Tatting for a little boy

Melissa mentioned those tatted fish would be great for something for a little boy and she is absolutely right, so I have better show here what I had in mind.

It is for a little baby boy to be born in October of this year. I have been allowed to contribute with some tatting for a quilt that is being made for him.

But those little 3 fish were not enough, so here is a picture of all the stuff I tatted for his quilt. Because it is for a boy it had to be done in blue, even though I have never seen a blue foal in the real world, lol.

The foal is from Inga Madsen's animal book, the heart can be found online, the lace is from those bookmarks I love to do and there's also one piece that I came up with.

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Al den orkis der kan ses på billedet er lavet til en lille dreng der bliver født senere i år, derfor et blåt føl og nogle blå fisk, selvom de ikke findes i den virkelige verden. Det var sjovt at lave føllet, endnu et godt mønster fra Ingas bog. Den ene strimmel orkis er min egen opfindelse, at kalde det for et mønster er måske lige i overkanten.

Little fishes

Here is a picture of 3 little fish that I have tatted.
What they are going to be used for will be a secret for a little while, but they are kind of cute.

Pattern is from my Guild magazine, the idea is to use that leftover thread on your shuttles for these little fishes that can be given away at demo'es etc.

Tatting Heirlooms

Having mentioned that I have my Aunt’s tatting stuff I was encouraged to show them, so I am going to show my tatting heirlooms here. There are 5 of her shuttles and 4 of them are made of bone, there’s a stork scissors with genuine gold and then 2 hankies that she tatted. The one to the left is her own and I have no idea how old it is. The one to the right I think was made for me and in that case it is from 1970. She learned to tat when she was around 10 years or a little older so it must have been around 1927-1930 and she tatted on and off her entire life even though she could only see with one eye. I recall having seen her doing a few hankies and then doilies. Maybe that is why I like doing doilies because I sort of grew up with them and I got my first 2 doilies when I was a teenager.
She died in 1996 and I inherited all her tatting stash because I was the only one in the family who tatted. She was not able to tat the last year or so because she was getting senile and didn’t master the flip anymore. But she did experience that I had learned to tat a couple of years earlier and I think she was a bit proud that I wanted to learn her craft. She did try teaching me but it didn’t work so I went to classes one winter to learn it.
She also had 3-4 books and some patterns from older magazines, I even inherited quite a few balls of mainly white DMC thread in different sizes. The shuttles and books etc. are now good heirlooms for me and one of her Danish tatting books is the most precious book I have. It would have been nice if she could know how much joy tatting brings me and how important it is in my life, for me her stuff today is a very nice memory of her.
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Skytterne, saksen og lommetørklæderne er arvestykker efter en moster som lærte at orkere omkring 1927-1930 og fortsatte med det næsten det meste af livet. Sammen med nogle få bøger og mønstre fra forskellige blade er de i dag et kært minde om hende for mig. Heldigvis nåede hun at opleve, at jeg lærte at orkere og jeg tror hun var stolt af, at jeg havde lært hendes lille håndarbejde.

A pink doily - oh dear

When telling my tatting mate about this I have referred to it as my "pink monster doily". I don't like pink much and never really have, even when I was a little girl I loved red but not pink. So why have I used that colour for this one, you might ask.
First of all I knew it didn't have to be either white or blue, it had to be something else. And I am trying to use some of those threads that have not really worked for me before, like the 5-6 large balls of Cebelia size 30 that a friend bought for me on a sale in Germany some years back.

I don't like this thread I have used for yet another square, not just the colour but also because it breaks easily when I am closing the rings. It is not only a question of my tension which I know is tight, I also think the thread tangles or twists a bit or something when you make the rings and then they sort of lock when you are closing them. And if you really have to pull them to close them properly the thread will break now and then.
So often there's a sort of a gap when the rings have been closed and when I started the chains I had to make sure the first stitches were very tight. It might not be visible but I know it is like that and that is way too much. So I have better find a non-tatter to give this too, so noone will be able to see those things, roflol.
Yes Maureen, I do know you like pink, I am glad someone does then my struggle with this have not been done in vain.
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Jeg har aldrig rigtig brudt mig om farven pink, alligevel har jeg brugt den her fordi det ikke altsammen skal være enten hvidt eller blåt. Og på en eller anden måde skal jeg jo have brugt de 6 store nøgler Cebelia #30 som en veninde en gang købte til mig i Tyskland. Men det har været svært at undgå nogle små mellemrum ved ringenes basis, fordi det er svært at trække ringene ordentligt sammen med denne tråd uden at den knækker. Det er ikke kun fordi jeg orkerer meget fast, det er også fordi tråden ligesom snurrer om sig selv og dermed låser. Godt det er overstået, for det var så hårdt for mit venstre håndled også.