Tatted Bookmarks, Split Ring Cross and Unable to post comments

Hi,
I hope you are all keeping well, again for another day I have been unable to log in and leave comments on your lovely blogs, I hope blogger will get this problem sorted out for us all. Funny I can put a post on my blog but not leave comments, I hope to leave some comments when its working properly again, I promise to visit and catch up. I would like to say to Sarpreet I hope your mother gets better soon and its not serious. To Jane the crosses you have been showing us this week are lovely. thank you for sharing. To Janette your card is lovely. To Nic I hope you soon feel better. To those I have not included I will catch up with you.
Kevin said on my last but one post that we would be seeing more bookmarks, well Kevin you are right and here are a few I have been making.

These two are made from Lizbeth thread No 20 Turquoise Twist, one is white and Turquoise Twist, and the other is all Turquoise Twist. Both are the same Wrought Iron Pattern By Mary Konior.
Oh and the one above is in Lizbeth Thread Sea Shell No 20



These are in Altin Basak Thread which is a Turkish thread, there are two different patterns in this picture one is Wrought Iron and the other on is Rockingham both by Mary Konior. I had trouble with the Rockingham pattern and nearly gave up but with a little swearing and unpicking I got there in the end.

Now I have added this into the post this cross is something else I am not a lover of split rings in fact I try to avoid them, so why you ask did I try this pattern, simply I like it and thought I would do it, well here's the result, either I am getting better at split rings or they are not as hard as I think, this only took me a couple of hours, amazed myself and only one slight unpick. The cross is by Rachael Mohler and she calls it Split Ring Cross. Every ring is a split ring. I added a ring at the bottom as I did not do a tussle.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, another long weekend for us in the UK, but the weather does not look as if its going to be as good as the last bank holiday we had. I am in Cheese and Grain this Saturday doing my craft table, I hope I will be OK and not in too much pain I am only allowed to sit while hubby does it, I am there to do technical, he does not do technical questions. At least he does it for me, there have been more bad days than good days recently.
Until we meet again in blog land take care.
Hugs
Margaret

Knitted Forget-me-not Cup Cakes

Hi,

At last a lovely day, a little chilly and we still have the wind, the sky is blue with the sun is shining.

Although I had a mixed weekend with feeling not too bad, and a little pain, yesterday and today I have more pain and not feeling too good. We did manage to go out on Saturday night and had a lovely meal out something we have not done very much this year. It was lovely to be out with no cooking and washing up for a change.

These cup cakes I am calling forget-me-not, I do love forget-me-nots with the delicate blue flowers, at the moment I don't have any in the garden but as soon as I feel better and back to gardening I want to get some plants. Gary and Melissa came over on Friday night with Bethany our grand daughter she loved my cup cakes so I gave her one. I was trying out a different pattern with a basket pattern for the base but I did not like it so I gave her my try out. She loves it and thinks they make great pin cushions. I think I shall have to sell them as pin cushions now!!

This is a close up, each flower has four petals made in tatting with Lizbeth thread no 20 Turquoise Twist. I sewed beads seperate in the centres and dotted around the top of the cup cake.

I hope you are keeping well and the ash cloud does not affect you yet. We fly to Italy in July so hopefully it will have clear out of the way by then.

Until we meet again Take care,

Hugs

Margaret

Baby Knitting

Hi,
I thought you might like to see what I have been working on, My friend asked me if I would do some knitting as her daughter is having a baby. This is the first of the knitting the pattern is by Sirdar no 1815 and the wool is double knitting by Debbi Bliss, I had enough left over to make the hat and booties. I am sorry the picture is not very good this was the best I could get, its a difficult colour to photograph its a sort of gray blue, it worked up well. I am currently working on another cardie and then lining a basket for the baby items. All this and in between still knitting a lace cloth which I am now on round 156 only another 45 rounds to do, then it will be put into my esty shop.
The weather here is not good, at present we are having a hail storm, its very windy and between the showers the sun peeks out, not very warm either in the wind. I know the gardens need the rain and we should not complain but why cant it rain at night and have sunshine in the day time. Trouble is we are never satisfied are we? The farmers are crying out for rain saying that the vegetables and crops will be expensive due to the lack of rain, funny when we have a lot of rain the vegetables and crops go up in price, and when we have snow and ice they say they cant get the vegetables and crops out of the ground so the price goes up, but they never come down. Just another excuse for putting up the price.
Rant over,
I hope you are all keeping well and have a nice weekend.
Take care
Hugs
Margaret

Spring Bookmark exchange

Hi,
As a member of Intatters we are doing a Spring Bookmark Exchange, I have been unable to get a really good picture so I am sorry the quality of the picture is not good. The pattern is Wrought Iron from Tatting in Lace by Mary Knoior. This I tatted in Lizbeth no 20 Sea Shell, which is the colours of Light shell pink and antique violet I added glass pink pearl beads in the centre of the rings just to add a little more interest. The teasel on the end of the twisted robe I found on the Internet a few weeks ago, I found that my hands are not as flexible as they used to be and twisting the thread was hard but I got there in the end, I think this needs a lot more practice. This is going in the post today to the nominated member.
I found this a lovely pattern and although I have had this book since it was published in the 1980's I cant remember doing this pattern before, and I have already done another one in blue, as I am on a roll with this pattern you maybe seeing a few more over the next few months.
I have not been very good over the last couple of weeks, I have had several days when I just cant face food and feeling sick all day theres still no news on the op so its just a matter of waiting. The GP did do some blood tests to check nothing else was going wrong but it appears that its the gall bladder that's playing up.

I thought you might like to see my orchid with three flowers out and another one looks like it will be out within a few days.
I hope you are keeping well and hopefully the weather will improve and the lovely sunshine and warmth will come back, then I can enjoy my new garden relaxer chair. Today is dull and dizzly must not moan the gardens and farmers do need the rain.
Until we meet again in blog land, take care
Hugs
Margaret

Antique Hankerchief, Tatted Crosses and Butterflies in New Thread

Hi,

Well the sun is shining at the moment but we have had a lot of showers today and some have been heavy. If you are wondering where the sun and the beautiful weather has gone. Vernon has brought me a lovely chair to sit in the garden while I am ill. He collected it on Friday yes that's when the weather broke. He brought it from Focus, but they were out of stock in the meantime the chair came in and someone in the store sold it to someone else. I was angry at that moment but the salesman said that since Wednesday they were in administration and he was unable to order any more, but I could have the display chair. Its a lovely padded chair to relax in, I think there is also another reason from November he will be retired so what will he be doing next summer sitting in the sun on the Patio in my chair, while I go to work, that is if I find another job. Hopefully the sun will come back and I will be able to use my chair in the sun.
These photos are a handkerchief that I found in my draw, the tatted edging was tatted by an old Aunt who used to come and stay with my fathers parents when I was very small girl, she said when I was older she would teach me tatting........ she died before she did, I have told you about her before in the post "How I started tatting 16.2.11". These two handkerchiefs were tatted by her and are at least 50 years old. They have not been used for many years, and I have washed them, ironed them and put them back in the draw.

This beautiful thread was some of the thread sent to me by Fox of tat-ology this thread is by Lizbeth and is called Countryside no 20 I really love this colour way.

Also she sent this thread also by Lizbeth called Falling Leaves, they are both lovely to tat with and I have already put the name down for my next order of thread.

This thread was sent to me as a sample from Roseground

This is also Lizbeth called Grape Pizzaz no 40, a lovely combination of colours, another one to keep in mind when ordering in the future. I thought I might also make some orchid earrings with this thread. I will post when I have make some.

Last but not forgotten this thread is Flora made in Bulgaria, I found this thread hard and not as soft to work with here I made the same cross and and a small one from the rest of the thread on the shuttle. This is a pair of my orchid earrings I made with it and used Chinese crystal beads in the middle.

The cross and butterfly pattern are both by Mary Konior.

I hope today's post is interesting and you have enjoyed visiting my blog, I am sorry I still have no news about my pending op, and the last couple of weeks I have not been feeling very good and had a lot of pain. With the NHS today you have to be half dead before they do anything, so its just a case of waiting. I have by a stoke of luck got my appointment for physio on my neck and arm brought forward, I have a buckled disc and it looks as if its causing more problems, my left arm is continually cold and painful, I cannott lift it or use it very well. Frome Hospital rang me up last week and said that I was waiting too long for an appointment for physio and that they would take it over and do it, so I am hopefully going on Wednesday afternoon. I will let you know how I get on.

Well I hope the purchase of my chair does not change the weather too much and the beautiful weather we had comes back, in the meantime I hope you are well and take care

Hugs

Margaret

My Orchid.

Hi,

Another beautiful day, less windy today and a lot warmer, the forecast has rain and thunder storms from tonight. My garden could really do with some rain, its looking dry. Melissa and Gary came over at the weekend and did my garden with Vernon. So the back garden is looking lovely but the patio is full all the stuff they cut down, just a tiny space left for me to have a sit out this afternoon. My thanks to both of them for coming over and doing so much for us, it is very much appreciated.

Today I bring you my Orchid, this is the first flowers since we brought it in flower last year. I am so pleased and knowing Jeff of Bridge City Tatting blog showed us his orchid a few months ago I thought it was time to show mine. Orchids are my favorite flowers, but I think you might have guessed that already.

Sorry I don't have any craft for you but you will have some next week, this last week I have not been very good and several days I have been in so much pain I really did nothing. Although I did some crafting with Bethany ( our grand daughter) while they were gardening outside. I should have taken a picture of her colouring and stamping, shes one very crafty little girl, and she wants to learn to tat, so hopefully the art will carry on with her. I will have to buy her some shuttles so I can teach her when I am better.

I hope you have a lovely weekend and lets hope this is not all the lovely weather we are going to get and the wonderful weather we have been having will continue for the rest of the summer.
Take care until we meet up again.

Hugs

Margaret

Antique Doily and Lilly of the Valley

Hi,
This is a scheduled post, I hope you are having a lovely weekend and enjoyed the Royal Wedding.
Today is the 1st May and I thought I would show you some of my Lilly of the Valley flowering in my garden. On the 1st of May in France it is traditionally sold in all florists. Did you know that Lilly of the Valley is the flower of the month for May. It is part of the Asparagus Family, and it is also a highly poisonous plant, some people call it a weed as it spreads very quickly. It only grows in the northern hemisphere. I think its a beautiful flower, although it was not in season when I got married I did have some silk Lilly of the Valley in my bouquet. There so many flowers that hold superstitions Lilac and some other blossoms are unlucky in the house. Some people consider white flowers to be unlucky on the other hand white heather is thought to be very lucky. In France chrysanthemums are only used for funerals and never given as presents. The colour combination of white and red/scarlet flowers should be avoided for hospitals (our local hospital does not allow flowers) and the stage as they are considered unlucky. In most European countries it is customary to give an odd number of flowers - even thirteen which of course would be unlucky in Britain, and they remove the paper before giving flowers.
Back to what I was going to show you.


This is a tatted doily which was made long before I was born, we have no idea who made the doily but we think it might be my fathers mother. When I learnt to tat an old aunt came to stay and was amazed to see me tatting, she thought that she had taught me but actually I never saw her tat and never knew she could. So I looked through mothers table linen and found this piece, I have no idea of the name of the pattern and I can only guess that this doily must have been made long before I was born so that makes it a minimum of over 60 years and could possibly be even nearer to one hundred years old. I washed it as it has not seen the light of day for some time, mother does not use it, it was stained and after two washes I think most of the stains are out but it has broken in a couple of places, it was skewed up for a long time, and I have ironed it, but it is to fail to do to much too.
This is a close up, the colour is ecru which is not my favorite colour in fact I don't like the colour and don't use it, their are so many lovely colours now but years ago there was only white and ecru, I am not sure if they had black in those days.
This doily will be given back to Mother for her to put away, I don't think she will be using it. If anyone has or knows where I can get a copy of this pattern I would love to know as it would be nice to re-make it, I have had a look at it but I don't think I would be able to work out the stitches on it very well as it has very small picots and stitches. I suppose if I sat down long enough I could just about get the pattern, possibly in another fifty years.
I hope you have found this post interesting and enjoyed reading it, I used to have my own florist shop, there are a lot of superstitions and things that are customary in the flower world, that you have to learn when selling flowers.
Until we meet again in blog land take care and enjoy the rest of your bank holiday.
Hugs
Margaret