Comfort Tatting

If you are like me there are certain tatting projects that you love to do because you have done them so often that by now you can almost tat them with your eyes closed!   So they become very relaxing to do.  For instance I know Diana will always go back to Mary Konior's spinning wheel pattern.

After a really busy and stressful month of July it is time to sit down and do some serious tatting, and to get back into the swing of it I am going to start off with my 'comfort tatting' it is of course the button necklace.   Why? well because yes I can tat it off by heart but also it is such a challenge finding the thread, buttons and beads that will all match.  Although I did make this particular necklace last year, and the earrings are a recent addition, they took me 2 weeks to make because of so many interruptions and a lot of mistakes!   

The thread is some old Coats variegated and the pattern for the earrings is Jane's and can be found here, but  I did omit the beads over the buttons as I wanted them to match the necklace.   The clever way of attaching the finding at the top of the earrings can be found here, but for some reason I found this method  hard to fathom at first.

So with thread, buttons and beads at the ready I am off to make a necklace that has been requested by a very special person in the USA!

100 years ago today

100 years ago today the Great War began - now known as World War I.   All over the country we have been remembering  those who lived and died through this time.  

Over the last few months there have also been exhibitions relating to both World Wars and at one of them this christening robe was displayed.  It was made by a woman, now in her 90s, from parachute silk for her son's christening during the second world war.  At this time the policy of 'Make Do and Mend" was advertised by the government through campaign characters such as Mrs. Sew and Sew, who advised women on how to repair and renew garments using material from curtains, dish towels and even damaged war parachutes.  In fact, the quality silk used for the parachutes became highly prized for making wartime wedding dresses and christening gowns.  This particular one has a delicate lace trims sewn on it, no not tatting!

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And this is what the oldest church in our benefice looks like today.  

When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today

More Buttons

I was asked if I would not mind tatting around a button as someone had a mark, or it could have been a hole on her fairly new t.shirt and she wanted to hide it.  So I made three as I wasn't sure how big the hole was and of course there are many shades of white.  No pattern just randomly tatted around a few buttons and as no beads were required they were done in no time.

Last weekend I was given a large container of buttons, sadly they had been abandoned in a shed for many years and needed a good wash and brush up!  I had to throw quite a few away as they were beyond rescuing, these were the best.

 
There were some vintage mother of pearl  buttons which glistened in the sun light, something they had not seen for years.

This is the button that was chosen for the t. shirt - a perfect match

Heat Wave

It must be the heat because both Jane (big sister) and myself have gone a little off doing any tatting at the moment.  I am concentrating on altering some clothes, a job that I hate, but it does mean that I get back to wearing them, especially as they are for the Summer weather, which may not last for much longer.

This is my latest tatting project which has taken a week so far!  It could become an edging or even a necklace!

Thought you would like to see some real creativity this is a piece of wood we found in this place.

If you look closely at the left hand side you can see the shape of a deer's head its eye and  nose in particular.  It did not fair too well outside in the winter as some of it split but this is what it was finally turned into.  The flat pieces are made out of beech and came from a huge log that was cut with a chain saw.

Somebody took a fancy to it straight away and it was sold at the exhibition

Exhibitions

Over the last few weeks I have been involved in organising and setting up two exhibitions in two different churches, one traditional and one quite modern.  I mentioned the Art and Craft Exhibition in my previous post and last weekend another church was transformed into a History and Heritage Exhibition.   It included artifacts from a  famous Victorian Artist who lived in the village and is buried in the churchyard. Items and history relating to a family who had and still have connections with the area.  Also a brief history of the men who  went to fight in the two World Wars.

May I introduce the Goddess Flora, she is made from wax and as the temperatures in England are extremely high at the moment, she was transported to church in a box surrounded by frozen peas!  

She is rather lovely and I just had to introduce her to some tatting

Flora was so easy to photograph too as she never moved an inch,  she was the star attraction of the exhibition and she knew it!

Tatting and a lot more!

At the weekend we held an Art and Craft Exhibition in one of the churches. It was an extremely successful event with a lot of items on show, many of which were for sale and  a good many were actually sold.   Here is a table with some tatting and other craft items on.

You  will see a bag on the table, I have now made two more of them,  but this one was actually sold at the weekend.

Here are the others

The one on the far right is in the process of being made.  Notice the many buttons  sewn on the bags! 

And talking of buttons this is what I also made for the exhibition. Someone who lives in the village was very interested in the items which included buttons as she makes wedding bouquets with them.  She also wants to learn to tat, but first I have some buttons to give her that are no use to me, looks like we are heading for a 'button afternoon' before the year is out!

I am hoping to get back to some serious tatting soon as there is a lot I want to make.

70yrs ago today

As you will see from this post  a memorial was erected to five USA pilots whose aircraft crashed into woodland 70 years ago today.  This morning as the sun shone brightly over this beautiful wood,  a short service was held to remember these men, with the pupils from the near by village school in attendance.  We sang the National Anthem and then The Stars and Stripes (rather hesitantly as the words and music were unfamiliar to us) but we managed with out any music to accompany us.

In the picture is the Vicar standing by the memorial and beside him is the mother of the boy who, when he was only 16 years of age, found a small piece of green painted aluminium sheet lying in the wood. Over the next few weeks his search continued and he found an identification bracelet bearing a set of wings on the front with the name and serial number on the reverse. Also recovered was a pilot's whistle and the remains of three wrist watches,  this was 35 years after the accident.  The memorial was dedicated on 2nd July 1998.


The pilots we remembered today were:
Capt Billy Bryan                   313th Fighter Squadron
2nd Lt Dale C. Francis        81st    Fighter Squadron
1st Lt Walter Hayes             81st    Fighter Squadron
Capt Norman H Nelson      313th  Fighter Squadron
2nd Lt Duran F. Quinn         313th  Fighter Squadron

They shall grow not old, as e that are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them