International lace day

 

Hi,

Today is international lace day around the world,   Tatting is a type of lace and although it’s not known as much as it should be  we tatters like to promote it as much as possible.  I get told it’s a dying art or never heard of it,  or even my grandmother used to tat.  Well lets put the record straight it’s not a dying art,  it’s 17th century, although it die out in the 19th century it’s back in fashion and there’s so much that can be made with tatting.
Never heard of it well if you are reading this,  you have now heard of it,  and finally if your grandmother used to tat why not learn and bring something done in your family back.  There are so many YouTube videos on how to tat and many books,  no reason why not do something your grandmother did years ago.

The christening present is finished at last,  I cannot show you as it has not been given to my nephew and his wife.   As soon as they have it I will post it.  It’s taken about six months through illness, hospital stay, and a holiday which ended with flu and six weeks not even looking at it,  I am relieved to say it’s finished.

Today for international lace day I am showing the tatting I did on holiday in Switzerland,  the bookmark I finished while there,  it’s Four Petals bookmark by Robin Tatting by the bay and I used Lizbeth thread Christmas green and Lesur Pixie both no 20,

The little coaster is a pattern by Laura Bziukiewicz and I used Lizbeth thread Sunkist Coral no 20.  I started this on holiday and finished it off at home.

The Endrucks project did produce a pattern for today but unfortunately I only got the pattern yesterday and have not had time to do it.   I will make it and post it in a few days.

Enjoy the day making lace.

Margaret

60th Diamond Wedding Anniversary

Hi,

Today is our friends 60th Wedding anniversary,  and this is the card I made for them,  Vernon said do something simple they won’t appreciate the hard work you put into making a card so just do something simple.

I designed the card myself,  using two heart shapes which I did cut and used Hunkydory diamond Miri card and a white small heart shapes which with I embossed using a cutterbug heart design folder.  The backing sheet is from stock (well everything was). It’s a damask paper and I have no idea where I brought it from but it’s a long time ago,  white ribbon bow and the words are peel offs and the dots as peel offs as well.

I hope they liked their card,  they have gone away to celebrate as they did not want a party. 

Margaret 

Debbi Moore's Birthday Competition

 Hi,

Today is a little cooler and although the sun is shining its quite cloudy here in Somerset,   It seems ages since I made a card,  the flu has taken its toll on both of us,  but now after six weeks I can say its finally gone and I am begining to feel I have some energy.  I have started back on the christening present and hope it finish it in the next two weeks,  I have also started to feel like knitting only this week with the heatwave knitting was the last thing I felt like doing,  hopefully now its turned a little cooler I can get back to finishing the knitted cow and babys cardigan. 

 Now on sundays I do something else, it lovely to do some different  craft on a Sunday and then you can come back afresh to what you have been doing during the week.  watch this space for pictures.

This week is Debbi Moores birthday and the 17th year of her company,  again this year she has done a birthday competition for a birthday card,   I used her The Flower Patch CD and made a slightly different card using some beautiful images of a vase of flowers.  I do like doing shaped cards it makes card look more speical,   well I think it does.  Its not my best effort as I made it a couple of weeks ago but I hope you like it.

I have some ideas for new cards just got to find the time and energy to get into the craft room and play.

I hope you have lovely weekend,

Margaret

Nestle amongst the Glaciers part three

 

Hi,

Well this was a highlight of the trip,  we took the cable car to Scex Rouge known as Glacier 3000,  for a panorama view the mountains.   The cable car takes 15 minutes and reaches an altitude of 2,971 meters,  it was well worth going up,  there was a lot of people sking and going up with their skis to ski,  we had some lunch in the restaurant,  this was the view from our table of the bridge,    we could have gone for a walk on the bridge but unfortuantaely there is 60 steps up to the bridge,  and theres no way I could manage the steep steps.  as you can see in the photos,  its a bit open and looks wobbley.

Lastly on the saturday morning before leaving Switzerland we had a curise alond Lake Geneva to Vevey,   it was a beautiful morning,  the lake was calm,  the sun was shinning and here are some photos to you to enjoy.

Before we got on the boat these are few more photos of Montreux

and now for the boat ride to Vevey

Well that was our holiday in Switzerland,  I love Switzerland and vistied the country many many times throughout my life.     the only place I have never been to is Geneva,  Lake Geneva is  73 kilometres long and borders France and Switzerland and is one of the largest lakes in Switzerland.   I hope we can visit it again,  

I hope you have enjoyed these three posts a much as we enjoyed the holiday.

Margaret

Nestle amougst the Glaciers Part two

 Hi,

Today I thought I would tell you about the three trips we did,  one was to  Gruyere,  here we saw how the Gruyere cheese was made and then to the village for lunch,  The cheese is turned everyday by a robot,  see the photo of the cheese store above,  we were given a free sample each.

Free sample 

The village of Gruyere where we had lunch

This is us as we  walked into the village

View from the village,  as we walked back to the coach 

Then we did a trip to Nestle Chocolate factory in Broc,   I was not able to take many photos but this one is outside the building where there was this lovely fountain,  and I managed to take the photo of the model made of choclate.  very interesting visit seeing how they made the chocolates,

We also did a visit to Charlie Chaplins home,  and his museum which was his former home now made into the museum,   I think I am a bit young because I dont remember much about him and the films he made,  the guild was very knowledgable but she kept on about films that I had not seen or perhaps had seen as a young child and I did not remember,   in the end it became a little boring,  and we were not the only ones who lost interest.  never mind it was a beautiful house and here is a photo of his garden.

Three interesting places,    I think we enjoyed the chocolate factory ther most and tasting sdamples as we went around.   

Margaret

Nestle amongst the glaciers part one

Hi,

 I am sorry it’s taken weeks to get this post done but I came back from Switzerland with a cold which turned to flu,  I am not a 100% yet but better than I was,  we both spent the first two weeks in bed with it and only just starting to go out again.  There was a woman who was going to cancel because she had a cold but her friend persuaded her to go on the trip,  we all have to thank her for passing the cold round the coach.  What a lovely lady …. Not. 

This is part one of our trip to Switzerland,  we really enjoy our coach tour and the weather was good,  in april it could have been anything but good,   ok there was still a lot of snow around,  the cows have yet to go up to the top pastures,  most of which still had snow,   today I thought I would show you Montreux,  these are the flowers that graced along the lake side walk of Lake Geneva.  I hope you enjoy the walk 

And finally this is the statue of Freddie Mercury who was a former resident of Montreux

I hope you enjoyed the photos it was a lovely day when we walked along the lake side,  in fact 

we had beautiful weather on the whole trip in Switzerland.

Margaret.

Happy St Georges Day

 

Hi,

Happy St George’s Day to all my friends and followers 

International Tatting Day

 Hi,

Happy international Tatting day,  ok it’s the 1st April but it’s not an April fool,  it really is a very real international tatting day when us tatters,  celebrate tatting,  not sure if I will be tatting in public but I hopefully will be doing some tatting at some point,  and of course we enjoy chocolate while tatting.

This teddy is part of the christening present I am making for Matilda,  the christening if you follow the blog was at the beginning of March,  well I am still working on it,  but as I had nothing to show for our day,  I decided to show you the teddy.  The pattern is from the book tatted animals by Inga Madsen,  I love this book and this teddy was also on Maisy christening present I made her.  (They are sisters). I know I am making slow progress,  I have another appointment at the Royal United,  no results yet from the heart echo, but now they want to do something else.  It just goes on and on.  I am still here as they say.

Have a lovely day 

Margaret 

Floral cards

Hi,

Last month I was going to make some floral cards,  well what with a hospital in stay and then the bug I caught in the hospital,  last month came and went with not much done.   I have now made the  floral cards I had cut out to make,  the one above is a free one from craftsuprint,  and the one below was the left over pieces which I made into a small thank you card.

This next set is from Flowers of the month kit by Debbi Moore,  the first one is January,    February and then the last one is March.  I do love this kit and they have some beautiful images for each month,

January this one was a small image and I added a bow and some peel off lines around the image, the flowers are decoupaged,  their was no backing sheet so I used the envelope strip as a backing paper.  I put the flower image as a diamond.

February,   The flowers again were decoupaged and I used the envelope pieces as a backing paper.  I put the flower image at an angle to be different.

March and I think this was my favourite so far,  again I decoupaged the flowers,  and used the envelope sheet as the backing paper. On this card I put the flower image straight.

Three  months and three different flowers, colours and I tried to make them different 

I hope you like these floral cards.

Margaret.

March is crochet month, crochet key ring hangers

 Hi,

I have not posted as much recently,  still waiting for the results of the heart echo,  I am still here and today is a beautiful day here in somerset,  the sun is shinning and although not quite as warm as it has been the last few days it’s dry,  rain is forecasted for next week.

I made these few crochet key ring hangers over the last couple of months,   Last time I posted some of these was back in November link to  Blog.   I try do something different on a sunday,  and these seem to fit in well for sunday working.   I have some knitting to get done unfortunately I am suffering with my hand,  it got damaged when I was in hospital and is getting worse.  so knitting is only done for a short while in the evenings,  and the  christening present yes I am still working on it,  I am now doing the embroidery part,  will show  you when  it’s finished.

These key ring hangers could be used to hang anywhere,  the pattern is from asli-ime on Instagram and she as a YouTube channel called knitting my hobby

Hope you are having a lovely weekend

Margaret

Cute mouses

 Hi,

Here in the U.K. today is Mother’s Day,  I’m not a mother but I hope anyone who is they have a lovely day.

On Facebook  DM delights card making group have a monthly competition this month is cute cards,  which I am entering both these cards,  they are from the kit Cute animals thinking of you,  by debbi Moore.

Have a great day

Margaret. 

Christening card

 Hi,

We went to a christening in Oxfordshire on Sunday.  It was a lovely day weather wise,   it stayed fine although there was a cold wind.

My card was a bit of a rushed job,  I used a cream base card,  I lacy pink designed paper as background,  a dark pink card and a gold peel off of a baby’s cradle,  I used gold peel off lines to finish off the card, with peel off words on your christening.

Her christening present is not finished,  I was not well enough to work on it,    but they will get the present when I have finished it,  and I will show you if and when it’s finished.

Margaret.

St David’s Day , 1st March

 Hi,

Today is St David’s day,  in Wales daffodils are the national flower

Ice drops have took the tatting world by storm and this is an idea I came up with when I looked at a bunch of daffodils,   It was a try and see but when I put it on Ice Drops Facebook page they went wild for it, 
The pattern is partly the ice drop pattern and then an extra round of rings joined around the ice drop again.  I used the idea from the pattern Daffodil brooch for St David’s Day by Jennifer Williams.

This is my daffodil ice drop,  which I made some years ago,  I was going to do something else but unfortunately I have not been well enough it achieve anything new.  So sorry please enjoy my ice drop daffodil again.

We are in Oxfordshire at a christening today,  

Have a lovely day 

Margaret 

Floral heart

 Hi,

I was going make February floral card month and make a selection of floral cards,   Well that was the plan, but even the best laid plans don’t always happen.  As it is no it did not,  this was the first card,  it laid in pieces for at least two weeks and another two weeks to be finished off.   February has been a bad month and a short stay in hospital was not planned, but happen,  then I came home with a bug.  As always as they say you go in hospital with one thing and come out with something else.  That just knocked me off my feet,  I’m still not a 100% but a lot better than I was.

This card was a freebie from Craftsuprint,  every week they give out a free design,  this one I liked as it’s unusual with the flowers in the heart.  I made this into a wedding anniversary card to add to my stock.

Well there’s at least three possibly four cards on my desk ready to make up,  so perhaps March will be a floral card month.

Have a lovely week,

Margaret 

Happy Chinese New Year 2026

 

Happy Chinese New Year

This year is the year of the Horse

I hope it’s a good year for everyone with peace around the world 

Happy Valentines Day

 Hi,

Happy Valentine’s Day,   This is my heart today,  I used pink ice Lizbeth thread and the pattern is from the wayback machine, called Frivolite Heart by Gale Marshall.

This heart is going to be used in a project that I am making at the moment,  I needed something small to fill in a corner,  I cannot say any more but when it’s finish I will show you.  It’s going slowly due to being back in hospital again this week.

Enjoy your day

Margaret 

Knitted Elephant

 Hi,

I hope you like my knitted elephant,  she is a replacement for one I sold before Christmas,  I knitted her in double knitting wool, and stuffed with toy stuffing with embroidered eyes.    The pattern is a very old one and I can’t remember where it came from but I am sure it was in a magazine which is not published any more.  

Her dress is cream and a cream mixed peach wool in stripes,   I made a white puff collar, instead of a shawl and gave her a tatted white flower on her head. 

She can be found in my esty shop.

Margaret 

January cards

 Hi,

Yes today is the 1st February but the title says January cards,  so far this year I have made two cards,  and as I you know I am late posting anything.  

The first card as above is from Debbi Moore’s Gnomes side scene  dimensional kit,  I have made a few from this kit and here is another one,  I do love this kit and gnomes are so in at the moment,  I made this one as a birthday card,

No 2 

This card I entered in a competition on Facebook,  DM delights cardmaking group,  it’s a group that uses Debbi Moore’s images etc only.   This card is from a kit called Birds of a Feather,  it’s a fairly new kit and it’s the first card I have made from it,  the competition was called Spring,  and I made this card as a new home card,  I do like the spring flower images with the bird house.   

I have no doubt you will see a lot more cards made with these kits in the future,

Please if you are doing a rain dance could you stop here in Somerset we have enough water and flooding,  we really do not need anymore rain,  can you do a sun shine dance instead,

Margaret 

Knitted angels

 Hi,

Yes I know I have not posted anything for a few weeks,  I am still here,  behind with posting so you will get a few old items as the next couple of weeks.  I am waiting for a heart echo and CT scan now after a follow up appointment last week.  I was going to post this post last Sunday but we lost the phone and internet on Saturday night and it’s only just been repaired.  With the severe weather we have been having it a miracle we kept  our electric.

These are some of the knitted angels I knitted before and over Christmas,  I tried to vary the pattern,  I used some red and green glitter thread in rib pattern and miss stitch wings.  I did some in a white/silver thread and some in  white  4ply wool,  I did the wings in moss stitch which I thought gave a different look to just rib.   I did to one Angel with blue beads and white/ silver  thread.  I did a lot of experiments with the patterns but I think I will stick to the rib pattern and do the wings in moss stitch

 The picture below are  white angels in 4 ply wool.  The pattern comes in 2 sizes these are the larger size ones  the original pattern was rib but again I tried different patterns  one in plain stocking stitch and another one which did not work at all in moss stitch which made her look a fat Angel. I think no one will want a fat Angel on a tree.

All have wooden bead heads and a crochet chain to hang them on, 

The pattern is from https://castoffcollective.com.au

Margaret