Tatted Handkerchief and Earrings

 Hi,

It’s a beautiful morning here in Somerset,  I know I have not been blogging much for a few weeks,  but the CD Sunday challenge does not start until next month, (4th February). 

This is my go to project that I take with me,  I have tatted this in the hospital waiting for Vernon when he has appointments or in The Hive when I wait for him to have this hair cut,  could even have been lots of places,  but they were always seem to be in public,   Yes I do sometimes get asked is it crochet,  no tatting, so their people learn about tatting etc.,  see I spend the word tatting around.

I used the Turkish thread, Altin Basek thread no 50 which is equal to Lizbeth no 20,  pattern  is called Fleurette edging which has been re-written by Joelle link to her Blog

These earrings I made for a dear friend before Christmas,  they are in the same thread,  and I used my own pattern Butterfly heart, 

Hope you have a lovely weekend

Margaret 

Hooray Finished at Last, My Tatted Hankie

Hi,
This is my take with me project,   its stays with me and when I get time where ever I am usually waiting for Hospital appointments for myself or Vernon,  I do a bit.
At last its finished,   its a pale pink hankie and the edging I did was tatted in Altin Basak thread (Turkish thread) no 50 white,  the pattern I used is from Renulek's snowflake mat,  Its so pale I found it hard to photo this is a close up of the pattern.
Hope you like it.
Until we meet again Take Care
                                    Hugs
                                Margaret 

Hospital Tatting 22/25 motif challenge

Hi,

As promised this is the tatting I did in hospital,  it might look a lot but really its only a few bits of small items,  patterns I know mostly off by heart.   It kept my occupied during the long hours,   I was in a private room on my own due to the radio active treatment for the cancer.   Vernon was only allowed to visit two hours per day so he split into one hour in the afternoon and one hour in the evening.

So here is the above picture in smaller amounts.   You will have seen the patterns before but for new followers I will say what they are.

This is butterflies,   the two large butterflies are Mary Konior's in Turkish Altin Basak thread.  The smaller ones are bits left on shuttles which were Lizbeth thread Pineapple Parfait, and girly girl.

This is be-stitched hearts called Tatted Josephine Heart,   I used Lizbeth thread Girly girl no 20 for these

 This heart is called Small Tatted Heart by Betsy Evans,   and again I used Lizbeth thread Girly girl  No.20

And finally a bookmark this is Kersti's Floral Tatted Bookmark which I used one of the balls of thread that I won from Rachel on intatters,
The thread is Lizbeth no 20 Vineyard Harvest.
I have put a close up at the bottom

Just a reminder Fox had problems this week and her blog address is now www.tat-ology.blogspot.ca,  if you have never visited her do pop along and see her tatting.

This was the view from my hospital room,  its looking over Sheffield, The hospital is called the Royal Hallamshire Hospital,  the hospital was brilliant I could not have asked for better care,  the food was brilliant,  the team of surgeons who preformed the operations were also brilliant. Its a huge hospital with 850 beds and 15,000 staff.  and they all appear to be happy well those I had were.  This type of problem with eyes only affects five to seven people in one million,   they don't always turn to cancer and stay benign for years as mine has proved.  I am going back up next week to see the Professor for a check up, I hope everything will be OK.
I hope you have a lovely weekend
Until we meet again Take care
                        Hugs
                     Margaret

Tatted Hankies. 15/25

 Hi,
Its a rough day outside,  we have gale force winds and heavy showers at the moment but its going to get worse with severe weather warnings for overnight and tomorrow.   I am definitely staying in.

Today I thought I would show you my tatted hankies I have done,  the one above and the one of the left,    close up below,  was a pattern I liked from Mary link to her blog  Mary very kindly gave me the pattern and this is my efforts.

 I do like this pattern its quick and easy and can be done easily.
I used Turkish Altin Basak thread no 50 which I find very soft and easy to do hankies with.

 Remember this me tatting in Cyprus well this is the hanky I was tatting again I used Marys pattern but with a twist.
I did a chain of 4ds 3ps separated by 1ds,
 ring 2-2-2-2,
 chain 3ps separated by 1ds, 4ds.
Again I used Turkish Altin Basak no 50

I hope wherever you are, you stay safe in the bad weather.  until we meet again Take care

                            Hugs

                        Margaret

Angeline's going home

Hi,
By the time you read this I will be either on my way to Bristol airport or in the air to Cyprus for two weeks.
Angeline is now on her way home to Fox in Canada,   she has completed a world tour of tatters which has taken her 3 years,  I am the last tatter to have the book.
This is a pattern from the book,  page 132 called Coaster design from Sweden,  unfortunately  Angeline says "She brought this coaster in a tiny shop in a little village in northern Sweden, from counting she thinks the medallion has",    Well the above left is how it is written and it looks like a hat. I used American Apple pie no 40 Lizbeth thread.
The next one again using American Apple Pie well it worked I reduced the middle rings to 3ds between the pictos on the rings and chains,  in fact the whole coaster was done on 3ds between all the picots,  Brilliant it laid flat,   sewing in the ends I cut the thread and chopped a picot.   Start again this time I used Altin Basak thread and here is the result one pretty coaster.   I really did like the pattern but I think the chains on the outside could be just a wee bit smaller. I will be making so more of these lovely coasters. It needs a bit of blocking as the chains around the outside seem very long.

Well the book is on its way home,   thank you Fox for lending the book out,  I enjoyed reading it and have some more bits to try.

                                   Hugs

                     Margaret

Earrings, Bracelets and a Cross 3/25

 Hi,
Its a Bank holiday here in the UK,  the sun is now shining after a wet yesterday morning, so hopefully the rest of the weekend will be good.

I start with these earrings, they are the snowflake from the Tat along mat by Renulek,  I used the Atkin Basak Thread No 50 and they make a great earring,   I used light turquoise with gold beads which I am still not sure about and dark turquoise with silver beads.  As I was tatting the snowflake on the mat it said to me earring,   So what do you think, Vernon said they were too big and no one will wear them, but at the moment big jewellery is in.

 The bracelets are the Classic Edge pattern by Marilee Rockley I used Lizbeth white and black thread No 20.
The white has dark beads with multi colours and the black has gold beads.


Lastly the cross which I used the light and dark turquoise thread from the earrings,  the pattern is from the Pattern Collection by Mary Konior book.
This is the 3rd of the 25 Motif tatting challenge.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend,   we are off to Oxford later,  so whatever you are doing enjoy your weekend.

Until we meet again Take Care.



                                      Hugs
                       Margaret

Holiday Tatting 20/25

 

Hi,

Today I thought I would show you some of my holiday tatting,   I have already shown you Diane's Doodad challenge which I tatted on holiday,  so this is the rest,   above is a selection of snowflakes and angels which I asked to tat for the Nursing Home Mother lives in,   They saw my snowflakes on my table at the summer fair and they asked for a selection for their christmas decorations.  They are from Anna magazine December 1991,  there are three SSSR angels by Anne Bruvold link.  and also three 3-Dimensional Angels by Katie Johnson which I did when I came home here is the  link which I have adapted the pattern to stand rather than glue the skirt to the body which I don't like,  so by adding two picots to the body I can attached the skirt. All were tatted in Lizbeth No 20 white.

I also tried this lovely pattern which I saw on a blog before I went away unfortunately I can't remember which blog but they were lovely with beads, so if you are reading this my apologies    Just to try the pattern and I did not take a lot of beads with me I did the pattern without.   Its Tatted Daisy by Mrs W.M. Odum.  I will be doing this one again with beads and plan to make them into pendants.
To find the pattern link   I used Lizbeth no 20 Summer Fun.

I also made this bookmark for a Friend whose birthday was when we returned,   I used Oren Bayan Perle 8,  I saw these in a shop in Rhodes and brought a load of different colours,   this is a mixture pink and I love the colours,  its a bit soft but has a lovely shine.  I brought so much that the shop owner gave me a free ball of red/gold Altin Basak Thread for my christmas.   I think he was rather amused on one of my visits yes I made several visits to the shop,   when I told him I could pack my husbands suitcase with thread from his shop and leave vernons clothes behind........  Vernon laughed but I don't think he would have be amused.  All in all I spent a lot of euros on thread and I have checked the prices since I got home and I did save a fair bit,  I have also found I can get some more from www.tatting.co.uk,   The pattern yes its Flowering Quatrain Bookmark by Joelle link
This finishes my holiday postings.  I hope you have enjoyed them.
Until we meet again take care
              Hugs
          Margaret

Interlocking Rings and a Bracelet (11 of 25)

Hi,
Yesterday was a golden day for Great Britain so I am writing this in gold just to prove I am enjoying the Olympics I never thought I would but I have enjoyed the things we don't see normally,   the Show Jumping,  the Bicycle racing in the Velodyne,  Canoeing and the Rowing.  I was made to feel very homesick when they did the road racing,  I grow up in Surrey,  and lived not far from Box Hill,  and then in Kingston upon Thames,  if they have gone just 200 more yards up the road before they turned off to go into Richmond Park I would have seen my old home and I could have shown Vernon.  Kingston has changed a bit since I lived there but I was able to see bits I knew though my childhood. Don't get me wrong I would not want to live up there now and commute into the City of London, I think I will stay in Somerset.  10 Gold medals so far,  at least they have put the Great back into Great Britain.
The weather is not good we have very heavy thundery showers with a little sun popping out here and there,   Oh it would be nice if the summer would come back.
Today I have the Interlocking rings,  yes I have got it,  not perfect but its there, I used Lizbeth no 20 Raspberry Frappe but its come out purple,  I think it has to be the bad light when I took the photo. I put a chain with little rings on the outside so the rings could be seen better.  I feel a few new designs popping out of this,   I am going to try the interlocking chain,  when I have time
 I am making a few bits for the show I have been asked to demonstrate tatting on the 19th August,  at Shepton Mallet.    I hope the weather will be kind to us at the show.

 This is the bracelet from Marilee's course called Classic Edge, its a nice design but I don't have much no 10 thread, so I used one of my favourite threads, this is Altin Basak (Turkish) number 3054 its a bit finer than Lizbeth, so I had to do a few more rings on the pattern. There are three beads on the chains which I used pink seed beads. I am at present making another one in Lizbeth thread blue with gold beads and I will show that one when I have finished it.






A close up,  this is number 11 of the 25 Motif challenge




I hope you are having a lovely weekend and enjoying the Olympics,  pity the weather can't behave but that's the British weather for you.
Until we meet again take care


                  Hugs
              Margaret

Pay it forward (PIF) the Results. 10 of 25 motif challenge.

 Hi,

What a lovely sunny day here in Somerset so far,  although its cloudy we have had no rain so far.  The weekend looks better and next week looks warmer going by the weather forecast,  not holding my breath.

Now all three PIF have been delivered around the world,  I can now show you what I made for them,   I did not want to share it with you before and spoil their surprise.

  I used Joelle's new pattern which just popped out at the right time when I was thinking what to make them.  link to her blog here   Flowering Quatrain Bookmark, its a lovely pattern  I really love it,   now I did change the end,  from the last Josephine ring which I did as a split ring,  I did the tail,  using the middle piece of the pattern a split chain of 6/6  without the picot x two and then using the Josephine ring in the pattern I did 5/5 and repeated it until I had a long enough end.  Using the corner of the pattern I made a square.  I was really pleased with how it worked up. 

The first one is Sue's in Norfolk,  I used Altin Basak Thread (Turkish)  no 50 which is equal to no 20,  I cant remember the colour number they don't have names for their colours,  but this colourway I love and always works up lovely.

This is a close up of the square.

This is Kelly's which went to Canada,  Using the same pattern as above,   but I used the Thread Lorena sent (nctatter of intatters) Graceful Arts Hand paint,  no20,   sorry I don't know the name of the colour.  Her favourite colour was green and I don't have a lot of green,  this looked green when I took it off the skein but when it was worked up I was worried she would not like it.

This is Sunela's from the U.S.  she liked pinks and in bright colours well I used  Lizbeth thread Raspberry Frappe,  no 20,  

   The pattern looks quite different in the different colours. 

As you can see they also got a snowflake each for their Christmas trees these were from a pattern I have used many times and you have seen before,  Sues was the middle of the 10 point snowflake from be-stitched,  and the other two were from Anna magazine.

This is no 10 of the 25 motif challenge.

I hope you have a lovely weekend and where ever you are it stays dry.

          Hugs

       Margaret

Our 9th Wedding Anniversary

Hi,

Tomorrow is our 9th Wedding Anniversary (16th August), gosh it does not seen nine years, it was a beautiful day one of the very few days we had that August 2002, it rained and rained most of August, it really looked like it was going to be a wet wedding but on the day the sun came out and it was hot. I remember one thing from the wedding I made a speech not many Brides make a speech but I had on one to give me away and walked down the aisle on my own, anyway we had guests from different parts of the country and I started my speech with welcome to Somerset. I heard a little voice say something that was Sheila I know it was but I don't think at that time she realised that some guests had travelled to our wedding, my only disappointment was that my penfriend from the US had her leave cancelled and was unable to come. Lou is a lawyer in the US navy at the time of our wedding she was stationed at the Pentagon. Someone said I should have written the US President and complained, looking back I wish I had, may not have made any difference but might have made us feel better. I got though most of my speech and then the little voice spoke again the speech went out of my head totally, you see I made one mistake I never wrote it down I had it in my head, never again always write it down before hand.

Anyway my mojo has not been working very well recently, what with the trouble with the mole and the gall bladder operation, and now waiting for Fenchary Hospital. I seem to have a hit as a writer (well I have written three novels nothing printed) a blank page. A couple of weeks ago on the Sunday Cd challenge Dreams there was a card made by Carol, she made a card with a dream catcher design, do pop over and have a look at her lovely blog, her parchment work is beautiful. Well that gave me an idea we had the Indian pray at our wedding, and as we are both into country music this gave me an idea to get out the American Frontier Cd by Joanna Sheen.
The image is actually an insert and the backing paper both come from the CD. I matted the image onto blue paper and used the corner punch to hold the image. I then made a dream catcher in tatting with the beads on the ends, I was going to make little tassels but I did not leave myself enough cotton, I used white and the blue Caribbean thread Lizbeth No 20. I did not have a pattern but made the centre based on the motif on the booties I am making at the moment, just change it a bit and then did I another round of just chains and picots for the hanging loops

I added the blue thread as I had blue on the card. What do you think?

I might think about trying to make a few more for my craft table I think it needs a little more work on them to get them completely right, I don't have any very small feathers at the moment but I think the beads do just as good a job.

Yesterday I post my butterfly only I forgot to tell you what thread I used it was the Turkish Altin Basak Thread.

I hope you like my wedding anniversary card today and until we meet again in blog land take care.

Hugs

Margaret

Just a few Tatted items I did while I was ill/holiday

Hi,
Its a very cloudy day, we had some light rain early on but so far the sun has not put his hat on and come out to play. Many of the tatters in the USA are complaining its too hot, please can we have some of your heat, as its a bit chilly over here.
Today I am bring you some things I have been doing while I was not only on holiday, but I have done since while I was getting over the operation.
The picture above shows you my Cymbinum Earrings and matching bracelet, I have put them to hang like a charm bracelet. It was done in white and Lisbeth Pink Parade with pearls in the middle of the Orchids.

This Rose heart done in white no 20 is a pattern from be-stitched
I rather like this heart and the rose is very easy to do.

This is a pair of Cymbinum Earrings this time in Lisbeth Falling leaves thread that Fox sent me, I love this thread and when I order some more I will be adding this thread to the order.

Tomorrow I have been asked to do a Tatting demo in Shepton Mallet, I have made these two cards to show that tatting can be put on a card, unfortunately I don't think I shall have time to make any more. I have also written a piece for anyone interested in tatting given then a little insight as to the art.
Both cards have a butterfly on the first one is in Altin Basak Turkist thread and the other is in Lisbeth thread Turquoise Twist.


Another bookmark from the Wrought Iron pattern by Mary Konior this time in Lisbeth thread called Caribbean again No 20.

These are some more strips for card makers, this time they are half an inch wide in Braided edging pattern which I found in a very old book. These will be going in my Esty store next week at 75p per strip and for UK orders postage free.

This is the last item a white bracelet with red beads, I just played with a pattern and this is the result. This is will be going into my Esty store also next week along with the pink/white set above.

Close up

There are a few more bits but I think I will leave it at that for now.

I am getting better slowly but I have to go back to the hospital re my mole hole as Melissa calls it, I will post more about that another day.

I hope you are keeping well and until we meet again in blog land take care
Hugs

Margaret

Bethanys bookmark

Hi,
The sun is shining and its quite a nice day OK theres a bit more cloud now but hopefully my washing will dry.
I am not feeling very good today and very down, I have an appointment at the doctors surgery later then I will tell what has been happening. Its getting to be a long saga now with this mole scar.
I thought I would show you the bookmark that I made for my grand daughter Bethany, she wants to learn tatting, but at the moment I don't feel well enough, but as soon as I am well enough I will buy her a shuttle and thread and get her started off.
This bookmark is from Tatting in Lace by Mary Konior and called Wrought Iron, I made it from Turkish thread Altin Basak no 3053 with glass pearls in the middle of the onion rings.
I hope you are keeping well and look forward to seeing you again, many thanks for visiting my blog today.
Hugs
Margaret

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