Thistles and Harvest Decorations

Someone in the USA has requested six of my thistle bookmarks.  It is strange but whenever going back to a pattern there seems to be something you want to do to improve on it, especially a few years down the line.   One of the more noticeable things I did was to tat a different tail.  Here you can see one with split rings and the other with the technique Jane has just put on her blog a half double double stitch.  They both look fine but I think I prefer the slimmer stem!

We have just celebrated harvest in our parishes and there were some lovely decorations, although I forgot to take pictures of the fruits, but at least have some flowers!

A basket filled with autumnal flowers

Hops decorating the porch of a church

Hops are used primarily as a flavouring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavour, although they look so pretty hanging over a porch.

If you look through the door you can just see the basket sitting there!

Bead Soup!

I have just finished all the motifs for the mirror magnets over 30 in total and all but two are stuck on.  It was very difficult photographing them but managed a few reasonable pictures in the end.  By tatting them I used up a lot of odd beads that have been lying around and also managed to reduce my 'bead soup' a little, although need to try harder with that problem!

I seem to have a lot of bead spillages and now have two containers full!

But they look so beautiful when all together.

This afternoon I read about the Aka tribe from a copy of the National Geographical Magazine, they  live in the northeast corner of India.  Apparently they have more than 26 words to describe beads.  Beyond being objects of adornment, beads are status symbols and currency.  Do you know what I could go with that idea!

Another bookmark and Scarecrows

First I must apologise to Jane McLellan for failing to acknowledge that the bookmarks in my last post was one of her patterns which you can find here.   The other Jane (my sister) passed the pattern on to me before either Jane M or myself ever had a blog and it remained on a piece of paper without a title or anything.  

I have just finished this bookmark from Robin Perfetti and it can be found here, Robin has some lovely patterns and it is worth a visit to her blog. I was going to make a border but could not find anything to sew it on to and so made a bookmark instead.

I have been very busy over the last few weeks organising a Scarecrow Festival and here are some of the ones that were on display, they were very cleverly made.  The children so enjoyed seeing them recognising the characters.

Four Bookmarks

I am really getting tired of some of the thread in my stash and thankfully most of the balls have nearly reached the end. Isn't it strange when you want them to run out they don't but when you are doing a really important project there is never enough thread?  So to try and use the balls fairly quickly I have begun tatting these bookmarks, very relaxing to make too.

Now Jane is really hooked on these solar powered  "flip flops" (forgotten what she calls them), the scarecrow one was given to me when I was in the USA with her and I treasure it especially as this weekend I am organising a scarecrow festival.     The other one I bought in Singapore but sadly I knocked it off the windowsill this week and the flower broke of so it was replaced with a tatted one.

More wood has arrived in our house (via my son who was storing it for us in London) and the selection is amazing, hopefully soon I will be able to post some more pictures of the shuttles that are being made.  

Keys

Before Jane left for Palmetto Tat Days I spent a few days with her and one evening we tatted together this clever pattern, it was actually the lilac key in the middle. After returning home I tatted some more, they only take less than an hour.   That same evening Jane designed one with a crown on top, but you will have to wait for that beauty.  The pattern is actually on the Tat Day's CD but of course being Jane's sister I was fortunate enough to try it before then.  

There are four churches in our benefice so you can imagine the amount of keys that some of us have to travel around with.   This is the largest of the keys and because of its size there is another system to get into the church and this one is not used that often.

There is always a danger in loosing keys and this frequently happens to the Vicar and myself!  The cartoon shows possible places we have left them and I can relate to more than one.   The main problem is that there is usually at least two keys that are needed for each church so the bunches of keys we all have are extremely large.  Of course you might think too large to loose, but that is not true, especially as they don't fit in a pocket so you usually put them down somewhere!

Sometimes it feels that my life is ruled by keys, now I can tat them it is a little more soothing! 

Post Shuttles with a difference

Following on from the wood that Sue Hanson gave us whilst in London, some shuttles are in the process of being made.   I say 'process' as these pictures do not show them fully completed, they still need some more sanding and oiling.    But thought you would like a quick look at them.

The woods are Yellowheart, Violet Rosewood and Pink Ivory

A request from Sue was to have an indent for the finger/thumb on the top of the shuttle and here it is on a holly one.

I am still tatting the inserts for the mirror magnets, here is a selection.

They are going to be Christmas giveaways unless they find new homes before then!

Square Magnet Mirror Frames

As you can see in the last post the packets of magnet mirror frames contained square as well as round ones.  They did not look so good with the buttons in the middle so I used these thin silver bits instead. I have had them for over 30 years as I bought them when we lived in Hong Kong, so it is great to put them to good use!

A picture of the wood we managed to get back on the train from London a few weeks ago in a shopping bag, rather a nuisance when travelling on the underground!

There is a good selection of wood even in this little pile and now we are waiting for our son to visit, then hopefully he will be able to bring some more of it back, at which point there will be even greater excitement in the garage! 

My son has a very small two seater car so it is going to be sometime before it all is safely stored in the garage. In the meantime we have been trying to make room for the new selection of wood.  

The dark pieces you see are not all ebony, there is some violet rosewood and when cut it is a lovely dark red colour.  For those with good eyes you will also see a piece of Australian Gum.   At the moment post shuttles are being made for Sue Hanson out of some of the wood, but more pop-a-bobbin shuttles will be made soon.