SEW MY NAME

October is  Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please visit the Breast Cancer site and click to help. It’s FREE!

Have you done your annual mammogram check? I did mine a few days ago and for those who are scared not to worry, the pain is bearable and in all it takes a few minutes only. And unfortunately not only old women are diagnosed with breast cancer, young women too and even men. Click below to read more at the breast cancer site and while you are there help fund a mammogram for free.

I am more terrified of pap smear test even though my gynaecologist is actually a sweet angel in disguise. I’m supposed to get the test done this June and I’m expecting her nurse to ring me anytime to arrange for my appointment. I wish they have lost my contact number but I know they are an efficient lot.

I have not been blogging regularly due to commitments and also the fact that both of my kids pc are down and so my laptop is everyone’s target. My personal IT technician is my nephew, an IT student who recently won a Lee Kuan Yew Technology Award for creating application to allow more features to be added to bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. Currently he is very busy with job attachment and hoping to come by this weekend to repair the pcs. Kudos to you Zaid for your achievement.

I have not done any sewing recently but I have a list to do. I need a new apron, a bag for my library books and new covers for my kitchen gadgets. I have quite a number of orders for beaded items and not coping too well with such little time.

Thank you all my on-line and off-line friends for your kind wishes on my recent bereavement. Until next time, take care all of you.

It was a sad Mother’s day last weekend to see my mom in grief when she lost her companion of 60 years. I will not be seeing that familiar face in his usual armchair in my weekly visits but dad will always have a special place in our hearts.

Mother is all that is noble and fine,
And all that is right and good.
She richly deserves every sonnet that’s sung
To her glorious motherhood.

And when Mother receives some fresh acclaim
The whole wide world is glad,
But away down deep in every heart
There’s a place that is just for Dad.

We may not shower him with praise
Nor mention his name in song,
And sometimes it seems that we forget
The joy he spreads as he goes along,

But it doesn’t mean that we don’t know
The wonderful role that he has had.
And away down deep in every heart
There’s a place that is just for Dad.

Author unknown. 

I have been busy for the whole week that I did not touch my patchwork quilt. For those who don’t know me I love to sew patchwork and fabric crafts, I love to make beaded jewelry and I also love blogging and surfing the internet. Let me see what I have been doing for the past whole week.

I managed to do a matching set of pearl beaded watch, bracelet and ring for my youngest sister. She wanted in combination of black and white. I did a simple white freshwater beaded pearl watch for my younger sister-in-law who is a sweet, simple person and a teacher by profession. And my eldest sister-in-law who happens to be my favorite for she is a very good cook, wanted her pearl watch in gold. And I can see that she loves it very much. All my sisters and sister-in-laws each has got a watch hand-beaded by me. So, one woman’s craze is other women’s gain.

I have always loved the classic look of pearls so the reason why I bought many strands of pearls. Moreover Swarovski and freshwater pearls are quite reasonably priced here. But not gemstone or semi-precious stones which are quite expensive. I guess that is why many enthusiastic beaders use crystals, pearls and other glass beads for their beading projects. Jewelry making hobby is popular here because it is not as difficult or time-consuming as sewing and patchwork. But it is also an expensive hobby once you are addicted. Each time I visit a bead store I can easily spend a hundred dollar, so I try not to go often. And I do not want to calculate or keep track of my beading hobby expenses, else my hubby faints.

Recently my dear friend Liudmila has bewitched me with her malachite beads that I have been busy buying them and other gemstones over the internet as I cannot find malachite beads here. So, soon I will be beading gemstones instead of just pearls and crystals. And guess what else I did? I have just bought another domain name www.beadedgemstone.com and right now cannot figure out how to make time to maintain another site. So I shall just park it with my hosting company until I am ready.

One more thing which I have been busy with is that I am helping a friend who is a Forex trader to produce and launch his Forex Ebook. Digging another grave for myself? The reason why I do this is because I get to learn by helping others. I don’t have a product or Ebook to sell right now but who knows in the near future?

And I have just changed hosting company and many graphics are missing and need to be restored. So pardon me if I am slow in updating my site but I intend to get the quilts for my sons ready as soon as possible.

Talk to you again next week for update of my quilts and meanwhile happy stitching, crafting and happy blogging too. Please check out Mr Linky at Blogger Craft Club to see what others did.

Welcome to my new home =)
(I have just changed Hosting company)

There is still a lot of stuff in the boxes, waiting for me to unpack. I will get them ‘display’ asap.

Meanwhile, feel free to look around.

PS : Most of the graphics were not uploaded during the move and I will try to restore them but I believe it will take sometimes.

This post is dedicated to my brother who got married last weekend. It was just a simple ceremony with close friends and relatives. He is lucky to have such a pretty wife with 2 adorable girls in tow from the bride’s previous marriage.

And just look at the cheerful girls. With family like us where male population could easily form an army battalion and girls are very few , these 2 new additions become is an instant hit with everyone.

I wish the couple a blissful wedded life and lots of happiness and laughter always.

Still in the topic of pink. I hope you people are in the pink of health. I found out from a friend, Anna, that we can help funding a woman in need of a mammogram for FREE by just clicking at the Breast Cancer site.

Yes it is FREE. Everyone please click, this is the least we can help.

Only a few days ago I was telling Sewing Mom that I am staying away from Spotlight store these days. The reason is I have a weakness for cotton materials. I say it is the quilters’ weakness. We keep buying materials, our heads full of ideas but we don’t really have so much time to finish as many projects as we would love to.

Guess what? I went to Spotlight again just now, totally unplanned, and brought home these 5 pieces of materials. And I have alot of unsewn materials collected over many years. I even have to store them in separate places in case my better half stumbled upon them. If he ever does he may ban me from going Spotlight again, or worse case he may decide to lock me in the house. And I will then have to use all those materials in my collection to make rope like what Rapunzel did to climb down from my 7th story apartment.

So now I have some Christmas prints, I will have to think of what to do with them. Especially Christmas is around the corner and it will be nice if I can make a few gifts for my friends in time for the festive season.

And I will show you the finished projects as long as you promise not to let dear hubby knows about my little secret.

Deal or no deal?

Hi all,

My apologies for the absence and inaction. I am usually behind my laptop doing a little here and there, surfing websites and visiting friends’ blogs. Only I have not been doing any sewing. Christmas is coming and I can see fellow sewing moms and daughters are frantically trying to beat the Christmas datelines.

I don’t celebrate Christmas, so I only have deadlines . So the reason behind my inaction. The other day, I went to fellow blogger’s site, sewgoodsewfar.com and she promised to make a handmade gift to the first 3 persons who commented in her blog to request for PIF (Pay it Forward) exchange. Too bad for me I was the 5th to comment.

For info, this exchange is based on the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return.

As I am also a PIF person, I also feel like doing it too. I will sew a small handmade gift for the first 3 to comment on this blog post. The good thing is the commentator has the option not to join this exchange chain to make gifts for others. But if you choose to pay it forward you are certainly most welcome.

Sew, what are you waiting for? Anyone is welcome to comment and get a little present from me.

Warm regards,
Fatiah

PS - By the way, the “Welcome” wallhang is a shadow applique where I used organza material over
the appliqued patterns of the geese sewn on the the American  cotton.

I was confined in the convention center most of the time during my stay in KL so I didn’t have time to check out Malaysian handicrafts. Malaysia is well-known for their batiks and the batik products are being actively produced in the states of Terengganu and Kelantan on the east coast of Malaysia. I’m sure batik prints make lovely patchwork with their exotic designs.

Instead I managed to snap a few miserable photos while window shopping.

The photo of the patchwork quilts was taken from one of the roadside vendors. The quilts are from China and they cost M$100 and below but the cotton is of lower quality. The workmanship is not as good as the patchwork quilts from Korea which I have seen.

By the way the photos were captured from my new mobile and they turned out not too bad.