Freesia

One of the requests I have received for a bulb flower pattern is for the freesia and so here it is in all it's glory!

Tulip - Edited Version

I decided that the yellow tulip was not really deep enough and so have edited the pattern to give an extra row of rings and chains on each petal.

This time I have done a two colour flower as tulips often have a very dark centre.

The centre chains are made with double double stitches to give extra support to the flower without having to wire the petals, as I did with my very first tulip pattern in my book From Petals To Pearls. This makes for a much easier way to assemble the finished flower!

New Tulip Design

This is the second of my new bulb flowers - the tulip. I hope you all like it.

My DH thinks it should have more depth, what is your opinion? I could put an extra repeat in, but I think it looks quite well balanced, however, I will go with the majority!

Spring delight!

Here as promised is the bowl of hyacynths.

I think they give a cheerful, colourful display of early spring!

Now the boring part - writing out the pattern :-( LOL!

Continuing with the hyacynth

No pictures just yet but I am continuing with the hyacynth. I have done a pink one and a purple one and now I am in the process of doing a white one. When the white one is done I will arrange all three into a little pot and post a pic.

I am now seriously thinking of writing a new flower book on flowering bulbs, so if you have a favourite, let me know what you think should be in the book.

I asked the same question with the Summer Collection of Tatted Flowers book and got some really good suggestions!

New Hyacynth Design

In my book From Petals To Pearls (which was written over many years and published in the early 1990's) I have a pattern for the hyacynth flower, but t'other day I was passing my local florist's shop window and spotted a hyacynth in full bloom.

I got to thinking about how I could improve on my first design and this is what I have come up with. Perhaps I should start a new book with just flowers from bulbs! Now there's a project to think about!

Heart Pattern

I have now done the pattern for the heart I designed, after being convinced by many of you that you had not seen a heart that was the same!

If anyone comes along and shows me that they have already done a heart that is almost identical than I shall withdraw this pattern.

With a simple heart pattern it is very difficult to come up with something that hasn't been done before. I don't seem to have the same problem with my 3D flowers!

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.

4 steps to heaven!

I wanted to design a heart to put onto a couple of wedding cards that I have to make this year and I thought I would share the progression with you all.

I have only used a cheapy size 20 thread to expeirment with but I will use finer threads for the real article!

Knowing that there are dozens of hearts out there in tat-land someone is bound to have done something similar to this one, therefore I will not be publishing a pattern for it! If anyone knows of someone elses pattern that is identical then please let me know. I have not studied anyone else's heart, but there is only so many ways of coming up with the same shape!

Round into Oval?

On November 10th 2008 I posted about my progression of an oval doily. Well this round doily was one of the beginning attempts that did not come up to standard. It was too round and one round was so tight that the doily wouldn't lie flat!

My sister-in-law asked me if I had a spare doily for a little table she has got, and it being her birthday on the 18th April, I decided to rescue this UFO (unfinished object) and see what I could do with it.

I broke into the round that was too tight, in two places and added a few more rings. This allowed the doily to lie flat. I then added two more rounds and was happy enough to call it a round doily! LOL!

Jeanne's Bouquet

Jeanne Ewald sent me this picture of a bouquet of flowers she had made and sold at a craft show. The main flowers are my star gazer lilies and she has acredited me with the inspiration for the others!

I think she did a great job and didn't she do well to sell it for a good price?

WELL DONE JEANNE!!

Tatted Rose PDF

I have made my rose pattern (from Summer Collection of Tatted Flowers) into a PDF file as I have had several requests for this pattern on it's own!

If you are on HBT, The Ring of Chatters, TechnicalTatting groups, you will find the PDF in their files section. If not email me and I will send you a copy. It may take a little time because when I offer free PDF's I tend to get inundated! LOL

I have now added a link to the PDF pattern.

Books & CDs for sale!

Last year Handy Hands ordered 50 of my books "From Petals To Pearls" and I have just received notification from Barbara Foster that all the books have sold and she wants to stock more! Not only that, she is also going to stock my CDs that have all my books on (5) in PDF format plus bonus patterns!

This has really delighted me! I will never become a millionaire with the sale of my books and CDs but to be able to get my patterns out into the great wide world is extremely satisfying! I feel really honoured that other tatters want to try my patterns and that, in my own small way, I am promoting this wonderful age-old art!

Doilies under glass!

I thought I would show all you tatters what I do with most of my doilies.

I usually display them on my wooden furniture under glass. This protects both the tops of the furniture and the doilies!

Design-Tat Lesson 3

This is my contribution to the tatting design course of lesson 3. Sharon Briggs asked us to do the next row after giving us a pattern for the first row.

The one on the left is my first attempt which I was not satisfied with. Not enough stitches for it to lie properly. The one on the right sits much better and my aim was to give a lot of negative space to comply with Sharon's direction.

I haven't actually blocked the tatting yet and it will look better when I do!