Travel, Food, Applique and Swap Partner

April began with Tomb Sweeping Day, a day family members gathers and go to the graves to cleanup and offering prayers. It's a yearly affair . A week after, hubby decided that we should make a trip back  to my birth place;  Penang Island , nicknamed Pearl of the Orient. It's located way up North from where I lived now. Penang Island is connected to the main land by it's most iconic transit, the Ferry crossing the Straits of Malacca that was operational since 1894. Today we have two bridges connecting to the mainland and the third bridge with an underground tunnel is on it's way.

I missed the sea ! Simply can't wait to get my feet in the sand ,

smell the salty breeze and

listening to the waves.

Sunrise by the beach

A relaxing morning by the sea before we start our day food hunting 

and doing what needs to be done

The Reclining Buddha Buddhist Temple

This Thai Buddhist temple has a history dated back to Queen Victoria

To me, it has been there like forever

 It was a short trip of one night and two days, yet we managed to squeeze some time for an Afternoon Tea at Eastern and Oriental Hotel. Sweet of hubby who is not a fan of Afternoon tea was very obliging and not complaining. LOL

Sinful indulgence by the sea at a place called Tanjung Tokong is this platter

This restaurant has been in business for as long as I can remember and was badly hit by the 2004 Tsunami . How lucky were we when we were told that this platter is the last lot for the night since we did not make any reservations   

Crafting venture - Sue Bonnet Applique pouch began sometime late March.

I received this as a gift from hubby's classmate who now resides in Hong Kong when we first met on a trip years ago.  I felt intimated with the applique and thus it's been sitting at the bottom of my stash cabinet for a very long time

Having this as a kit made it all the easier. Actually I was initially very blurry as to how to begin with. It took me a day, thinking hard before I finally realized that the fabrics from the kit are actually  replica of the pattern on the photo with the template provided. Gosh! sometimes the brain is just not in the head. Anyhow, imagined that I applique on the wrong side of the fabric , TWICE !!

Froggy must be in the house somewhere !

Still full of doubts !

At this point I am not too sure if I am doing right since the size is rather small and fit only one hand. The kit is from Hong Kong is somehow written in Mandarin, a language I can't read and not much of a diagram as to how it was done up , so I ended guessing a lot  and look it up in YouTube on how to sew a pouch and ended up hand sewn the entire pouch including the zipper.

The sewing mojo must have been aroused , I made a couple of  'No Binding Coaster', when I stumble on Monica's tutorial while searching for the Sue Bonnet finishing know-how . It's really easy , a great way to use your 5" charm packs and I am pretty sure this will  make an excellent gift.

Link to the Tut : http://itsjustsewing.com/binding-free-coasters-hotpads/

MUG RUG - another sewing venture for a sepecial lady and a no binding coaster

Can you imagine meeting your swap partner ?

Call it chance or coincidence ! but we made it happen

Wren was my 10th Mug Exchange swap partner hosted by Stephanie .

It was a delightful afternoon meeting Wren over lunch and coffee.here in my homeland.

Two strangers from a swap, meeting for the first time

and chatted like we known each other for ages.

If we told the people at the next table that we just met for the first time,

I think they would not believed us !

Thank you Wren for a lovely afternoon.

Thank you Stephanie for drawing our names together .

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

Here comes the rain in November

A few more days and November ends.  Everyone will be so busy with the coming festivity, especially more if you have  not started your shopping, baking and decorating; can you feel the festive season yet?  The malls are already filled with everything Christmas for weeks. We are getting more rain while the malls are all deck with fake snows and snowflakes....
Christmas is definitely in the air.

Gift for a special lady : Remember I mentioned about stitching something in blue variegated ? Well this is the design, Belle that I stitched and finished into a Pinkeep with the backing fabric as shown. It's a little surprise for Kim . I am so glad she is happy to receive this little gift of mine.

The color of the wrap caught my eyes and was calling out to me and thoughts of Kim came to mind.

I made a very simple card to go with my package

I had a very limited resources when I made the card at my MIL's home where it's  miles away from a decent craft supply stores and I am no where near home and I can't just mailed my package without a note.

 A RAK for BJ : I forgot to take photos of the items before I got it wrapped. Actually I wanted to just bind it with ribbons but I forgot to bring along some ribbons when I went visiting my MIL and wrapping papers are all I could find at a nearby Sundry shop. It took me like ages to get this delivered personally, but finally I did, bad me

Finally delivered after weeks that became months of waiting

I hope Jamie O will keep BJ company in her kitchen happily and the Quilting book will serve as a compendium of references when the need arises 

(I forgot to take photos of the books before wrapping)

Crafting time input : Time to start crafting some Christmas smallish. Hope I'll  have finish photos to show in my next post.

Diane requested for a sewing kit as a parting gift for her roomie whom she shared a room with at the hostel in her University for 2 sems. She gave me such a short notice that I couldn't think of what to stitched, so I made her this all fabric and felt in cheery yellow.

An Angpow cum Wedding Card is what I made for the daughter of gal from college's who got married in a lavish wedding recently.

Angpow is a an envelope that has to be in "red" as it symbolize luck and prosperity as well as auspiciousness where one puts in money of a certain amount depending on the occasion and given out as gift in lieu of a wedding present. Angpow is a very universal gift for the Chinese, one may received an Angpow on your birthday, Baby fullmoon or any happy occasion that is befitting.  The amount of it's contents may varies depending on your status in the society, relationship or what suits your pocket and at times the economic situations of where you are from to who you are gifting it to.

For a wedding , it can costs hundreds to thousands for a couple attending the event.

Angpow is also given out during Chinese New Year as a token of luck and auspiciousness to family, friends and those who come visiting especially children. Single unmarried  young adults may also be given, unless one is "overly over the Young Adult age" and still single; one may not receive an angpow then unless, the host is teasing the recipient, but always in a good away. An employee will normally received from a Chinese employer, married or unmarried , while still single colleagues will received from their  married colleagues during Chinese New Year too.

For this, I had all the symbolic wishes. There's the character of double happiness, the peking ducks a symbolic of love and the names of the bride and groom . However, at the end of the day, this was what that actually went out when someone suggested we get the bride a gold bracelet instead and shared the cost. With the last minute changes, I had a quickie re-vamp of the little red packet that was intended into a gift card so we could all put in our names instead.

Dressed for the night : Wedding is always a good place for a meet-up. The opportunity came when we, the girls from college got invited to Sally's daughter wedding at St Regis of Kuala Lumpur

Having a little girly fun at the polaroid booth, this was a wefie before the actual booth snap

Lynn and me with the mother of the beautiful and radiant mother of the bride, Sally

A weekend dinning celebrating the 38th  Anniversary Annual Dinner of a Youth Club with Jamis where the Lions graciously became our backdrop

From my Kitchen : Steamed pau or steamed Chinese pau.  I have never attempted to made pau as I always had this thought that it's a tedious process. It spells difficult just by looking. I mean how do you get the tissue like skin to peel and a soft and fluffy  texture too. I can't even bake a good decent bread yet. That is not until Jaimis who seem to be making these pau so effortlessly gave me her recipe. Thank you sifu!  So here goes. This is my second attempt after I forgot to let the dough rest the first time. A total success and very please if I must say so.

On a serious note, making pau is definitely a lot easier that making bread. In view that now pau is getting costly from the shops, I think I am addicted to making pau for the time being.  I need to improved my pleating (to close the pau) and even out the dough for the fillings.  With the basic dough I managed a lotus paste filling pau 

The 3rd time with a pumpkin dough for some color on the pau skin and a better improved pleating, thou the pleats are not prominent after the steaming, more practice needed

Sometimes the mind can be inquisitive and so on my 4th attempt, it's purple skin pau that derived from purple sweet potatoes

Made breakfast Quesadilla  one morning

And we harvested some mangoes  from the small plot of land near MIL one weekend

I am sorry some of the photos are looking a little dull. It's bad lighting on one part and gloomy weather on the other since  we are currently into the monsoon season which means wet days are here to stay for awhile.  

Flea Market : We had a mall that houses small individual vendors with all kinds of everything, call it antique, old junk;  just like a flea market only a very small scale but the mall caters to these vendors on every of it's floors.  I don't frequent often, the occasionally that I do, there's always something that caught the eye. Like this blue porcelain teapot  set with a snake/lizard head? Intriguing yet intimidating . Nope, it did not came home with me, nor did I asked for it's price.

That's it for November, until my next post, take care everyone

Wishing all

and may your Thanksgiving be wonderful

A RAK from Kim, sweet surprise

I was over the moon when Kim  , Wisdom With Needle & Thread named me as one of her 60th Birthday RAK recipient. It was a real honor. And imagined my surprised, I was thrilled to bits when I came home last night from my MIL's to find this wonderful package waiting for me.

It was very early when I took the photo before I left for work. Kim stitched me the monogram of my initial and finished it with matching floss color fabric. The package include fabric , Anchor floss , lovely scissor fob in blue and cute card.

It's a fantastic package put together. Thank you so much Kim for this lovely package.

It was such a sweet color and beautifully finished pillow, only my photo didn't do justice compared to the real thing.

Some little stashing I did when I popped into a local bookstore during the weekend.

The Birthday Exchange Gifts

Embarking on a journey with partners in craft, as   Barbara J  define it, is an unpredictable voyage of discovering our level of relationship that are unparalleled to anything that we encounter on a daily basis.  We had so much fun. We didn't kill each other, we debate almost at anything and laugh at everything. We've thankfully managed to keep it all fun and sweet.

I'll begin  with the hostess gift, Jess W
A wonderful wool applique sewing kit in prim design by Maggie Bonanomi. Gorgeous pile of fabrics and a cute Owl measuring tap
She picked the Red Work Pincushion from me - Mai Borderie

From Margaret, I was given a color choice of Blue or Red and no questions asked.. Well, when in doubts, intuition tell me to go for red. I have no regrets. A lovely sewing pouch, With thy Needle design which came with a pillow pincushion and pins

She picked the Palm Pole Spring Design Pincushion of a bird from me

June, amazes me with gorgeous detail stitching and beading. From her, it's a biscornu by The Sweetheart Tree. She enclosed a strand of Dinky-Dyes Thread and a pincushion kit
She picked the Sewing machine and garland pincushion

Barbara's choice are based on  Women Author from the olden days depicting characteristics of the recipients.  What did she thought of me ?  Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and excerpts from The Bookshelf design by LHN,  made into a stitching pouch, quilted and cross stitched. It came with the book of  the same title and Mes Fils went home with her

While Jackie is never a part of this Birthday exchange,  I always ensure she gets a little gift from me. However,  this year, she surprised us each with a meticulously stitched Bionic Gear Bag. We had to picked ourselves and yes, we snatched it off her hand before she could say 'picked'. It's strange somehow, some hands were extremely long and quick on that particular day, LOL !

"Bionic Gear Bag"

Standing next to her, I wasn't even thinking. I grabed

 the most striking color  of navy blue and red trim

I stitched her  Collection privee Coeur de Brodeuse 1B - Tralala.  

My box each contained a Bees Wax and a packet of trimmings that matches their pincushion color as closely as possible.

On our second day, we were treated to a superb Peranakan Tanjong Malay cuisine at Jawi House.

I like to term this as fusion cuisine

Desserts

Here's to another year, hope this is just the beginning and not the last, the moments we will hold so dear to our hearts until next year perhaps ?

Nada Lama Coffee House - Hotel Equatorial were we stayed for 2 nights and 3 days.