ATC Exhibition. East Coast. Locked Room. Movies.

Finally the ATC exhibition is up! We put them up during the Nov ATC session.  The theme on books was not easy, but we did it!  The exhibition at Bishan Library will run till the Dec ATC session on 10 Dec 15.

My fractures on my right foot have healed although the muscles and everything else except the bones, are still sore and at times, painful to walk.  According to doctor, these healings come after the bones and will take some more time.  Guess that goes any December travel.  But having cooped up in the house for 2 months and with the children starting their school holidays, it's time for some activities, with the help of some oral medicine and anti-inflammatory creams.

I always cycle in Changi direction, this time we went the other way. The renovation works at Area A East Coast Park were completed and now links to Gardens By The Bay East after Area A. I cycled to Marina Barrage and back to Area C leisurely, while my girl and her friend skated. Very sunny day and I had to slop on so much sun block, but it was a great day.  Enjoyed the very beautiful garden and sea views.

Locked rooms are springing up everywhere in Singapore since they first started some 2 years back. Have you escaped from one yet?  We went to the Circus Of The Dead in Clarke Quay Central.  Took an extra 5 to 10 min on top of the given 1 hr to free ourselves from the room.

The lights were a bit too dim to work efficiently, though it did match the atmosphere.  The room was comfortable for a group of four, although they will take a maximum of eight. The time passed fast, whether or not you are watching the countdown clock. There were so many ups-an-downs. Well, we would have gone to a second room if the rates are cheaper. We ended up catching the movie "The 33".  Can you keep your sanity when buried deep underground for 69 days? There are certainly miracles. Just like how Philippe Petit walked on a tightrope 400m above ground between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in 1974.  Did you hold you breath watching "The Walk"?  I did. 

ATC Sharing Sessions, Tatted Needle Book and ATCs Received

In addition to the ATC on Parade exhibition, we had 2 ATC sharing sessions - in Bishan Library on 7 Aug and in Ang Mo Kio Library on 15 Aug. There weren't big crowds, but comfortable-size groups for the 4 of us to share some of our collections in the hour-long sessions. It was an eye opener even among ourselves, going through all the ATCs in so many different mediums, different themes and different styles created by people from all walks of life from every part of the continents. Amazing!

That's me in Bishan Library ...

and in Ang Mo Kio Library. Both photos taken by Moses.

I have received another tree ATC from Teresa, this one is embroidered on fabric. Thank you, Teresa!

This is the first silk ribbon embroidery piece in my collection, really love it! These lovely ATCs were created by Ati in Norway.

I have been thinking of making a needle book for ages. Since I started sewing all the fabric ATCs, my needles are everywhere, but sometimes, they are simply nowhere to be found : ( . I know this must be the time to make a needle book. Tatted flowers with Gutermann Sulky threads adorned the felt pieces put together in a booklet. Oh, I love pink!

I always try to make another one similar ATC, in addition to the one traded, for keeping. This is mine for keeping, with "ellen" embroidered on the bag. Now, I'm stitching alphabets, though it's still a long way to perfecting my words.

With barely half a month's time from Teachers' Day, it's full swing into making up the teachers' presents for the children in-between their homework. Mummy has to help too with most of the cutting and giving lots of guidance on the stitching! What are we making? We'll see next week!

ATC On Parade 2010

Received this latest piece of fabric ATC from Linda Higgins of the UK. She used a technique which she has not done before - ironing fresh flowers from her garden onto bondawebb and then ironing a sheer voil over the top and adding stitching. I must say the flowers turned up clearer in the photo, the sheer voil on top adds a mysterious, dreamy effect to the piece. A very co-ordinated felted butterfly is sewn on top with metallic thread!

I really love the reddish paper used for the qipao of the junk mail doll I made for Linda Marino, and hope to try to squeeze out enough of it to make another dress, but it was not quite sufficient, so I went into the red border, and voila, quite a nice effect too! I'll keep this one for myself!

These 2 pieces I took the longest to complete, had to keep repainting the fabric to get the colours I wanted, and black is really difficult to control! The effect of the sky at sunset, and the glowing river turned up lovely.

Now, the ATC On Parade exhibition. What we are exhibiting -

This is mine.

The top 3 with tatting, the middle row are dolls and the centre piece is my first button fairy, the last row are 3 of my embroidered flowerscape showing the progression from just French knot flowers to hills with cut flowers and the latest river banks.

Joey's ones.

Kristine's ATCs.

And my name plate!

The others....

Two News!! And The Latest Junk Mail Dolls!

Two news to share, if you have not heard them!

ATC on Parade 2010 - our 3rd Artist Trading Card exhibition.

This year, our ATC exhibition will be held at 2 locations - from 5-12 Aug 10 at Bishan Public Library, and from 13-19 Aug 10 at Ang Mo Kio Public Library. In addition, we will be sharing some of our ATC collections, including many international ones, on 7 Aug (Sat), 4.30-5.30 pm at the Bishan Library Programme Zone, and on 15 Aug (Sun), 3-4 pm, at the Ang Mo Kio Library Programme Zone. Do drop by if you can make it.

We will also holding our regular monthly trading session on 12 Aug (Thu), 6.30-8.30 pm at the Bishan Library Programme Zone. Come join the round-robin ATC creation that evening!

Next is Georgia Seitz's grand project - 2 handmade crazy quilts embellished with lots of tatted motifs by tatters all over the world!

Well, the quilts are up for drawing, tickets by donation that will go into the Tat Days Scholarship Fund. More information here can be found here:

http://www.tatdaysscholarship.info/

Just flown in is this junk mail doll from Cindy Whiddon of USA, yes, I said junk mail! I couldn't belive it either! On closer inspection, the limbs are noticeably made up from the inside of envelopes, but the dress? Look like a quilted dress, but made up from flyers!

This is my doll made for Linda Marino. She is already flying to the States. Her limbs and shoes are cut from flyers from Maybank, her qi pao cut from some Reader's Digest contest flyers, the Vanda Miss Joaquim motifs on the dress from the printed stamp on envelopes (I found different colours of the flower!), and the head from an opera flyer.

I'll end off this post with Kristine's latest Chinese calligrahphy works from school, she was so happy to show me these 2 pieces last Friday, especially the one on the left which her teacher graded an A+!

The words can be translated as "Country thousand of miles on" for the left piece, and "Good moral can prolong the life" for the right one. Did a bit of homework myself and found this: 明代养生家吕坤说“仁可长寿，徳可延年”，“养徳为养生第一要也”。Guess that's how the saying started.

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!

OWOH Win, More Tatted Entries, and New Fabric Flowers

First of all, I received these 2 prints from Vickie for winning her One World One Heart Giveaway in Feb. I don't think she mentioned how big these teapot prints are and I wasn't sure what to expect, perhaps postcard-sized ones, so imagine my surprise when they came in a 42 by 32 cm box! Cheerful and gorgeous colours, thank you, Vickie!

Here are the other entries for the Pameran Poskad exhibition mentioned in my earlier post. The 6th one is "Heart To Heart" - these 2 hearts are what I test-tatted for Martha Ess for her book "Tat's Amore" with a good collection of her tatted heart patterns. This pattern is not a very fanciful one, but has a very lacy feel to it, especially when tatted with finer threads.

Next is "My Sweet Heart", pattern by Pam Palmer in her Tatting Treats book. This is mounted on a 3-fold card, blank inside.

Nina Libin's butterfly bookmark, loaded with Czchekoslovakia glass beads and tatted with Olympus 40 thread. This has been one of my favourite beaded bookmark piece all the while. The piece can be detached from the card to be used as a bookmark. I made the flower girl too to go with the whole theme!

Another piece with tatted butterflies - "A Gathering of Butterflies" with Rozella F Linden's celtic butterfly tatted with Flora 20 threads and Adelheid Dangela's Elise butterfly tatted with Manuela 20 thread.

Last but not least, "Just Clips' - just my paper clip designs: the Jolly Sun, butterfly, lucky 4-leaf clover, and the newest goldfish and flower bloom, which will go into hopefully my planned paperclip design book.

Two more colleagues have resigned, this didn't help in our already heavy workload :( I only managed to squeeze whatever little time I have to sew these fabric flower brooches for Sallyna to use with her headscarves. My first attempt and feeling quite pleased with them. My tatted butterfly paperclip to go with them naturally!

Happy Tatting Day!

Happy Tatting Day - it's 1st Apr here in Singapore now, and it's International Tatting Day! I'm not sure who started this or when, but it's sure better than celebrating the good-for-nothing April Fool's Day. Tatting uses a needle or shuttle to create lace which is a more delicate of work compared to crocheting. On this day, tatters around the world celebrate our hobby and introduce it to others. Often, we celebrate by eating chocolates and making tatted lace. Over at Ambitatterous, Isdihara is celebrating with a lovely giveaway. Want to learn tatting? Hop over to the TattingChic's blogoversary giveaway for a chance to win the book "Learn To Tat"!

Time flies! How true! 2 weeks has gone by in a flash. My office work sure gets busier by the day, but no, I haven't stopped tatting. In fact, I was tatting up quite a bit and doing them up for the up-and-coming Pameran Poskad 2010 to be held on 18 Apr -1 May 2010. There is no restriction on the medium, but my 10 pieces are all tatted laces - some tatted previously and some new ones, but all mounted on acid-free cardstocks with added embellishment for presentation. I'll show them over 2 posts.

This first piece is "Parrot Talk". I think this is one of the greatest parrot design, by Mary Parrott. My own design is a far cry from Mary's one. I tatted Mary's parrot pattern twice, one with size 10 threads, and this one with size 20 threads. Cool, right!

Next is this "Blooming In Spring" - a bookmark design by Jos van der Helm. Another one of my favourite floral designs.

Ha, owls are next in the line! "Listen To The Wisely" comprises 2 of my small owl design, and Dianna Stevens' horned owl bookmark design. HOOT!

I did 2 pieces in creative tatting, which I have not done for some time. Hope to tat more flowers for my girls' dresses and clips, but see how it goes later. Well, this is "Floral Scroll" - with embossed background done with QuiuKutz embossing dies.

And the last one for now - "Pretty In Red".

I had to miss KBCC's activity last Sat to rush these entries. Betsy taught the group to weave alphabets and patterns onto regular pens, the Friendship Pens. I didn't do these during my school days, but I did make some Friendship Bands in this form some years back. Managed to dig some up and gather them together for a shot. Not too bad, right?

Just realised I have not posted about these 2 fabric Easter ATCs I received from Ann Seidel of Germany. They are a great addition to my collection, thank you, Ann!