Productive times

The scarf is progressing nicely, with some safely rolled away on the roller.

 

 While working this section, I realised that the only bobbins I had never used in my collection are now in use!!  Yay! 

I have a pair of rather heavy brass bobbins, (the one with the coloured thread) that I am alternating with the new thread.  They have always been too heavy to play with the other bobbins, so I had avoided them.  For this project, they work rather well.

There is also a single aluminium bobbin on the left hand side that had not been on a pillow at my place.  Several friends swear by them, but I find it cold to the touch, and had always passed it over.

Also in this shot (just) is the pair of bobbins with a pink ceramic joiner, a gift from a Gumnut.  The bobbins arrived broken from their journey, so I repaired them with the ceramic glue used to put final details on my dolls.  They are working perfectly and remind me of my Australian friends each time they pass my fingers.

 And here is a new batch of beads ready for the kiln.  Dear Step Son is visiting today and will take them to Burnie for me.  I hope to make the trip with Colin in a couple of weeks time to collect them...

The pin toppers (ladybirds, flowers, turtles and hedgehogs and the cotton reel were all made before Colin collapsed.  the rest have been made this week to fill the tin.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this far, stay safe, happy and healthy.  Hugs,

Some news and needlelace

First of all, here is the lace I have been working on lately...Hardanger is new to me, but I must admit I love this...

 The supervisor is loving the lamp and my knee!

 And finally the 1st placemat is finished!

This is the first of a 9 piece table setting...a table centre, 2 placemats, 2 serviettes, 2 serviette rings and 2 coasters....

 

And the news- Sadly, Colin's cancer has returned so posts will probably be very few and far between for a while.  The treatment is almost over, but the prognosis is not all that great...we are clinging to hope and prayers.

 

Warmest of hugs to my blog friends.  Stay safe and enjoy every day!



Just for starters

Ohhhh how I have missed my bloggy friends :( Life has been crazy, but what's new?!?

This scarf is now almost 150 cm long and is being worked by one of my students. The pattern is in an Australian Lace Magazine from a few years ago and it is being worked in 'Misty' Alpaca wool...mine will be shades of mauve and I am soooo looking forward to some time to make it as this really is gorgeous!! BTW - the maker started making lace 1 year ago today!!

This is also the work of one of my 'girls'. The design is from Rosemary Shepherd's "Fantasy Flowers" and worked in Lizbeth thread.
I have finally finished my last 'big' project...will share some of it in June or there abouts. At the moment, I am just chilling and making bookmarks...these are from one of my favorite patterns...a possum...also from an Australian Lace mag. They are made in Thai silk, available in a large range of gorgeous colours from a local thread supplier...when her website is up and running I will be happy to share :)
These little friends will be winging their way to Canada and the UK by the end of the week with the following...

The Bucks Point design on the left is by Irene Tomlinson and another favorite...it always reminds me of Guzzie Sue - a bloggy friend - and this is the 3rd time I have made it (and the bobbins are wound to make number 4!!) I used brok 80/2 with a perle 8 gimp this time.

The torchon bookmark on the right was given to me to 'work out the pattern' for a friend.
this one has been worked in the Brok 80/2 and I have wound bobbins to work it again in Brok 100 as suggested...I guess that means it was fun to work lol.

This cool Aussie Green Tree Frog eating an Aussie Mozzie now resides in Thailand, in a quilt made by a local church craft group. I have been teaching lace making there since June last year, and felt that the quilt needed a little lace. Everyone contributed a square with an Australian theme and then the quilt was constructed by 2 or 3 of the members. It has candlewicking, embroidery, painting, printing and quilting as well as this lace. I did not have my camera on the night it was shown to the group after being completed, but I can assure you it looked fantastic!!

On top of everything else I have made 2 of these wire lace horseshoes for friends. I do love working with wire and they were both received with open hearts.

The design is from Christine Springett's Lace for Children of All Ages.

Next visit I will show you the completed truck quilt, which now resides with my gorgeous 2 year old grandson and is very well loved, and my garden make over...although I am not so sure I have a "before" pic for you to compare?!?!

I promise it will not be sooooo looonnngggg into the future when i drop in again, so please say hi before you go :)

Hugs and happy lace making to all.

Restless

As I don't seem to be able to settle to anything at the moment, I have put my big project aside for a while. One of my new students co-ordinates a craft group at her church and asked me if I would teach some ladies how to make lace. After looking in my samples book, I thought I had better make a piece of each of the projects I intend to share with this group.

Here is my bookmark - project 3. The one on the right is as I will be teaching it.
The one on the left shows some of the many variations that a little experience could come up with. The diamonds include cloth or whole stitch, half stitch, cloth and twist and a compound spider variations. The grounds include torchon (ct pin ct), simple rose (ct throughout), double torchon (ctct pin ctct), twisted torchon (ctt pin ct), honecombe and finally, dieppe ground (ct pin ctt). I originally designed the bookmark to develop the skills of one of my school students as she worked up to making a fan.

Speaking of fans, I made the lace for this one around Christmas time. It is made with Gutterman's quilting thread, which is stiff and maybe a tad thick for this pricking. I was not that happy with it. On Friday evening, I had trouble settling to anything, and after filling the coffee table with my crocheting, knitting, cross stitch, pricking book and computer, LOML finally growled at me to just sit a while! Not happy with that, I decided to mount the fan.
I am very glad I did!! I love how nice fan sticks can lift a piece of lace.

Next post I will show you the remainder of my 25 tatted motifs...now complete, but for 4 ends to sew in...

I will also show you the progress made on one of my paper piecing quilts :)

Til then, happy lacemaking,

Just bob-bob-bobbin lacing along...

It must be a record for me, but I did have 4 pillows on the go at once!!

Here is the beginning of a possum bookmark. The pattern was published in an Australian Lace magazine...the thread is Thai hand dyed silk in Jade...lovely to work with and the bookmark is fun to make.

Next...I have put a few more pins into my Grandson's Christening bonnet lace. This one is a bucks point length that I drew up on Lace RX-P using some workshop notes as a guide. The thread is finca 100 in white. Number 3 is to help a student get on with her lovely smaller version of this turtle. The pattern is from 75 Quick and Easy Bobbin Lace Patterns by Veronica Sorenson. I have enlarged the large version by 141% and am working it in Perle 8 thread. My student is using this pattern to introduce herself to some new ground patterns. I think it is much nicer than having a book full of samplers :)

Finally, I completed the middle piece of my Bedfordshire ring pillow pattern from Barbara Underwood's Intoducing Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons book today...well almost, as you can see I still have a few ends to sew in :)

Back to the turtle...Tuesday is nearly here again!!

Have a great week, and thanks for dropping by :)

Students, motifs and glass

First of all I want to share some of my students work!

This is going to be a curtain for a dolls house and is the first project outside a few small samplers.

You can see the first spider...a fete that was more pleasing than my friend at the front door (for some)!!

One of the other ladies completed this flower from Rosemary Shepherd's Fantasy Flowers book. It is a gift for a young friend of hers, and she was completely delighted with the completed article...now she is well into one for herself!

25 Motif Challenge number 8...ok it may be better if I blocked it properly...

Number 9 - I like this one, but I was intending to put the trefoils in the corners?!?

Number 10 - I like this one even more - but I was still aiming to have the trefoils in the corner!!??!!

Number 11 - with the trefoils in the corner - yay...but maybe another round is needed?

And number 12 - I love this one, despite the mistake (or mistakes?) in the bottom right corner.

Actually I intended to join the chain as I did here, but did the next 2 wrong and liked that better. Completed with the same join, it would be more square and even better, I did it with split chains so no sewing threads in each round :))))))))))

The next few pics are a selection from the next firing of beads. Not all are included, but I think I am making some progress! There have been 2 breakages, both of which were delightful beads, so now the challenge is to remake them!!

These first are made with dark fossil - a mixed colour rod - and I really like the effect.

A selection of lady bugs in different red (and blue) glasses. D(Step)S loves the transparent red one on the top right. Quite a compliment from a 17 year old!
Next, some blue lavender transparents with trailing decoration. I found this easier than using stringers and fun to do.

Finally, I have saved the best til last!

I love this cute little turtle...hope you do too!

If you are still here, thanks for reading this rather looonnnggggg post!! Hope you have enjoyed :)

Til next time, stay safe and enjoy the best things in life - lace, friends and sunshine!

A Mixed Bag

Some crotchet to kick things off!

I made this cot throw for my grandson. The pattern is from an English Friends magazine from around 20 years ago. I love the design and have made it in double bed, single bed size before.

This one is made in Twillies Crotchet Cotton.

Here is a close up!

BTW - I finished another one this week for a friend's daughter, so only 1 more to make for now - for my new Grandbaby due January :)

Some tatting now...

Here are bookmarks 11, 12 and 13 - more crosses for friends, made is Lizbeth thread.

And number 14 is an adaptation of a length from Norma Benopath's Heritage patterns, also using Lizbeth thread.

Time for bobbin lace!

This pricking was sent to me from Guzziesue some time back when we exchanged ATCs.

As my knowledge on Bucks was/is very limited, and there was very few instructions (for me, that is :)) it has taken a while, but I did it!!!

The design is called Summer, an original by Irene Tomlinson.

The coloured gimp did not do as I wanted, but a lesson has been learned :)


This bookmark will be gifted to the lady running the leadership training I am undertaking in my scrapbooking business - despite the mistakes, I am sure she will love it :)

Enough for now, please enjoy!
Warm hugs from cold Tasmania :)

Hello again

First things first!

Here is one of the packages I sent as prizes in my previous post.

The Gum flower hankie is just perfect to show off a hand made lace length, the Tassie devil hankie makes for a great cover cloth (as it is a larger hankie), a pair of bobbins, spangled with colours to represent our Island home and the promised bookmark (as requested by each recipient) - messages from both said they were delighted - Thank you ladies!

Here is bookmark number 8 in the 25 motif challenge!

I have actually made quite a few more, but still need to take pics! There are a number of crosses in the mix as my children have had to come to terms with the sad loss of their father at the end of February. I will show you some more next post - soon!

Finally, I had the real pleasure of attending a 4 day wire lace workshop with Stitchetty Grub a couple of weeks ago. I completed 1 set and 1 piece in the 4 days, and am now working on the 3rd kit that I purchased that weekend. This is the 2nd piece in progress. The centre flower is sitting to the top left of the WIP. I intend to mount this piece on a hair comb - when I get organised enough to purchase one! The first set is a necklace and earrings - will share next post as I have still to take the pics :)

Thanks for dropping by, I love visitors :)

Off to take some pics so the next post will be soon!! TTFN

Here is the restart to my Beds mat (I don't think I will turn it into a ring pillow).

I have now used Finca 80 and like it much better.

This is 1.1 meters of the bucks point trim I have made for my grandson, Travis. Now I have to mount it onto a hankie, make it into a bonnet and then print up the verse and instructions.

I am not sure if Beds or Bucks is going to be my most favorite lace - I love them both!
Hooray, hooray - motifs 23, 24 and 25! They were completed on Boxing Day, and looked fabulous after they were blocked, but that pic did not work and will not be manipulated :(

My Mousey pin cushion was happy too - now I could get back to bobbin lace :)

Last weekend, we took Wind Dancer out for a run - (lots of) friends came along and LOML panicked that Wind Dancer would not behave herself.

4 1/2 hours and a dozen trips up the beach proved that Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

The cost - just 2 small tears in the skirt - 1 at the front and 1 at the back! Yayyyyyy!!!!!!!

My Lizbeth mat is almost finished - yes, no more rounds to go! Pic soon :)

Now I am off to play wth my Storybook - they are on special for January - 20% off!!

And a party tonight too!!

Drop a comment, before you go, I love reading what my bloggy friends think.

Hugs, hugs and more hugs

Happy New Year

I hope that this year will be everything you want it to be!

Here is a pic of the completed fan, mounted on sticks and sunning itself in the pansies.

I have to admit that I am charmed at the end result, and the recipient was happy too.

25 motif challenge

We will call this one no 19 - sorry about the photo - camera is not happy at the moment :(
(actually completed Christmas morning at its new home - phew, I leave things til the last minute!)

Numbers 20, 21 and 22

Numbers 23, 24 and 25 are complete, but photo is not recognisable, so will try again later.

Now for the New Year Project!

My aim this Summer is to make the ring pillow (lessons 7-10) from Barbara Underwood's Floral Beds in 20 Lessons book.

I hope it is not true that what starts the new year will continue as I cut this off this morning!

I started it a couple of days ago in finca 60 (labelled as equivellent to tanne 50 as called for in the pattern), but having unpinned the first repeat this morning, and wanting to complete the whole pillow, I think I will like it much better in finca 80. Life is just too short to make the whole thing in a thread I am not happy with!

Hmmmm...shades of Barbara's workshop there as the same thing happened - lesson not learned!

While waiting for pics to download, I made the first ring on the final round of the Lizbeth doily, and have now cut that off too :(

I am going to go focus on the first pattern repeat on the tatting, then wind bobbins and start the ring pillow again! There WILL be progress today!!

Happy New Year everyone, thanks for the friendship and kind words throughout 2009, and I really look forward to the continued friendships and sharing in 2010.

25 motifs and leftovers

It's not christmas yet, but the fan is complete and mounted on sticks!!

Here is the lace (completed pic tomorrow in real daylight)

The leftover thread made 6 bookmarks for friends! Yes they are all the same, but time was of the essence :)

The cards show the first 12 of my Jon's Quanti Snowflake, as seen in previous posts counting down the 25 motif challenge.

The attached snowflakes are 13 and 14...
...15 and 16...
...and 17 and 18 :)

19 is complete but for the pic and 20 almost done! Only 5 to go - tomorrow!!

Take a moment to hug someone, afterall that is what this crazy time of the year is all about!!