Even MORE!

Just when you thought you'd been spared from MORE snowflakes here they are again!!! 

Now interestingly the top two or three are using a thread I was given by Edda Guastalla.  The thread actually has a glittery element in it which is well twisted with the main thread which could be polyester or cotton.  

I must admit I wound it onto the shuttles in great trepidation as I was sure it wouldn't be easy to use.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  It was really really easy to tat with and gives a lovely sparkly effect too.  In fact when I offered this selection of snowflakes to friends to choose from the red ones went very quickly.

New friends and a new shuttle

Look what arrived a few days ago.  All the way from Australia.  A beautiful shuttle.  The flower is the Cooktown Orchid, the state emblem of Queensland, so Judith told me.  It's much, much prettier in real life.

The shuttle came from Judith Connors who I had the pleasure of meeting in Canada.  I must admit I was nervous about meeting her as she's such an iconic person in Tat Land.  A true expert whereas I dither at tatting, Judith has become a guru on the craft.  AND you should see her work.  WOW.  

Now, the ladies in the picture below the shuttle are Terry, Judith, Ruth and (the dozy one on the far right) - me!  I can't tell you how wonderful those three ladies were.  I'll never be able to thank them enough for their hospitality and the truly wonderful time I had with them.  Can't WAIT to go back.   

Look what I found!

When I was tidying up my tatting corner the other day I found a nearly halfway finished Rachel (a pattern in Rosemarie Peel's Tatting for Pleasure book) here in a bag!!  I think I must've started it before my trip to Canada and left it behind cause I was using beads and I DON'T TRAVEL WITH BEADS!!!

Well by that I mean - I don't tat with beads while travelling!!!

I think this must be my favourite colour combination of colours and beads for this design - so far.   I say 'so far' as I'm bound to do more of these dear little mats.

A sunflower

I saw that Janemactats had been making this pattern last week and then actually saw Amanda's mum the next day wearing the one I'd made her way back in 2003.

This pattern was made for her (Amanda's mum) as her daughter loved sunflowers. I'd met her out walking one day and she was telling me that it was the one thing she and her husband collected in memory of her daughter.  So that day I went home and designed the sunflower.

Over the past weekend I spent time making the pattern a little more 'modern' and updated it. You can find it here and then I took this new one round to Jacqueline yesterday.

Fancy scarf thingy

When I was out and about in Canada with Kelly we went to a Michaels. Well, I think it was Michaels but it was a great shop with lots of beads and interesting 'stuff'.

Kelly spotted a ball of yarn which she said was great to knit with and so I bought a ball. It was really weird (but easy - ish) to make up into this scarf. The colours are gorgeous and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of making it up. Thanks, Kelly for prompting me to buy it.