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