Threads to play with

First of all - tomorrow will be day 13 BUT it's not the end.  There will be one more on Tuesday.

Here I'm showing you some more of the Abbi hearts that I made in between downloading and uploading the TIAS days!!! It's kept me busy this past month!!!! 

These two are again made from Edda's threads which Sue sent me. My order from Edda has now arrived but I'll use the samples first - as the saying goes - waste not want not!!! The top thread is Heart Sunlight 60 in silver and the one below is Master.

Day 12

Here is the link for day 12 of the TIAS.  Only two more days to go!  Not sure yet when I'll post those.

Meanwhile my sister (Sally) hasn't had time to take part in the TIAS.  As you know (some of you) I do have a love of jigglies.  That's what I call the little solar objects that I first found on a trip to America a few years ago.  They are not so easy to find here in the UK but the dollar stores usually have them in the U.S.A.  

Anyway, I digress.  Sally found me a jiggly which is on it's way to my house today (or tomorrow).  Can't wait to introduce this rabbit to the others on my windows.  We have sash windows and they sit on the ledge that slides up and down - WHEN we have hot weather.

Name and shame

I name and shame Sue Hanson.

I've told and told and TOLD BC3 - NO MORE THREADS. Does he listen? Well, some of the time but not when it comes to spending my money!!!!

Sue mentioned Edda's threads which you can find on this link and, of course after her report on how well they work up, I had to have some!!!!

Sue kindly sent me some samples before the threads arrived from Italy (still waiting for them to get here) so I had to have a go myself!!

Here are my first two. 

The top one is done in Master brown. Think that's what the thread is called! The second one (LOVE the sparkle) is also Master.

Flowery Cross

Having done the one cross (see Monday's post) I decided I was bored with that so chose the Flowery cross instead this time.

The thread I'm using again is one of the few glittery ones I really, really like. It's an Altin Basak and is called Nakis Simi.  I got mine from Tatting and Design who can be found here.

Day 11

Day 11 of the Tat It And See can be found here.  Have fun!

Iona Cross

At the moment life is a bit different. We have a car which I use most of the time which isn't often!!! I use it when I have a big shop to do, sometimes for visiting friends and also for going to Crafternoon in Alcester.

The pavements and road outside our house has been diabolical for ages and a lot of people walk up and down to and from the train station, schools, a college etc. Finally the County Council decided they'd had enough of me taking pictures of potholes and posting them on Facebook and that they really ought to do something about it. The pothole pictures kept me amused as I planted plants in them, had ducks swimming in them and then finally a Christmas tree.  To be honest I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with me at all!!!!

The past two weeks (and for at least the next two) the workmen have been digging up the paths and laying us new ones. I asked a couple who live about ten minutes away if I could leave our car on their driveway and they kindly said 'yes'. 

In order to pay them back for this I've found out they're great church goers. A place I avoid at all costs!!!! I decided that I'd make them a little cross each so here's the first one. It's the Iona cross which can be found here.

Geraldine's Angel

First of all - here is the link to day 10 of the Tat It And See.

A VERY big apology to Geraldine. I asked if I could blog this ages ago but then forgot it was in my drafts - another 'tidy up' of my blog led me to find it. 

This is what she told me about this lovely angel of hers.

"This year in November Charnwood tatters are putting Angels on our Christmas tree in the parish church festival. I decided that I would do this Angel as one of mine. Very fiddly but so, so beautiful. Tried to stuff the head with cotton wool to keep the shape, but that did not work. But this is not a bad effort as not done baubles for a long time."

Mystery solved

Thanks to Robin the mystery of the 'missing' blog followers has been solved. It was very reassuring to find that I'm not the only one bereft of followers. Although it's a very minor thing the number of followers on the dashboard does give some indication of whether a blog is being useful, boring or whatever. 

This is what Robin found out - just follow the link. 

So this means that if you don't have a Google account and want to follow blogs then you'll just have to get one!!!! OR if it's my blog and you don't want to have a Google account you'll just need to bookmark the page or say 'bye bye'!!!!

Thank you Robin for taking the time to find out what's going on!!

 

Well, that's better!!

First of all - today's the day for day 9. Here's the link.

Yesterday as it was a quiet day for the TIAS I had a great BIG tidy up. I'd noticed that on my dashboard the number of followers of my blog had dropped quite a lot so that made the old git stop and think. Ah, maybe I need to do something about all the blogs I follow. 

I believe there's a limit of around 300 that you're allowed to follow on the dashboard so I decided to have a look at those I've got there. Now these are not the list that you see on the front of my blog but those that are hidden away. So I had a grand tidy up and took off all those that hadn't been updated in a year or more. This means that now I've got room to follow more active blogs so am open to suggestions from those who have got blogs but which I probably haven't got on my 'secret' list!!!!

So, there's your 'homework'!!! Send me your link and I'll see if I've got you on my list and if not - I'll add you. Keeps me busy blog hopping which is part of my relaxation!!

New pattern

Tomorrow is day 9 of the TIAS.

Now I have a bit of a story about this pattern!! I had a message from Ruth about two years ago asking me if I'd design a Motmot bird. Well I thought that was a joke at first so went and asked Mr Google (or, could it be Mrs Google?) about this bird I'd never heard of. I found a LOT of images of Motmot birds which were useful and the web pages were very interesting too. Here's the wikipedia link for starters.

So I thought about it and put it on the back burner for a while. 

Then when I was approached about going to Canada to teach at the Fringe Element Tat Days last September I realised that one of the people inviting me to go and annoy them was Ruth who'd asked for the Motmot. That made a GOOD excuse to design one - so that's what I did. 

In the pictures below you can see the resulting picture I took over for her as a small thank you for the great hospitality shown to me.

Then I got home and - well, those who know me will guess what happened next. NOTHING. Why? Well I forgot it was on my computer!!! So a few days ago I was searching for something else and I found the pattern. Yesterday I decided to settle down in the afternoon and put the web page together, do the links, etc etc. Imagine my surprise when I found I'd already done them!!!! Sometimes I can be efficient although thankfully that's not very often. I couldn't live in my skin if I was efficient. In fact all I had left to do was upload the 'animal' page so I did that. Here's the link to Ruth's Motmot bird.

Day 8

Day 8 of the Tat It And See is now ready for you on this link. 

I'll be waiting for the inbox to fill up!!!

Day 7

Here it is - day 7. 

Remember that after day 6 you switched shuttles so the one you are starting off with today is the one closest to ring 15 or the one you weren't using yesterday!!!! Also you do not need to SS after SR16. Happy tatting and I'll be waiting for the pictures and comments!!! As always - please email me if you need help.

Previous Tat It And See designs.

Before I start wittering on - tomorrow will be day 7 so get ready!!!!

Christine sent me a message earlier during this year's TIAS showing me these two pieces which are on my pattern site. The pram which is here and the sailing boat here.  I just LOVE the colours she used and asked her if I could share them with you all. This is what she said. 

"I recently finished tatting the pram and sailboat and thought you might like to see them.

They were fun to make, and good practice for split rings and SCMRs.

Thank you!

Have a great weekend!"

As you've probably realised, over the years, I LOVE bright colours but these really, really appeal to me big time.  Thank you for sharing, Christine.

Heart bookmark

This is one of the things I've made with the Abbi Heart pattern. A simple bookmark. 

My problem is I keep making these little hearts and don't know what to do with them!!! 

I've been truly amazed at the response to this pattern. Perhaps I ought to remember to post in the groups on Facebook (not a place I'm comfortable in!) more often!!! 

The strategy (if that's what you call it) of posting in the tatting groups did lead to an 'interesting' discussion with a Czech tatter who tried to 'strongly persuade' me into putting her copyright on the way the beads were added in the beaded version.  She claimed that in 2007 she'd put this idea on her website and it was therefore hers. I did send her the link to this pattern which was uploaded in the same year but even that didn't convince her. Least I don't think it did. Very difficult to discuss such matters when neither party speaks the other's language. Anyway I heard no more yesterday so it must all have blown over!

Day 6 of the TIAS

Today it's time to get back to the shuttles because here is day 6 of the Tat It And See.

New pattern out today

Tomorrow will be time for day 6 of the TIAS.

Well this should actually have been out loooooong before Christmas but I've only just remembered it!!!! 

Thanks to somebody somewhere on the internet yesterday selling a heart pattern it woke up BC3 to the fact that he'd never got round to uploading this one!!!! I've several patterns which need to be finished and put on the site but I tend to go wandering off on a new idea before the links and other 'stuff' has been done!!!

Anyway, enough rambling - here's the link. Oh, and here are some pictures of the heart. It's actually quite good value for money - except there's no money involved, of course!!!!

Come dance with me

Look what arrived a week or so ago in my inbox. Isn't this cute?

This came from Elizabeth - least I think it was her but stupidly (I 'do' stupid very well, I might add) I've lost the email with the name.

I love this because I'd never have thought of putting pink tatting on a pink background but it works - and works well in my opinion.

Oh, the pattern is here if you should ever want it.

Day 5 now available

Here is the link to day 5 of the Tat It And See.

Remember to read the instructions carefully!

Day 4

It's Friday so it MUST be time for Day 4 of the TIAS.

Here's the link. 

Day 5 will be available on Sunday so keep those shuttles on standby!!

About the TIAS

First of all tomorrow will be day 4. It was going to be today but it's going to be a VERY hectic day for me so I can't give it the time it needs.

Just thought it was worth sharing a few thoughts about this year's Tat It And See and the progress so far.

Firstly it's going really, really well from what I can see/feel. 

I see a lot of people taking part on my odd visits to Facebook but who don't send pictures to the blog. That's FINE. 

I'm also learning about the 'secret' TIAS tatters who never get publicly involved or ever make contact with me. Again - that's fine. Hope they are brave enough to join in publicly one day.

Another pleasing thing is the guffaws of laughter that the game generates for the two of us back here in our part of the world. Thank you to those who go the extra mile to cause that with their pictures and comments!

From being a possessive parent of this daft idea - nowadays I'm becoming a proud parent who honestly is enjoying every minute of it's growth during it's teenage years. Because of this I'm looking forward to doing another next January. 

Maybe I'll use the idea I had for this year but changed my mind about!!! You'll hear why at the end.