Happy New Year

It's been awhile hasn't it ?
I have not been stitching or crafting anything worthy enough to show; a little smallies here and there, a bit of travelling with the girls from college and families, then Diane is home, watched a couple of movies, and a friend flew in from Hong Kong and  time just flew by.

However, before the year came to an end, I signed up for a Sekka Shibori class. It's a textile dying technique which has a fascinating history that dated back to ancient Japan using natural indigo dye.

My piece of dyed fabric with my teacher Dora

 Behind us is a 100year old tree in the background

located at a newly launched artisan complex in the heart of the city.

Student's work for the day.

We were taught the dying method to obtained the various design and the composition of the dye.

 

Miniature ironing board,

Something that I have been looking for quite a while until I stumble upon the website

I stitched one tiny part of a Hungarian motif two on two

 on Belfast 32 count with DMCs

 

Over the past few months I have been crocheting some Irish motifs. What will these become, well,
we will see how it goes, This is taking crochet to the next level.

A gift for a student , pencil case that is fully lined with added pockets inside. Outer fabric - Japanese
Diane had been bugging  me to sew one for months before I finally managed before her last sem ended for a friend of hers. Whew!

Freebie from The Shop Around the Corner

 

This is one of the three festive smallies I managed to stitch when the holiday season was just around the corner. I forgot to take photo of the other two before sending out, one went to Danielle in the Yukon and the other for my Hong Kong friend. I still have one more UFO , couldn't finish that on time before Christmas, a Lizzie Kate design.

I thought maybe stitching some festive smallies and finishing it could keep me focus and put me in the mood to stitch again. I am not too sure about that, but then my stitching group has just organized a Halloween Exchange, so may be all is not lost. Let's see how long I can keep my blog going.

I hope all of you had a great start into the New Year with beautiful moments of warmth and joy.
 

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 .

It's the holiday seasons

As the days moved closer to another year ends, it's hard to believed that another year has come and is almost gone. People around the work force are busy with travel plans as most took the opportunity to clear their remaining leaves from work. There is no official long break here except the weekend of Christmas and New Year. We do not have snow but rain; the sun will continue to shine as it always have.  Since my firm work on projects, we simply moved forward and the transition of a new year is  just flipping to a new calendar month like the years before,  if it weren't for the constance wishes of  "Happy New Year" from every staff and business associates that walks through the door, I can assured you that the day is just like any other day.

The next few weeks will be hectic and will become more and more chaotic at work as the Chinese New Year festivity in February draws closer .

Let's see how I wrap up the last few weeks of the year this December
Week ONE  - I volunteered at a Charity Event with the Penan Women Project at their KL Xmas Sales at Verdant Hill Hotel. ( I blog about the Penans here a while back )

 It was a great experience to be involved in the behind scene of the sales and great to work with the ladies whom I met for the first time. I do foresee myself doing the same again if time permits with their next charity sales

My choice for lunch was this Sarawak's (Borneo) Kolo Mee (Noodles)

from the hotel, the best Kolo Mee I have ever tasted,  served with a dessert, Sweet Bao (Dumpling)

Diane started her two months internship with Pantai Specialist Hospital's  Pathology Lab this December. That means ferrying her to work in the morning and fetching her home in the evening. We are not allowing her to drive until her ACL injury is totally healed. It's been just over two months after her surgery.

Week TWO - I went on a day trip to Ipoh with 5 other girls from college visiting some famous landmarks in the City, actually it was more of a food expedition and a get together. Ipoh is a city in our Silver State. It was known historically for tin-mining (hence the name Silver State) activities until the price of the metal dropped severely affecting the state's economy. The city of Ipoh, like Penang and Malacca are known for its British colonial landmarks. Below is the baroque style railway station of Ipoh

(Image : tripadvisor)

Perak Tong (Perak Cave) is a temple and one of the oldest limestone hill

Famous for it's mural paintings. The walls of the cave  are decorated with colourful murals depicting characters and events from Chinese mythology and Buddhist scriptures

The memory of a 120 years old Lane known as Concubine Lane. How did the name derived ?Pretty sure you can guess, well it was believe to have  established in 1908 . A residential of the rich Chinese magnate and British officers were believe to have kept their concubines and mistresses in the colonial structures townhouse here . During it's hay days, the area is considered "redlight", and thus the area is associated with gamblings, opium den and prostitutions backed then. The lane was given a make over not too long ago after most of the shops and it's street was left deserted. The shop lots are now preserved and restored and today's it's the most vibrant tourist street in Ipoh City 

Our Wefie here 

A zippered pouch - I needed a money bag for our trip treasurer, something I thought at the eleventh hour before our departure . I had to rummage my stash and sew a simple zippered pouch with a bright and cheerful fabric to match the only white zipper  I had in my stash that fit the pouch size, which means I need to stock up on some color zippers soon.

Week THREE -  Working hard on my Birthday exchange gift for my partner from the WSG group.

I have picked a handful of colors to work on, the design I am working on is giving me a feeling of uncertainty in every way.  Undeniably, I don't have much time left if the exchange meet is to be in January.

I have sit on it for like a year, well actually some six months since I have only then decided what my finished item would be. The gift exchange will be reveal in January when the group meet at a date still pending for a discussion. 

Winter Solstice, it's the time of the year again to celebrate Dong Zhi festival, eating tang yuan which are glutinous rice balls in a sweet syrup. Chinese fesitval dishes usually have auspicious and meaningful names and the tang yuan is no different. Tang Yuan sounds like "tuan yuan" which in Mandarin means reunion of the family. This festival denotes that the year is coming to an end and is the last festivity in the Chinese Calendar for the year .

Week FOUR - Christmas week - No Christmas stitching this year. Two cards is the only craft that I managed at the very last minute and hoping that it get delivered in time before Chirstmas to both recipients 

Two very simple cards

Tree is my theme for this year

Here's wishing everyone

MERRY CHRISTMAS

wherever you are and hope it's a fantastic one

for you and your family

Big THANK YOU to all of you who came by without fail and for your kind words
Your words are my inspiration to keep on blogging
I hope you enjoyed my ramblings of  life and times
from a continent in Asia
Here's wishing everyone
HAPPY NEW YEAR
2018
May yours be a fantastic start into a NEW year !
 

Tilda in the house

Fast forward FOUR years later I finally made a Tilda doll this September.

That was how far the urged of wanting a Tilda doll went in October 2013.

Flipping through the pattern  from the book Sew Pretty Homestyle by Tone Finnanger, it look tricky  to the mind and I can assured you there's a thousand way I can go wrong just by looking

Which I did, but I was determine to not get frustrated, this time.

I have since added four more Tilda's books to my collection

The dress
The easy way out was a draped dress, it look easy peasy to sew, my thoughts but since my doll pattern came from the Garden and Kitchen Angel, I just had to sew her dress, which I am very sure will assist in  covering up all dreadful sewing flaws.  Now that idea sounded more appealing to embark on such a sheer amount of work to work with

I misread the pattern and cut the wrong pants from the wrong page first time, then it was too short and I didn't like how it look the second time. I remember measured twice and cut once. Yet the result didn't look like in the book.

Luckily, I have enough fabric for my tragic waste or  my lil' Tilly will have to be shamefully naked. I am glad I've decided  to put away those precious Tilda's fabrics  at this stage, knowingly sewing mishap can happen with me.

Crowning Glory
Is there a right way of doing it ? I did the best I could

The Jacket
Piecing together the jacket appear to take decades, every mistake is amplified. Practically I was sewing simultaneously with a seam ripper, even visualizing lil'Tilly without her jacket at one point.
When I decide to  not use Tilda's fabric and choose one from my stash, I didn't gave much thought on the color combination for the final piece; the jacket, causing much disastrous choices and much effort later I finally like what I see to go with that polka dots.

Many many night of sewing later, I 've done it ! LOL

I've made her little flower basket too to compliment her "Garden and Kitchen" pattern. I omitted the fairy wing thou. I can assured you it look pretty in picture but there's nip and tuck all over and I cheated with hand basting too.

Next challenge, a second doll is on the drawing board, I hope I improve my finishing skill with the second doll....will see

Mid Autumn Festival
It's the time of the year again where we celebrate the moon. This year, I am not baking any moon cakes for the occasion, so I bought a little to give away and received a little in return which is enough for the occasion. No big prayers for me unlike in some households where they will host family gatherings  and pray to the moon with little kids lighting their lanterns to play. It's a beautiful sight to see little kids with their lanterns walking the streets, reminiscing of a bygone era. Sadly the streets are not safe anymore  for the little people to go galloping in the streets without being chaperone and with parents having a busy lifestyle  these days, the kids are kept to play in their front porch or yard to play.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival, May you glow with the glorious moon !

A Class for a tote day

I attended a Tote Beginner Class last Saturday under the tutelage of   Barbara J  . The day began with choosing fabrics for the tote and a short demo on how to operate the sewing machine since all of us left ours at home.

I had something Nautical in mind, but was spoilt for choice at the venue, World of Crafts, there was no doubt that I had second thoughts many times over.

My choice of stripy navy blue and navy blue lining

 Lessons begins with measure and cut

 Pins and sew

 Handle attachment

Let's take a peek at the others choice of fabrics

Can't help it, need to go busy body to check out others, LOL
There's the Beary Cute, Paris Theme and Baby Blue and Grey Owls

Back to my table with more sewing
Here I am almost done

Ta Da !

The tote that went home with me

Oh! you should have seen me that day

proud like a peacock!

The sewing class in progress was stress-free, no competition. Everyone worked at their own pace and we even had tea with banana cake baked by BJ.

The best part was, at the end of the day, we marveled at each other's choice of fabrics

and we had some fun time taking photos.

Thank you BJ, for hosting this wonderful class, I truly enjoyed my day.

So you see BJ, I came to have fun and I did !

A word of thanks to all who came by and commented in my last post.

Wishing all a good week ahead.