A darling little hummingbird

My dear friend Joanie once lived in South Carolina and I stayed with her there on several occasions before she re-located. She had hummingbird feeders in her garden and I was totally mesmerised by the little birds as you can tell by the video I took.

So when I got my regular newsletter from Barnyarns I was intrigued to find a hummingbird needle threader. Well it was cheap to buy so I ordered one just to see if it was any good. It arrived last Saturday and it's incredible for the price and size. Just to digress slightly - I love those newsletters as there's always a silly joke at the end!! I know - little things please little minds!!!

When I'm sewing I like a very fine needle which, as we all know, is very hard to thread and gets harder as you get older!!! I use self threaders like this (available here in the UK too) for tatting thread but have struggled with sewing thread and fine needles. This little beauty works a TREAT. I may order another as I just know I'll 'lose' this if it stays in our house for more than a few days!!!

Fandango coaster

Onwards and onwards I go. This is my 'take with me to chat' piece at the moment.

If you remember I had a whole ball of size 20 Cebelia and I'm trying to use it all up!!! Now I've got a 'bit' left so this next row will be the final row - IF I've worked it out right. If not then this will be the final and I'll have to iron it and then put it in the tatting box - where all my 'stuff' goes!!!

I started this back in January as you can see here. I now want it finished so will work on it the next few days to get it out of the way. I then need to find a new 'travelling' project so that will need some thinking about. I'm tempted to go back to an old favourite Dora Young pattern. We'll see, though!!!

Meantime I really need to think about my trip to Palmetto Tat Days. Registration will soon be finished and I should know then how many I've got in each class. I also need to put together a 'white elephant' to join in that game. Packing of tatting to show and tell and then finally clothes - IF there's room!!!!

Half a tea cozy!

Well half is better than none, I suppose!!! 

Pete’s cozy is making progress in between not a lot else that I’ve got to blog about at the moment!! I’m not being idle - just not got a lot to show you. 

My personal life is rather busy and will continue that way for a few weeks at least. 

Something I'd never heard of

Again whilst talking to Judith about the Ruth Scharf leaves she pointed out to me that Elaine had come up with a reverse join.

Now I'd just started adding beads to the leaves when I heard about this join.  When I want to change directions I usually do a SLT and RW at the same time.  I find it's quite a balletic move as it flows from my hands.  No need to let go of the chain thread so so much faster.  But once I tried the reverse join there's no going back to my old ways!!!

Below is Judith's explanation of the reverse join but I will get round to drawing it up and making a technique page - one day!!!!

1. Using ball and shuttle threads

2. Start a lock join with the shuttle thread as usual by lifting a loop of the shuttle thread through the picot.

3. Lay the ball thread across between the loop and the thread from the shuttle. (Encapsulate it.)

4. Then pass the shuttle through the loop and tighten normally.

5. Instead of being above the join at the start, the ball thread will now be below the join (reversed position), hence ‘reverse join’.

Knitting a tea cozy

We had a very quiet day at Silver Surfers two weeks ago so the volunteers had time for a chat with each other!!! Usually we get a few people wanting help but not this particular Wednesday.

While we were talking Pete mentioned he'd like a tea cozy for his teapot. Joan and I discussed it and I've taken the task on!!!! 

I'd knitted a tea cozy like this one years ago and still have it somewhere. I wanted to knit this pattern so duly armed myself with yarn, needles and pattern and off I set. Whoops, not as easy as I thought to get the tension behind the 'pleats' on this pattern.  Took me three attempts to get started!!!  Still I'm off and doing OK with it now. Going to be interesting when it comes to decreasing, though!!!

First picture is the front and the other is the back. Fingers crossed it’ll finish up OK.

Gold leaf earrings

Well yes I got a bit carried away!!!! I'm just loving these leaves.

I’m rapidly running out of sparkly thread so when I get to Palmetto Tat Days I’m going to HAVE to stock up again.  Not that I really need an excuse, of course!!!

Most of the sparkly threads are from the Turkish range which Tatting and Design stock and import here in the UK.  I'm hoping to find similar at Tat Days but if not I'll be getting in touch with Barbara to ask her to bring some to Gloucester Tat Days at the end of September.  

A very helpful conversation

Just lately I've been chatting with Judith Connors. I met her a few years ago when I went to the Fringe Element Tat Days in Canada. Yes, I know Judith is from Australia but I was lucky enough to spend a few days with her and our hostess with then mostest (Terry). What did we have in common? I'll leave you to work that one out!!!

A few days ago we started to discuss the leaves that I've been making and she pointed out that the word 'tischband' is German for 'table ribbon' which, obviously, refers to a whole load of leaves (and other things) put together. Now that this has been pointed out to me I'm going to call them 'Ruth Scharf leaves' in future!!! Thanks, Judith, for pointing that out to me.

Now I wore this pair of earrings on Friday (and Saturday AND Sunday) and people thought they were beads because they sparkled so much. That’s, of course, down to the very sparkly thread I used. Pity that sparkle is so hard to photograph.  

Earrings

Before the leaves took over I was certainly in bell 'mode'!!! Here are two pairs of earrings that I made. I don't want them as I've got enough earrings so will put them in Palmetto's silent auction - IF I can find them again!!!

They're somewhere in the house but the problem is - where?  I'm at that stage when my personal life is very, very busy and I'm trying to pack my stuff (handmade things) ready for the trip across the pond.  Once I've got my department number (technical stuff!) for the vending room then that can go into the suitcase and I'll be able to see if there's any room for clothes!

End of the story.

This is what the bells, leaves and everything ended up as!!!! 

The pictures are not good as again it’s very difficult to take photos of shiny, dangly things!!!

Now I’m going to reveal why I did this. Not only because I loved doing them but because I wanted to make something to put in the silent auction at Palmetto Tat Days. They are so, so sparkly that I’m hoping they’ll raise some money for their scholarship funds.

Another

Well once you’ve done one you have to do another!!! This one is in a variegated shiny thread.  

Still sticking with silver

I spent last week just sitting making bells and using lots of HWT (hand wound thread) without noting down which thread and how many strands!! 

Sometimes I used two together and other times three. This made for interesting effects and (sometimes) a little frustration too!!! 

Then I got bored and decided to make the Tischband leaves to go with the bells. I’ve done this before and ended up making this decoration.

The Tischband leaf is a design by Ruth Scharf and is in her book called Occhi. This is a book I don’t have but Ruth kindly allowed Umi and Tsuru permission to put it on her blog back in 2012. You can find the pattern here and further information here too.

Bauble bell number 2

This one is using the same basic silver thread but with another pretty variated shiny thread. 

Oh, did you want the pattern? Well it’s been here for a long time and has a sneaky way of finishing off the last round without having lots of ends to sew in. Just two - as you’d normally get.

Sorry about the pictures but the sheer shininess of them makes it so difficult to get good photos.

Off to a racing start

No, I’m not going out running or anything energetic like that!!

I’ve got the urge to make bauble bells again so that’s what I’m going to do!!!

This time I’m going to use my gorgeous gold threads - well that was the plan until I got into my stash and found that I don’t have that much left. So, over to silver. This is basically a silver thread with an even thinner gold filament which I’ve wound HWT.

Now I do have a plan in mind for these but you’ll have to wait and see!!!

Blue t-shirt

Now for another boring and hardly worn t-shirt of roughly the same age as the brown one. 

This time I decided to go for 'freedom' tatting!!! 

Well it took four shuttles (yellow, green, pale blue variegated and 'another' variegated thread) to make this.

All beginning ends were hidden in the starting flower at the top and the finishing ones in the last part. I only had one end to sew in!!!! 

All I did here is 'play' with daisy picot rings and split chains to return from the 'branched' flowers back to the main stem. 

This was terrific fun and was done solely for the blue t-shirt. The original t-shirt is at the bottom of the page.

A boring old t-shirt!

Now this t-shirt must be around 14 years old. I know because I rarely buy clothes from Lands End here in the UK as they don't have any outlets - well none in my neck of the woods.

This was bought at West Gate Mall in Cincinnati and it was when Nick and I used to go and stay with the 'kids'. Karen used to take us to the Mall as there was a department in Sears that sold Lands End clothes. 

I've got several t-shirts still that I wear from that era but this brown one was so boring it sort of got regularly shoved to the back of the drawer. I'm now trying to re-wear/re-purpose my older clothes so that they don't go into landfill and help destroy our planet. So this is what I've done to this t-shirt and I LOVE it now. 

It's really a lovely chocolate brown (don't mention chocolate to me!!!) and now looks a lot better for some TLC!!!!

New DPR technique page

Now I showed you this a week or so ago. It's just a snippet from a new design I've been playing with.

Well of course one thing leads to another in my little corner of Tat Land and I realised it was about time I settled down and re-vamped my Daisy Picot page which you can find here.

I can't tell you how lovely it is to start playing with colours again!!!

I hope this page will help as the new design will be using the DPR!!!

Juliana is finished

Or should I call it by it's new name - 'that blue thing'!!!!

This took hours and hours and HOURS to sew onto the backing and it does look a lot better in real life than it does here!!

The update on the pattern release is that I will add it to my site sometime in the future with the copyright assigned to 'unknown'.  I've agonised over this for ages and ages and I decided that if I didn't publish it then it would in all likelihood never be made again.

Tim has kindly offered to test tat it and has found a few glitches already. He's amazing at the job as he takes it so carefully and watches out for all my boo boo's.

Here's a link to where I started off on this adventure but there are many other posts on it's progress too as those amongst you who get bored easily will be able to affirm!!!!

Now I'm going to play, play, play and I will NOT be using blue thread for a while, I don't think!!!

Sheeeesh

Just to let you know I'm BORED TO DEATH with 'that blue thing'!!!!

I'm slowly sewing it onto a backing fabric as the design wouldn't stand up to travelling with me to America so needed taming. Also the thread I used is Manuela which is a soft thread but was one of which I had (almost) plenty to make it.  It's taking hours and hours of my time but ..............

Actually the backing is a very good idea as it's showing up the delicacy of the design well. 

I can't WAIT to show you sometime (fingers crossed) next week.

Fandango coaster progress

Bet you thought I'd given up, didn't you? Well I'm the sort who rarely gives up on something so I've been slowly getting on with my challenge to myself!!!

When I’m ‘out and about’ this still comes with me. Progress is being made and I’ve still got lots of thread left on the ball. This is my last post on this subject, I think!

Well although I've got lots of thread left at this stage I thought I'd do another re-measure and calculate whether I can do another row. Of course with a mathematically challenged brain like mine this just AIN'T EASY!!! 

BUT I'm pretty sure I've got enough for another row of 5 so I'm going to do five more 'middles' then hope I've got enough for five more 'outers'!!!

A long term relationship

A week or so ago (yes, I forgot to blog it last week) I received my newsletter from Handy Hands and inside was this key ring.

This took me back to when Barb started her company and when I first started dealing with her. It must have been an advert in a UK based tatting newsletter that put me onto her shop. I can't remember the exact details but it was in the very early days of the internet when I'd just discovered that there were real, live tatters 'out there' and that I wasn't on my own! In fact (here I digress as usual) one of the first ones I got into conversation with was Mark Myers (Tatman) who helped me no end when I was struggling to set up my website. 

Back to the subject of this post! I remember buying off Barb of Handy Hands and she'd not got her shop set up online back then. I used to 'risk it' by sending my credit card details in two or three emails for her to 'patch together'. It worked and I'll always be grateful to her for that and for all she's done for tatting. 

Without her taking big risks we wouldn't have Lizbeth threads, shuttles and many, many things we now take for granted. Thank YOU, Barb.

Anybody ready, willing and able?

I'd like to get this new pattern onto my website soonish and wondered if anybody would like to test it?

It's a bookmark/bracelet/edging and very versatile and there are two versions too.

Both versions in include a daisy picot ring and an SCMR but the second one also involves a wrapped chain. That one (in my opinion) is the easiest to work, believe it or not!!!

I'm also working on a re-vamp of the daisy picot technique page as well and hope to have that ready pretty soon.

Here's a sneaky look at a small part of the 3 shuttle version.

Finished needle case

Well here it is. My new needle case with the lovely crinoline lady on too.

I’d love to know who gave me the original needle case as it’s been with me for years. I’m pretty sure it was given to me at a Palmetto Tat Days many years ago. In fact since writing yesterday Martha has told me who it was. Kathy H. I'd like to say 'thank you' to her once again and I hope to meet up with her again this September.

The needle case is back in use again now and it will be taking it's weekly trip to Alcester later today to Crafternoon. 

I'm taking Juliana with me as it's taking ages and ages to sew her onto a backing fabric. Something mindless I can do when I'm chatting to my friends.

Needle cases

Some years ago I was given these two lovely needle cases. I love them both but sadly the one with the crinoline lady on is falling slightly apart on the edges and inside too.  I put that down to the fact that I’ve used it so much.

I’m going to make another needle case so that I can put the crinoline lady on it. Isn’t it wonderful the way that tatting outlasts everything you put it on. That’s why I would never dream of tatting directly onto a handkerchief or anything as the fabric will wear out before the tatting!!!

The green one is fine and I’ll keep as it is as there’s nothing wrong with it at all. I have one with my sewing kit and the other is in my ‘out and about’ kit!!!

A group project

Well it’s Tuesday morning. I’m back blogging a bit more often now that the ‘blue thing’ is over and done with. 

Tuesday morning is time for Neighbours and Needles which is where a group of us get together to make things, drink tea and coffee and have a good chat!!  

Our main aim is to make things for charities - usually local ones. We’ve made bunting, bags for school books, twiddle muffs, blankets for oldies, glove puppets, harp covers (yes, really) etc.

Each summer we hold a mid summer party in a local garden and we make a quilt to raffle to raise funds. This year I think the proceeds will probably go to one of the local hospices. Below is the almost completed quilt. I brought it home last Tuesday to sew the side fabric on and will take it with me this morning to get the top and bottom done. This is truly a group effort. We all had a rectangle (if we wanted to take one) and ‘did our own thing’. Bearing in mind that a few of us aren’t really sewers this is an amazing piece of work.

Can you spot my contributions?  I was also asked to make bits of tatting for other people too!!

That blue thing

Over the past two months or so this has become known as ‘that blue thing’!!! That’s Nick’s name for it!!!  He’s seen me with it hour after hour and has often remarked on ‘that blue thing’. 

Well finally ‘that blue thing’ is finished. I’m sure you realised in the last post that I’d changed the shade of blue on the last two rounds.  The reason?  Well I could tell you that it was a design choice but I’ll be honest and admit that I ran out of the pale blue thread - or realised, rather, that I wouldn’t have enough for round nine. 

After all the struggles with round 9 it was going to be really easy to do round 10 as it’s simply rings and chains and they’re all the same. 

AHA, wrong again, Jane. Four starts were made on this round as it said to follow the picture to join to round 9. That was all very well but they just didn’t look right so I had to work out my own joins. This took some explaining too but I think it’ll be easy to follow on the pattern. My good friend in SC is test tatting it for me so that eventually I will be able to share.

Here’s Juliana in all her glory!!! Well it’s how she looks at the moment as she waits for the iron and lots of time to sort her out as I’m going to stitch her onto a fabric background. The little coilless pins are what I used to mark the scallops. All will be explained in the final pattern.

Phewwwww

Round 9 of Juliana was a bit of a nightmare. 

My apologies to the nun who designed this but I have modified round 9 a bit to avoid too many ends to sew in. If I could contact her I'd tell her how allergic the 21st century tatter is to sewing in ends!!! 

I think by using a lot of experience and a good deal of cussing I've managed to 'lighten' the density in the scallops of this round. I've also introduced a lock chain in order to make it less dense and also to get straighter 'stalks' to the flowers that form the scallops.  They look a bit dire at the moment as they really need a date with the iron!!  

          

Anyway, here's a picture. You'll see on this picture that I've made a tentative start to round 10 which looks really, really easy. Just hope I'm right!!!  More next week!!!!  

I’m really looking forward to doing something different now!