Tatting Gifts

I have two sons and so they are not really interested in tatting, in fact sometimes they will poke fun at it.  However, recently I was asked my by youngest if I had any Christmas tatting as he wanted to take some over to his colleagues in Singapore.  I was thrilled and dug out all my Christmas tatting, some bits have been around for many years.  Anyway he choose what he wanted, took them home and then purchased some boxes and placed them inside.

This is the photograph he sent me today.  Each box contains two Christmas baubles (patterns on the side of my blog) and other Christmas ornaments.   It will be interesting to hear what they think of their gift boxes full of tatting!

Earrings

I have in my stash over 20 pairs of earrings in various designs, occasionally I give them away and they also end up at one Christmas Market a year. However, it seems so sad that most of the time they never see the light of day.  I myself do not wear them as they are all for pierced ears.  So to vary my stock a little for this year's Christmas stall I made some different ones, here are two pairs.   I also intend to package them in individual boxes, will show you when that is done.

Actually I really should make a pair for myself with clip on findings so that I can wear them and show people what they look like.

   

Pop-a-bobbin shuttles for sale

As Christmas is on the horizon and before the weather became too cold to work in the garage, more shuttles were made and have been transported to Jane,  some have been sold but the rest will be in her Etsy shop in the next few days.  Here is her blog 

This is a picture of a Tulip Wood shuttle placed on top of a tree.  The tree has birds in it made from different woods, one of which is of course Tulip Wood.

The full list of woods left to right clockwise are, beech, Yellow heart, Pink Ivory, Purple heart, Bocote, Snakewood, Tulip, Ebony, Sycamore and Ash.

Charity Shop Shuttles

About once a year I am lucky enough to pick up some tatting shuttles from the Red Cross Charity Shop in a town 3 miles from where I live.    I try never to miss visiting this shop, it is in an old building, not very big and you have to go right to the back where the haberdashery bits are tucked away. It is amazing what other bits and pieces I have picked up in the past from the shop.

Here is a picture of everything packaged or put neatly in baskets

Oh and the amazing thing is the shuttles were only 50p each!  Probably because no one knows what they are for.

Displaying Bracelets

I am sure that I have said this before, tatting is so difficult to display and therefore I am always trying to find new ways of attracting people to look at it when I have a stall. At the same time is is necessary to give customers an opportunity to handle the goods and look at the workmanship. 
This is the latest addition to my display stands.

I am not sure it is going to work but will give it a try next month.

Not Tatting!

I have not picked up a tatting shuttle for over a fortnight now as I've been crocheting these Lego tissue box holders for a Christmas Market.  I do hope they sell as really value my time and hope it has not been wasted, especially giving up other crafts for them.

I am aiming to make at least a dozen, but finding that just 8 of them are taking up so much room.  So used to tatting which can be put into the smallest space.

One Off!

I am delighted to say that the doily is at last finished, all I need to do is tidy up the threads that have been left around after any such project!   As I worked from round to round on this doily I did not write the pattern down, because really do not think that it will ever be made by me or anyone else!  So this is definately a one off!

It is 20" wide and I am actually not keeping it, someone requested this doily back in July, the only stipulation was that it was green, large and had to be completed by Christmas. She has not seen it yet so hope she will be pleased.

Emergency Supplies

So regret starting this doily but I am now getting on fine with it, just have a few false starts on every round as I attempt to get the pattern and tension right.   I do have a variety of balls of green but found myself running out of the essential colours so went to e.bay to get these emergency supplies. Really needed to match the colours and not be too random with them.

I am particularly fond of the two balls of green on the right and look forward to using them in the future with another project.

But here is the doily so far which is taking up so much of my time.

The next picture you will see is of it finished.  Hurrah!

Daffodil

I was going to show you how much I had progressed on the doily but I am having a slight break whilst awaiting the threads I won on e.bay.  Unfortunately I was not in when the postmen delivered the parcel so now have to wait until it can be collected or re-delivered.

In the meantime I thought I would try and make another bookmark which symbolised another national emblem of a country within Great Britain and here it is the daffodil. 

Martha Ess designed this daffodil, it was one that she demonstrated at Tat Days 2012, which I happened to attend.  I have already used it on Easter Cards but have now found another use for it, do you know the country it represents?

Continuing with the Doily

I am still working on this doily and making it up as I go along, have tatted a little bit more than this picture shows. but running out of thread that will match.  The reason is that I have wasted quite a bit of thread when chopping the original up and have also made a few false starts. Not only that I did not realise how much thread the project would take.

However, luckily I purchased 9 balls of green thread on e.bay, some of the colours will match and should enable me to continue.  Will show you another picture in a few days time.

Thistles

My son spent the last weekend in Scotland and he has apparently bought back some traditional Scottish shortbread, but I will have to wait until I see him next to know what they taste like.  The emblem of Scotland is the thistle and if you go here you can read all about why this is so.

I had a request to make three thistle bookmarks and they are now finished and ready to post.

The pattern is on the side of my blog, the only difference is that now I split the threads on the top to make them look more like the flower on the thistle.

Still struggling with the green doily which I hope to show you on the next post.

A Change of Craft

When I was visiting my son, daughter-in-law and only grandchild in Singapore a few months ago I noticed that they had a yellow crocheted tissue box holder in the shape of a lego brick. This of course is not surprising as my son is still very involved in lego and you can see his creations on this web site http://www.musicalbrick.com.   We even gave him a Lego Volkswagen beetle to assemble for his birthday.  

I soon found the pattern for the lego brick tissue holder on the internet and set about making one yesterday, here is the result, fashioned by one of the wooden men that 'im in the garage makes. 

In between my many tatting projects I am hope to make some more of these bricks in other lego colours. 

Winging It!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last blog post, you sure did cheer me up I was almost in tears having to destroy all that work.

'Winging It' is what I am doing now with regard to tatting this doily.  As you can see it had the 'big chop' and now I am continuing using a different design which is being made up as I go along. Hence there is no preparation, just chancing it, so far so good, but have no idea what the next row is going to be.   Wish me luck

A Huge Disappointment

It seems that I will have to get the scissors out to this doily after hours spent tatting it.  I found the pattern on Linda's page here, and really thought it would work well especially as I was aiming to tat it for someone who wanted a green doily.  Sadly though as I progress the work does not lie flat and gets worse after trying to press it down.   May be my tatting is too tight?  I am sure I did not make any errors, whatever, there is no use in carrying on.   Sad but put it down to experience.

There may be a way to continue by not cutting all of it to pieces and making up my own version as I go along, although not sure I am clever enough to do that. 

Edleweiss Finished

So I really got a move on with this huge doily, it is in fact the third one I have made following Renulek's Edelweiss pattern. Actually there is still a fourth one waiting in the wings, started it years ago but it has remained uncompleted mainly because the colours are awful,  I will show you it sometime.

It was really difficult trying to get a good photograph of the finished piece of work and I know it should have been blocked and pressed properly especially when you see this section which I have just scanned but I was too excited to show you.

On the last row I added some tiny beads to the chains and they give it such a lovely finish

Another Project

I have been asked to make another doily for someone to give as a Christmas present, but very eager to get started and hopefully finish tatting it well before the festive season.  This is the first two rounds of the pattern I have chosen.  I wonder if any of you can guess whose pattern it is?

And here is the continuing work on what I now know is called Edelweiss, Renulek's doily.

Pop-a-bobbin with a pick

So big sister Jane said it might be a good idea to make a wooden shuttle with a pick on. This task was set before 'Im in the Garage and here is the result. However, first shuttle went a little wrong so was turned into an normal pop-a-bobbin shuttle.

I will test the shuttle this week and see how usable it is and then pass it on to Jane for another test.  Also have to say that it took a long time to get the pick to this stage, a plastic shuttle with a pick did help him get the idea of what was required.   

Goodbye July

It is sad to say goodbye to July for once we are in to August the feeling that Winter is only around the corner is depressing, still I have plenty of tatting projects to look forward to over the next few months.

As you can see Renulek 2014 doily has really grabbed my attention and I am staying up late at night to get more done.

This is not a very good picture because the sun was too bright, but I hope you can see that after the grey the thread is cream and the outer boarder is an off-white.  There are still many more rounds to complete and of course I am going to introduce the colour grey back again before it is finished.  

Back to Tatting Mats

I am never quite sure what to call these mats, should they be doilies?  A doily to me is a pretty piece of paper that you put underneath a cake.   Of course you can do this with many the tatted mats but some of them are far too big for that purpose.  The translation on Renulek's blog usually says napkin, which again is very different from how I would class a napkin.  So I am calling them tatted mats.   Renulek has over the years designed some wonderful mats and in 2014 I went quite crazy and began at least four, so in the last few days have picked up one of them to continue with, as you can see  I have just started adding the cream the grey was tatted three years ago.

Because my time is very limited at the moment to get any craft work done, especially tatting, I find this a good way of being able to pick a piece up and continue with it during the odd spare moment.   However, my biggest fear is that when the project becomes larger I will loose interest, we will see!

Meeting my Tatting Friend

If you travel to another country and you know there are some tatting folks that live there, well you try your best to see them.  Every time I visit Singapore I meet up with Val, her blog is here, although she admits she has got behind with her blogging!

This selfie was taken in an old redundant fire station in Singapore which has been turned into a restaurant. This is quite unique for Singapore because wherever you look there are so many modern high rise buildings. Even with some clever modification the restaurant managed to remind me of home.  My daughter-in-law was singing there and we had taken her baby son (my grandson) of just 7 months to watch.  You can just see the original red fire station door in the picture.

It has now been a month since we returned home and it seems like the visit happened ages ago, time sometimes plays tricks on you 

Coffee and Cream Finished

After signing for a delivery today I noted that it is 7.7.17 which is so cool!  However, it is not so cool weather wise because we are in the middle of a heat wave in the UK, but that is fine with me.  Also I am trying to recover from the Art Exhibition that was held in one of our churches over the last three days, it actually took another three days to set up, so pleased it is now over.

Amongst, mostly works of art to hang on the wall, there were other items on display such as 'Im in the Garage' wooden creations and some of my tatting.   So I have pleasure in announcing that both the tatted mats that I displayed were sold and this is one of them, only just finished on time.

I am really pleased that it has been sold, rather than putting it away in a box, although I might have found a home for it especially as it fitted quite well on this table.

Designs for Life

The Women's Institute participated in a Wellcome Trust-funded project, to create textile art representing the health related research that takes place at Diamond. In collaboration with The Oxford Trust and Diamond, the WI created 30 panels that depict diseases such as HIV, Alzheimer’s, and breast cancer, as well as iconic scientific images such as diffraction patterns, a DNA fingerprint, and even a synchrotron.

Under the guidance of leading textile artist, Anne Griffiths, over 1000 scientists and members of the WI contributed to the art project, making Designs for Life one of the largest science and art fusion projects ever to have taken place in the UK. 

I visited this mobile exhibition 'Designs for Life' in the nearby town of Romsey last week and one of the panels that immediately stood out was this one, it represents 'Foot and Mouth' which is a very infectious disease that effects cattle and has caused many a farmer to loose his livelihood.    You can just about see a piece of tatting in the middle and some bits around the side, the only panel to have any.

I am finding it difficult to blog at the moment due mainly to an Art Exhibition which is to be held this coming week.   Hope to catch up with my own tatting soon. 

Bags and purses

Whenever you go on holiday it is always good to bring back some presents and souvenirs from your trip.   I fell in love with these brightly coloured and ornately decorated items.   The lovely big bag being my absolute favourite.    All of them I purchased whilst in Cambodia using U.S. dollars, which was the currency they preferred to be paid in. However, there was no loose change just straight dollar notes,  everything was rounded of to the nearest dollar.

I have been too tired to do much tatting since arriving home, still seem to be on a different time zone.    The Art Exhibition is about a fortnight away and I must finish the 'Coffee and Cream' mat that I am working on.

Travelling

I have been away for just over two weeks visiting Singapore and Cambodia and returned home last night.  We have had a fabulous time meeting so many interesting people and places. Next to none tatting has been accomplished as I was either too busy or it was too hot.

This is a bookmark on top of a Cambodian flower which was placed on our bed every night together with a Buddhist story.

Whilst we were in Cambodia we visited the famous Angkor Wat Temples, here are just a few pictures out of so many.

Angor Thom with its many faces

and this temple with trees growing around and through it, almost swallowing the entire structure

To a temple made from red stone.

The Khmer people were so kind and the area so beautiful that you could not help just fall in love with the place. 

Coffee and Cream

When I took this doily to show some people at the Computer Club last week, a person suggested that it be called 'Coffee and Cream' because of the colours.    As you can see I have now tatted another three rounds, but each round seems to be taking me ages to work.

It now measures 17" x 14" and I plan to continue so that it gets a little larger. Although of course the size is now governed by the amount of thread that is left in my stash. 

Dress Trim

I don't tat very much around clothes, although saying that the surplice I wear when conducting church services is adorned with tatting and gets many comments.    This dress, which I made, seemed to shout out for something else, it is patterned but I felt it needed to be enhanced with a few borders of tatting.

So I tatted around the neck and armholes using Mary Konior's Shepherd's Hey, it does seem to work.     But my heart is really on the large doily that I am making and really enjoying seeing it grow.

Noah's Ark

Yes I am still tatting the doily and so enjoying working on it, but instead of boring you with another picture of it, decided to show you another of 'Im in the Garage's' handiwork.   This Noah's Ark was made many years ago, in fact he made about half a dozen of them and all have been sold, accept for this one, and is now going to our grandson.  I will be sorry to see it go, but it is much better to have some play value out of it instead of just sitting on a shelf.

There is a tatted elephant on the wooden one but it is difficult to see, all the animals fit in the ark in a particular order, including Mr. and Mrs. Noah. The bottom of the boat slides back to reveal a rainbow jigsaw. 

And of course the giraffes stick their heads out of the top!  All hand painted by myself.

Two more rounds

I am making good progress with this doily, but still not sure how big it is going to end up being.  This will be the last time it will fit on the scanner though -  well it almost fits on the scanner!

Actually I am a bit further on than this picture which I scanned a few days ago. As the rounds get bigger I have to be careful that I have enough thread to complete the round I am on, especially as in some cases I am using balls of thread that have been well used.   

Rectangle Doily

I don't seem to have a large piece of tatting that I can show in the Art Exhibition in July, so I decided to tat one especially and this is the start of it.   When I say large I have absolutely no idea how far I am taking this, in other words will go with the flow and when I get bored, or run out of suitable thread will stop.

My intention is to use browns, creams and combinations of these colours to keep it all neutral and able to be displayed anywhere.   Which actually poses another problem, as of course when it is finished, it will need to be displayed.  I always think that is a huge problem when showing off tatting at its best, so need to work on a few ideas. 

Too many things on the go

Yes that is right I have too many things on the go at the moment, not only with regard to tatting but other parts of my life seem to be very busy, leaving little time to finish off what I have already started!   This is a trim that is going to go on a Summer Dress I have just made.

The pattern is Shepherd's Hey from Mary Konior's A Pattern Book of Tatting. 

I have also started tatting a rectangle doily, which has put an abrupt stop to this trim ever getting sewn on the dress in the immediate future.    The reason why I started the doily is that I would like to make piece of tatting for an exhibition that I am actually organising and will take place in July.  Already forms are coming in and the administration is starting to pile up.    Mainly it will be paintings on show but we hope to get other art forms, already a girl who makes 'steam punk' items out of leather wants to exhibit what she has made, not quite every ones scene but they are truly artistic.  

So back to my shuttles!

Sally's Bugle Snowflake

It isn't often you get a snowflake named after you, but the one that Jane has just designed has been, and I am so chuffed.  She is right, I like to see bugle beads in tatting, but at times they can be annoying especially if there is a sharp edge on one them and it cuts the thread whilst in the middle of making something.

These are my snowflakes and yes I did find the new technique a wee bit difficult to start off with, but here are a few helpful hints before you start.   Don't attempt this pattern late at night.  Don't start it and then go and do something else either! But the best advice is that when you have all the safety pins on and start going around to each of the points and taking the pins out, be very very careful you do not twist the piece of work and go out of sequence.   This happened on my first snowflake (one shown in the picture) and it is very easily done as you are so excited to get going with the pattern after achieving the middle bit.  Also on the top one I miss counted when it came to the last round, but 'practice makes perfect' and so will be making more.

And in case you don't know what I am talking about, this is the pattern now on Jane's blog.

Dowel Cutter

This is how the little plugs which go inside the popabobbin shuttles are made.  What you see is a Stanley No 77 and we purchased it on e.bay from someone in the USA very soon after the shuttles became popular.  These dowel cutters stopped being made in 1969 so it is a vintage piece of equipment.  As you can imagine it was quite expensive to buy especially after paying import duty.   We have also managed to get extra cutters for it so that other sizes of rods can be produced.

When the shuttles were first made we bought long lengths of doweling rod or tried to make the little plugs by hand for the different woods.   But this 'old lady' is doing us proud and makes them just the right size.  The handle is unattached at the moment as it is not in use and sits behind the lathe.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this on Tim's post, perhaps we should make green shuttles to match!  Very clever Tim and it means you will never loose them as they are so bright.

St George's Day-

Today we are celebrating St. George's Day the Patron Saint of England and of Scouting. This afternoon there was a parade in Romsey, a town about 3 miles away from where I live with the uniformed organisations taking part. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny day, so the children did not get cold.  

To mark the event with a piece of tatting, this is the St. George's flag.  We mainly see a lot more of this flag when the English football team are playing, otherwise it is the Union Jack, the British flag, that is more likely to be flown. The central part of the Union Jack is the red cross of St. George.  

Some of our churches fly flags and here is a picture of one just about to be hoisted.

The tatted flag pattern can be found here, 

And of course today is also Shakespeare's birthday.

A couple of Easter Eggs

The last few weeks have raced by and my busyness has meant very little time for any tatting.  Over the last few month I have also started a few other craft projects, which have sadly had to be put on hold.   I managed to tat these Easter Eggs very quickly in the last few days. They have now been given to friends, the pattern is on the side of my blog

Both are tatted using two threads size 80

I love the effect the combination of the threads give

Something different

Recently I have seen some lovely tatted trees on a tatted facebook page, no idea where the pattern has come from but they look so effective.  Many years ago, before the internet,  I borrowed Lindsay's Tatting Collage book from the library but never actually managed to tat anything from it, time and energy were then the overriding factor!  I have since purchased the book, but mainly for reference and ideas.

Whilst looking through an old Ring of Tatters book I found another tree and decided to have ago at tatting it with some adaptations.  Unfortunately it did not turn out quite right, unless you look at it as a wind blown tree!

I am going to have another go but this is what the original design looked like, my idea was to make it more interesting but got lost on the way!

I am now working on another tree and if successful would like to use it in a tatting collage, but that idea may never come to fruition, as I do not have much confidence in my ability to succeed!

Tatting Day Out

Last Friday I went to see Jane to deliver some tatting shuttles and the next day she took me to a village in Gloucester called Churchdown, where we joined a group who had come together to tat.    It was fun to be with others and spend the day tatting and nattering.

A display of people's work was put on tables, there were some lovely tatted pieces to delight us all.

I hope to join them next year if my big sister will take me again!