Sewing cheongsams for her loved ones - that's Mum's passion. This round, she made one for Deb. As we all know, the cheongsam is a very figure-hugging 1-piece suit but Mum has skills that can help even the non-hourglass figure come away looking like a million bucks!!! (LOL. Yeah, I guess I'm a wee bit bias.) See Deb's cheongsam comes complete with Mum's signature frog buttons? Isn't it awesome? Mum has actually taught me how to make these intricate fabric fasteners but who wants to bother with mine when the "sifu" is around? :-) Thanks Mum. I love you :-)

Labels: 2008, Cheongsam, Craft

Finally, our humble banners are up where they should be. Praise the Lord.

Labels: 2008, Banners, Craft

With the banners all done, I can now safely get on with my patchwork blanket. This is what I've done so far - 7 rows. And just to show you how much I am enjoying this project, I'm going back to the sewing machine right now :-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork Blanket

Would you believe it? I am the proud owner of this really awesome mooncake box :-) It's a present from my beloved hubby and younger daughter. Cost a bomb! I wonder what's the catch? ;->

Although the Chinese Mooncake Festival is still some time off, every shopping mall that is worth its salt has been stocking and selling mooncakes of various restaurants for the past one month or so. This special edition pack is from Hei Yue Thong (Classical Autumn). Note that these days people do not just go for the mooncakes. They want them in a nice box and many do not mind forking out extra for the packaging. So every year, most restaurants will come up with new boxes. This round, I believe Hei Yue Thong has outdone the rest. Don't you agree it's a box to die for? (LOL)

Unfortunately, this gift set is not value-for-money :-( Notice the contents? It's not 3 solid trays of mooncakes. They "cheated" with kong-chye-pang ( mooncake pastry biscuit) and a bag of tea on the left tray and jelly (wonder what's that got to do with the Mooncake Festival???) on the right tray. That leaves you with six tiny mooncakes in the centre tray!!!

Heck! Why am I complaining... ENJOY the box :-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Mooncake Boxes

Finally - the last two of the five banners. These banners will be arranged by their colours and displayed in the following order:

Jehovah Jireh - The Lord will provide (Gen 22: 13 - 14)
Jehovah Rapha - The Lord our healer (Exod 16:26)
Jehovah Shalom - The Lord is peace (Judg 6:24)
Jehovah Nissi - The Lord our banner (Exod 17:15)
Jehovah Rohi - The Lord my shepherd (Ps 23:1)

Will take another picture of the entire display once we have put them up.

Labels: 2008, Banners, Craft

YES! We finished 2 today. Started work at 10 this morning. Put in 7 hours of solid work and this is the result. We are quite pleased naturally. However, the third one looks a bit shoddy,don't you think? We were falling over our heels to get it finished before calling it a day. Will need to re=examine it and possibly do some repair work tomorrow :-( We have set our target to get everything finished before we start school again the day after tomorrow. Wish us God speed :-)

Labels: 2008, Banners, Craft

School broke off for a week and I went back to my hometown to see my folks. I also took the opportunity to capture on print the patchwork blanket my grandmother sewed for me. Although there is nothing spectacular about the design here (and the blocks are patched together rather haphazardly), this blanket means the world to me as it was the last one my grandmother made before she passed away. It's quite huge actually - a double. And it's a mix of hand-sewn hexagons and machine-stitched triangles.

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork Blanket

Drum roll please!!! Isn't this just magnificent? Yes, we had to adapt the colours a bit. Remember this small city of Alor Star has limited resources :-) And yes, it took us more than a week but our first of five is finally done. Praise the LORD!

Labels: 2008, Banners, Craft

My beloved patchwork blanket has to be put on hold for a while. Reason? Refer to the above :-) Isn't it just awesome? This is my top priority for now - transforming these designs from paper to cloth and getting them ready for our church dedication service on Sept 6th. Deborah raked up these designs before she went back to Singapore. Now, I am working to transform them to reality.

Executing these designs can be quite a nightmare at times as everything is through trial and error. This is the first time for me - never made banners in my whole life! But helping hands make light work. It may be tough going (there's been a lot of doing, undoing & redoing) but there's also much laughter and fellowship. Slowly but surely, we are inching our way to our first completed piece. Watch out for my next posting :-)

Labels: 2008, Banners, Craft

One row done. Not bad, if I may say so myself :-)




















2 rows completed. And it's getting better and better. I am truly motivated :-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork Blanket

I fell in love with this red and white romance the moment I laid eyes on it. This comes from Quilts and More (Summer 2006) of the Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection. I know it's going to be a mega project but who cares :-) Time to throw caution to the wind and just plunge in.

Designer Toby Lischko limited herself to 2 colours to make this. I decided to be more adventurous and move away from the recommended.

I have dug into my stash to come up with this combination for the main blocks. Will probably need a trip to the fabric stores later to get more materials for backing and the border.

Well, I'm going to get started now. Hope to have something to show soon. Can't wait to see how this is going to turn out :-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Patchwork Blanket

I am so excited about all these floss rings that my daughter bought for me in Singapore but I have to be patient as they will be staying just there for a while. No point sending them back all the way and incur unnecessary costs. Anyway. I am committed to some other projects at the moment (which I'll share another time) but I certainly hope to stitch up some pieces for the floss ring tags in the near future.

... so many colours, so pretty :-)

Labels: 2008, Craft, Stash

Wish this pinkeep were mine ;-) It's my sister-in-law's. When she came down for a visit, we actually worked on some finishings. I did my floss ring tag and wooden box and she finished up this pinkeep. With that, I got a personal tutorial thrown in! I like her idea of using overdye. I think it brings out the design to perfection.

The backview... We had gone out to Kamdar earlier in the evening to get the fabric. You need to be right here to see this for yourself. It was as if the fabric was made for the pinkeep. The print and colours were a perfect match of the cross-stitched piece. You can see she has also made a pocket for her scissors. Notice the fob? If you think this is lovely, wait till you see the full set...

Ta-dah! Ta-dah!! Isn't this just AWESOME? :-) :-) :-) Speechless huh? You're forgiven cos it took my breath away too. I would love to have something like this in my own home and I WILL too!!! So watch out for my set Yasmin :-) ... in the next 365 days!!! SERIOUS.

Labels: 2008, Craft, Pinkeep