Well aren't you all lucky?

I've got nothing to show and not a lot to say either!!!

I'm back to doing motifs for Nicole again. Deadly boring but at least I get to watch the telly while I'm doing them! I might take some time out when I get REALLY, REALLY bored to do the MOPs again in colours. I want to sew them onto a tshirt - a short sleeved one but first I need to find and decide which one!! Then there'll be the fun of choosing the thread and beads.

Before all this I have to take myself to one side and give myself a good lecture on tidying up tat corner. Not just a lecture but the follow up action MUST be taken too!!! How do I get in such a mess?

Set of 4 MOPs

As I'm now back tatting the black motifs for Nicole I thought I'd show you the set of four buttons together. I will get back to working them all again when I've done Nicole's work and will then put the patterns out on the web page.

I must say that although these are really, really easy to do the biggest problem has been getting the stitch count right in the middle so that the inner round of beads 'frame' the button. The next 'lot' will probably have dangles and things but - we'll see!!!!

So, below on the left is the set of 4 and on the right are the backs of the buttons.

Another MOP button!!

I decided to re-tat the largest button again to make it much simpler. There was actually no need for the complicated way I did the orginals. It looks the same - but it isn't!!!!

I did this on Tuesday evening as I didn't do any tatting at all yesterday. In the morning I went to the saddest funeral of my life, then onto a meeting for tutors who teach silver surfers followed in the evening by a tatting talk.

Now this was interesting because Phyllis Sparks used to live in the village where the meeting was held. In fact one lady there helped out with all the photographs in the book. I've got a copy of this particular book but have never worked anything from it. It was published at a time when there was a dirth of tatting books available. Sadly Phyllis died of lung cancer in her mid seventies although she hadn't smoked for many, many years.

One compliment on my talk (which was lively!) was from one lady who said that I'd kept her awake which didn't normally happen!!!! They all had a 'go' at trying to turn the knot and a few succeeded.

Out of hospital and back to work!

Yesterday we collected the laptop from hospital and the diagnosis was a fried motherboard. Thank goodness it was still under warranty!! After making sure I'd done all the updates it was very happy and willing to work again. There was a total scare two hours after me starting it up. The screen went black, very black! I thought it had died again. Took quite a few minutes to realise that although the power cable was plugged into it the plug on t'other end wasn't in the socket!! DUH, how stupid can you get?

This is the latest button - I really am enjoying these!!!

This evening I'm giving a talk locally and hoping that a few will 'take up the thread'!!!!

More MOP buttons

Before I forget - which you know I'm very good at! I must tell you that I've added two more technique pages to my site.

The first one is about the Daisy Picot technique. Please do take a look further down the page at the lovely selection of patterns that Riet has done using this method. It's well worth buying - I promise.

The second technique is one of Georgia's which shows how to work encapsulation of threads. This is something that I now want to have a go at - Georgia makes it look SO simple.

Below are the smallest MOP buttons I will be doing!!! I think! I've still got at least one more size to play with!!!

Another from Rosemarie

Although Rosemarie Peel calls this book 'Tatting Basic Patterns' I'm finding lots for all tatters in here. As usual, and as I've said before, this book is very clearly written with excellent instructions and diagrams.

For an ancient tatter like me it's ideal to work with after a glass and a half of red wine because you just can't go wrong!

The thread is some of Handy Hands Lizbeth in number 20. This arrived in my mail box on Saturday morning from a potential UK supplier. I won't mention names until I hear that they will stock it. I LOVE this thread. Very reminiscent of Flora. Firm, easy to work with and the colour changes are good too.

I had absolutely no problems with twisting or any of the other 'rumours' I'd heard about so I guess that the problems that the original batch had have been ironed out. I'm not a great lover of variegated thread but this works well for me.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that the supplier does import this into the UK as I've got my eyes on several colours in the Handy Hands shop already!!!

Totally off topic!

I had one Valentine card yesterday from a guy I haven't seen since I was about 11, I guess.

It's the only one I had but he couldn't have chosen better!!!!