The new begining

Happy New Year ! May you have a year that is filled with love, laughter, brightness and hope . Hoped all of you had a great start into the year too.

I spent the eve of the new year countdown with a group of friends over some coffee and tea and the New Year house cleaning. In just 27 days from the New Year I will be welcoming the Year of the Rooster and celebrating Chinese New Year. Like always it will be a mad rush to get things done both at work and home before the Chinese New Year holidays.

Today, it's exactly 2 weeks before the big day and I've not even started baking. It's been almost three months since I haven't been feeling myself; it all started with a bad sore throat that leads to a bad cough and feeling feverish at times that the Doctor was afraid it was dengue but no, thereafter a congested  and stuffy nose that went on for weeks that literally drives me crazy. As I am putting in the final words for this post, my sniffing and snuffling is no longer as bad, the coughing as somewhat subsides and that I believed is a good thing.

Secret stitching -  I teased the girls from my local group, Where Stitches Gather (WSG) on FB with the photo. None was even closed to guess what they thought I was stitching. I didn't reveal what it was then,  I wasn't sure as yet if this will turned out to be what I had envisioned it to be.

Pineapples

I was working on these pineapples applique finishing it just in time for the meetup.

The idea came from the girls themselves, primarily BJ who was coaxing all of us into a Pineapple Quilt. I didn't plunged myself into the Pineapple SAL, quilting is not really my cup of tea at the moment.  Here's a peek of the  6 pineapples applique before I size it down individually.

At this point, I thought my pineapple applique would make a nice table runner.

Why the Pineapples ?

The pineapple is recognized as a traditional expression of “welcome” throughout the South and in areas along the Eastern Seaboard. Appearing on all sorts of décor – from door knockers to quilts – the fruit symbolizes those intangible assets we appreciate in a home: warmth, welcome, friendship and hospitality. Whereas, Chinese like playing with words and symbols. The symbolic meaning plays an important part during the Chinese New Year festivity.  Often homonyms (words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings) are gladly used. Names of dishes and/or their ingredients which will be served sound similar to words and phrases referring to good wishes are  expressed during the Chinese New Year, while other foods hold a symbolic meaning.  The pineapple is placed in homes to bring wealth luck and excellent fortune .The Chinese pronunciation "wong-lai"  (pineapple) means "luck had arrived". 

Pots of Tea & Coffee - We are a small group and we like it that way. The girls from the WSG with  Mr T, minus Jackie who was camera shy; had an  Afternoon Tea at the Harrods of  Kuala Lumpur last weekend. It's our first meet of the year. A joy to have Jess & Mr T who travelled all the way from up North to meet us. We were each gifted with a Light Planner  from BJ, thank you so much BJ . I dare say we had a wonderful time catching up; we talked so much and laugh so much and even drew names for our Secret birthday Swap due for end of this year. It's going to be as hard to decide what the item will be for one as is for four .

The surprise :  My Pineapple applique pincushion and a hand made & hand painted Rooster mini bowl. Mr T received a mini bowl minus the pin cushion. I wasn't thoroughly happy with my choice of fabrics, prim fabrics would definitely be the better choice, sadly,  I was caught in a time of not having any desire to go fabric shopping and thus, everything came my stash. 

I want to thanks all who had commented in my last post, all of you have not heard from me individually yet, but do be known that I read everyone's comments which I appreciate a lot for leaving me your thoughts .

I am not certain as yet if I will be back for another post before the Chinese New Year holidays begins, but in case if I don't , wishing all happy stitching

and to all who celebrates Chinese New Year

Wishing all good health, good fortune and abundance of luck

2017

A new month has come

The weeks has flown by so fast and just like that, August is here. It certainly didn't take long for the weekend to wrap up week after week. The last two weekend of July had me attending two weddings. We just celebrated the first birthday in the family and more to follow soon from now onwards. 

Christmas in July - My swap partner hasn't a blog and I have been contemplating if I should post what I have sent to my partner. I have no news yet since I mailed out on 16 June, it's been over a month but where it went I supposed it might take awhile to arrive.  These are what I've sent to my partner  hosted by Kim

The work in progress - For my swap partner

Choice #  One

INSPIRATIONAL WORD

(words are choice of the stitcher)

Felt Hoop Art

Here's all done

"Bless Ewe"

I had a thing with  "Ewe", sheeps are simply adorable in designs. I had to remind myself constantly that I was working on "Inspirational Word" and not the sheep because "sheep" was not listed as the theme. This is my first Hoop Art working with felt and applique on a hoop

SANTA

Choice # Two

Project zipper pouch with Santa design fabric

the work in progress

The linining on the inside

Added a pocket with a Crossed Stitched Santa

(sorry just can't recalled Santa design)

This is my first flat pouch sewing with a zipper.

It took me two nights just to figured out how to put the lining on the pouch so the seams are all on the inside of the pouch sandwiched between the outer fabric and the lining. Of course I had to tweaked a little and cheat a little to get this successfully done, a bit not so perfect thou. It's a bold move to embark on this pouch. I had second thoughts so many times of abandoning this project.

What holds in the pockets are the extras that I've sent along too

 ANGEL
Theme choice # 3

A crochet Angel

Angel was my first thought for this swap. For this,  I went rummaged my local LNS near me  and found this Anchor thread which is slightly stiff to handle but still manageable.

Angel wing in a pineapple pattern
Drying out in the kitchen

The Angel waiting for her wings

Angel all completed. Am super happy with how this Angel turned out despite me not having any chart but simply working on my intuition.
To give it a bit of color I added a gold ribbon with red rose and red bell and some pink seed beads

I doubt that I can ever crochet another exact replica of this angel again.

I didn't take notes while work in progress.

Swap thoughts - I had  fun working on my swap gifts. Selecting the theme wasn't hard, there's ample choice to choose from. The moment I scroll through the list, my mind started computing the possibilities of what I can and would like. This swap gave me an opportunity to try some new craft that I had so wanted to embark, like the Hoop Art but never did because I was always so preoccupied with my current affairs. This swap literally took me out of my comfort zone. I was so excited for days, planning and reading up tutorials , there was so much to see and read and sourcing for materials. No doubt I had my hair pulling moment especially with the zipper pouch. I just couldn't sew straight along the zipper and then I had problem with the lining. Crocheting the Angel was a sheer challenge. Seriously, my craft table hasn't been so messy for a very long time

About stitichin' - A small stitch finish, a freebie from The Nebby Needle which I never knew of Nebby Needle until now. Thanks to Vickie who posted the link, you can find the freebie  here . I thought it would go pretty on a card for a GF

Another Hoop another art. My second piece for a girlfriend who just moved into her new home

I think the hoop bug had gotten into me. Here's another one. I stitched this awhile ago. I found the perfect size hoop to finish this into.

Another one finished from stitching awhile back

Weather -  We had a gloomy morning when  Typhoon Nida swipe across Hongkong on Tuesday morning.  I though it would rain but it didn't, the air was a little chill but then I am near a hilly area.
By mid morning, the sun was shinning brightly.

Tete-a tete - Another round of meet-up with the girls from college over an Afternoon Tea at Majestic Hotel . We had so much fun chatting not of the old times but what lies ahead and a possible trip somewhere

Late Nite Out - Actually not really late, just after work but I rarely ventured out to town after work these day. But that Thursday evening I went out to meet up with DS, Vincent on his way back from his coaching class and we had dinner at Franco in KLCC, our iconic Twin Towers

Salad Francais at Franco

Network Issue - I had some issue with my cellphone some days back after I received a notification to update which I did. Thereafter, I got this pop-up text that something has stopped working. As a result I had to switch "off and on" my cell which will only allow me to use one apps at a time and that was driving me crazy. To resolved the matter, I had to factory set my phone and whatever that I haven't saved is all wiped out clean. On the other hand, I am still having issue with posting comments in blogs, although I could still post a comment but  a notification  "Delivery Status Failure" text will pop-up every time . Now that I have not figured out what went wrong. I thought by resetting my phone the problem would go away but apparently it did not. So it had to be the desktop pc I am using. Now that's one problem, I do not where to begin to look for the source.

Hope you a had had  lovely weekend and here's wishing you a great week ahead

Another crafty adventure

This is a a belated post, I couldn't possibly shared this any earlier, not before my private pincushion exchange with Margaret W was first delivered just so she don't get any hints that hers will carry a similar theme, LOL!

Removable top for storage of pins or just about anything

He seems to be asking "what are you looking at ?",  doesn't he?

A lacy neck warmer scarf with weaved fringe

Crocheting with Sidar Snuggly and multicolor yarns was an interesting change . Its fascinating to watch the multicolor yarns emerging like a color pattern as I go along . Finishing it off by weaving the fringe with  the multicolor yarns in chain stitch. Both are remnants yarns from my stash. There's no pattern for this, all I did was with ch, tr and db with a bit of fan like motif . Start with a long chain of  any length you desire. I supposed its the multicolor yarn that make this all interesting.

Stitching some seasonal smallies

A walk into yesteryear's

One Saturday morning in October, I had a chance to walk into the Old  KTM Railway Station located in the hub of the city with its Neo-Moorish/Mughal architecture that was built in 1910, designed by Arthur Benison Hubback, a British.  It been years since I last travel on a train, not the Komuter but in a real coach train.

Can you imagine its splendour during the times when it was the main station connecting the North, South and East Coast? There's so much history here.

Sadly the station is pretty quiet today, its glory all gone when the station's original importance diminished and redundant facilities were withdrawn. In the name of modernisation and technology, this station has been replaced, relocated to a newer facility known as KL Sentral. Today the station  caters only the intercity train services,  the Komuter Electric and cargo train. The entire building is almost deserted  except for a bus company that took tenant on one of its building facing the main road. The Heritage Station Hotel, fast food chain such as KFC and A& W was forced to close. As I ventured into its lobby, I found  some exhibits showcasing train equipments of yesteryear's at the far end. I supposed its an effort to convert the station into some sort of a railway museum?

A model of the coach which I actually did ride many-many years ago, travelling with my grandma from the North to visit my aunt Julie during the school year end holidays. All of a sudden I felt so old . LOL !

A model  locomotive

Lastly, a site model of the iconic KTM training school and administration office in Sentul cum train station which was operational since 1905. It was reported that it once contained the finest integrated engineering workshop in the world. The new central workshop and training facilities is now located to a quiet town of Batu Gajah, the Silver State Perak, a state in the north. The old train station building was retained however and given a new image and retrofitted to support the modernize electric train to service Sentul Komuter lines.

Reminiscing the yesteryear's.

Hope you enjoyed the walk with me and  wishing you a Happy Weekend !

Conspiracy of a private affair

For a Pincushion Exchange that is !
If I do recalled correctly, its our  first private exchange , Margaret W and me. There was no theme nor medium of finishing mentioned,  we only agreed on the dateline.  This is an inspiration drawn from visiting the Strawberry Farms.

With my package I included a Glass Vial which is my second made while the little dress is actually a miniature store bought Cheongsam fob.

I've made the vial cover magnetic by placing a thin magnetic strip  on the inside (bottom) top cover so one may store needles and retrieve it easily

The Pincushion, my Bucket of Berries

Material : Felt and french knots
I supposed you can use beads to replace the french knots
Its actually a bold step for me to use french knots all over the berries, knowingly that I have not perfected my knots yet and when one had knotted one too many, I got confused !

Bucket : Painted French Inspired  design on clay from  Kaison

I hope the strawberries are giving an illusion that its filling up the bucket .

 You can judge the size here

 I've added a pumpkin pincushion under the cover for added support

Removable for actual storage space below, the dangling single strawberry actually helps position the cover

 The before assembling

The packaging 

Gonna tempt you with the real thing !!
Yum ~ Yum

Nancy of Victoria Motto Sampler Shoppe is hosting a fabulous giveaway at her blog.
Please tell her I sent you if you sign up, Thanks !

 

Wishing you happy days ahead  and thank you for visiting and your time to leave me your comments, which I must thank you too.