Tat's Heaven

Today in the Christian church is the feast of St. Michael and all Angels. Michael the Archangel, Captain of the Host of Heaven who fought against Satan and his evil angels and cast them out of Paradise. Not sure which particular angel this one is though! It certainly has remained in my heaven, so it must be a good angel! According to Mark Myers (AKA Tatman) it is called Patty's Angel, from his book Tatted Gathering of Angels, but sorry Mark it had a bit of a "make over" whilst in paradise, I added a few beads and omitted the heart in the centre. A photograph of some Michaelmas daisies, I went for a walk yesterday and photographed these, they were in someone’s front garden.Though not really a daisy at all, but an aster (and named after the ancient Greek word for star: ‘astron’), a late-bloomer that flowers in September and early October and called Michaelmas daisies because they are at their prime at Michaelmas Day. The one Michaelmas custom that survives to this day is th

This photograph was taken whilst visiting family this weekend. The hot air balloon has just taken off and I managed to get a reflection of it in the water. So I thought you might like to see it. So that's my "fly away" part of the post. Since becoming a member of “tatting blog land” I have been so impressed by all the lovely work that you clever people have been doing, there is so much talent out there and it is good to share, especially the patterns. That’s where I fall short, because I find it such an effort writing the instructions down for an item that I have created. I tend to memorise what I’m doing at the time, thinking that it will stay in my head, then all too soon I quickly move onto another project and of course forget what I have been doing. I suppose that is being lazy, but it’s often the case that I just don’t have the time to do it properly so I end up not doing it at all! The other thing that has been so amazing is “blog giveaways” – now the rules for thes

The only science lesson I can remember at school was when we were shown a prism and a white light was shone through it and suddenly there was a myriad of amazing colours, otherwise known as a rainbow. A rainbow is caused by sunshine (white light) shining on water droplets that are in the air just after a summer shower and some rainbows are amazing. It is often said that there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow! The necklace was made from the cotton that I won on e.bay, well actually I was the only person that wanted it, no competition! It is hung over a very old reject piece of Waterford Glass which was found buried in undergrowth. The cotton that I made the necklace with was listed as rainbow cotton, although it does not truly have all the colours of the rainbow in it. Neither for that matter does the song ...........I can sing a rainbow, intended to teach children the colours of the rainbow. Red and yellow and Pink and Green Purple and orange and blue I can sing a rainbow Sin

I have become a little hooked on e.bay over the last week which has resulted in, so far, three purchases, two of which are shown here. I was the only one to place a bid for this vintage box of Coats cottons below. Accordingly to the seller it was just taking up room in her house, so now its in a new home and being used. The bookmark is the first thing I made with the vintage cotton. The pattern has been in my file for ages (vintage in itself!) and I've never bothered with it before, but then I thought this will be quick and easy to make, and thankfully it was! It is a design by Ruth Baker and can be adapted to take narrower ribbon. I was not the only bidder on the set below, but I was really interested in the tatting shuttles. The top one is plastic (Susan Bates) the middle one metal and the last one is an aero shuttle which are my working shuttles. The piece of tatting is not mine it came with the shuttles! The DMC pamphlet is mainly edgings and small motifs, my eye however, latc

I find that the ideal size thread for tatting with is 20 although I have worked with all sorts of different thread sizes and even, on occasions, put a couple together to give a different effect. I was given a few balls of Coats white size 10 a few years ago and used it for this particular necklace, it seemed so thick compared with 80 and it felt like working with rope when I first started! I was inspired to make the necklace after seeing Jane's blog. I like the variety of colour and the way the wooden beads add character the necklace. The cotton was given to me by the daughter of someone who had died, her mother had done some crochet work for the church and there were a few balls needing a good home. I did not have the heart to say that I would probably never use them and that they should go to someone else, although I do believe that using thicker cotton is ideal when teaching someone to learn to tat. I am of course so pleased that I did decide to keep the thread, especially aft