Progress with My Knitting Project

I just started my fifth skein, and knitting the bottom part. Progress was very slow because I really did not have the time to knit, plus somehow I lost my interest to knit. I really hope that I could finish this before August was over, otherwise I could not meet my goal to publish 3 patterns in a year. It was almost finish actually, only a few inches in the bottom, and I could pick up and knit the sleeves. I planned to make long sleeves this time.

Progress on my knitting

I like the pattern on the waist part

Calendar

Recently, I bought some fabrics online. I plan to make some pillow cases and curtains. That is why when I received package from US, I thought it was my order arrived. Turn out it was my Knitting calendar. I didn’t buy it. However, since I got my Lauri Dress pattern accepted into their 2010 calendar, I got one copy of the calendar for free. This is my first time to get this calendar ever. Honestly, I really haven’t got the time to really look into the patterns one by one, so I could not tell you which one is my favorite (beside Lauri Dress, off course).

Then a month later, I got the check worth of USD 350,- for my second winner prize (not USD 250,- as I mentioned earlier). I immediately bank in the check and totally forgot to take the picture. So, I guess you have to satisfy with the photo of the envelope.

To Genting

Two month ago (4 and 5 July) we went to Genting and stay one night in First World Hotel. This is the first outstation trip for Fiori. I was afraid that Fiori would be tired and cranky during the 5 hours drive from Penang to Genting, but it turned out she was quite enjoying the drive and able to sleep about 2 hours in the car.

Lauri posing in the room

We bought 1 day pass for the indoor riding for Lauri, and her favorite ride was “Merry-Go-Round”. She rode it many many times.

Riding Merry-Go-Round

Lauri with her backpack

The Hotel we were staying

My Dahlia as Featured Pattern in Ravelry

In the beginning of this month I got an email from Mary-Heather from Ravelry. Here is what she wrote:

Hi there Lily!
I hope you are well!
Jess and I wanted to write to you because we wanted to feature your beautiful Dahlia Top pattern as the September “Jess’ and MH's Pick,” featured pattern, if you are interested.

This is a free promotional spot that Ravelry uses to highlight indie designers who are distributing patterns on Ravelry, and it appears on the main patterns page when you click on the "crochet" filter or when "knitting + crochet" (the default setting) is selected. The pattern will appear for all of September, not a half-month like the paid Featured Ads.

If you are interested, we will create the image for you using your pretty photo, and put the ad in for you and everything. We think Ravelry users will love the pattern and hope that you would like to highlight it in this spot!

Please let us know what you think! :)

Best regards,

Mary-Heather

And you know what my response was right? Of course I said YES! I AM INTERESTED. As the result you can see the my Dahlia pattern feature in the crochet pattern section.

Picking Up an Old Quilting Project

Suddenly I am in the mood to finish my old quilting project. I forgot exactly when I started this project, probably 2 or 3 years ago, but suddenly I lost interest and just put it aside and have never touched it until now.

Dr. Lauri in Action!

Dr Lauri gave Puppy medicine

Fiori's First Vitagen

Fiori is always curious when she sees other peoples drinking or eating. She wants to taste as well. Like this occasion when she saw her sister drinking from a straw. She started to make some noise and pulling whoever was near her. So, I gave her Vitagen to try. Guess what? She likes it. Once she sucked the straw and got the liquid she could not stop sucking. When I tried to take it back, she didn’t want to let it go.

Wahhh.. This is so niceeeee

Still have plenty

Hehehehehe.....

Wah! Finish...

Papa! I've finished it already…

And as usual, when Lauri saw me taking picture, she also wanted to pose.

Halooooo…!

"This is Fiori speaking, how are you?"

I think this was the line that she wanted to say, although she only managed to say “Alooo”. Nobody taught her to use the phone, but when the phone was presented to her, she immediately picked up the phone and tried to dial the number.

Washing My Quilt

Last week I decided to machine wash my quilt. Normally I dry clean it because when I make this quilt, I didn’t prewash the material, so I really didn’t know whether the material would shrink or the color would bleed. To be in the save side, I just dry cleaned it. However, since I rarely go out, I really didn’t have opportunity to bring the quilt to be dry cleaned (and when I finally had opportunity to go out, I forgot to bring it with me).

In the end, I just dropped it in the washing machine and hoping for the best. Thank God, everything was just fine. It looked as nice as can be and it smelled good.

I use cold water and I just let it dried under the fan. While drying, I just notice the date I embroidered on the backing. It was the date I finished this quilt, 28 September 2004. It was a mooncake festival night and it was 5 days before Lauri born.

The date on the backing

3D flower

Everything is fine

All the handstitches are still intact

I love the “crumpled up” effects

Photo Book

Finally I managed to compile all Lauri and Fiori’s photos into one photo book. Nothing fancy, since I really didn’t have the time to fiddle too much. I managed to compile all together 50 pages. At first I tried to put embellishments and also tried to make the background into different colors, but after one page I gave up since it took too much time. The title of this photo book is “Precious Moments”. I print 3 books, one for me, one for my in laws and one for my parents.

Actually I didn’t like the color of the hard cover, but it’s the only one available.
Phiew..!!! At least now I can cross out one of my ever growing to-do-list.

Here are some of the snapshot of the pages:

In The Garden......

Pomegranade plant in front of my house

Red Rose plant my MIL just bought from the botanical garden


Hmmm.... I am not sure what is the name of this flower

.... and this one is...... My new Clover Hooks!!! CLOVER SOFT TOUCH CROCHET HOOK SET C-J 2.5mm to 6.0mm

This hooks is my belated birthday gift from.... ME! I read so much about this hooks and I could not stand it and just have to ordered it from ebay. It cost me USD 29.99,- plus shipping cost USD 6.50,- I haven't used it yet, but I will soon.....!

New Yarns

Finally, I got my hands of Rowan 4 ply yarn. Kitman was nice enough to buy me those yarns when they were on sale (50%) from her LYS. She brought them with her when she went back home to Malaysia and sent it to me by post (She was in KL and I am in Penang). I can’t wait to be able to use them. I guess they have to wait until I finish with my current project.

Yay! Package from Kitman!!!

Love the colors she chose for me!

Sleeping in Pink

Fiori was sleeping in Lauri’s cot. It happened at that day, she was also wearing pink shirt and skirt. So it’s kind of matching with the bed.

Fiori Was Bullied by Her Sister

Sometimes being the smallest is not fun.

Ama and Akong’s Visit

Last month, from 17 to 26 May, Ama and Akong came to celebrate Fiori’s first birthday. It was also the first time they saw Fiori. Lauri was very happy because she has another 2 persons to spoil her. My parents told me that Lauri was prettier than their last visit 1.5 years ago. They also marveled at Lauri’s good behavior and her ability to steal their heart.

Example:
Akong was teaching Lauri to write 1 to 10 in Chinese character.
Ama: Isn’t Akong very clever? Not like Ama.
Lauri: But, I love you….
Ama: Oooohhhh…. (heart melt)

Lauri also drew Ama and Akong.

Left to right: Castle, Princess Lauri, Akong, Ama (the one with curly hair)

At first my mom tought that she was drawing a flower, it turn out it was my mom’s curly hair. Hahahahaha!

Happy First Birthday, Fiori!

My Baby is a toddler now! How time flies to fast. Fiori’s birthday was actually on 21 May. However, since I was lazy to download the photos, I can only post about it today.

At 1 year old, Fiori was almost 10 kg (about 1 kg less than Lauri at the same age), however, length wise they are the same. Unlike Lauri, Fiori still could not say Mama and Papa yet, however, she could say “clap” and clapping her hand, pointing at things and said “duck” and she said “ba-ba” (instead of bye bye) and waved her hand.

Trying to touch the cake

Cutting the cake

Heart Applique

I am trying to make a patchwork tablecloth with heart applique. Here are the steps to sew the heart on (not sure whether this is the correct method, but this is the way I did it) :

1. Trace the heart shape on the right side of the cloth. Trim the fabric around the design leaving a quarter-inch seam allowance. Fold the seam allowance toward the wrong side of the fabric and do running stitch around.

2. Place the appliqué, right side up, on the right side of the background fabric and sew the appliqué piece to the background fabric.

3. Iron the finished result

4. With sewing machine I sew around the inside of the heart.

Patchwork

Sometimes after looking at nice looking quilt like in this photo below, I got the urge to make one myself. The problem is, I always got the problem finishing it.

In my life, I only managed to finish one patchwork (here is the link to the project). I still have one patchwork project that I have started long time ago and until today still unable to finish it (here is the link to the project). The main reason is because lack of time and also since it’s on the quilting stage, it’s very difficult to carry it around.

Since the temptation to start a patchwork project is still there, probably I will make small pillow case again like this one.

Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar

About a year ago, Susan Ripley contacted me and asking me whether I wanted to submit any of my patterns to Knitting and Crochet Pattern-A-Day Calendar. Since I can submit my existing pattern and still selling it in my website, I thought “why not”. So, I submitted my Lauri Dress knitting pattern for 2010 calendar. I forgot all about this until yesterday night I received notification email saying that I won the second prize winner! True enough, when I went to their website, I saw this:

As a second winner, I am about to get USD 250,- check from them. I can’t wait to get the check and the free calendar. If you order the Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar, don’t forget to check my Lauri Knitting Pattern on 15 March page.