Break from new book designing

I have decided to take a break from working on my latest book, Tatted Flowers From Bulbs. I had not picked up a tatting shuttle since before Howard and Charlie's wedding on 4th September, until last Saturday.

I loaded two shuttles, had no idea where they were going to take me, but this is the result so far!

I will post more pictures as it grows!

Cake assembly

This is how Howard and Charlie's wedding cake was supposed to be assembled!

Wonderful Wedding

I can't believe that our big day has come and gone in a flash! It was 18 months in the planning and one day in the performance! Never-the-less it was the most beautiful day (including the weather!), everything went according to plan with no major disasters, and a great time was had by all.

I think you will agree that Charlie (short for Charlotte) was a beautiful bride. Her tatted headdress showed up fantastically against her dark hair. Those of you who have followed my blog will know that Charlie has battled breast cancer and the pictures show how much her hair has grown in a short space of time! I think you will also agree that she looks a picture of health now, thanks to modern medicine, and her own inimitable determination to be recovered in time for her wedding day. Her only disappointment was that she could not wear her wedding veil that I had made with the beaded tatted edge, her hair was too short and too fine to hold it in place. I edged it with hens and chicks design, which I had also done on the tiers of the wedding cake to match it.

The caterers had assembled the cake by the time we arrived at the reception. The tiers were supposed to be sitting directly one on top of the other, but as it looked so nice the way they had done it, we left it as it was!

Starting again

I have my new laptop and I have made a start on re-doing my book Tatted Flowers From Bulbs. Fortunately Jeff Hamilton kindly sent me 3 of my patterns on PDF that he had test tatted for me and so I have been able to just copy and paste these three....only about another 6 to go....but of course this time I have to type out the whole patterns and re-do the pictures!

Not long now to the big day! I tried on my whole ensemble the other day, but I did not like it! I have decided to wear something completely different, the prerogative of the mother of the groom to change her mind! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! LOL

AND I have had my hair cut short....it was down as far as my shoulder blades! I've gone for a whole new look!

Laptop Distaster!

Sunday evening I DROPPED MY LAPTOP onto the patio and it is completely kaput! When we took the hard drives out to recover my files, one was OK, but the one with all my important files on was completely unsalvageable!

I have all my books on back-up disks, but not my latest book, Flowers From Bulbs. It was very nearly finished and now I will have to start all over again! It's a salutary lesson. In future I will back-up much more frequently.

All my new video files are gone, that is something else that I will have to start again!

Many of my latest tatting pictures are gone, but I can recover several of them from my free pattern PDF files, as they are hosted on the internet.

So, my dear friends, learn from my mistakes, and make sure you back-up your important files regularly!

Amaryllis -New Stem

Following advice from the comments on my previous post of my Amaryllis, I have put three thick wires together and encapsulated them with tatting. I hope the finished item meets with my critics' approval LOL!

Leaves for the bulb flowers

No flower is complete without it's leaves and so I have done a set of leaves for my new flowers. they are all variations on a theme, as I find most leaves for the bulb flowers tend to be thin with varying lengths. The tulip and amaryllis are not as thin, but still very similar in design.

Amaryllis - completed!

I have now finished off the Amaryllis.

I have wired it using 24 and 18 gauge green coated wires and yellow stamens. I get the wire and the stamens from my local sugarcraft shops.....or you may know them better as cake decorating stores.

My next job is to write out the instructions to make up the Amaryllis and then to check through all the patterns carefully.

When I have done that the new book "Tatted Flowers From Bulbs" will be ready to put on my web site.

Amarllyis and Cross Bookmarks

This Amaryllis is the last flower for my latest book Tatted Flowers From Bulbs. I have yet to wire and assemble it, but I think you can see the shape appearing. Amazingly, I designed it very quickly, with only one alteration, from my hospital bed. My brain must have been boosted with the blood transfusion I had following my surgery!LOL

These two bookmarks are the ones that I designed whilst I was in hospital. They are similar....variations on a theme. It was just something to do after I had finished the amrylis flower above. Really good therapy.....when I am concentrating on designing I do not concentrate on pain!

I'm back!

At last, I managed to do the stairs and so was allowed home from hospital this morning! It is so lovely to be able to sit in my own chair in my own living room.

I will post a picture of the new amarylis when I get around to photographing it. Then of course, I will have to write out the pattern! 'Moan'

doing well

It's been a while since my last post as I am still in hospital following spinal surgery. The sugery went well but my progress is muh slower than expected. I'm doing fine, just not quick enough for me LOL! Yesterday and today I have been designing an amarylis to put into the new boo k. I am very pleased with my efforts and will write the pattern out when I get home.  Unfortunately I cannot upload the pic I took on my phone, will that from home.

Iris re-taped

Here we go again, another slight alteration. Following advice from Barb from HBT I took the flower apart (not a difficult job) and re-assembled it so that it was closer together at the base. Barb was absolutely right....it does look much better.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all my followers who have given me encouragment and advice on all the patterns that I do. Your constructive criticism is extremely helpful!

Edited Iris

Following the helpful comments I got from the first Iris post, I have made each petal broader, giving, I think, a more natural shape to the flower.

What do you think?

Tatted Iris

Here is the iris that I have designed to add to my latest book Tatted Flowers From Bulbs.

Most flower patterns only take me two or three goes to get the effect that I am looking for, but this one!!!!....well I certainly got through a lot of cotton before I was satisfied with the end result!

I think the main problem was, there were so many variety variations of the flower, that coming up with something that actually looked like an iris, but was also easily achievable for the tatter, was quite a challenge!

What do you think? Would you recognise it as an iris?

Bulb Flowers So Far

Here is a picture of the flower patterns that I have done so far, for my new book

Tatted Flowers From Bulbs.

I think that the next pattern will be one for Iris and then one for Amarylis (maybe LOL!)
Also, I will have to do some leaves, although the pattern that I have done for the hyacynth leaf could simply be elongated for the daffodils and bluebells and just about the same length for the crocuses!