Happy New Year

Hi,

I wish all my followers and friends and guests to my blog a Very Happy New Year,  hopefully 2016 will be a better year,

                             Hugs
                          Margaret

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas

Hugs

Margaret

CD Sunday Challenge - A Cool Yule

Hi,
Only a few days to go until Christmas and for this challenge on the CD Sunday Challenge its a Cool Yule.   Seeing our temperatures are very mild for the time of year,  what more could I do than a card with snow, well I hope that is a Cool Yule.
For this card I used Joanna Sheens CD,  The Pamela West Collection disc number two.  I printed off the whole sheet and used three images decreasing in size as I decoupage the image down the card.   I used the backing paper that went with the image and matted the images onto silver card.  I place a narrow piece of silver card and a strip of blue ribbon under the first image.  and made a bow for the side.  Added a Merry christmas peel off,  and finished off the card with glitter,  I glittered the whole scene all most,  I hope you can see the glitter.
Actually this card is for my Husband Vernon but he does not know that yet,   I still have the insert to do and husband to the front of the card.
I do hope this card meets with the challenge of a Cool Yule.
Until we meet again take care
                          Hugs
                      Margaret

Decembers Pinterest Challenge - A choir of Angels 24/25 Motif Challenge

Hi,

For my December Pinterest challenge I went for angels they are very popular this year more so than snowflakes.
I used three patterns off Pinterest to make the choir, the top three are Sharren's Angel from Tatting with Sharren blogspot, I followed the link to her blog for the pattern here is a link to her blog.
Next I used two angels off a pattern sheet that was posted on pinterest,  they are on a blue sheet of paper no page numbers and look like workings out for the pattern,  the numbers are faint but I managed to work out the patterns.  At the bottom of the sheet it has Patrieia Pirocca 14.4.24,  I take it she designed them, I hope I got her name correct as its a bit faint on the sheet,  the third angel on the sheet does not really work out, so I left that out.
I think all three patterns look good together and are all worthy of being in the choir,  they dont take much thread  and would be good patterns to use up thread on a shuttle.  I used white Lizbeth no 20 thread.
I hope you like my choir,  I am sure that Suzanne's item link to her blog,  and Carolyn's item link to her blog.   Please do pop over to see their items,   next month we start again with another challenge for the year still using Pinterest and we have another lady joining us,   if you wish to join in we will be pleased to see you.
Until we meet again Take Care
                      Hugs
                  Margaret

My Flowering Foxglove

Hi,
Yes today is the 17th December and with the mild temperatures here in the South West of the UK,   I have a flowering foxglove,  it should flower in June and July,   There's a lot of daffodils out around the county but mine are still underground,   I just cant believe its decided to flower for christmas.
The strange thing is I thought back in the summer after it flowered and the slugs eat it, I had lost it, and that was it but no its come back to life.
Hope you are enjoying this lovely mild weather I am sure we will pay for it later in the winter,
Until we meet again
Take care
                         Hugs 
                     Margaret 
Since blogging this post this photo was featured on the local BBC news programme called Points West.  They wanted photos of flowers flowering early due to the mild weather, so I sent it in, I was over the moon when I saw the photo on the news.

Flutterflake Snowflake

Hi,

I saw this on Carollyn's Blog back in October link to her blog,   I was really taken with this snowflake,  its called Flutterflake designed by Emma Crew.  Its tatted in two different size threads which caused a major problems for me,   one I don't use the very thin thread plus I don't have much in the stash,   and two my eyes really cant see to tat with it.   So on several bright days and I mean the days when the sun did shine I made the butterflies,   it took three days to tat six butterflies with thin thread,   I used some thread that Fox had sent me, quilting thread I think on the card the number is PQ #063, there's no name just a number,  actually the thread is really pretty and made some beautiful butterflies for the snowflake.  The white part of the snowflake is Lizbeth thread no 20 in white,  I still have to sew in the ends at least with the butterflies there was no ends to sew in.

I would love to tat this pattern again but its going to have be a summers day for the butterflies. 

Hope you are having a lovely weekend

                               Hugs

                           Margaret

CD Sunday Challenge, Colours of Autumn

 Hi,

I am very late with this card,  partly because I have not been well this week with laryngitis,  which is fast becoming a cold and cough.  The weather is not helping,  its very mild for the time of year and with rain and high winds not surprising everyone seems to have a cold or flu.
The Challenge on the CD Sunday Challenge was colours of Autumn,  which to me is gold, red and orange,   well here is my impression of colours of Autumn.   I used Debbie Morse Designs Art Deco Bookazine CD,  I matted the image onto cream pattern card and then onto red card, and 3D the dancers.  I used the backing paper which went with the design and the flowers matching the dancers and placed pearls in the middle of the flowers,  did the same with the greeting and finished off the card with gold glitter peel off's.
I hope this meets with the challenge.
Have a lovely weekend and take care
             Hugs
          Margaret

Pinterest challenge for November - gone fishing

Hi,
Its time to show you my Pinterest Challenge item,   I found this fish on Pinterest a few months ago and after last months item I wanted something a bit easier,  did I get it,  not really.
This Goldfish pattern was a bit muddle their are two types of fin,  one padded and one ribbed,  I chose the ribbed one.  Its knitted in orange double knitting wool,   the mouth I could not quite get right I had a few goes at it and this was the best I could do with it.  The eyes are sewn on with white and and a dot of black wool, in the pattern they use eyes that move but I find people who buy toys these days don't want eyes that might come out when the kids are playing with them.
The pattern is by Susan Dennis and a link to her pattern.
I have no idea what Suzanne (link to her blog) and Carollyn (link to her blog) have done but I am sure their creations will be lovely.  Perhaps both of them will be better than my fish who knows.
Do pop over and see their creations I am sure they would be delighted to see you.
Until we meet again Take care
                       Hugs
                    Margaret

Snowdrop

Hi,

Its a wild wet and windy day here in Somerset,  they say the winds have not peaked yet,  I hope they do soon, it's pretty rough out there and wet.

This beautiful snowflake called snowdrop is by Joelle,  I really enjoyed tatting this pattern,  its a wonderful snowflake unfortunately I dont feel I did it proud,  I eye balled the picots and although I have not blocked it, it's not my best effort.   I used Lizbeth thread in white no 20.   I have not been too good the last few weeks with a lot of pain,  no excuse, I am going to make a few more of this wonderful pattern.  Here is a link to Joelle's blog

Do you remember this card a few weeks ago, to my surprise, this card was first for the CD Sunday challenge, "something beginning with H".   It made my day today.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend,

Take care in this rough weather

Hugs

Margaret

Happy American Thanksgiving

Hi
I wish all my American Followers a very Happy American Thanksgiving Day.

                   Hugs
                Margaret

CD Sunday Challenge - Sprinkle of Snowflakes

 Hi,
On this dull and damp day here in Somerset,  I hope its better with you.  I made this card for the CD Sunday Challenge,  this time its a Sprinkle of Snowflakes. As soon as I saw what the challenge was I knew it had to include a snowflake. Seeing that I am making tatted snowflakes at the moment I had plenty to choose from for this card.

The backing paper of snowflakes is from the Glitter and Glitz Art Deco Christmas CD by Debbi Moore,  the image at the bottom is from the Pamela West CD  disc two by Joanna Sheen,  and the tatted snowflake is from the 24 Snowflakes in tatting by Lene Bjorn and its day 14 in the book,  and I used Lizbeth thread in white no 20.
I placed the snowflake and the image on gold card, along with the Merry Christmas words in sparkling writing on parchment,  then added a bow with white and green ribbon,  with gold and green snowflake peel off's.
I hope there's enough snowflakes to make it a sprinkle.
Until we meet again take care
                          Hugs
                       Margaret

Cream Baby Clothes

Hi,

This is my latest knitting,  a cream set of baby clothes,  a bonnet, booties and mittens to match,  they are cream but the photo looks white,  the weather here has been dull for days and getting the most prefect picture seems impossible.
They are knitted in double knitting wool and a plain knitting pattern.
They are going into my Esty shop,  link in the sidebar.
Hope you are keeping well,  and until we meet again take care
                               Hugs
                            Margaret

Snowflakes 23/25 Motif challenge

Hi,
After a night a gale force winds and rain,  at least the wind has dropped,  its still cloudy and fairly mild.   Up north they have taken a battering with the winds, especially in Scotland,  with the first snow of the winter.
Today I thought I would show you the snowflakes I have been making from the new book its from the 20 to make series Tatted Snowflakes,  by Jennifer Williams.    I have enjoyed this book although I have only made a few so far,  the patterns are easy to read and diagrams are easy to read.  All the snowflakes have girls names which is nice.

This is the first snowflake in the book called Alison

 This is Catrin and is done in two half and then put together, as a Celtic design.    I did like this one the on the right is plain white and the on the right is red and white,  I have had a red moment recently as you we will see in a future post.

 This is Ruth,  again I tried the pattern with red and white,  I thought I had done it all white but I cant find that one, so perhaps I did not.

 This is Lynn  she is made with a ring,  I do like this design although I did the covering of the ring another way rather than the way in the book, I used Jon Yusoff from Tat-a-Renda Blog,  her way of doing the ring is much easier,  I then did the second row and joined to picots from the ring round.   I also did this snowflake as below with gold seed beads instead of the picots.

All the above snowflakes were made with Lizbeth thread no 20 in white and red.
Many of these snowflakes could be used as pendants,   and on page 40 there is a design for a pendant and earrings,  which I hope to make in the future.  As I said I did enjoy this book and a good book for the tatting library.
Have a lovely weekend and take care
                        Hugs
                    Margaret

Blue Orchids

Hi,

On Wednesday we had a lovely day, meeting friends for lunch,  on the way home we stopped off at the local garden centre,  walking passed the orchids I noticed a blue one.  Orchids are my favourite flowers and I have never seen a blue one,  so I just had to take photo of it.   

                              Hugs

                          Margaret

CD Sunday Challenge - Something beginning with H.... (Home)

Hi,
I thought I ought to put my best foot forward and get this card done, I have missed the last two challenges which is my own fault,  I can only blame the fibromalgia,  anyway here is my card for the CD Sunday Challenge,  Something beginning with H.... Home.  I know there will lots of christmas cards,  and I wanted something different,  after racking my brain I came up with Home (a new home card)
The image is from Joanna Sheens CD Pamela West Collection,  a real chocolate box cottage I matted the image onto a green shiny card,  and used a piece of Ivy backing paper,  the cream die cuts came from a friend and I used her bicycle to add interest,  finished off with green check ribbon bow and silver wording.   I wanted to keep it simple which I hope have achieved.
The weather is getting worse down here, but nothing like the forecast for Scotland with snow and gale force winds so I won't complain about it here.
Take care until we meet again
                             Hugs
                         Margaret

Remembrance Day

Hi,

On the eleventh hour on the 11th Day of November,   we should never forget and wear our poppy with pride

Margaret

Stripy Baby's Cardigan and matching hat

 Hi,
What horrible weather we have at the moment,  its been foggy for a couple of days and it looks like its coming in again tonight,  with rain tomorrow.
I thought we might like to see my latest knitting,  a stripy baby's cardigan and matching hat,   I knitted this in double knitting wool,   knitting all the way around until the sleeves as the wool forms the strips, so no need for a pattern and it saved trying to match up the seams.   The sleeves were knitted and joined at the armholes,  then it was knitted as a whole to the neck.
I did a white rib at the bottom, the cuffs, the border and also around the base of the hat.

Until we meet again take care
                  Hugs
              Margaret

Pinterest Challenge for October - Open Heart

 Hi,
This months Pinterest Challenge was hard not only did I have to restart it, after a disaster with the iron,  I embroidery the heart and thought I would iron the material,  wrong the silver thread definitely did not like the iron and well lets just say a mess.  Then the roses I made for the heart using a pin that had instructions how to make them were too big for the design,  so I scrapped them and made my own the way I have made thousands of them.  I tell you between the iron and the first lot of roses which I spent hours on this pinterest for October has been a big headache.
I combined several pins and made up my own design,   I love these ribbon embroidery designs on pin and there's a lot of embroidery on there too,  so rather than do all ribbon or embroidery I combined them into my own design for a change.
I am calling this design open heart,  the roses and larger leaves are ribbon,  I embroidered the smaller leaves with variegated thread and the white  French knots which are not showing up in the photo,  and then added the silver beads scattering them around the design,  I did sew a few on the roses to make it look as if the I thrown them on the material.

This challenge has taken me the whole month,  what with trying to get days with good light so I could see to embroider,  and days when the pain was too bad to do anything,  yes it was a challenge,  a big challenge,  did I enjoy it yes and no, but I do like what I achieved,  I just hope Suzanne and Carollyn like it,  I know they had problems so please do pop over and see their blogs

As its Halloween I have not had time to make anything new so here's a picture I used a few years ago

 So I wish you all a very happy Halloween and enjoy the weekend, until we meet again, take care
                              Hugs
                          Margaret

Evening Primrose

Hi,

Sunday was such a beautiful day,  and my Evening Primrose was looking so lovely in the sunshine,  I just had to take a picture,  it grows wild in my garden,  pops up wherever it wants to,   I don't mind,  as its no good moving to where I would like it to grow as it as it dies, so its best to leave it to grow and then pull it out after its flowered in the Autumn.
Hope you have had a lovely weekend.
Hugs
Margaret

Meadowhall Shopping Centre. - updated

 Hi,
It seems ages since I put anything on my blog,  but last week was not that good,  Its a beautiful day here,  the sun is shining and its now quite warm, very cold first thing, hopefully my washing will dry.
 I had some brilliant news regarding my eye the tumour has almost gone,  its a relief is nearly over.
We always visit Meadowhall Shopping Centre for some retail therapy, after the hospital appointment,  it is a huge shopping centre,  with 290 stores,  and covers 1.5 million square feet of floor space,  12,000 parking spaces and even a helicopter pad for those wanting to spend lottery millions,  attracting 25 million visitors a year.  I don't think we have seen it all yet,  even though we have visited it many times over the years,  The locals call it omeadow hell.
The restaurants range from Thai and Japanese,  Italian, American and British cooking.   Yes there is something for everyone including a cinema.
While we were walking around we saw these hearts dotted around,  I have no idea what they are for,  but here are just a few of them.  I did try to find out what they were for, but there's no information on their web site.  The hearts were lovely, colourful and well designed and every one was different.
Thanks to Kathy I have been given a link to read about the heart,  if you want to know more follow the link
Have a lovely weekend.
Hugs Margaret

Tatted Ribbon Candy Christmas Trees 22/25 Motif Challenge

Hi,
This scheduled post,  although these pictures are not the best and I tried hard to hang the trees up so the Chinese glass Bicones caught the light,
This pattern is by Bonnie Swank 2014,  its the most easy pattern which is simply making a strip and then threading the beads though the rings at certain points,   I was not sure how this pattern would work out but I am very pleased with them,  I used Lizbeth thread no 20 in Christmas green and white in different combinations,
I put a doddad at the bottom to weight the tree. I am sorry I don't have a link for this pattern I must have got it a little while ago and it was on my to do pile.
Hope you are keeping well
Happy Tatting
                  Hugs
                                 Margaret

CD Sunday Challenge - Bloomin' Marvellous

Hi,
Another beautiful day here in Somerset and the week looks set to be dry and fine, although chilly at night.  We are set to go to Sheffield later on in the week so no doubt it will be slightly colder up there. Hopefully the news on how my eye is doing will be good.
This fortnight the CD Sunday Challenge is Bloomin' Marvellous, and for this challenge I used Robert Addams Roses CD,  I used a red damask backing paper,  and then the strip down the side is from the red rose image,  the red rose image was matted onto a gold shiny card, and 3d.,   The cream Ivy leaves die cut is from a friend, she knows who she is and thank you.  The red and green spotty ribbon is from stock and the small red roses in the corner is also from some I brought a while ago.   There is room at the bottom for a sentiment which I have not decided on yet.
Hope you enjoy the weather this week,
Take care
Hugs
Margaret

Hotel Flamingo, Olu Deniz.......... Parrots

Hi,
Turkey was very very hot,  in fact its the hottest September for 20 years, it never seemed to cool down.  Most days were spent at the pool and then at lunch time at the bar,  having a cool drink and feeding Cheko,  He is an African Grey Parrot but the other parrots have attacked him so the blue on his feathers is some antiseptic stuff to help heal the wounds.   He loved his nuts as you can see he was friendly and took them very gently I did rub his head but Vernon did not get a picture of that.  But if you wanted to feed him you had to buy the nuts from the hotel shop,  I am not saying a word, but as he was the hotel parrot I think they could have left some nuts under the bar for him.  

These were the two other birds that lived in the ground of the Hotel,  they arrived in the morning,  I took this picture of them arriving as we went out on a trip, and then late afternoon went back to their night home.  They seem to enjoy being in the palm trees high above everyone, eating the palm dates.  I don't know their names but they seem to enjoy having their photos taken.

I am a bit behind commenting on the blogs at the moment,  I seem to fall asleep every afternoon at the moment,  I can only blame the tablets,  hopefully I will catch up with you all,  I have several other photos to share on our holiday in Turkey,

Until we meet again take care and enjoy the beautiful weather.

                         Hugs

                     Margaret