Tat's Heaven

With help from Jane, who patiently looked through my pattern writing I can now give you the ............................ DAISY PATTERN © Sally Kerson 2013 Abbreviations: R ring  Ch chain Cl close  p picot LBP long bead picot  vsp very small picot SR split ring  RW reverse work + join B bead MB move bead from core thread  Cl close Btn button  T & C   tie and cut Materials required: 1 four hole shirt button 11 mm, No 20 thread in two colours, size 11 seed beads Wind two shuttles: shuttle 1 yellow and shuttle 2 white (or any colour which will suit the petals of your daisy) Round 1 - (there will be two LBP in each hole of btn) Using shuttle 1 SR1: 4 attach to 1 st hole of btn with LBP (2B) 4/ 2 vsp 4 vsp 2 Cl SR2: 4 attach to 1 st hole of btn with LBP (2B) 4/2 vsp 4 vsp 2 Cl SR3: 4 attach to 2 nd hole of btn with LBP (2B) 4/2 vsp 4 vsp 2 Cl repeat until 7 SR have been worked SR8: 4 attach to 4 th hole of btn with LBP (2B) 4/2 vsp 4 vsp 2 C...

There would have been more than three geckos but my concentration levels are a bit poor at the moment and so a few rejected ones are lying beside me, with their legs in the wrong place!   The pattern is of course from Jane's site and it is called Pamela's Gecko and can be found here  I have actually seen Pamela's Geckos in real life! However, the main reason for taking a break from daisies to tat these little fellows is because of someone I was talking to in the village where I live.  I have known this person for many years but what I did not know was that she had a son who also lives in Singapore, her daughter-in-law makes pottery and has named it Gecko Pottery.  So that is why I decided to make a gecko so that it could travel to Singapore.   But first I made one from variegated thread because they look so much fun in the different colours.  Having lived and visited many places in the Far East, the last time being June, I am quite used to seeing geckos. ...

Thanks for all the helpful thoughts on my next give-away it seems that shuttles are always popular and with Christmas on the horizon it will become an early present for the winner.  Only two more blog posts and I will be announcing it! I finished the necklace and have photographed it beside some Michaelmas daisies. Another daisy like flower is Chamomile, you may have heard of chamomile lawns?  Or perhaps the children's stories written by Beatrice Potter?  Peter Rabbit's mother gave him chamomile tea when he was feeling ill. Chamomile also helps you sleep and calms you down. And finally an angel who I had lost, but turned up unexpectedly, like they do,  last week. The pattern comes from Mark Myers book 'Tatted Gathering of Angels" it was meant to be included in the post I did about attaching tatting to paper clips, but it flew away! 

I not only grew a yellow sunflower in my garden this year but also managed a red one!  Well that is what it said on the packet but it looks more like orange.  The Lizbeth thread falling leaves seemed to be a really good colour match. The idea was to make another necklace but I forgot to make provision for the leaves on both sides of the flower and so it turned out to be a thank you card instead, which has already been given to someone. I am definitely going to save the seeds from this sunflower and grow them next year, just love the vibrant colour.  My blog posts have nearly reached 300 and so it is time to start thinking about another give-away, but should it be a shuttle ?  Perhaps people are getting fed up with shuttles, may be the give-away should be something else?   Decisions, decisions!  

I expect we tatting folk are all the same, forever on the look out for the best way to store tatting equipment.  My latest find was a make-up container.    I stood and pondered in the shop for quite a time wondering if the small square holes would  be big enough for shuttles, but they were, in fact it is even possible to fit two in the same slot!                                           This is what the container looks like empty There are always books for sale at church events and someone kindly took one out before it went on the stall and gave it to me, as she noticed a few pages of tatting mentioned in it. The book is called McCalls Needlwork and is packed full of such handicrafts. There is no mention of who wrote these patterns which is such a shame, the book was published in the 1960s.   I am very tempted to have a go at one of them even though I hardly...