And the Winner is.....

Mb duke - Congratulations please can you e.mail me on popabobbinshuttle@gmail.com  

All your comments were so interesting.  Some of you seemed to be quite fed up with the intense heat, whilst others were just happy to enjoy being outside looking at the flowers, listening to the birds and eating some gorgeous fresh fruit.    At the moment in the UK we are having a heat wave and it is lovely, so rarely do we see or feel the sunshine like this.

Here are a few plants now flowering in the garden today - a beautiful climbing rose.

And one of my favourite plants 'hot lips'

I wish you all could have been winners thank you for taking the trouble to leave your comments.

Summer Giveaway

This is my favourite time of the year,  long days with hopefully lots of sunshine.  To celebrate my 400th blog post and of course Summer, I am giving away the items below.

A post shuttle made out of Rosewood together with some other Summer related items.  So simply make one comment  (together with an easy way to find you blog or e.mail)  and I will use a random number generator to choose the winner.    You have until Monday 29th June here in the UK, I will announce the winner on Tuesday.

This giveaway is open to anyone in the world,  in fact whenever I have given items away in the past the winner has never been in the UK or anywhere in Europe! 

Just one condition on your comment just say something you like or hate about Summer!!

Good Luck!

Waterloo

When you hear the word 'Waterloo' what is the first thing that comes into your mind?  The battle of Waterloo? Waterloo Underground Station in London?  The song Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks?  Or  Waterloo by Abba?  Abba's song talks about Napoleon Bonaparte and his defeat at the battle of Waterloo in 1815 , exactly 200 years ago today.  It uses the battle as a metaphor for a woman who gives in and falls in love with a man - he is her "Waterloo."

The term  'Waterloo' has become synonymous with anything difficult to master or the ultimate challenge!   I am sure we have all come up against our own 'Waterloos' in tatting at some time or another, when a technique, a pattern or whatever has meant that we have agonised for hours trying to get it right!

These are some of my 'Waterloos' that have been abandoned on the battle field around my 'tat area!' Not a pretty sight!

Now I am no good on history and battles, as in the end the reason why there is all this fighting seems to get lost and in all the killing and sadness.  So here is a link that might help if you want to know what happened 200 years ago today Napoleon's Waterloo for Dummies!

There will be a surprise in my next blog post, so be sure not to miss it!
 

800th Anniversary Magna Carta

The Magna Carta was signed on this day in 1215 between  the barons of Medieval England and King John.  'Magna Carta' is Latin and means "Great Charter".   There are events to mark this anniversary all around the country.   The Charter was signed (by royal seal) between feudal barons and King John at Runnymede. The document was a series of written promises between the King and his subjects that he, the King, would govern England and deal with its people according to the customs of feudal law.  

Enough of the history lesson this is a pattern which I have been working on recently, it does 
not date back to 1215 but to 2008 when Jon Yusoff designed it. Here is the link to her Quantiesque Snowflake

Jon of course did not add beads but somehow I just had to include them and with that reduced the amount of picots and extenuated the points with a few extra beads.  This pattern was very popular when I started blogging and from time to time I still it appear on people's blogs. Thank you Jon a really lovely pattern.

I know that those who live in other countries are unable to see the Google images we have today in England but thought I would treat you all to this one showing the signing of the Magna Carter.   It is so funny especially when the key is thrown to unlock the ball and chain.  

There are strong influences from Magna Carta in the American Bill of Rights (written in 1791). To this day there is a 1297 copy in the National Archives in Washington DC.
Even more recently, we can see the basic principles of Magna Carta very clearly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - penned in 1948 just after the Second World War. 

So I guess today is a very special day for all of us who live in a democratic country.

Also must remind you that there are still a few pop-a-bobbin tatting shuttles left in Jane's Etsy shop, these shuttles do not have hooks. 

The Trim

So this is what happened to the trim that I showed you in the last post.

It has really added a touch of class to the bag.

More pop-a-bobbin shuttles have been made and they will be on their way to my sisters in the next few days.   This is one of them, I was going to keep it for myself, but it does not have a hook on the end, so decided to wait for another one.

The wood is called 'raspberry jam'