Poker tatting adventure

 Hi,
Yes poker tatting,  never heard of it,  neither had I but in these lock down times anything is possible.   I was dealt a hand of poker,  no I don't play poker but each card had an element on to which you then design a piece of tatting.
Well this is what I came up with,   it was an adventure,  there are 11 chains,  and 13 Josephine rings,  the middle I used the card with the one ring and the three rings put together,  and the ? card was the spiral chain  to hang the heart.  I made the butterfly in the middle and as I tatted the chains the butterfly became 3d and stands up on its own. It was not planned just happen,  which I do like.
I have called this pattern Poker butterfly heart,  and I used  Lizbeth thread no 20 Juicy watermelon.    I am writing up the pattern which I will put on my pattern blog,  and will let you know when its on there.  Here is a link to the Virtual Poker run game,

Margaret

Another walk around the garden

Hi,

Well we are still in lock down as such,  we can go out more,  but to be honest with no restaurants, cafes, and pubs open and still no shops apart from food,  even if we did venture further out apart from taking a picnic  or a drink with you there are no loos open,  so not a lot of point driving for a few hours and finding nothing open.    We continue to isolate,  at least we are getting a few jobs done that needed doing.   My bathroom now has the new curtains up,  my crochet blanket of granny squares is almost there,  I am one the last granny square and then its putting it together,   I have used up lots of odd wool,  I will post about it when its finished so watch this space.   In the meantime I have had a walk around the garden,  not a lot out at the moment,  there's a lot coming.  The picture about shows my blue iris that i planted last year which I took from the front garden into the back garden.

This is my holly in flower,  they are very small flowers so I had to do the photo very close up.

This is Pittosporum,  its an evergreen very good for flower arranging,   I noticed that its coming out into flower,  the flowers on this one are very small.

These are my strawberry plants,  I have three tubs of strawberry plants,   they are looking good and I may have a good crop,  since I took the picture there are a few more flowers. 

This is Chilean Gum Box,   it's grown a bit of a funny shape but its a lovely pink flower,   this was put in memory of my dog when she died,  I wanted something that would flower, she died about this time of year,  and we put her ashes breath the bush.

These are my red hot pokers,   OK they are not red,  I brought a root early last year but this plant did not look like it would do much,  so I brought another one (below),  we thought that would be a red one,  well as you can see neither are red,  the one below is more orange.   Its OK the plants beside them are yellow day lilies,  which are not yet in flower,  so they will or should look good together.

This beautiful shrub is flowering over our garden from the next door neighbours garden,  and I just had to take a picture of it,  its called  a Weigela shrub and is in full flower.

Well thats my walk around the garden,  hope you are all OK and staying safe and well

Margaret

CD Sunday Challenge - Anything goes #36

Hi,
Gosh we are heading into June and nearly half way through the year,  it is time for another challenge at the CD Sunday Challenge blog,  As always its Anything goes as long as it from a CD, USB, or digital material.  This fortnight I am hosting the challenge
For my card I used an image and backing paper from the Pamela West Collection  CD by Joanna Sheen.  I matted the image onto gold bushed miri card by Hunkydory,  I used a small spray of leaves with a ribbon blue rose finishing off the card with peel offs and blue ribbon.
This card was for my grand daughter who with her partner brought their first home,  her favorite card is blue.

CD Sunday Plus challenge has a Facebook page for those who would like to enter the challenge and do not have a blog,   here is a link to the page

I hope you will visit the CD Sunday Plus Challenge site, and remember if you want to enter the challenge you must use something from a CD, USB or digital material no matter how small and let us know where and what you used the material from.  Here is a link to CD Sunday Plus Challenge blog  we would be pleased to see you.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend

Margaret

Isolation tatting 14 day pattern

Hi,

I have not brought you up to date with my tatting recently,  the 14 day tatting pattern by Jon ( Tat-a-Randa is now called Threads the bind.   The picture above now has 13 rows and I am on the last row,  It measures approx 11 inches in dia.,

I am still using the same colours  lizbeth thread,  Christmas green mix,  Pineapple Parfait,  and Christmas Green.

I have enjoy tatting this doily,  I have another one lined up to tat and the poker tatting challenge which I am working on,  I have not yet got bored in isolation yet.
Take care and stay safe
Margaret

CD Sunday Challenge - Anything goes # 35

Hi,
Another fortnight which we are still in Lock down,  we had a lot of lovely entries on the last challenge,  crafting is the one thing keeping us all sane.  Hope you are keeping well and safe.
It’s time for another challenge at the CD Sunday challenge blog,  again as always its Anything goes using a CD, USB or a digital material and  is hosted by Wynn
For this card I used the Shoes in Bloom CD by Ooh La La Creations,    the flower in the image is Gerbera,  I used the matching backing paper with the image,  matting the image on bushed silver miri card by Hunkydory  I used a new die I brought recently by Ultimate Crafts too Savvy Collection Contour die,  plus the Butterfly flourish die from Joanna Sheen,  finishing off the card with a bow.

CD Sunday Plus challenge has a Facebook page for those who would like to enter the challenge and do not have a blog,   here is a link to the page

I hope you will visit the CD Sunday Plus Challenge site, and remember if you want to enter the challenge you must use something from a CD, USB or digital material no matter how small and let us know where and what you used the material from.  Here is a link to CD Sunday Plus Challenge blog  we would be pleased to see you.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend

Margaret

Walk around the garden in isolation

 Hi,
Here we are in the UK into our 5th week of isolation or perhaps its six,  we are getting use to staying at home now,  and I have been crafting,  but I thought On Sunday as it was a nice day I would take a walk around the back garden.  Tye last three days we have had rain,  hopefully the nice weather will return.
Top is my Allium giganteum  and the picture on the left is Sazifraga cocblearis



 These are some of my Lily of the Valley I thought you would like to see them growing under the bush rather than in a Vase.  As it the 1st May the French will have them in their homes today.  When I had my florist shop I had a french lady come in and got very annoyed with me because I did not have any for sale,  That year they were late flowering and there was none in the market,  you cannot buy what is not in flower in a flower market.




This is a surprise,  this pansy was from last year and I found it in one of the tubs a few weeks ago and here it is flowering,  I thought I had lost them during the winter,

This plant I don't know what it is called but its a lovely pink flower and likes to flower up the top of the garden so I have left it,  I do find a lot a small seeding from it,  so I need to keep it in check,  I don't want it all over the garden,  In Sussex where i used to live they called it a weed,  here in Somerset its a flower

This is Saxifraga urbium  or London Pride,   I only have this very small patch left and I had to look up its real name as its always been London Pride to me,  apparently I have it in the wrong spot of the garden and needs to be in semi shade,  so I will be moving it when it finishes flowering.

This photo looks white but its a very pretty pink flower called Aquilegia  I also have some purple flowers ones, I think they are in the front garden.

and finally this is a flame of the forest the lily of valley type flowers are finishing and the new leaves come out in red then go pink and then into a nice fresh green colour.

Hope you enjoyed a walk around my back garden,
Stay safe and well
Margaret

Christmas cards in Lock down

 Hi,
With this lock down I have managed to make a few early christmas cards,   This set is from a topper sheet I have had for some time and not used from Kanban,  and the blue card and gold bushed miri card is from Hunkydory.  The ribbon is from stash.
One thing with the lock down it gives us time to sort out the craft room and find things you never knew you had,  and the opportunity to start early on christmas cards,

Stay safe and well,

Margaret