Once upon a time .....

 

Every good fairytale starts this way, but this is not a fairytale but have turned into a UFO - and perhaps almost into a nightmare. I was looking through my blog and stumbled over this doily which I had completely forgotten.

This was a challenge given to me in 2009, yes almost 5 years ago.......

It looks like I have done almost a round since I last posted a picture of it here, so I have not been totally idle or lazy during my blogging break, but it's been more than a year since I last worked on it.

I have no idea when it will get done because I still think it is cumbersome working with stuff larger that 20 cm i diameter. But I hope it wille be finished one day because I do prefer to finish what I have started.

Design by Jan Stawasz and thread is Flora size 20.

Manuela, Aida and me.

I am back from the Danish-German tatting weekend and what a time we had. When time permits I will write a longer post about it, but right now this is what I will share from the trip.

A year ago - or maybe more - my friend Anna phoned me from a shop in Flensborg asking me if I wanted some balls of Manuela thread which she had found there. And I said yes please do buy me some because I have never tried that thread but heard a lot of good things about it. So she very kindly did that but unfortunately we did not manage to meet untill this weekend and I think that since then she had bought the rest of the stock (140 balls) so we could buy it at this meeting. Not sure how many were left over, lol.
Above are the colours that I bought and I am definitely looking forward to working with this thread, I only tried it a bit during the weekend but it felt like a dream to work with. Pity it is so hard to get for tatting. But for the workshops I used my Aida thread so I would not waste any of my new threads during the 4 workshops we had.

One of the workshops we had included making a celtic motif and that was really a challenge for me. But afterwards we were told that we were supposed to design some sort of outer round or whatever we wanted to develop the center motif. That was another huge challenge to overcome. :-)
To the right is what I was able to do. My celtic center is not right, I made mistakes early on and challenged myself even further, but I learned from it so I guess it is the important thing. The outer round is what I designed and it was not really a struggle to do that because it is just ordinary rings, chains and clovers, the stuff I do best.
Inga asked us to send our patterns to her and she would collect them in a small leaflet which all the participants will get a copy of. I can not wait to see it because there were some awesome designs.

Knots and Contacts

I am away for a weekend of great friendships and tatting. The suitcase is ready and I am catching the train in a couple of hours ready for some "Knots and Contacts".
"Knuder og kontakter" is a Danish-German weekend of tatting taking place near Flensburg in Northern Germany, a first time ever.
There will be 4 workshops but apart from Inga Madsen I am not sure who will teach there. But I am sure it will be great anyhow.
Will also be lovely to see some of my great friends and have some laughs. And maybe make some new friends.
Have a lovely weekend - I know that I will, lol.

Purchases and displays

Last time I said I would show what I bought at the tatday in November and a couple of the things for display there. Looks like I forgot that but better late than never so here we go.

The round doily  is a familiar pattern which can be found in one of the Coats and Clarks books but I also think it can be found in more than one tatting book. I think it was done by Birgitte. Lovely work.
The pink square was one of Lene's designs and the long runner to the right is also one of hers - she still had to do one side though.
I was lucky enough to be able to buy patterns for both which you can see below. Lene was also kind enough to sign my issue of the Christmas
pattern book she did almost 20 years ago and which is one of my treasured books.
To the left are also the patterns for the 2 designs that Lene was teaching for the day, a snowflake and a cane.
I also bought 2 balls of white Aida size 20 because they were availble, LOL.
Adelheid Dangela have published 2 books with tatting patterns for patchwork and I had the first one so I thought I had better get the second one too.
Ages ago - long before I learned to tat - I had bought a grey plastic shuttle with a black bobbin but I have never managed to get it working. Because it was possible to buy one of the newer Aerlit's I thought I would try that one out. It is still a mystery to me though how that shuttle works so I have better stay with my usual Clovers. I wonder if I am the only one not being able to use those bobbin shuttles or are there other tatters out there having the same experience?
In a short while I am attending another tatting event and will be able to get those 8 balls of Manuela thread that my friend Anna have bought for me a year ago, lol. I am looking forward to the event and to try that specific tread because I have heard tatters saying it is a great thread for tatting.
That is all I am going to say about it today, but I will write about the event and the thread as soon as possible.