Made a Start

I now feel I am on the road to recovery after having a break from tatting during which I had no motivation to do any.  This is what I am currently working on.  However, a good sign is that I am being tempted to stop and start other projects especially when seeing what other people are tatting!  

No it is not a bookmark, but the centre of a doily.  I have only one large doily left as I sold three over Christmas, however I doubt anyone will ever want this one because of the colours I have chosen.  

Tatting for visitors

One of the churches in the group I minister in has joined 'Small Pilgrim Places' it is a network of churches around the country which stay open in the day time.  They encourage people to come inside and rest for awhile soaking in the atmosphere, a quiet haven of peace from the busy world outside.  This particular church was recorded in the Doomsday book of 1086 and is situated on a hill with a marvellous view of the countryside.  In order to welcome visitors I have left some tatted butterflies for them, it will be interesting to see how quickly they go and how many people take more than one!

This is the church that also has three doves sleeping in the porch, so you have to be careful not to stand directly under them!

Having had an extremely bad start to the New Year with regard to doing any handicrafts I have at last picked up my shuttles again. 

New Year

Blogging ceased for me during December, party due to the fact that I spent 9 days in Singapore and then on returning Christmas rushed in.  This left me with little time or inclination to do much tatting let alone blog about it.   But on Christmas Day I tatted these stars to go around sloe gin bottles for my son to give away.  Well perhaps not these particular bottles as they don't seem very full for some reason!

 
The photograph is not very good either as it was late evening and the light and angle did not show them up very well.  It is a tradition in our family to bottle the sloe gin on Christmas day after the sloes had been soaking in the gin for three months. 

I am not doing any tatting at the moment as decorating and sorting out is in full swing in our house, added to fact that most of my supplies are trapped behind things!  Also I have literally run out of ideas of what to tat, so wait for inspiration at the beginning of 2018, may have to look at other blogs to get inspired!

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.