Husband's bag

This is my second project for Intermediate level. Collecting the fabrics were such a hassle cause during that time, most of the beautiful fabrics were out of stock. I went to a few fabric stores around here to collect fabrics I wanted at the same time waiting for the new stock to arrive. that's the main problem of learning patchwork in Shanghai. We always know that most of the fabrics were made in China but you will be surprised that it's really really hard to get nice quality fabrics within China, this is because most of the nice quality stuff are meant for export. how strange right ?

It took me 2 weeks to complete this bag. I gave for my husband as a gift cause he is my main sponsorship for this course .
At least this should cover his mouth for not complaining me buying too many fabrics that stock up our reading room now. :>

Old Shanghai Heritage building - The Bund

Was at The Bund last Sunday, a very popular place in Shanghai, also a place to experience a totally new and old Shanghai.

I tried to capture as many old Shanghai heritage buildings as possible this time because I feel sad to see that a lot of old Shanghai buildings and community were destroyed and replace by totally brand new look.

Take a look at the photo below, this building was there few months ago but now it's totally gone. It is such a great loss ! The local don't seem to appreciate the historical piece of art at all as compared to those foreigners who came all the way from all around the world just to visit the old heritage. I wonder if they regret about this change one day.





Followings are some of the old heritage remained (maybe they will be gone soon, who knows)

Notebook bag

Marks the beginnng of my intermediate level. A bit regret I didn't take the the photos of each stage of making this bag. Any way, take a look at the inner view of the bag. The center compartment is for notebook and paper. This bag is suitable for small notebook, definitely a good choice for ladies.

Wu Jiao Market Shanghai

Went to Wu Jiao market last night. Looks like my luck was not bad, I managed to grab this sunglass at very good price, RMB 70. It's from Paris Miki. They set up a temporary stores outside the shopping malls. The sunglasses in Malaysia Paris Miki are always very expensive, around RMB 400 - RMB60. Looks like I was quite lucky. Another interesting site was the fly over bridge in Wu Jiao Market. The design is based on UFO shape. At night, the beautiful dancing light bulb luminate the entire bridge.

Teddy pouch

While trying to complete my beginner projects, I still find time doing small pouches to relax my fingers. Did I say that ? Yes, fingers. Remember that all my projects are 100% hand stitched. When making big projects, and especially when the layers of fabrics are thick, my fingers can really get hurt. I remember I suffered thumb injury for almost a month. During that period, I feel like I was going through "detoxing" period. Like some of my coursemates said, "patchwork is like an addiction, if you don't sew a few stitches in a day, you feel so lost". I totally agree with this coursmate of mine.

As a result, when I want to relax my fingers, I will do small project like pouches, handphone casing just to make the day more meaningful.

The cotton fabrics were from Japan, called sakizome momen. The color for sakizome momen may look dull but after completing a project, you will be surprised that it turns the project into very special country like look, this end up producing very long lasting effect as well.

Life in Shanghai

I will collect more old Shanghai photos in the future. This is one of the view I took from my apartment. When I first came here, there are a lot of old Shanghai community like this. But within few months, these kind of houses were destroyed due to development. The old Shanghai living style was henced slowly vanishing and replaced by the force of steel buildings. Lots of old Shanghai folks were against the development but they couldn't do much except frustrated with the change. Sometimes I feel very sad to see those historical views and lifestyle were slowly vanishing from every corner. I feel lucky that before this change finally complete its cruel mission, I still have the chance to capture as many "historical" moments as I can.

Claywork

I thought of attending Deco clay (Japanese company) craft courses in Hong Kong last time when I was in Danshui, Guangzhou. After checking out the workshop there, I totally gave up the idea because it was too costly. The beginner course already cost me few thousands ringgit excluding the transportation cost. Besides that, after completing the course, I needed to pay for the certifcate and annual fee for their membership, so in the end, I am actually one of the money machine of this company. The Japanese are really good in making money.

I decided to self-learn this clay craft. After buying some books about clay craft, I started to study clay work. Sometimes my curiosity to learn something really drove me until very late at night, staying 1 or 2 a.m. was no big deal for me that time. So here's the result of my work :>

DECO CLAY

I have to admit that the Deco light clay is really fantastic in making the craft above. It is so light, like paper and shaping can be so easy due to it's texture. There are few colors - white, blue, red, yellow, green. White color clay is normally bigger size compared to the rest of the colors because it is need for mixing color purpose. The Deco clay works by mixing two or more color clays together instead of using paint to add color to it.

Shaping

Shaping does not required any mold at all. Based on the method of Deco Clay Academic, you only need to use your fingers to do the shaping. But perhaps, a few may be required to do the shaping such us frill, lace etc.

Don't look at these few small packs of clay, you will be surprised that after making big projects, you still have some left over. What to do with the the left over then ? Easy, just wrap it with plastic flim and store it in air tight container. For me, I will use air tight plastic bag, seal each of them up and store it in air tight container. That should guarantee a better storage time.

Another type of soft clay I used is from Hearty Clay. I don't quite like Hearty Clay because it dries faster compared to Deco Clay, needless to say its storage time.







Here are some of my works :
Does it look real ?


Purple rose












Christmas Rose 2006





I don't remember the name of this type of flower. I saw it when traveling to Hokkaido, Japan this year. They were pretty. Can anyone tell me the name of this flower?

I recycled my moisturizer box
to something more useful and more
beautiful. I used it for to store craft beads.
The more we can recycle, the better the world will be.
So, join me to protect our environment. :>















See, I didn't lie, right ?

Another recycling work of mine. This was actually my husband's watch box. Throwing it away was a total wastage of resources. I finally put it into more meaningful use - a jewellery box.

Sunflower Pixie - always welcoming the sun. Wherever you go, my sunflower head will follow your direction. Every minute of the day counts, I wonder how I can get the most of it from you, Mr. Sun.

I always dream of having pixies beside me. After making some research, I finally made one as a testing. Not bad right ? The sunflower bud is about the size of small marble and the sunflower pixie is about 5 - 6 cm high.

The most difficult part is to draw the facial expression. I was kind of lucky because when I was young, I always love to draw comic characters when I was free. Finally my drawing skill was put into good use. Yes !

The wire craft chair was made by my husband, his first try. I wonder he has the time to make me a matching table....

Rose pixie holding a basket of rose petal. Actually the idea was to have some pixies having little forest chatting. The rose pixie was on the tree playing with the sunflower pixie etc etc etc.... but ever since I started doing patchwork, I have no time to think of how to complete the whole story... what a shame. Those pixies were made in 2007; I finally decided to post the little dolls to my little niece in Greece, she loves them so much when she saw me posted the above photos in ringo.

I don't know the name of this pixie. If you have any suggestion, I am open to it. But do take a look at the detail and hope you enjoy it.




Flowers, flowers, flowers .... rose, orchid, pearl etc. How I wish this was my flower bouquet during my wedding day last time.....I would surely hold it with pride. My own DIY bouquet and nobody would believe that it's made of clay.





Happiness wreath. The color just brighten my day. It will be hard to gather colorful flowers to make a wreath and I believe it will be very costly. But soft clay makes it possible. I can shape any type of flowers and colors combination I want to make a project. No more waiting for seasonal flowers. Besides, it lasts forever and recyclable to make another project. The soft clay is really incredible clay.

Final project - Baby blanket

This is my final project for beginner class. I collected lots of fabrics that reflect 1980's style. After piercing all the pieces together into bigger blanket, next was to sew up the cute drawings on the white area. I took one whole week to collect the drawings. The whole project took me a month to complete.

Felt so proud when my teacher displayed my project as their sample in our school immediately when I showed her my work. During the display period, a German lady customer asked if I was willing to sell the blanket to her cause she wanted to use it as a present to her grand daughter in Germany. I was pleased to hear that but I rejected her request politely. I told the gentle grandma that I would like to keep this beginner project as my own souvenir. She agreed with me and wish that I have more beautiful project in the future. Her words really drive me a lot. I believe I will, the more projects the merrier.

Life in Shanghai

When you first came to a new place, that first thing you need to do is getting use to know the place really well ie. the people, culture, rules and regulation etc.

Though I have been staying in China for more than 4 years I have to admit that I still need to adjust myself to the new surrounding each time I moved to a new place. The rules and regulations, culture and people in China are very totally different from one place to another.

When I first came to Shanghai, the first thing I found myself very uneasy was their traffic light, you can never trust the signal at all. Normally in any Asian country when the 'Walk' signal turns green, all the cars should stop and give priority for people to walk across. But in Shanghai, the traffic light is totally meaningless. When the 'Walk' signal turns green, pleaseeee... make sure you don't step out too early because it may end up a shock. The cars are still moving instead of stopping.

Why ? Because in Shanghai, when the traffic light turned red, the signal is actually meant for those cars which are going straight to stop. But those cars which need to turned to the right are still allowed to drive past, the only condition is the drivers must make sure they drive slow and don't knock down anyone. Strange right ?

Sometimes I really wish to tear down the traffic when crossing those very wide roads because it's really frustrating when you still need to keep watching passing by cars.

24 Quilt block project

24 quilt blocks is one of the requirement for my Patchwork Intermediate level. Hand stitching every piece of the blocks was no kidding, it's a real torture I would say.

I needed to draw up the pattern given in a 27 x 27 cm frame on a paper. Drawing the pattern requires very sharp measurement otherwise, the next process of stitching will be a screw up. It can be really frustrated especially after completing a quilt block, I found that there was or were mistakes. I have to re-do the whole thing, sometimes to the extend of re-drawing the whole pattern. I felt like giving up a few times already.

I guess that's the magic of patchwork, once you started, no matter how hard the project may be, you'll strive to complete it. Now I have completed the 21st quilt block, 3 more to go.

12 Nov 2008,



I have to admit that working on New York Beauty was the toughest part of my intermediate level project. The round shape area really make me crazy. I had to sew the four sides carefully to show the sharp edges fully. I thought of giving up this block that time but I knew I needed to persist since it's the last one for the project.




1st Dec 2008

I finally completed this block, YEAH !!! I was fully exhauster after completing this block. I decided to take one week off to relax my fingers. Overall, I felt great after my hard effort.