Tat's Heaven

As you can see I tried very hard to copy the second post that I put on my blog "was the word" which is supposed to be Praise. However, this became a bit of a challenge and half way through I wanted to give up. But having started I thought I'd better finish and this is the result, not good - but its very difficult trying to put letters inside another letter! I vow never to attempt such a thing again and will get back to a pattern that I can follow.

This is my surplice which I wear in church. I attached the tatting trim because otherwise it looked so plain. My only problem is that I often find I get stopped in my tracks as it seems to catch itself on to the altar rail or a chair or other part of the church, and then I have to unhook myself! Many people comment about the effect the tatting gives to the surplice and I very often have to explain what tatting is!

Yesterday I was in one of the local charity shops and I spotted a tatting shuttle buried below some bundles of lace which were priced and ready to sell. So I duly purchased it for £1. It was only a black/white milward one, but it is still going into my collection (my working shuttles are the aero ones), which as you can see isn't vast but I'm sure I saved its life! I'm always searching for old shuttles but rarely find them, so this was a treat. Then in the evening we had a meeting (Scouting and non-uniform!) and I was wearing the blue tatted necklace and discovered that someone I had known for years could tat. We were both surprised to learn of each others knowledge of the craft. Unfortunately she has only very old patterns, so obviously I've told her to look at Jane's blog and her patterns! And then much later on in the evening I discovered that I had made many more tatting friends via this blog - thank you

Now I'm very fond of angels, sort of goes with my work! Anyway about 7 yrs ago I bought Mark Myers book "Tatted Gathering of Angels" since then I have made quite a few from the said book, some of which may very well appear from time to time. However, this particular angel ended up all forgotten in a photo frame hidden in a cupboard so she/he has now flown out to say hello. I really wanted the book signed by Mark when big sis went over the pond, but obviously she couldn't carry everything, but I did get Mark's autograph - as you can nearly see from the piece of paper, not included for obvious reasons. Thank you "nephew"!!!!

Well my first bit of tatting on my blog especially commissioned for this event. This is my own design, I've doubled up the blue cotton with silver thread. Years ago I made tatted chokers but they always twisted and didn't really lie flat. This one is quite stiff and lies well especially on a low neck top. Yes I've sort of written the pattern down! But at the moment I'm having difficulty understanding it myself!

Last week the daughters of a lady who has died in the parish gave me this picture. It reminded me of the ancient hand written books and the first letter of each page was usually illuminated like this one. This particular picture was hand painted by someone in Hong Kong when the family lived there. It is therefore of particular interest to me as I also spent 2 yrs in the country. So from Praise to Promise - I will post some tatting next time!

Well I've started my blog with a picture of my favourite church, my bit of heaven on earth. But of course I hope to publish lots of pictures of my tatting in the weeks and months to come. So I hope you will join me on my blog journey!