Martha's smaller butterfly

Today's blog post is to show you the other butterfly that Martha asked me to test tat for her.

This was a delightful tat and I love, love, love this design too. 

The great thing about doing all this test tatting is that I'm finally getting some of my buttons out of their containers and doing something useful!!!!  

I MAY have to source more buttons within the next 100 years!!!!!

Hanky holders

I always carry a small packet of tissues in my handbag and they ALWAYS get scrunchy/grubby looking. 

A friend was making these covers and selling them successfully to raise funds for our Tuesday group so I thought I'd make one for myself. 

I searched the internet for 'how to make them' (as you do) and found this great site.

This is almost the end of this great fabric and I'm going to miss it SO much. Always cheers me up!!

Saved!!

Not probably from 'extinction' but certainly likely to be thrown away. 

I found these two shuttles in a charity shop in Alcester just over a week ago. They simply HAD to be saved. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!!! The lower of the two is actually a lovely shade of yellow which seems to be lost in the photograph. 

I'm already overrun with Milwards and have probably still got in the collection the ones I bought 60+ years ago with my pocket money!!! As I've tatted for so long and never been sidetracked I'm sure some of the originals have survived. 

I now use mainly the Aero bobbin shuttles (or the new Clover bobbin ones) but when the Aeros first hit the shops and I tried them I couldn't get on with the design at all. Eventually (as Milwards were becoming hard to find) I decided it was the 'Aero bobbin shuttle or nothing'. 

It always tickles me when I see people blogging or talking on Facebook about how you have to wind and hold the Aero to tat. Particularly which way the hook has to point (up, down etc). I once bought a French Aero which actually showed how the thread was loaded into the shuttle and which way the hook should 'point'. I adopted this method and have 'hooked' on Aero ever since. 

I will add here that the way the shuttle is held is entirely up to the tatter but I would suggest just persisting at finding your comfort zone.  There is no 'right' or 'wrong' way!!!

Finally and finally!!!

Well you're going to fall off your seats today. I've actually finished the beaded version of the square motif which you can find here. 

The link is here.

Obviously this can be played with too with variations using the SLT and also three colours (or more?). I leave it to you!!!

Yet again!!!

Sometimes test tatting can lead to a 'what if' situation!!!

I love the angel that I did for Martha a few days ago but I 'needed' to see what it looked like without the picots on the rings!!! I'm not particularly fond of lots of picots as when I started tatting (back when the dinosaurs were around) everything had lots and lots of picots. I think I outgrew them.

So, I decided to do this lovely angel 'naked'. Of course I'm now regretting not adding beads to the picots that I did leave in!!! Do I feel another angel approaching? Maybe, maybe!!!!

More coasters.

Just thought I'd show you another set of the coasters I'm making. 

There's something so relaxing about making these!!!

I love the pink ladybirds (or, as they're called in America - ladybugs). 

Actually I think that's a far better name (ladybugs) than ours as they're just NOT birds.

Another treat for you

Another treat from Martha. 

This is a button angel which I test tatted a week or so ago. A delightful tat too. I'm sure you're all dying to get your hands on Martha's new book but it'll be a while yet as there's so much work involved with putting a book together.

One of the toughest jobs must be putting up with ME as a test tatter!! There's very little to do with test tatting Martha's work as you can guess but concentration is essential as a tester. BC3 really has to turn off the rest of the world when he's at work.

Revised pattern finished.

I had to keep this back for a while so I could play with it a bit further!!! I do like to play!!!

This is the revised square pattern which is here and here.

I decided I wanted to know what it would look like if I used three colours of thread and so I've been playing as you can see!!!! It's thrown up some different patterns within the whole thing but I'd still like to experiment more with some SLT's!!!!! 

Anyway, before I forget - here's the link to the re-vamped pattern (no beads on this one) and you'll see that the original has seriously been consigned to the bin!!!! Now I've got to work on the beaded one!!!

Another!!!

Martha sent me a heart to test for her this time. 

What I LOVE about this design is that you get all the buttons onto the tatting within the first few elements. Why do I like this idea so much?

Well, I'll be honest. I go to the tatting cupboard and source the thread, beads (if required) and buttons needed for a project. Easy. I then take all back into the living room (a few steps away) and into 'tat corner'. Easy. So, what can go wrong with that? Well nothing, you'd think, but it invariably does.

How on EARTH 'things' can get lost when you know EXACTLY where you put them and you know darn well that they've not been moved. I swear I could lose my head if it was loose.

Nick knows what I'm like and often says (as I walk out of the front door) - beware of those big red things called buses!!!!

Something relaxing

In October I'm having a 'table' in a craft/artisan fair. 

This will only be a small one (table and fair!!!) as it's being held in an upstairs room at the local library (where I help teach silver surfers). I'm going to make several of these snowflakes as it's going to be quite close to the festive season. 

As we're a hundred yards away from Shakespeare's Birthplace we may get some footfall as long as we're well advertised. 

I'm not sure what this thread is but it's pretty sparkly. I'm sure it's not the Lizbeth metallic as it came in a box of wonderful odds and ends that I bought off Sue Hanson.

More coasters

These were finished before I was 'struck down' and I've just found the pictures on my phone!!!

Sadly I no longer 'own' them as a neighbour fell for them and insisted on buying the set of four off me. Bless her as that's an incentive to carry on. I no longer have enough of this cat fabric left to make more BUT I do have some scraps which I'm considering using for another project!!!

Being a 'war baby' (born towards the end in 1943) I never throw anything away and all the offcuts get used until the 'bitter end'. Remember the tatting bag I made?!?!?!? Here's the link to the small amount I finally had leftover!

A new book in the pipeline

Sometimes what you need to enable you to recover from something nasty is a challenge. One of the nicest things that could happen to me was that Martha Ess wrote to ask if I'd test tat this butterfly for her.

Now I LOVE Martha's work and test tatting for her is a real pleasure. She's working on a new book which will be tatting on buttons. I love using buttons in tatting too so this was a delight to get my 'teeth' into.  Sally is quite jealous when I've shown her what I'm up to as she loves buttons too.

One thing which she mentions in the introduction is a method of joining to the button that I'd not thought of so this is on my 'to do' list to add to the techniques pages. It really makes for a much sturdier join and I wish I'd thought of it before her!!!!!

I'm BACK.

Well, sort of!!! Just not used to being ill as it must be 20 or more years since it happened. Still, that's behind me now and it's a case of 'upwards and onwards'!!!

This is another rendition of this motif that I had done before I stopped blogging last week. 

If you remember - I'm currently working on a re-write of this pattern. You can see the motif (naked) here, but today I can show you the same little stinker with 'clothes' (aka beads) on. Of course there could be many variations on the use of colours but this is what I've done so far. Keep watching for further progress - or not!!!!

A new member of

The Exclusive Tatting Club

A couple of days ago Lou sent in her dear little mouse. Now it's taken me a few days to get to put it up in the Exclusive Tatting Club but it's there now. 

As a teaser I'm going to show you the picture but 'make' you go to the page to see what Lou says.

Blogging might be a bit intermittent for a while as I've not done a lot the last week except cough and not sleep. Now (hopefully) under control with antibiotics for a chest infection.  

It's OUT again

That's my sewing machine!!!! 

It's been in hibernation for a while as I've not known what I want to sew. Time is creeping on and I've got a table in an exhibition/sale in October so thought I'd better make some things to sell - that's if we get many customers, of course!!! 

The exhibition is going to be in the library in town which is a few steps away from Shakespeare's Birthplace so just MAY attract a few people if they know it's happening. 

This is the first of a set of four coasters that I'm making which I really love so has provided a good start to this foray with the machine.

Obviously I will be taking some 'tatty bits' to sell too but need some sewing things as well.  I've got a few tote bags (Japanese prints) which will go with me too.

CTB again!

Well as you know I'm going to consign this pattern to the bin shortly (CTB) so I thought I'd better get on with the re-write!!!!

I'd like you (if you've got time) to take a look and see what you think. To me it seems a lot clearer but then I'm living right on top of it so it's not possible to take an unbiased look.

I'm next going to try putting a few together to see what that brings out in the design and may try one or two with SLT's in to vary where the colours appear.

As promised yesterday!

I took the photos as promised yesterday and here they are.

The one on the left is the first square I did. That's using what the Tunisian crochet sites call 'simple stitch'. It gives a firm, dense fabric.

Having tried that one the yellow is a variation where I've pulled the thread through (as with the simple stitch) but then done a double crochet (English dc) and then carried on. 

This grew a lot faster but gave a looser fabric which is fine.

A new 'toy'

At one of the crafty groups I go to there was a lady called Jenny who had just bought herself a Tunisian crochet hook. 

I've often been tempted to try this type of crochet but could never quite see the point of it. Having seen the type of fabric it produces I was sorely tempted to have a go. So, off I went to try and find a hook.

No shops locally had them (not even the charity shops) so in the end I bought one off Ebay. Thus the adventure began. 

I decided that I needed a project to make BC3 more interested so have decided that a cushion cover would be a good idea. If that goes well then instead it might grow to something bigger - like the tatting I showed you yesterday!!! 

Actually this is my third square - I'll take photos in a minute of the other two to show you. I'm not sure what this stitch is called but I like the fact that the fabric is growing a lot faster than it does with the original 'simple stitch'.

In case you think I'd given up!!!

Do you remember my 'big' project with the diamond motifs? Well if not then here's a reminder of where I'd got to when I last blogged about it.

As you can tell from that post I was dithering about whether to continue or not but in the end the temptation of the threads and the possibilities got the better of me and off I went on another round. It's taken me roughly three months to get this next round on as I only work on it when I'm 'out and about' and not having to concentrate on what I'm doing. As you can imagine - I know this pattern off by heart by now!!!!

For this round I decided to use the same colours all the way round. I've used a variegated and plain together for both the inner part and the outer and they're all different. 

Again I'm now wondering if this is the end of the 'tale' or whether I may 'fill in' the outside to make it straighter or not. Time to sit and think and try out ideas for a while. 

Meantime (as you know) I am always up to other things too so that BC3 doesn't get bored!!!!

Simply STUNNING

Now I really, really, REALLY wish this was my idea and my execution but it's not. It may happen sometime in the future though that I'll get round to trying it myself. 

Thanks to Patti Duff and Heidi I do have the pattern and just need to settle BC3 down to give it a whirl. 

OK, I know I've worked the pattern before but not like Heidi has with two colours. This is her work which she's kindly allowed me to blog.

Now the pattern is on page 22 of Dora Young's 'All New Knotless Tatting'. So, where do you get the book from? Well from Heidi or any of your other tatting suppliers including Tatting and Design here in the UK. 

Having recently completed this in 'just one colour' I'm going to HAVE to do the same again in two!!!