Wedding cake all finished!

The finsihed article!

Now I can relax until a couple of days before the wedding when I shall make the sponge cake for those who do not like fruit cake. Mind you! I have had people come up to me and say that they didn't like fruit cake, but they loved mine! Maybe it had something to do with the amount of alcohol I put in it ;-) !!! Fancy not liking rich fruit cake!

A little preview!

I thought you would all like to see the flower arrangements that I have done ready for my next cake which is for August 2nd. This wedding cake is going to be for my son's best friend, Adam and his lovely fiance, Lauren.
Today I marzipanned the three rich fruit tiers ready for icing tomorrow. I can't wait to see it finished! When I have a picture in my mind of what I want to do and what the bride wants it to look like I'm always relieved to see the finished article - it doesn't always look like I expect! LOL! But this one is going to be just right!

Hibiscus Sugar Flowers

As many of you know, my other passion is cake decorating. I have a customer who is getting married on 4th July and has decided to have a 4 tier square wedding cake decorated with hibiscus flowers and bear grass. She was very good and brought me a silk flower to work from and to match the colour.

So here are the finished flowers! It is the first time I have done hibiscus and I don't have any instructions for them either! Therefore I am quite pleased with the results.

Birthday cake

Here is the little cake I did for my Mum's 82nd birthday. I took it to the residential home, where she now resides, so that she could share it with her new pals!

Sweet Pea Arrangement

I thought you would all like to see a little arrangement of sweet peas, for which the pattern can be found in my latest book Summer Collection of Tatted Flowers.

I have now added the sweet pea pattern to my free list and here is a link to the PDF.

To purchase Summer Collection

I am having a few problems with my website at the moment and therefore cannot upload my new book for sale "Summer Collection of Tatted Flowers. Anyone wishing to purchase it (the price is £6) just email me here with your PayPal email addy and I will send you an individual invoice. As soon as I receive the funds into my account I can send the PDF for the new book.

Large Gladdy!

AT LAST IT'S FINISHED!
Jeff Hamilton kindly test tatted the gladiolus for me and his input was extremely valuable. I decided to tat another one, in red this time and with more flowers and buds, and in doing so, discovered a couple more mistakes in the written pattern.

It has been quite a marathon, this design and I am glad to be able to move onto another one. I have a hollyhock partly done and only have to write out the instructions for the Queen Ann's Lace and then the new book should be complete.

I have made a start on the parcel for my exchange partner from the Here-be-Tatters group. I am really excited about this as it is the first exchange I have participated in and I've got lots of ideas that I hope will please my partner!

And now the corsage!

The pansy and other flowers in the same HDT thread made into a corsage that I am going to wear tomorrow to a Christening. The same Christening that I did the cake for in an earlier post that has the little pink tatted bootees on. I will try to get someone to take my photo so that you can see me wearing my corsage.

Pretty Pansy

I thought you would all like to see how Sherry's yarn (AKA ladyshuttlemaker) makes up into one of my flowers. This is the very first HDT (hand dyed thread) that I have used and I think you will agree that it works beautifully on this little flower. The variagation for this flowers is perfect! The thread is Lights Lavender in size 80. The link to Sherry's blog is in my "Friends" side bar.

A Great Big Thank You!

I just wanted everyone to know what an absolute star Jeff Hamilton http://bridgecitytatting.blogspot.com/ has been in test tatting my Gladdiolus pattern. Perhaps he will share some of the pictures of the work he has done so far, especially if I ask him nicely ;-)

Completed Gladdy

Well this is the finished result. Of course you could add more flowers but be warned they take a lot of thread!

The story so far!

This is the gladiolus development so far.
I have made one large set of petals and one set slightly smaller. I have designed the buds and the calyx.
I just need to make a couple more buds and calyxes and then I can assemble the whole flower.
This flower has been quite challenging but I have managed to create each petal and calyx with one "throw". The only C & T (cut and tie) is at the end of each petal/calyx.

Gladiolus progression

I thought you would all like to see how I have developed the gladiolus that I have been designing. Even the experts don't always get it right first time! Sometimes a pattern works out well with just one go but I find that that is not very often. It is much more likely to take 3 or even more goes to get it exactly how I want it.

The first picture shows the very first trial. I didn't bother to complete the third petal as I new it was not right. The petals need to be pointed and this was no way near enough.

The second picture shows that by doing the lock stitch chain (LSC) it achieved the point that I was after but on the first two petals I did the centre vein with block tatting. On the third petal I decided to do the centre vein with LSC to see what a difference it made and I thought that it looked much better.

The third picture shows my finished design of the petals. I will make another set of three petals and place them, offset, on top of the first set to achieve the correct shape of the gladilous.

Now all I have to do is to write out the pattern, design the calyx and make a bud! Not much pressure then!!! But you all know I love it really!

New ebook update

I am getting along well with the new book of summer flowers. Thanks to many of the Ring members I have now more ideas to work with.
I have completed the Queen Anne's Lace and I am really pleased with it. I will post a pic of it when I photograph it in the daylight! The written instructions are not done yet but they will be very straightforward, for once!!!
I started to do a gladidolus and ended up with a very pretty flower. I was not right for a gladi but luckily it was ideal for a hollyhock! Back to the drawing board on the gladi. I have restarted it and I think the latest attempt will be much nearer the mark.