All 9 Puzzle Pieces

These are the puzzle pieces which I sent to Pat Winter for the Pieces of Friendship swap. Finishing the edges was a challenge for me as I only know how to use the sewing machine for straight lines, not curved. I hope it will not be scrutinized. I had a lot of fun sewing these pieces and I love swaps because if not for the exchange deadlines, I would never have finished these or made as many. I hope the pieces will make their new owners smile when they receive them. Thank you Pat for hosting and coming up with this exchange.

Shophouse at Carpenter Street

This is another restored shophouse. Photographed this on my mobile phone at Carpenter Street. The wooden shutters and mouldings in cream is what I love about this one.

New Postage Stamps

Last week I was at the post office to send off the puzzle pieces to Pat. Normally, at the post office counter, the officer would just print out a label with the exact postage but I wanted beautiful stamps to decorate the envelope and asked her to give me various designs to add up the postage. She was so accomodating that she must have given me at least 4 or 5 designs. She even volunteered to paste it on the envelope. I wish I had my camera with me, just to take a shot before it was sent off.

The above are two of the many designs on the envelope. I was told it could be used for overseas addresses. These are stamps usually used for local addresses. They are new and were issued early this month. Both are local plants. The pigeon orchid only flowers when there is a dip in temperature and they grow on large trees. When they flower, you will see the white blooms on many roadside trees. The flowers of the blue pea vine are used to colour local desserts blue.

Update on olive back sunbird chick

I do not know when we lost one chick. It was probably Day 2 of hatching. I took photos on Day 1 (top) and soon after that one chick went missing. Anyway it has been more than a week since it hatched (bottom) and mother bird is still sitting in the nest at night.

Sugee cake

I made this using a recipe from Rose's website last weekend. It tasted pretty good. It requires you to fry the sugee (semolina) under low heat, then blend it in butter and leave it overnight. It is very sinful but yummy. Very few people make this cake because of the extra steps but I think it is worth the work. You can’t eat it too often though. Too many calories and bad for your health!

Puzzle Piece #9

A similar theme to Puzzle piece #8. Done in pink felt and purple batik flowers. The stem is done in chain stitch. Two tatted butterflies and a dragonfly visit these flowers for sweet nectar. I think this will be my last puzzle piece unless I get the urge to make more.

Puzzle Piece #8

This puzzle piece is done in felt. I stitched batik flowers which I cut out from a sarong batik piece and appliqued it to the felt. I did not stitch the edges of the batik flowers. Added two tatted pieces and blanket stitched it to another piece of felt as backing. Made my own cloth tags by using my rubber stamp. The ink ran a little but I heat fixed it using the iron. Hope it stays on.

Puzzle piece #7

This embroidered bird is also from Judy Jeroy's Creative Crewel Embroidery book. It uses a number of diferent stitches: feather, chain, satin and stem. Also added a tatted motif and a woven delica bead rose and Czech glass leaves.

Drumstick Curry

I made my favourite curry on Sunday. Went to the market and happened to see the drumsticks for sale. While I was picking up the vegetable, two different ladies asked how I was going to cook it. In my limited Mandarin and mixed with English I tried to describe what I was going to do with it.

Scrape off a little of the outer layer of the vegetable and cut them up in 2 inch lengths. Chop up a large onion. Fry the onion in some oil, add curry paste, fry till fragrant. Add in drumsticks and coconut milk. Boil for 15 mins and add prawns. Simmer for another 5 mins and serve with steamed rice.

Puzzle Piece #6

The tatted flower motif is from a vintage pattern. Glass butterflies fly around purple silk ribbon roses. Colours of blue, lilac and purple. Added a fire-polished crystal right in the centre of the tatting. Just realised this one has no embroidery. I think I know who this will go to.

Puzzle Piece #5

This one is a combination of tatting, beading, embroidery and in a variety of colours. I am not sure whether I liked how this turned out. Somehow the colours do not complement each other but I did enjoy the process, especially the stem stitch forming the nest.

Puzzle piece #4

Roses, butterflies and a tatted heart. I like the colours of this one. Golden sunshine colours on a green silk. Roses are done in silk ribbons, Delica beads and bullion knots. A yellow glass butterfly with a white tatted butterfly to accent. The heart is tatted using Teresa Woods' pattern.

Olive-back Sunbirds Feeding Chicks

I realised there are two chicks and in this video you see how fatherly the male bird is. As he chirps, he watches over the whole process and stays behind while female bird flies off to get more food. Does anyone know if the chirping is to warn mother bird of danger or to indicate to chicks it is feeding time? I took this using my digital camera, not a video camera. Bird #1 is male.

May 2009 Giveaway Winner

To find out who the winner is, you will have to watch the process of how Tsuru picks the winner.

Tsuru has chosen. Please send me you addy and I will get the bookmark to you as soon as possible. Congratulations to the winner and thank you all for participating. Do look out for next month's giveaway.

Fragrant Tembusu

There was a hot and dry period last month and it has triggerred all the Tembusu trees to flower. Some trees, you see more blooms than leaves. They are planted in rows around my neighbourhood and especially in the evenings, it fills the air with a sweet fragrance. They are really pretty.

Puzzle piece #3

The embroidery in puzzle #3 is from a book called Creative Hand Embroidery by Sue Newhouse. The book gave step by step instructions for sewing this 'Meadow Landscape'. I bought this book maybe 10 years ago but never had the time to try it out. The colours of threads I chose for the long and short stitches for the meadow did not blend so well. I nearly gave up as it took forever to complete the meadow. Also how do you prevent the stitches from puckering when you remove it from the hoop. Did I make the stitches too long? The flowers are done in french knots and lazy daisy stitch. The tree is done in fly stitch and french knots. According to Sue, no two 'Meadow Landscape' will ever turn out the same. The silk is a very light blue.

Olive-backed sunbird feeding chick

I was waiting for the mother bird to lay eggs. The last two days, mother bird sat in her nest while I watered my plants. I did not have a chance to check the nest. Today I thought I came home to an empty nest but as I checked there was a chick in it. I waited a while and both mom and dad flew back to feed the little chick. Enjoy the video. The chirping is not from mother or chick but from the dad which is not in view.

Roast Duck Noodle

This is one of my favourite dish. The roast duck from this hawker stall is good. A whole roasted duck from this stall is S$35. This dish is $3.50. I had this for brunch last Sunday.

Puzzle piece #2

How can I not include tatting into my puzzle pieces. I tatted this black and red hummingbird sometime last year. I am glad to use it. The hummingbird tatting pattern is by Sherry Matthews. Unfortunately the link to the pattern is no longer accessible. I did not know how to tat the long beak so I decided to use some Delica beads. The flower on the lower right corner is tatted with Swarovski bicones. Decided to add some czech glass flower beads and I embroidered the flower stem and leaf in stem stitch and stain stitch.

May 2009 Giveaway

Just leave a comment before 16 May 2009 and your name will be placed in a draw for this May 2009 Giveaway.

Pieces of Friendship Puzzle Swap

This is my puzzle piece #1. Pat Winter is hosting the Pieces of Friendship Puzzle Swap. I signed up last year and she gave participants a deadline of 1st June 2009. I made a slow start to this. You get as many puzzle pieces as you make for the swap. Four is the minimum. I have not decided whether to do more than four. You will have to follow my posts. Cutting out the puzzle shape which Pat provided and cutting out felt for the puzzle piece here took me months. Procrastination! I never got started until a few weeks back. I changed my mind and decided to do embroidery on silk. I have not done embroidery since school but I was inspired by the embroidery on crazy quilting which I saw on blogs of talented CQ artists. I had a book to help me. I wanted to do CQ but decided to settle for plain embroidery. This is a pattern from Creative Crewel Embroidery by Judy Jeroy 'Stitch a Memory' project. I think every tatter should take up embroidery just because you can use all the remaining threads from your tatting projects for embroidery. The flower is done in chain stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch, cretan stich and french knots. I added a blue glass butterfly. Am I done with this puzzle piece. I don't know. What do you think?

Shophouses in Little India

Some of these shophouses have been preserved with the original mouldings, tiles and pillars. Look at the beautiful architecture.

Tatted cross bookmark

I made this cross from a pattern shared by Elizabeth on her blog . Some Delica beads were added to the picots. I made one cross slightly larger than the other. This was made as a gift for a very nice, patient and helpful lady, Ruby F. It was tatted with DMC Cebelia cotton thread Size 30 in light grey (#3756).