A Few Great Swaps

When was the last time I sewed a fabric postcard?  I think this should be it - only 2 designs and a total of 3 pieces so far.  This time, I did 6 with our Singapore merlion. The theme - "Colours of My Country", nothing more suitable for the theme than our national icon!  Quite pleased with the results. I used felt for the merlion and they were sewed together with sequins. And I just love to crochet these small hearts. They went to Lisa Alff (USA), Constance Peterson (USA), Hollie Poley (USA), Joanna McCreadie (UK) and Jeanette Sillonis (USA).

Postcards received from (top left going clockwise) Constance, Lisa, Hollie, Joanna, Vicky Christodoulou-Baker (Canada) and Jeanette. 

Remember the painted paper collage swap? Mine came in from Debra Claxton (USA)  with a lovely postage stamp people ATC too!

Paper Traders always has something new.  This time we swapped tunnel books.  They are fun!

"Something Wicked" received from Pam Colosimo (Canada). 

And mine for Pam C.

Did a second book to keep.

More tag swaps.  Soon there will be enough tags for a second book (my first tag book here)!  I did my tags with the tatted rose lino prints.  As this swap is for tag-on-tag, I tatted rose for the small tag to match the print. (I just couldn't stop tatting these sweet roses!)  They went to Pam Colosimo (Canada), Cathy Calamas (USA) and Barb Adams (USA).

Received these tags from Debra Claxton (USA), Barb A and Beckie Holso (USA).

A New Winner!

I have been so busy, my blog has been neglected. I'll do a quick update.

First, I have to redraw a winner for my giveaway, as I have not heard from Tatterjil. New winner is Comment #15 - Diana of B4UStamp Studio 653!

Diana has never heard of tatting outside her quilting group, so I presume this rose bookmark will be the first tatting piece she will own now! Please contact me with your snail mail address so that I can mail it out to you, Diana :)

I received a really nice and cheerful fabric piece of work from Donna Chapman (USA), with a 3D sewing machine, pin-cushion and pins. Donna might have misread the Alphabet ATC swap for a postcard swap, so her "Q is for Quilting" turned up in my letterbox as a postcard! Can you guess what is this ATC below - the one with the Finnish postage stamp? The background is a page from a Finnish dictionary.

I really give up - don't know if it's my computer problem or the blogger problem or what, some of the photos just will upload in all sort of funny orientations. It spoils some of the fun, right? I really can't help it :( Anyway, when the card is opened up, it reveal a note and a landscape on one side...
and flip it over the other side, there are 2 paper dolls for the doll-ATCs, "My Country", and a nice sweet description. Riitta drawn these 2 dolls wearing the Finnish national costumes based on folk traditional festivity dressing in the 18th and 19th centuries. The one on the left (or top in this wrong orientation) is wearing the Ruokolahti region dress, and the one on the right/bottom is wearing the Keuruu region dress.
It is such a lovely concept - the booklet form, and when folded up, it slipped nicely into the ATC protector! Great work!

Then, there is this yummy-looking felted cupcake ATC from Linda Huggins (UK) for the July cupcake swap.

And my own Cupcake ATCs below. A piece went to Cat Candow (Canada). I applied mod podge to the fabrics to make sure the words and paper cupcake (top one in the ATCs) stayed on the fabric, and I sewed the bottom cupcake.

Why are they called "Recipes"? Cos' there are actually recipes tucked behind in a pocket!

The Q ATCs are done and sent too! Q is for Queen Bee. And I found my flower loom to make some loom flowers!

My 2 girls were so excited with the loom, they had to make some flowers with it too :)

THE ATC on Parade Exhibition is underway now at the Serangoon Library, located in NEX, till 31 Aug, afterwhich the exhibition will move to Bishan Library from 2 too 22 Sep. Here are just some of the panels in the exhibition:

Some Tatting Gifts and A Little Tatting Giveaway

This is the 2nd exchange I received from Kayenderes Green (Canada). Kayenderes always has such cute ideas for her ATCs. Who wouldn't like her "I Love Strawberry" and "I Love Banana" doll ATCs!?!

I sent some thread samples to Kayenderes in our earlier exchange, and she has graciously included another 2 hot and cute mini fabric postcards for me! Thank you for such a lovely package, Kayenderes!!

I had been real busy with tatting gifts for 4 colleagues who are leaving the company this month. 3 rose bookmarks,

plus a tatted floral pendant/pin for Lee Teng as she has been such a great help on my projects, and another piece for myself. Still tatting another leaf bookmark for Benjamin even as I'm writing and posting this :(

After taken a break from the inchies mingle last month, I'm back this month with 2 sets in the Oriental theme. Made good use of all my Chinese name seals I custom-made in China. There are 3 different ones here, I should have another 1 more seal lying somewhere in 1 of the houses. That's the problem with shifting house so many times, I can remember where I kept my things in the very old house, but not the newer places, sigh.

Anyway, the coloured rubbing are done with coloured pencils over old Chinese coins, and the big Chinese characters are cut with die-cuts using silver foil paper, gold origami paper, brown cork, and black foam. The red and white backgrounds are different type of Chinese calligraphy papers.

I was out the whole of last weekend, Saturday to do some Make & Take projects at a craft shop (more about this in my next post), and Sunday to Sentosa Resorts World. We went for the "Voyage de la Vie", Singapore's 1st theatrical circus and the first resident show in Festive Grand, Sentosa RW, featuring an international cast of circus stars from 16 countries.

It was really a mix of everything - some dances with 3 ballads, some doses of magic with more aerobatic feats, all tied loosely in a simple script of a Boy who received a mysterious box which opened up to reveal the mischievous Game Master, who in turn, introduced him to the Lantern Keeper who guided him on a journey through his imagination and where he encountered many extraordinary characters. Moral of the story: It is the Journey and not the Destination which gives life its meaning.

Kristine agreed with me, we preferred "The Lion King" for the music, singing and costumes; the "Vision" for the magic performances, and the circus in Guangzhou for the circus feats, but well it's still a show worth watching especially with the Family Package deal (4 tickets for the price of 2)!

Moving on to the 8th day (15 Jun, Wed) of the China trip, we started at the East Gate of Xiaoqikong.

The first place we came to was the Xiaoqikong Ancient Bridge (小七孔古桥), 25m long, 4m wide and 4m high, built in 1836, is an important bridge linking Libo to Kuangxi. The place here gets its name from this bridge which has 7 holes beneath it. The scenary is most beautiful here.

The road to the left will lead to Kuangzi, some 10km away! Another path to the right leads to the Laya Waterfall (拉雅瀑布).

The Forest on Water (水上森林) was such a fun place to trek through, and the children love playing water gun here. The water was real cold.

Another waterfall, the clear water falling down the green forest was a great sight, especially set against the tree with full bloom.

We had come to the start of the waterfall.

That afternoon, we arrived at Kaili City and stayed at Crown Plaza Hotel.

Here we were at a night market.

I have not forgotten I mentioned a little giveaway! It will be a tatted rose bookmark like those in the photo above. You can choose a pink or blue rose. Fret not if you are not into rose for the gentlemen, I can tat a butterfly to replace the rose if you prefer that. 1 chance for leaving a comment in this post, and a 2nd chance if you leave another comment telling me you are following my blog. I will close the comments by the end of 8 Aug, and the drawing will be on our National Day on 9 August using the random number generator.

Iris Folding Fabric Egg Just In Time for Easter

I didn't show in my last post what we did for the ATC session at Bishan Library last Thursday. We did drawing, cartoon drawing, using Rich Davis' Pick and Draw cards Moses supplied. It was pretty easy, even the children did very well. I am terrible with drawing and only managed these.

Traded a number of ATCs at the trading session this time: the pair of butterflies done by Sor Huang, and the B is for Bear from Jennifer. Another 3 pieces are currently not in my hands yet, so I can't show you yet.

Kristine has been busy with her school works, calligraphy and Malay lessons, so these are some rare pieces she did - C is for Cat and Secret Land, and swapped with me.

I have one person asking for another Joy card, so I did another iris-folding piece, and one more with an "e" for my girl, Joey.

Here's the iris-folding fabric postcard from Leah M (USA) - spring-coloured egg. Sure cheerful looking and so neat, and just in time for Easter!
My fabric Alphabet ATCs are back in production! These are my K cards with Martha Ess' tatted koala pattern. More alphabets are on the way!