Test tatting

One of my very, very favourite designers is Martha Ess.  Her books are the ones I go to time after time - mainly (I'll admit) for her critters as the grandkids love them almost as much as I do!!!!

I'm honoured yet again to be asked by her to test tat a few patterns for her.  Here's one I've just done.  Isn't it just SO CUTE?


When I stay with Joanie in SC my greatest joy is being with her and her DH but the bonus is to have the time to watch the birds at her feeding table and even more entrancing is watching the hummers.  Just WISH we had hummingbirds where I live - but on second thoughts I'd never get anything done if we did!!!!

I won another giveaway!

I entered TypsTatting giveaway a few weeks and I won - just because I'm STUPID!!!!

That's what I like about living in tat land - I can be as silly as I like without people looking down their noses at me like so called 'normal' people do!!!!!

This is the Yoyo maker she sent me (purple thingy on the right).  See the fabulous instructions?  Loads of them and easy to follow.

BUT at the top left is what I came up with on my first attempt!!!!  Sad,  isn't it?  I think the fabric I used was maybe a bit stiff so I'll have a go with another flimsier piece. 

Also in the packet was a delightful cloth which is now on an antique (yup, even older than me!!!) table.  Looks SO pretty as it's a very fine cotton with pretty embroidery on.

Don't you just LOVE my bum?

That made you sit up and notice, eh?!?!??  You'll have to wait til the last picture, though!!!!

Right, since the arrival of Tatskool's gorgeous HDT last week I found I'd run out of Eze-bobs!!!  

Now spelling counts a LOT when finding these little gems which Rita Cochrane first introduced me to waaaaay back during my first (think it was the first) visit to Palmetto Tat Days or just after.  It's not easy to find them as they are spelt differently by people.  If you do a google search you'll find Ez bobs, Eze-bobs and Ez-bobs which doesn't make life very easy for an old git in the UK.  Not sure where to find them in the USA but I did find a fabulous supplier in Ireland (are you there, Tatskool?).  The company is here and they're called Arabesque Braids - look on the Knitting Nancy page - their delivery is FAST too.  Just a hint when ordering - the size 2 (my favourites) hold 50 yards of HDT easily.

So, when I'd wound just one of Tatskool's skeins onto an Eze-bob I realised I'd run out so back to the drawing board - aka Arabesque Braids for more.  I'd decided to try and tidy up my messy balls of thread which had already decided to unwind themselves in storage and put them on these wee gismos so I ordered 8.  

Well, since the arrival of Sue Anna's gift I've had to order MORE!!!!!  I just LOVE having packages arrive through the post!!!  Here's a few pictures of them.  

First picture is entitled 'now you see me'!!!

Second is 'now you don't' - bet you guessed that already!!!!!

The last one is 'bum's up'!!!  Actually to prove that I can be organised from time to time I've written on the bottom of each the name of the thread, size and (where I know it) origin.  Mind, I think those with no names are most likely Yarnplayers as I recognise them from her Etsy shop.

This has got to stop!!!

No, honestly, not really because I LOVE it.  Another package in the post today!!!

I think Sue Anna's out to make me the 'most spoilt tatter' in the world.  Look what she sent me yesterday.  Can you believe it?  All those HDT's!!!!  Guess what too - I was running short on black too.  

Where DO I start with all those threads?  Actually I do have something 'on the go' which was designed purely to 'show off' the beauty of the HDT's.  I'll 'reveal all' in a week or so.

This 'something' is a 'something' that I've been doing at odd moments and hope to take with me next week when I do the demonstration in the local church.  Also I'll be taking it with me on holiday in a few weeks too.  

The blog will be 'dark' for a couple of weeks - just be reassured that I will be back!!!

Latest project

This is what I've just finished.  I do like to have a simple project on the go so that when I get foxed by a design I can go and do that.

This is one that really grabbed my interest - I was going to keep it for when we are on holiday but it just kept calling me to get it finished!!!!

I used the tiger eye number 80 from Yarnplayer that Ridgetatter sent me.  Love that thread.


The plain thread is an old Coats that I've had since the dinosaurs roamed the earth.  The pattern?  I'll leave you to guess!!!!

SO funny!!

Yesterday I had a package arrive from America.  Always a treat - a BIG, HUMUNGOUS treat getting one of those.

Anyway, it was from Elizabeth.  I opened it pretty darn fast, I can tell you, and inside was a well wrapped package (not like you see it below as I didn't wait long to unwrap it)!!!!!  Originally it was neatly wrapped but that's what happens when an old git gets excited!!!

Well the reason I couldn't wait to see it was because of the first sentence in the card (complete with tatted motifs!) which said:-

"I was browsing on the internet one day and came across this fabric.  The first thing that came to mind was 'Jane'".

Naturally I was VERY curious.  This is what was inside.  Did you notice the dear buttons on the ribbon too?

I've a feeling it'll have to be a bag of some sort - well, that is my other 'career' (bag making)!!!!!

Actually (after the kiwi - see, I haven't forgotten Maureen!!) I may have to make a sheep now!!!!!  That's one of the 'missing animals' on my pattern page!!!!!

Thank you so much, Elizabeth - you really know how to keep me out of mischief!!!

Alive, alive oh!!!!

Who?  What?  Where?  

Ah, brain cell number 3 is alive and well.  Ah, but is he?  OR is it just a rumour?

He's asked me to ask you for opinions!!!!  Between us we've come up with a new wee bag.  This little beauty (well, that's his opinion!!!) measures just 5 1/2" high.  The zip is a 6" zip.  The bag is fully lined (with my name tag in - is that a selling point or an off-putting point?).

Now, we have two problems!!!!  What DO we call it?  I've called it (while it was being made) the 'square bottomed bag' as it sits nicely on it's dainty wee bum!!!!!  We could do with a name for it, though.  Any ideas?

The design came about after talking to a friend who makes bags too.  She told me how to make one out of a square but with the zip going the 'opposite way' to normal.  This appealed to me so I came home and thought I'd made what she described BUT I added a 'SQUARE BUM'!!!!!!  Turns out I was wrong!!  Still, it works for me!!!

Here are some pictures.  If there's any interest I'll make a few for my Etsy store.  I've currently got the sewing machine out as I've got a request for a roly poly bag and poke proof pouch set.  So, while I'm 'in the mood' (and after I've weeded the garden which has produced a lot of weeds - due to torrential rain!) I could make a few of these too.


All comments welcome - as usual!!!!

Boring but true

Sorry but you're probably fed up with these!!!

I made these two dangles for the birthday girl on Sunday.  She's a very keen gardener so I made the one with a butterfly and t'other with a bee.  She put the one straight onto her phone!!!

A birthday card

I don't like doing cards!!!  Sorry, you know that already!!!  

This is one that I did last week for a family member who has two moggies!!!  Of course it's Martha Ess's little pattern and again you know I'm addicted to her work.

The 50 was done with one of Yarnplayer's colours - nectarine.  

The cats are done in tigereye again by the same dyer!!!  Both the 50 and the moggies are in a size 80.

Of course this HAD to happen!!!!

Well an old git like me can't go out down the town half dressed in 'just earrings' so I HAD to make a matching bracelet, didn't I?  After all anybody who knows me would've thought I was bonkers going out 'there' into the big wide world of our small market town half naked!!!

These are SO easy and fast to make. - I LOVE this thread too (Mountain Breeze).  It's one of the Lizbeth that Sue Anna sent me in this package and I've fallen in love with the colourway.  


This one and a lovely pinkish/blueish one called Tropical Punch that was also amongst the 'wind offs' shown here.

The travelling book!

Do you remember Fox's kind offer to share the Angelina Critchlow book?  Here's the link.

Well it arrived with me on Wednesday.  Now, on a Wednesday I teach in the local library all morning and this last Wednesday another volunteer and I were setting up new classes at the new home for the elderly (I actually qualify to live there!!) in the afternoon.  

So I speeded out of the library, home to grab lunch and then speedily out again.  BUT the book had arrived so I HAD to open it.  Well, I'll admit it - that's all I did.  I had a quick glance at it and then put the book and the jiffy bag it arrived in in the usual 'filing place' on the stairs.

I zipped off a fast email to Tatskool to say it had arrived and that was that!!!  

Thursday morning came and went with the usual 'dashing around' sorting other things out (plus grocery shopping) and again, home for lunch.  I checked my messages before leaving again to help a friend with her laptop and there was a message from Tatskool.  

It simply said 'Hope you found the little package in with the book and didn't throw it away!!'

YIKES!!!  I dashed to the book and package (still patiently waiting on the stairs) and lo and behold look what was inside?!?!?!?  I was gobsmacked.  Thank you SO much, Tatskool.  You wait til you see what I'm going to do with it!!!!

Earwigs!!!

After somebody asking what were the uses of the mini button flower (good point, there!!!) I decided to try them out as earwigs (well, they worked as a bracelet)!!!

I searched my stash for some smaller buttons and sourced some 80 thread thinking that that would be what was needed.  Then it occurred to me (well, actually at this stage brain cell # 3 wandered in) to try one of the button flowers I'd already done for 'size'.  Guess what?  They're fine as they are - so back to the same buttons and size 20 thread!!


This Lizbeth thread is just SO pretty  - I LOVE it.  It's one that Sue Anna sent me in this package and I've fallen in love with the colourway.  .   It's one of my favourites - that and another pinky one - and it works up so prettily.

All I did to the pattern was add a split ring finding to one chain (to hang from the ear findings) and made a long beaded picot on the opposite chain.  Drop dead easy peasy!!!  Job done!!!!

Decoupage shuttle

Isn't this just SO pretty?  Joelle kindly sent me this Aero shuttle which she's 'decoupaged'. 

I'd never use it for fear of rubbing off the beautiful pattern.

Do you know the pattern even goes over the end of the shuttle and right up to the hook.  It's even overlapped to the inside.  What a lot of work and skill.

Thanks, Joelle.  It's going to be a very much loved member of my shuttle collection.

Big Bug Hugs!

Look what arrived in the post.  A hug!!!  I'll show you if you hang on a minute!!!

First, though, let me tell you the story behind the hug!!!  When I go to Palmetto Tat Days Joanie very kindly puts up with me.  I know that should be 'puts me up' but believe me it really should be 'puts up with me' in my case.  

Throughout the years Joanie (known amongst a few of us who think she's totally smashing as 'Dear Joanie') and I have talked via email on endless occasions.  We chat about all the usual things like the weather (well, I AM English!!!!), family and (of course!) tatting!!!  Last year the theme for Tat Days was 'I've been bitten by the Tatting Bug' and I noticed, after a while, that Joanie had started putting BBH at the end of her emails.  

Well I wracked the aged brain but couldn't work it out so in the end I asked her what BBH stood for.  She said 'Big Bug Hugs'!!!  


So this is what we send each other BBH or (this year) it's BLH (Big Leaf Hugs - cause that's this year's theme!).  


Anyway, you know the story of the leaves (which I told you yesterday) - well imagine my surprise when a snail letter arrived yesterday from DJ (in case you've forgotten - that's Dear Joanie).  Inside were hugs.  Tatted hugs!!!  


The ugly old face there is mine which she'd 'stolen' off the internet and there's a hug round my neck and another one which I can take with me wherever I go.  Isn't that SO clever and SO thoughtful?


Incidentally as coincidences happen - the leaves arrived with DJ yesterday too?  Do you think we're psychic or is it just our tatting or postal services that are?!?!?

 

Leaf earrings

My dear friend Joanie in SC asked me to make her a pattern for the leaves I submitted for the Palmetto logo competition this year.  She wanted a pattern small enough to make earrings.  

My first thought was YIKES - not possible but then I thought about it and decided to try the smallest of the three designs which are already living in SC!!!!  So as those were done in a 20 thread I wondered what would happen if a size 80 (ish) thread was used.  

Well IF I'd read my own pattern properly the first time they would've got done sooner.  

The problem I had was that I started on the smallest leaf pattern and THEN when I finished there was 'something wrong'.  Panic set in.  How COULD I have submitted a pattern with such a big mistake!  

Checking back on myself I realised that although I'd started with the SMALLEST size I'd deviated onto the middle sized one.  When WILL I ever learn to read my own patterns carefully?

I used Yarnplayer's thread - I can't remember what it's called and I'm upstairs and 'it's' downstairs!!!  I'll update the blog later!!!!

The danger is over!

This is the finished bag.  

The first picture is of the 'naked' bag.  Nick took one look at it and asked what the loops were for above the front pockets (one to hold my mobile phone and t'other for this and that).  He might've known there'd be a rhyme and reason for them!!!!!

In the second picture you can see why I 'needed' a new bag!!!  I wanted to 'show off' my dangles - the ones I've decided to keep for myself!!!!  I've added special charms to these but there will eventually be more dangles.  

The brooch was made using the MOP pattern and I wore this on my winter coat for ages.   Think I'll make a few more of these!!!  I've learnt a lesson about adding tatting to bags - it works a treat for a while but then sewn or stuck on motifs get mucky!!!!  This way I can remove the bits and pieces for a 'freshening up' from time to time!!!  Well, that's the theory!!!!


I'll be adding more dingles, dangles, pins and stuff as I think of them!!!!!

DANGER

DANGER - woman at work!!!!

This is my sewing area - but strictly in the warmer weather.

As you know - I'm an 'old bag'.  I love making bags.  Not only the ones in my Etsy shop but also handbags.  I DO try to buy ready made bags but REFUSE to pay a fortune for them as I 'fall out' with them after a short while.  Then there's the problem of choosing a bag. Too much and not enough choice!!!

So, I usually end up making one for myself.

What pattern do I use?  Well again there's a problem.  I spend ages searching and searching the internet but can never find the 'right one' and even if I could I can never understand the directions on 'how to' make them.  

In the end I just 'start'!!!!  You can see the newspaper that I cut up to make the 'on the hoof' pattern and the denim that this bag is made of.  The rest will follow as I've been making it now for a week or so.  Many interruptions have caused it to be 'slow work'.  

Suggestion for the button flower

Some people asked what was the use of the button flower!!  Well, they actually didn't put it like that - just a general question!!!!  Like - what would you use it for!!!!

So I had to call on that dear old brain cell for an idea or two.

Here's what he came up with as the only other thing I could think of was for a brooch/pin.

The last four and the 3 patterns!

These are the last of the cabone ring dangles.  

I think I've tested these enough and have a reasonable number for the fair too!!!!


So, I've added the three patterns now to the site.  I've struggled against time to do this - time which seemed to run away from me daily!!!!  At long last here they are:-

First the small button flower which is here:-

http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/buttonmini.pdf

Next is a re-write of a cabone ring (that's also known as a curtain ring - small) pattern that I did many moons ago in 2003.  This time I've added more beads and a large one in the centre which is fairly simple to 'add as you go':-

http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/cabonesmall.pdf

The final pattern of this 'session' is the Winsome Drop earring which can be found here:-

http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/earringwinsome.pdf

If anybody does make any of these I'd just LOVE to see them.  I can't stop making any of them and am almost at the stage of stopping people in the street to give them away!!!! 

More cabone rings!

Hmmmm.  Another addiction hits this corner of tat land, eh?  

The patterns for this, the earrings and the button flower will be up soon.  Just need to be sure they're reasonable understandable!!!