Tat's Heaven

Many thanks to all who entered the give-away and I am pleased to announce that the winner of the Zebra wood pop-a-bobbin shuttle in the blue box, is Tattin' Kat, congratulations, please can you send your address to popabobbinshuttle@gmail.com.  The window sticker has been won by Teresa, again congratulations and please can you also do the same. I want a number between 1 and… 59 Result: 28 Enter a number: I want a number between 1 and… 59 Result: 13 Circles and squares Snowflake from Martha's new book 'Playing with picots',  I only finished this today and it is unpressed and thrown on the scanner so excuse the way it looks at an angle! The really interesting part of the give-away post was reading what you all like (with the exception of few including my sister!) to listen to whilst tatting.  I did research a few of your choices,  particularly the ones that I was unfamiliar with, and thanks to Gill Devon who prompted me to watch 'The Choir' on BBC iplayer.  Being

Today is the feast day of St. Cecilia and in honour of this 3rd century martyr, who is the patron saint of music, I am announcing my giveaway..........   a zebra wood pop-a-bobbin shuttle and it will be packed in the blue box that you saw in my last post. All you have to do is to leave just one comment on this blog and, if you are a music lover, tell everyone what you enjoy listening to most, especially when you are tatting. I will use a random number generator to determine the winner. This is a photograph of the St. Cecilia window in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford which I took whilst visiting the city back in June.  The window was made in 1874. Another milestone has also been achieved in 'tats heaven' as this is my 180th post, so I am also giving away an angel from my piece of heaven, playing her musical instrument, it is a window sticker and it will be given to the second number that comes up when using a random number generator, so please only comment once as the same comm

As promised I am holding a giveaway, but not quite yet!  Details will be given in my next post, which will be within the next week or fortnight, depending on when everything is ready - a bit of a hint there!  Although my intention is to make it as soon as possible as it would be good if the winner were to receive the gift by Christmas, especially if it has to be posted abroad. This is the latest box that I decorated, there are a few of these boxes painted and ready for their bits of tatting but somehow I never seem to get them completed, a sort of on going project. Thank you to all who follow this blog, near or far,  and keep watching!

The garage is buzzing with activity at the moment especially since the arrival of two different woods.    The first was the zebra wood which you can see in this post . The second is thanks to Ladytats who posted a huge box of  American black walnut to me.  The wood is from her father's yard and I am sure she is eager to see a shuttle made out of it.   Well here are two shuttles made from the woods, not by any means finished, they also have a slightly different shape to them and at the moment this is being tested. The American Walnut in its raw state resting in the garage before getting the chop! The zebra wood after being cut Today at the 11th hour of this the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 2011 we will be ringing the bells in our churches, after  two minutes silence,  remembering those who died in wars and conflicts of the past and those who are serving in the armed forces at the present  time.  Another unique date. And to link with all the 'ones' in this date, I

My neighbour had an abundance of lavender this year in their garden and so they let me gather as much as I wanted.  Last weekend I made these bags and filled them with the pieces I had dried.  I now owe them a bag or two for letting me pick the lavender.   The only tatting is the little butterflies which I have sewn on the ribbons.   It has been an exciting evening watching the pop-a-bobbins fly out of Jane's Etsy shop together with listening to the fireworks as it is Guy Fawkes night here in England.  We remember the day in 1605 when Guy Fawkes was found in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament in London with several dozen barrels of gunpowder.  Obviously we never forget these things! Remember remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot... As most of you probably know, Jane lives quite a distance from me, over two hours drive away.  Down in this neck of the woods 'Im in the garage' has been busy

Today is one of those rare combinations with all the ones in the date.  It is also All Saints Day in the church calendar. Yesterday though marked 60 years since the introduction of zebra crossings in the UK   The first appeared in Slough, Berkshire, in 1951. However, more than 1,000 have been removed over the past five years and the threat of them going altogether has just been announced in the news.  Some have already been replaced by more sophisticated alternatives with lights and flashing signs.  The number of deaths on the crossings has doubled since 2007, in part because of a growing reluctance of drivers to stop at them, which they are supposed to do when they see a pedestrian waiting or actually stepping on to the crossing. So let me introduce to you a piece of Zebrano - otherwise known as Zebra wood. This wood was recently purchased to make more pop-a-bobbin shuttles from and it is still in this state so I cannot show you any yet.    The stripes in it are very distinctive.  As