Tat's Heaven

There are many reasons I have not kept up this blog, one being that I have to now recover the email that was originally used to set it up, so not exactly sure if any comments will be seen or recovered.  The other is that I keep up numerous facebook accounts (other groups) plus twitter and instagram so not much room in my life to blog! However, a comment from Maureen on my sister's blog has prompted me to post the dress we have each bought and how we have embellished it with a bit of tatting. 

I finished this picture today, my main inspiration was after tatting the 🐝 beehive in Pam Palmer’s book Tatting Treats, just felt I needed to do something with this latest creation. Well actually I doubled the stitching on the original pattern so that it would be more of a feature.  I then went over to my New Critters on the Block book by Martha Ess and made lots of Itty-Bitty Bumble Bees 🐝. The flower at the right is supposed to represent lavender but can actually be any flower, it’s just that bees 🐝 like lavender. It was a bit of a challenge trying to get it in the right position in the frame, all the tatting is sewn on to a piece of material. Quite pleased with the result. 

A few hearts for Valentine’s Day which also may remind you of emojis   ❤️💚💙🧡 The pattern can be found here

I started making these Lavender Wands in August and after a few weeks abandoned the project leaving the usual mess behind! Today I finished sewing on the tatted trims and they are now hanging in my wardrobe with a lovely smell of Summer coming from the clothes that are in there.  I am now sorting and tidying all the other accessories that are connected with tatting,  which have sadly got into a mess, this does not include thread. Really enjoying the challenge as well as down sizing. After which hopefully I will be a little more tidier! 

  Today is the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century!  It also marks the day that I finished my giveaway tatting for Christmas 2021! 

  This will definitely be my last post of 2020 a year that I have not been blogging that much. This is mainly because I did not have a lot to show, tatting seemed to be low on my priority list most of the time. I have tatted these snowflakes they are not a unique design in anyway but I loved the way they turned out with the Pearl beads. The white one was the first, the red one the second and when I got to the green one the bead placements and thread count was much better.  I am going to tat a few more of them and then it is back to the special pattern that I am trying to design. I gave up some months ago when things were going horribly wrong with it. 

I know this is a little late but here is Santa’s empty sleigh after all the presents have been delivered and parked up for next year! The thing is I have only just finished tatting it, so obviously this version is also going to be packed away until next Year. The pattern is from Pam Palmer’s book Tatting treats and I decided that instead of using white cotton which is the version illustrated in her book I would use Christmas colours and beads. It isn’t pressed yet and resting on a cushion so may look a bit bumpy but it really is a well thought out pattern and will not need much more attention.   I am now going to start thinking about some Christmas tatting ideas of my own as I find that I can cope with the idea of having nearly twelve months to actually bring them to fruition. 

  Have not achieved much tatting on the run-up to Christmas, but then I did manage to finish off a few unfinished pieces as well as making about 20 cards. At this very moment working on a picture that may or may not get finished today, depends on planned or unplanned distractions! Not able to be with any of my family this year because of very strict Covid restrictions so may be a good opportunity to get those tatting shuttles working harder than usual!  The bells are from Pam Palmers’s book Tatting Treats and I was going to make Santa’s sledge from the same book, may be I will over the next few days! 

Another piece of tatting that I started a year ago and have just finished!  A cheerful snowman to brighten up your day. Now off to finish a few more Christmas projects, only have a few days left to catch up, otherwise they will be packed away for another year.  The pattern can be found here  but with a different hat, I think this hat was on the original pattern, I like it better than the one on the updated pattern. 

As usual I have left everything to the last minute but really not interested in preparing for the festive season this year. I have tatted the simplest snowflake going and used a glue dot to stick them on to cards. This is so that they can easily be taken off and used as a Christmas decoration by the recipient. The snowflake in the middle of the display is a favourite design that I keep coming back to and is one of Martha Ess’s patterns.

What I so enjoyed doing when we were away on holiday last month was to walk along the beaches and find interesting shells, stones and sea glass.   Although at the time I did not know exactly what I would do with the bits that were collected . The sea glass amounted to a large cup full of various shapes, colours and sizes. This is what I have used the first bits for. I  glued the glass onto the prepared wooden piece in the shape of a Christmas tree, used the  pyrography pen to mark around the edges and then tatted a  string of lights to go around the branches. 

I tatted this robin quite a few years ago, it lingered for another year or two without any legs and then the legs were finally attached to branch and again it never got finished but was put away for another Christmas. Last week I added the beak and finished the last few bits off!  There are a few more robins hanging around somewhere that must get completed! And the pattern is here designed by my sister Jane. 

  Cornelia is the name of this tatted Doily by Iris Niebach, from her book Tatted Doilies.  I took this project on holiday as I thought it would be quick to make, but it wasn’t. Fortunately I had enough patience to finish it on returning home and so pleased I did.  I wound  two threads together, one was sparkly but sadly the photograph hides this fact. But very pleased with the result.

 I tatted these before the pandemic hit the world and then forgot about them until Jane showed them on her blog  a few weeks ago.   I knew as a loyal sister it was not right to post them until they had been properly launched and she had published the pattern, so held back, even though I just loved the design. My intention was to tat a lot more of them but everything changed in my life and for everyone else!  Definitely a snowflake that I can tat for friends as Christmas approaches.  

 So the granny square blanket that I showed you a few posts ago actually turned into a shawl and I am so pleased with the result. It is lovely to have around my shoulders now the evenings are getting chillier.  The photograph was taken in this building, called the Cider House, where we were able to spend five days last month surrounded by amazing countryside.  

So tonight All Hallows Eve, we hear that in the UK we are, before the end of the week, going into another lockdown to try and reduce Covid-19 infections.  So possibly more tatting time? In the meantime I tatted this heart, pattern from Martha Ess’s book ‘button jar tatting’ which I attached to a top  And to cheer myself up I made some 'death cakes'  or 'soul cakes' which used to be given out at this time of the year to commemorate the dead.  Which is pretty apt as I spent most of yesterday in the churchyard taking funeral services.  May be I will also find more time to write on this blog.  

Holiday packing  demands making lots of decisions especially when it comes to what clothes to take with you. So a few days on the Dorset coast in England mid October was no exception. At the last minute I threw some threads and shuttles in my tatting bag. On arrival started to tat Cornelia from Iris Niebach’s book. Just hope I will finish when I return home. This part of the U.K. is known as the Jurassic Coast where fossils from the pre-historic age can be found. This was one of our finds.  

I was listening to the Food Programme on Radio 4 last weekend it was talking about biscuits, their history and the British love of them especially during lockdown. Then the presenter quoted ‘tatting and sampler making’  in respect of how biscuit making could have gone the same way. So I tweeted that tatting was very much alive and her reply was “ One unexpected outcome of the biscuit programme is the rise of the tatters! Hurrah” But today I have some granny squares in crochet, to show you,  they are for a project I am working on, perhaps you can guess what I am making? 

It’s that time of year to collect and dry lavender. Last year I made lavender bags but in the last few days I have tried my hand at making lavender wands.  As you see not only did I weave ribbon in and out of the stems but I also added tatting and wound that around to finish them off. The aim was also to try and enclose more of the lavender especially as my weaving was not very precise. Making lavender wands is not easy to do, even though the videos show otherwise! 

  I love to see sunflowers as they a so big and bold and just remind you of smiley Summer faces. Each year I grow some with limited success, what usually happens is they get blown over whilst they are trying to make a break for the sun!   A red sunflower as well as a yellow one! Using the daisy pattern here they are tatted