Appreciation



Let us be grateful to people who make us happy,

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

~Marcel Proust~

Wedding Anniversary Gift

This patchwork 'Trip Around the World' king size quilt cover was made for my parents. It was to celebrate their 25th silver wedding anniversary, many many years ago. 

The patchwork was sewn by hand as I did not have a sewing machine then. After the patchwork was done, I had to borrow my then future mother-in-law's sewing machine to sew it up into a quilt cover. The last time I was at mom's, I made it a point to photograph it. Mom had stored it instead of using it, hence the crumpling. I laid it out in the  sitting room and took a photo from the stairs.

Red Button Brooch

Or should I call it the doodad brooch. This is Jane Eborall's pattern.

This is a comparison to the one tatted earlier.

Painting Completed

Day 29



Day 33

Yes, this is done. It was quite addictive. Although I told myself not to paint more than an hour each time, on a few occasions I did not do as planned. Tsuru had to remind me to stop painting to feed her dinner. In all, it took about 5 weeks to finish this painting.

A New Venture

This was really interesting to tat. Using two shuttles, it was a few twists and turns and you never could guess where the joins ended up at. It is going to be multiples of this motif and hopefully something larger will emerge.

This is a Susanne Schwenke pattern from her book Spitzen Kreationen on page 42. I know it is a strange time to start a pattern which will not be finished before the end of the year, but I think this is going to be a project which will last for weeks if I do not get bored with it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

We are having a tropical Christmas with purple trees.

 

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas!!

 

Passionfruit Cheesecake

A perfect cheesecake to end dinner. The passionfruit was a nice change to the usual berry fruit cheesecake. And it was a smaller portion than the usual slice. We had ordered desserts but these were complimentary pre-dessert. After I ate this, I was happy not to eat any more. And, I thought it was better than the desserts we  ordered .

Popiah

Homemade Popiah

 

Popiah bought in Singapore

 

 

I love popiah; literally translated it means thin biscuit. It is like a spring roll except this is not deep fried. How do you make a popiah roll? First lay the thin round rice flour skin/crepe on a plate. Smear some sweet red sauce and chilli, place a salad leaf, spread some blanched beansprouts, add the shredded vegetables (yam bean, carrots cooked with belly pork and minced prawns), sprinkle some fried garlic bits, fried shallots, diced Chinese tau kwa (tofu), sliced egg omellette and sliced french beans. Roll it up and eat. This is how we make it at home in Malaysia.

But in Singapore, the ingredients that go into the popiah is slightly different - no shredded carrots, no french beans, no fried shallots, use black sweet sauce instead of red, add minced raw garlic instead of fried garlic, add minced hardboiled egg instead of sliced omellette, add ground peanuts, add poached sliced prawns. The rest of the ingredients are basically the same.

Emily Completed

Emily is finished. A little pale for my liking. Perhaps the design elements would stand out in a darker background or a darker thread.

 

Is this better? See this earlier post for details of the pattern and thread. 

The Light in Church

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

~Anne Frank~

 

Sunrise Sunset Bookmark

This is a pattern by Martha Ess from her book Playing with Picots.  The thread is a HDT from Jess of Tat-ilicious called Rainbow-licious  in Size 40. I was looking through the book to see which patterns I have not done and when this pattern came to view, I just thought of this HDT which I received a few weeks back. Have you experienced this before? Somehow you knew what thread you want to use by just looking at the pattern. It does not happen often but when it does, you just have to follow your instincts. I think the thread looks fabulous.

Painting Progress 4

Day 27

More colours! The pink for the flowers looks like neon pink which is rather unusual. Besides the blue flowers, there are white ones in the left bottom corner.

Day 29

I finished all but one colour. I thought it strange to have black in the picture but it seems to give it more depth. It just shows how much I know about painting.

Jane's Button Brooch

I love how the placement of the beads show up in this design from Jane Eborall. You may have seen many versions of this button brooch in the past month on many tatting blogs and this is my version. For days, I could not find a 1 inch two hole button so I used a 1 inch doodad instead. Tatted in Size 20 Milford (Sunshine), the brooch measures 2 inches in diameter with another 1 inch drop ending in a Swarovski crystal.

Emily WIP

I first saw this pattern years ago and it was labelled for the Intermediate tatter so I passed on it. Emily is a doily pattern in Janet Carroll's book Elegant Tatting Patterns. Three more rounds to go. I used Lizbeth Size 40 #159 Easter Eggs.

Art in a Box

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament

~Oscar Wilde~

 

Little Bookmarks

I made up these bookmarks with a 'lost' alligator and two caterpillars (Jane Eborall's pattern). What's the story about the alligator. I tatted two alligators to make a pair of earrings however I lost one alligator and decided to make a bookmark with the remaining one. Well, after I had given away the first alligator bookmark, I found the other alligator. Don't you think it makes a great pair of earrings?

Cold Tofu

This is the yakko tofu (Japanese soft tofu) which is eaten cold. I added sliced century egg and dressed it with soy sauce and sesame oil. I had this with cold soba noodles. It isn't everyone's favourite but I know someone who would love to share this with me.

Decke 14 - Completed

This is a pattern by Ruth Scharf in her book Occhi. Such a sweet pattern and it isn't too difficult once you have mastered the leaves or Blatt.

Tatted in Milford Size 20, this doily measures about 10 inches across. I like how the chains form the flowers and there are lots of negative spaces. It looks like a 2-dimensional bouquet.

Painting Progress 3

Day 20

Here are two new colours. Initially, I thought the blue was puddles of water but they are actually some blue flowers. The browns, you can pretty make out what they are. I felt a little sad to see that the greens had to share the canvas with the other colours but it will make the picture a little more complete.



Day 23

Even more colours. Now I am afraid that the whole painting will end up too dark. Somehow the new grey and light blue paint seems easier to control. It has a little opaque yet metallic sheen to it. 

Edged Hanky 2012 - 4 (MK#58)

After posting the completed hanky edging #3, I thought I must have tatted more than 3 hanky edgings this year so I found this one tucked away and remembered I took photos of this.

I decided on this pattern after seeing Fox's post here. I have always wanted to tat Marguerite by Mary Konior but never got to it. I added the 'S' to hide the corner as it was different (i.e. two small rings instead of the two larger rings) from the other 3. The pattern is simple and quick to tat and I finished it sometime in August.

You can see that I tatted into the hanky. The shade of blue did not exactly matched with the cross stitch on the hanky. I realised this only in the morning after tatting for a bit the night before.

Two Cats

 

This pattern I copied from a library book. I think it was the book by Rebecca Jones. The head seems too large for its body. Tatted in Milford Size 40 in 'Tsuru' colours. They measure about 3 inches. She was not too pleased when I showed her. She tried to swipe them off my fingers.

Sprouting Sugar Peas

 Every week I buy a pack of sugar peas. I usually add them into my salad or instant noodle. Last week I did not use them all up and just kept them in the fridge. Look what happened. I threw them into a garden pot instead. 

Dandelion

 

This is a pattern from the Japanese book called Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. It is actually a doily pattern on page 15 and I will tat the doily . . . . sometime soon. The second photo reminds me of a dandelion flower. The thread is Venus Size 40 #103. It is a peachy pink but it isn't very obvious with the red background.

Painting Progress 2

Day 10

Day 16

Progress of painting by numbers after Week 2. I didn't do much last week, only two sittings.

I find the light green a little pale for my liking or is it the shade that I do not like but maybe the purpose is to contrast with the darker greens. I have yet to venture into another colour.

It is quite fun to see how the picture develops. I am torn between dabbing the colours on carefully within the lines or not so carefully. What is your opinion on this?

Also it is easier to paint when the acrylic paint is diluted a little but the lighter colours do not seem to cover the numbers properly.

More Flowers

 

And then there were three

 

 

and a leaf

 

I bet you can guess whose pattern this is by now.

A Pair

And then there were two. No problems joining at the moment but it might get more tricky later. They remind me of the white frangipanni but that flower has only five petals. What about a white rain lily but the petals are a little more pointed. If I change the centre to pink, it could be a Kopsia or a Vinca. Whatever it is, it will do.

The Moon

 

I was woken up by the moon again one night in October. It isn't a good photo but I thought this is a different view of the moon using a phone camera.

New Doily

It starts with one. It needs 6 more. Do you recognize the pattern? No, it is not a Mary Konior pattern. I am using Milford Size 20 threads. Quite quick and interesting to tat.

Tsuru Misbehaving

I have never seen Tsuru do this but this was captured by friends who were cat sitting for me when we were on holiday. Note the date on this photo. At home she drinks from a bowl. She is allowed to misbehave when she is at her godparents place.

Nyonya Chap Chye

It must be the weather. It has been raining a lot these days and I am in a cooking mood. This is nyonya chap chye. I remember cooking this for the first time many years back following the recipe from this book. 

 

I have not cooked it since. Not that it was not delicious, just that in nyonya cooking, there are a lot of ingredients to buy or collect and process. Anyway it is a dish with cabbage, pork belly, fresh prawns, many different kinds of dried fungi, lily buds, soya bean strips, mungbean vermicelli, shrimp paste, candlenuts and shallots.

 

Serve with hot steaming rice and sambal belachan. You could say this is a one pot dish. Of course on the nyonya dining table there will be a lot of other dishes with this one. I can only manage one.

The cookbook I have is the old edition, bought in the mid 90s. The new edition of the book can be found here.

HDTs from Tat-ilicious

I received these lovely HDTs from Jess and Livi of Tat-ilicious on Saturday. I was tempted to get more with the sale but I must save for other sinful temptations. From top - Punk Princess, Sea Glass, Mindanao Gum, Messy Jess-y, Key Lime Raspberry Parfait, Rainbow-licious, French Country? and Messy Jess-y?? Thank you so much! It is going to be fun.