Paper flowers

I saw a video featuring Livia Cetti showing how to dip tissue paper in bleach to create subtly coloured paper flowers.  I ran out, bought the book, bought tissue paper and started dipping.  Imagine how disappointed I was when it turned out that my tissue paper was colour-fast and wouldn't change colour.

Still, I had all that paper, so I made some flowers.

Nori knitting

Pattern: Nori shawl by Carissa Browning

Yarn: Unknown silk noil purchased eons ago

Lonely blog

Poor lonely blog.  I've been crafting but forgetting to take photos.  I'll see if I can't get the camera working over the next few days.

Here are a bunch of finger loop braid bracelets.  I learned how to make them from LoopBraiding.com and ended up going through a few spools of thread making every version I could manage.

Last temari

I've packed up my temari supplies.  The urge to make them has passed.  This is the last one I made before I put away the perle cotton.  It's the Dogwood design from Barbara Suess's Japanese Temari book.

On to other crafts.  Maybe I should break out that tatted doily again...

A finish with firsts

I've taken several stabs at quilt making, but this is the first quilt I've made that's sturdy enough to actually be used.  It's sitting on the little lady's bed, for use on chilly nights.  Unfortunately we're in the middle of a heatwave, so right now, it's mainly used as a play mat.

The pattern is Linda Franz's "Case of the Secret Garden".  It's hand pieced and machine quilted (the first time I've ever done free motion quilting).  I wish I'd chosen higher contrast fabrics (that blue is too strong), but on the whole, it came out better than I have a right to expect, considering how haphazardly I did everything.

Thomas Cup Temari

I've still got a few more temari I want to make before the threads get put away.  This one is the Empress design from Barbara B. Suess's Japanese Temari book.

Here's the latest one.  It's a minor variation of the Blue Arrows pattern from the same book.

I stitched on it while watching the Thomas Cup finals.  I'm not much interested in sports, but for some reason, I'm patriotic about badminton.  At the end of the final match, I almost didn't have the heart to finish this.  As a Malaysian, watching Japan win was just heartbreaking.

Granny dolls

My kids were doing a group reading activity that required a 'granny' prop.  I got bit ambitious and thought I'd try and make a granny amigurumi.  I started one but didn't finish on time, so we used these dolls instead.

The little lady made these with me a while back.  They are the Sleepover pals from Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls book.  The little lady and I have very different tastes, so making things together is an interesting process.  I hope she looks back fondly on these as she gets older.

I finished the amigurumi granny a few days ago.  It's from the Little Red Riding Hood pattern by Irene Strange.

In the end, it's probably better that I didn't finish the doll in time.  If the kids had flipped the doll over, they would have seen this sinister character!

Weekend Temari

I got the urge to make temari this weekend.  This one is the Bellflower from Barbara Suess's Japanese Temari book.  I didn't pay attention to the instructions, so I mine looks more like an orange slice than a flower.

I got distracted while doing google searches for temari making instructions.  I found images of koma ornaments, then I found instructions, and made one of my own.

So that's my crafting haul for the weekend; two Japanese ornaments.

Long Haul

I have a finished object!  It's a knit shawl (it's the Lotus Blossom shawl pattern by Joan Schrouder).  I remember starting this when my son was in diapers.  He's in primary school now.  I don't want to do the math for how long it took me to finish this.  Here it is, ends all woven in.  Doesn't look like much does it?

Here are the charts, pens, knitting needles, yarn ends and bits that I can finally, finally throw away or put away.

Here it is, in it's current state, wet and blocking on a piece of polystyrene board.  All those empty containers are where I kept my various pins, every one of them now in use stretching out the shawl.

You'd think that after almost a decade of working on this, I wouldn't mind waiting a little longer.  The truth is, it's taking all my fortitude to keep from going over there every five minutes to see if it's dry.  Tomorrow, I can try it on tomorrow...

Various states of tatting

I have too many tatting projects, all of them at various stages of completion.  Here's the only completed piece.  It's Jane Eborall's 2014 TIAS.  I finished it weeks ago, but took forever to get a picture.  I really enjoyed the clever way the mast is worked.

Here are the unfinished projects.  That messy pile contains 2 doilies and an edging.  I think the only way to reduce the pile is to focus and practice project monogamy.  Unfortunately, I keep getting distracted by every shiny bracelet pattern that comes my way.

Micro-macrame repeated

I can get a bit obsessive when I'm trying to learn something new.  I saw a picture of a macrame bracelet by Pandora and wanted to try making one of my own.

From left to right, the first one I tried was from a free pattern on friendship-bracelets.net.  Then I modified it a bit, to make the orange one with gold beads.  I didn't like how chunky it was, so I bought a pattern from RaquelsBeaDesign, and learned how to add a clasp neatly.

Finally, I made the eye-strain inducing pink one out of teeny-tiny micro bead cord.  Hopefully that'll get this bracelet fully out of my system, and I won't be compelled to make any more of them.

Tatting Mysteries

I've missed the first part of Jane Eborall's mystery TIAS 2014, but this weekend, the excitement got to me and I spent some time getting all caught up.  The HDT is from fellow Malaysian Zarina.  Isn't it pretty?

Tatting continues slowly on the Mystery doily by Vickie Reynolds.  Here it is at Round 5.

This pattern has ever so many tiny rings to pull closed.  I think that's why this happened:

Oh well, I guess that's a sign to go shuttle shopping.

Sewing

I've been sewing lately; a skirt for me and tops for the kids. The skirt reuses an old pair of jeans.

I've been reading Natalie Chanin's books, so I decided to make some hand sewn tops for my kids.  The only knit fabric I can get locally is a lycra blend, so the result isn't quite the same.  Still the kids are happy to'wear them, and that's the important part.

Here are my favourite parts on the shirt.

Rosebud embroidery on the collar for my sweet little lady.

Free-style embroidered lines as embellishment.  It reminds me of circuit boards, which is quite appropriate for my little tech-loving guy.