Rock Painting Workshop at West Court Level 3, The Mines, 2 May 2016

Again, collaborating with Spotlight, The Mines, I did a quick Rock Painting Workshop at West Court, Level 3 (opposite Old Town White Coffee), The Mines. The rocks and paints were sponsored by Spotlight The Mines and the workshop is free for kids. Great to see how the kids grab the opportunity to unleash their creativity and paint rocks :). Check out The Mines Facebook page here to find out more about the activities they have lined up.

Keep following my Facebook page here and Instagram page here for more activities :)

Washable Paper Fabric Review

Last week, I was googling Kraft Tex and was looking around for a local supplier. Further googling and searching led me to MayMayShop and I found that she sell a Kraft Tex substitute under the label Washable Paper Fabric. That was good enough for me plus the price was pretty reasonable.

Long story short, I just got the chance to experiment with it today. i wanted to make faux leather labels with it. I've been reading up on Kraft Tex and found that  it prints out quite well. So I called up my logo. Fitted it onto a 1" square box with rounded corners. By the way, I did all the editting on Silhouette Studio because I wanted to cut it out later.

It fed through my printer quite well. It's like thick card stock so no problem running it through the printer. I'm quite low on my ink supply so I set the print for best print out. Came out very sharp. Then I heat-set the ink by pressing it with hot iron for a few seconds.

Then I set it onto my Silhouette Portrait and cut out the squares. For my test, I only use a 4 by 6 piece and got 12 labels out of it.

I wanted to test the labels for colour steadfastness so I run it under the water. Rub the print with my finger and happy to report that the colour held up very well.

This reminds me of Levi's jeans labels. I am so loving this material and now I need to make things to put these labels on.

April 2016 Round-up

So many things to write about, so little time. I’ve a Blogger apps on my Iphone but couldn’t blog with my 2 fingers on a small screen. I need a proper keyboard to blog. So, pardon me for a back-log on a series of events that has taken place.

Fabric Fiesta at Spotlight, The Mines on Saturday, 2 April 2016
For the demo sesion, I did a paper piecing patchwork sample and an owlie plushie. I also offered classes for the whimsical teacup mugrug (paper-piecing technique) and owlie plushie for an attractive offer of RM30 per project for the whole month April.

Abby of SarangCraft by Abby came to say hello :)

Photo-session with Abby and her troop and Zee from Spotlight

 Arts & Crafts Guild Malaysia 23rd Annual General Meeting, Sunday, 10 April 2016

This marks my 3rd year with ACG. We had the meeting at D7, Sentul East. Thank you Ben Toh and Ellie Ng for hosting the venue. As usual, lots of fun catching up with friends of similar interest. Good food and lots of sharing. An event I always look forward to every year. To find out more about ACG, go here.

Our customary gift swap tradition. I got this beautiful box decorated with life-like rose made out of clay by Scila of Creative Beads & Claycraft. Check out her Facebook page here and her IG here to find out more about her classes and activities.

Knitting & Sewing Class at Spotlight, The Mines, Saturday 16 April 2016

Scenes from my class. I had 2 new knitters that day. Dona and a family friend, Sheera. I know Sheera since she was knee high and now she’s a mommy to a cute toddler and taking up knitting :)

This is Annabel who’s mommy signed her up to make the Owlie Plushie. Her first time using the sewing machine and she did brilliantly :)

 Knitting Workshop at West Court Level 3, The Mines, 17 April 2016

It was a fun day. A lot of beginners giving a hand on knitting and some of my regular students turned up too. Free yarn was given away for Knit-A-Scarf challenge. 

Nothing unmanly for a man to pick up knitting needles and knit :)

Prize-Giving Ceremony for the Knitting Workshop Challenge, West Court Level 3, The Mines, Sunday, 24 April 2016

Happy faces with their prize-winning scarves and prizes. Thank you Spotlight The Mines for organizing and sponsoring the event. :)

 First Knitting Class at Spotlight IPC, Tuesday 26 April 2016

 I am so very humbled when I received a Whatsapp convo from Edith. She has kept my flyer from Spotlight Ampang Point for 2 years intending to learn to knit. She was asking if I could come to Spotlight IPC and teach there. I was happy to and immediately requested permission from Spotlight IPC management. They gave me the green light and we had a date. Edith is such a pleasant lady to work with and a fast learner too. So calling to all who wants to learn knitting, I am available for class at Spotlight IPC on Tuesdays. Whatsapp or text me at 012-2038117 to arrange for class.

Double Knitting aka Reversible Knitting

I ventured into double knitting a couple of weeks back and started this cute hearts pattern. Initially, I thought I’d make a wash cloth just to test out the pattern. The initial stage was very slow. I was holding both yarns on my left hand (continental) but struggle to separate and pick up the right colour yarn every time. Then, at a craft meet, (more specifically ACG annual general meeting), a member suggested that I hold each yarn on each hand. And why didn’t I think of that? Duh!!! Anyway, as with any new thing, it was awkward at first but as I progress, I found my rhythm and my double knitting sailed faster.

I’m three quarter done with the double knitting scarf. I’m going to leave it for the meanwhile as I’ll be working at it as a demo at Spotlight Mines this Saturday, 16 May 2016 between 11am to 3pm (that’s when I have my knitting class) and at the Mines Shopping Mall’s Westcourt on Sunday, 17 May 2016 around the same time. Do come by if you want to check out how double knitting is done.

Update on 2016 Jumble Sale Hospital Ampang

Remember I blogged about my pledge to the 2016 Jumble Sale Hospital Ampang? (Read about it here). Well, here’a quick update about it.

On the day of the sale, Mastura of WhimsicalnQuirky manned the booth. She has a lot of interesting stuff for sale that day, ranging from handphone stand, to aloe vera in a mug. In summary, she managed to collect a total of RM567 for the hospital in which RM100 was the pledge that I made for the month of March to donate a portion of sale to the hospital charity fund. Thank you for all the support.

Class Announcement

Further to Fabric Fiesta demo that I did on Saturday, 2 April 2016 at Spotlight the Mines, I’ve scheduled classes for April as follows:

Saturday, 9 April 2016 from 11am
Saturday, 16 April 2016 from 11am

(These classes will be at Spotlight the Mines)

The projects that I’ll be teaching this month are:

1. Paper pieced patchwork teacup mugrug
2. Owl Plushie

ONLY for this month, these 2 projects are offered at RM40.00 so don’t miss out on this golden opportunity to make and take home these beauties.

And since I am at the store, I’ll be holding my knitting class concurrently. Do come if you want to learn knitting or if you already know how to knit but need helps with unfamiliar techniques. All are welcome :)

My 2016 revised rate for my knitting class is as follows:

Beginner: RM120 (inclusive of a ball of yarn and a pair of needles; and a follow up class)

Regulars: RM20 for the first 2 hours and RM15/hour for the subsequent hours.

This month, I’ll be sharing and demonstrating double knitting or reversible knitting.

Crochet projects for yarn scrap busting

After the Knitting Party at Spotlight Mines (blogged about it here), I took the chance to sort out my yarn stash. As usual, I browsed Pinterest to get some ideas of things I can do to scrap bust my yarn stash. Here are some of the things I did with my scrap yarn:

Crocheted Tissue Roll Cover:

Great if you have an odd ball of yarn that you don’t know what to do with or in other words, a one ball project. I took out the cardboard core from the tissue roll so that I can pull the tissue from the centre. 

Crocheted Coin Pouch

I’ve unearthed my sharp crochet hook and made some coin pouches by crocheting directly onto the zip. 

Crocheted bath poufs

I made these bath poufs with cotton blend yarn. However, I don’t quite like it as when I used it in the shower, it doesn’t lather nicely when you squeeze shower gel onto it. I might do another bath pouf with different yarn. Acrylic yarn perhaps. I read up somewhere that it lather better than the cotton ones.