Anniversaries

Two anniversaries are being commemorated today by people throughout the world. 
60 years ago New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953. They were the first people to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest.  Apparently there are some wonderful species of butterflies in Nepal but these are some that are flying to Singapore very soon.

I am absolutely thrilled that tatting is going to be on the wedding banquet tables and even more pleased that there isn't a colour code! Or if there is, well no one has told me!

And 100 years ago today Stravinky's ballet 'Rite of Spring' was performed in Paris and caused a riot.  Up until then ballet was beautiful, elegant, and charming. However this performance was extremely different both in music and dance. Many would say it was a performance 'before its time', today we would think nothing of such modern interpretations of music or dance.

 I am planning on taking these music notes with me to the banquet to put on another table but need to make a few more to make the display worth it!

A close up of the earrings I shall be wearing, certainly people will be very aware that tatting is going to be around on that day!

No I have not gone yet, and might even get another blog post in before I leave. 

Outfit complete

With the addition of earrings (the findings have to be attached) plus shoe embellishments the outfit I plan to wear in Singapore and possibly Malaysia is now complete with all its tatting.

One of the next things I need to do very soon is change some currency and yes look for that passport!

I decided that a skirt which was about 36 years old had to really go, especially as the waist was only 26 inches!  Yikes was I really that slim once upon a time?  So I sold this patchwork skirt on e.bay.  The last and probably only time I wore it was in a hotel in Hong Kong when we went to see a show.  In fact I probably made it whilst living in Hong Kong.

On Friday we are going back to our home town and of course I will be staying with Jane and delivering some pop-a-bobbin shuttles.

Playing with words

As if I did not have anything better to do!  Someone showed me how to make  'word clouds' and I am addicted to them!  I have changed my blog header to really show off the pop-a-bobbin shuttles and of course tatting.  
By putting in words connected with tatting I made this creation.  The words can go horizontal vertical or jumbled, the font can be changed and the colours, so much fun.

Just go to the 'word cloud' and create!
If you put in a word more than once it appears larger.
If you want to see which words appear the most in the different books of the bible go here.

Now back to some real tatting - Happy Word Playing!

Pendant

First I would like to thank those who gave some really helpful and affirming comments with regard to my last post when I declared that I would be trying to teach people to tat in September. Before then I have a wedding banquet to attend in Singapore, the dress is purchased, along with accessories so there just has to be some tatting to go with the outfit.
I am not a great fan of pendants but the dress that I am going to wear really leads itself to one.

As you can see I have also used a 'doodad' !  Some months ago I purchased a pair of rather large earrings with the express purpose of tatting around them one day and I am pleased with the outcome.  The biggest problem was finding a thread that would match the dress, I just did not have any that would, so in the end combined two threads to try and get the colour to match and it seems to work.  What you can't see from the photograph is the way the threads shine. The jewel in the middle is from a bracelet that I took apart and it is glued on replacing the one that was originally there. 

There was however a causality in tatting this pendant, as the holes were so small in the 'doodad' I did pull the hook off one of my shuttles in the attempt to yank the thread through! 

The next task is to make some earrings to match.

Cat teaches mice tatting!

Just read the poem below and you can see that a cat can teach mice to tat!

Martha Ess's mouse (with a lopsided neck!)

Jane's cat (teasing the mouse!)

The Old Gumbie Cat

From Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
Her coat is of the tabby kind, with tiger stripes and leopard spots.
All day she sits upon the stair or on the steps or on the mat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits - and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
And when all the family's in bed and asleep,
She slips down the stairs to the basement to creep.
She is deeply concerned with the ways of the mice -
Their behaviour's not good and their manners not nice;
So when she has got them lined up on the matting,
She teaches them music, crocheting and tatting.

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
Her equal would be hard to find, she likes the warm and sunny spots.
All day she sits beside the hearth or in the sun or on my hat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits - and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.

As she finds that the mice will not ever keep quiet,
She is sure ist is due to irregular diet
And believing that nothing is done without trying,
She sets straight to work with her baking and frying.
She makes them a mouse-cake of bread and dried peas,
And a beautiful fry of lean bacon and cheese.

I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that's smooth and flat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits - and that's what makes a Gumbie Cat!

But when the day's hustle and bustle is done,
Then the Gumbie Cat's work is but hardly begun.
She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment,
So she's formed, from that lot of disorderly louts,
A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
With a purpose in life and a good deed to do -
And she's even created a Beetles' Tattoo.

So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers -
On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.

+ + + + + + + + 

Which leads me to say that in September I have offered to help at a Craft Day when, along with other crafts, people will be invited to learn  tatting.  Not sure I will be any good at teaching but will have a go.  After all if a cat can teach mice there is hope for me!