Kongming Lantern

Kongming Lantern (孔明燈) - it was said to be invented by the Chinese sage and military strategist Zhuge Liang. During the period of Three Kingdoms (220~280), Zhuge Liang was trapped in Pingyang (a city in ancient China) and he could not go out for help. However, Zhuge Liang, who was good at measuring wind direction, made a floating paper lantern to send out a message for help. Before long, he was saved by the army who received his lantern. Later, people call it kongming lantern as Kongming was the reverent term of address (i.e. Chinese style name) of Zhuge Liang.

I have only seen them in movies. Last month Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations at Kristine's school, we actually saw 2 been released. It would be a good guess that it was a first experience for most of us! See all the cameras and camera-phones snapping away!

Kongming lantern is constructed with a bamboo frame, covered with oiled rice paper and with a small candle inside the lantern. When the candle is lit, the air inside the lantern heat up rapidly. The density of the air inside reduces and the lantern rises into the air.

In ancient China, kongming lantern was usually used in wars. Nowadays, it is used for expressing good wishes (by writing well wishes on the surface of the lanterns), especially on Mid-Autumn and Lantern Festival. Kongming lantern is regarded as a symbol of “harvest success” or “well-being year after year”.
They really floated up and far, and soon out of sight even in the dark sky!

I love tatting bumble bees, especially this critter by Martha Ess, they are cute and fast to tat up. Here are all my bee inchies for the September Mingle!

Finally, I got my Y fabric ATCs done and mailed together with the Z ATCs to Sharon Scothern (UK) and Lyn Strauch (USA). They are a few months late, but they are better late than never. I was pondering on what to sew for the border, it suddenly struck me I could easily sew a "y" border. Just perfect for the alphabet!

And similarly, a long-awaited "Z is for Zinnea" from Merle (Australia).
My patchwork quilt is done up to the border - the result of 4 weeks of continuous hand-sewing. Next will be hand-quilting, more late nights!

See Valerie's quilt in her blog too. No prize for guessing - we're in the same class! It helps to have someone with you doing the same thing, movitating each other, having someone to listen and understand your frustrations and complaints.

My Computer Is Back! New Fave - Haiku and Patchwork

My computer was down and was sent in for repair. It is finally back today, and so I'm also back with my posting!

Haiku ... I don't remember learning it in my school days. I learned about haiku from my boy when he studied it in school a few years back, and more recently, my girl in her Primary Three class. Interesting poetry - the structure - and simple too! Just 3 lines with 5-7-5 syllables respectively, totally 17 syllables, and they need not rhyme!

Lenna organised a Haiku ATC swap, it certainly caught my attention, and soon, I'm composing! My language may not be fantastic, but I'm proud to say I composed them! Here's the first attempt to translate my haiku into ATC. They were done for the Sep ATC session at Bishan Library for the theme "Transition". Mine were titled "Transition~ From Dirt Road to Concrete Road" - a pair of footprints on mud.

And the 3 ATCs I'm submitting for Lenna's swap - "My Favourite Time". Calico painted with water-soluble crayons, my haiku printed and mod podged onto the fabric, buttonhole wheels hand-embroidered on, together with a pair of butterflies I tatted, and backed with an acid-free cardstock.

These are all the 5 I did!

Going back to the September ATC session in Bishan Library, I did another set of cards for trade "Transition ~ From Caterpillar to Butterfly". I love this quote by Richard Bach - "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."

ATCs I received from Rita (dog paper cutting - The Grey Hound, and the Stencil Wolf), Richard (Peranakan lady drawn with pen and colour pencils), Sor Huan (Mother and Child - dried plants with drawing in pen).

Did you know you can paint with those wooden disposable chopsticks? If you don't believe it, see these drawings everyone did with chopstick and Chinese ink in the half-hour!

The ABC's inchies I received from Rae Ann (USA). Cute!
Did I mention I joined a patchwork class? It's a beginner class on a weekly basis, so you know this is my first time doing patchwork. It's a small quilt with 6 blocks of 12" x 12" each. I'm hand-sewing the blocks, you can imagine how stress I am looking at all the patches of fabric! Ok, to make a fairer comment, it's stressful looking at the clock (speeding against time to complete my homework for the next lesson), but it's pretty relaxing to gather all those tiny stitches on the patchwork needle, and so fulfilling to see the blocks building up :) A triumphant feeling when the pieces meet exactly corner to corner, point to point!
Here are my 6 blocks all done up, going on to the sashes and corner stones. This was the progress in the middle of last week. I'm now sewing the border, and too busy with the sewing to take any photo yet!