, Chinese word "Xi" Happiness by Debbie House Girl with umbrella by Polly, Flower by Marjorie Grace.

Nov swaps: "Wintertime" by Brooke Guadagno.  Plum pudding from Polly (2 inchies), sweets & gingerbread tree from KW.  Hat & mittens by Polly (UK), hat & stockings (stickers) by Brooke Guadagno.  Believe, Happy "Holly" Days from Brooke Guadagno, Earth from KW, Reindeer from Polly.  Flower from Brooke G (2 inchies), Silver from Polly, Snowflake from KW.  4 very colourful collage with glitter from Polly.

Last Sat, I attended an upcycle workshop in the Queenstown Library.  (Met Richard & Rita there!)  Using whatever provided, I came up with this in the workshop.  I was quite aimless when I started, but it did take shape finally.

This was only a practice for the project we are going to undertake - to do a double page of an old book on the theme "Home is where the Heart is".  It didn't take me too long to decide what to do.  I had to deviate from my original plan to use the children's photos, and instead to use my girls' favourite soft toys.  The girls are so excited and more than just happy with the outcome!  

According to the library, all the altered books will be part of an exhibition in June.

Dec Snowpeople, Christmas Angels and Elves!

The Dec ATC session in Bishan Library was on the theme "Gifts". Lots of ideas for this!  A pity we decided to go China last-minute, and had to miss the ATC session.

Well, the first set I did was a gift box on each ATC, wrapped with metallic and cotton threads (employing what we did in Nov session!), and tied with printed ribbons.

The second set was a mini-book folded from a piece of rubber-stamped paper, and filled with cut-out gifts and quotes on gifts.

The third set was a Shugi-Bukuro ATC, scaled down from an actual one. Japanese would give cash gift (called Oshugi) for occasions like weddings, birthdays and anniversaries, in these special envelope cards, You can put the cash gift into a small paper pocket and insert it into the beautifully decorated envelope, embellished with mizuhiki cords twisted and tied into a decorative knot.

For the movable doll-ATC swap I hosted, Maryann Arnold's (USA) package came with lots of goodies! 4 beautiful gals, ribbons, sparking stars, lots of labels, and a face!

Riitta Rautio (Finland)'s ATCs arrived fast. Riitta did a pair of Finnish girls for me previously (Jul 2011). Glad to meet her in this swap again!

Kimmie Leeco (USA) did very different movable dolls.  Aren't they awesome!?!  

I have swapped with Kayenderes Green (Canada) previously (Jun 2011 and Jun 2012). Again, we did another swap. Kayenderes' works made me see things in a new light, a different way of making up the dolls. 4 flower doll ATCs, a fabric house ATC, ... 

and a beaded wooden needle case which she did herself, in exchange for tatting shuttles I'm sending her.

Flower Doll, Miss Racheline L. (The Petal L Missy Series - 18 of 26) ATCs, 1 die-cut flowers with wrapped string, pair of tatted butterflies ATC "Garden Made of Threads", a pair of tatting shuttles, some tatted flowers and butterflies. 

For the Nov doll-ATC swap, I did snowmen and snowwomen. Made good use of my die-cuts again!

This pair of snowman and snowwoman went to Kayenderes for the Nov swap.

And from Kayenderes, a pair of real cute snow people.

I don't do a lot of button fairies, but this button fairy Christmas elf swap is certainly an interesting one. One is going to Kim Miles (USA) and another to Sue Cox (USA). Sue has swapped a springtime button fairy with me in May 2011.

I managed to finish these Christmas angel fabric flat dolls before I went on the 2-week trip to Taiwan and China in mid-Dec. The dolls were cut from printed cotton.  I added some cut hollies & berries, and sewed on some sequins and tiny tatted poinsettia; the wings were done with ribbons. Quite pleased with my first ever fabric flat dolls! They flied to Kim Miles (USA), Constance Peterson (USA) and Judaline Zozaya (USA).

Will show what my swap partners did for the 2 Christmas swaps soon!

Happy New Year to all!!

Raggedy Ann Done, Tatted Heart and Weaved Hearts

After a week of hand-stitching, Raggedy Ann is finally done (phew!) and Kristine is hugging her. For those who have done these fabric dolls, do you hand-stitch them or sew on the machine ?

I didn't get any tatting done this week, only blocked this heart coaster which I completed some time ago. This piece is one of the hardest to block without any template, and I just could not get a sharp tip and as nice a heart-shaped as the original pattern by Denise Giles in the book "Ultimate Book of Tatted Doilies". Anyway, this is what I managed:

Incidentally, Kristine keeps talking about weaving some hearts for her Shichida homework. Not sure if this is what she wants, but Joey is so excited to learn to weave these paper hearts. She is really fast to catch on and understand when it comes to doing handiworks, unlike doing her school work.

Terrapins, Drawings, Doll and Tatted Flowers & Butterflies

It had been a busy week - my office work is piling up, the children's revision for the final examinations, the new terrapins, changing maid, ...

Here are the terrapins my DH bought for the children, but they ended up my charge. There are actually 3, but the third one isn't well, so we have put it into another container separately.

Found some of my children's drawings. These 2 are drawn by Kristine, I think she can draw better than the other 2.

These are drawn by Joey, she thinks so, apparently they were drawn some time ago.

Found this piece of fabric in a shop. I remember these type of fabrics were pretty common when I was a child and my grandfather made me one too, but of course, the doll was long gone. I'm going to sew this up for my girls.

And these are what I tatted up this week. My children and I love Vicki's ones so much, I tatted more with Anchor size 5 pearl cotton threads, and experimented with 2 sizes of the magnetic beads. The flowers progressed from left to right as I tried different stitch counts. Now to split them with the girls.