A Weekend With Hyacinth

It's been a lovely weekend! I've been spending it with Hyacinth Bucket (that's "boo-kay", yes, I know it's spelled "b-u-c-k-e-t", but it's "BOO-KAY"!). I just love her Royal Doultan with the handpainted periwinkles and her candlelight suppers! I rather like to think she might like my hand tatted lace doilies with the hand dyed silk threads and special designs! They'd look perfect with her fine bone china!

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Here's a taste of Mrs. Bucket
from the very first part of the
first episode aired. It's the first
of 4 parts of the first episode.
If you want to see the
rest of that particular episode
feel free to click on over to
YouTube and see the rest of them!

I've been catching up on this fun
British Comedy all weekend!

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If this doesn't sounds like I've had an
exciting enough weekend to you, then
I do have some exciting news to share with you!

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I won the Weekly Monday Mondo
prize from Lady ShuttleMaker!

Thank you to my "Tatting Sister" for the
secret prize that I don't know what it is
because it's a SECRET and
congrats to my "Tatting Mumsy" for winning
the beadspinner that I really wanted
(but I'm sure I'll be thrilled with my "secret prize")!

If you'd like a chance to win something she is still
having a giveaway each Monday! Be sure to comment
on the actual giveaway post each Monday and
click on the image below for the rules!

I rather like to think it's the kind of
giveaway that Hyacinth might approve of.
Ha ha!
(actually I think I'd go bonkers if she were my neighbor)

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I am really excited about that giveaway win! I was so hoping I would win one of Lady ShuttleMaker's giveaways! Speaking of ladies, my favorite Royal Doultan fine bone china pattern is Lady Carlyle! It's PINK and it's on sale! Oh, Santaaaaaaaaaa! I've been a very good girl this year!

What is on your Christmas wish list? Do you have a favorite China pattern! Have you entered Lady Shuttlemaker's giveaway yet? Do go over on Monday and enter!

I am so glad you stopped by to visit! I'd offer you coffee or tea with biscuits, but then you'd have to mind the crumbs! ( a little "hyacinthian" humor)

As they say in Merry Old England,

Cheerio!
♥

XOXO

A Pleasant Surprise

A big envelope came in the mail today! I was a bit suprised because I hadn't ordered anything so I wasn't expecting anything! Imagine my surprise when I opened up the envelope to find a gift from Heather who is also known as The Tarnished Tatter!

✿Thank You, Heather! ✿

You see, Heather sent me her new book called "Tatted Earrings and Things". She had asked me some time ago to test tat for her. Somehow I never had time, never had time, and then again...I never had time! She probably thinks I'm the worst test tatter ever, sorry Heather! She had said she would send a book to her test tatters so I completely expected to get nada, nothing, zip, zilcho...

but no!!! Heather kindly and generously not only sent me her new book, she sent me some of her lovely pink HDT called "Pink 4 Link" in size 20!

Let me show you!

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Here is the cover page with the
HDT peeking in from the side of the photo.

I'll bet you can't guess what I did today...
(sheepish grin...the pink hummingbird is a hint)

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I "test tatted" her pattern!
(Yes, I know, this usually happens before the book comes out)

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I will count this as a motif for my 2nd round of
The 25 Motif Challenge!

Motif #16 Hummingbird Pendant

This is her hummingbird pendant in her
size 20 HDT "Pink 4 Link"

What do you think?

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Here's hoping you are having a fabulous weekend! Thank you for the suprise, Heather! It made my day! My tatting budget is a little tight with no new books and goodies it is fun to get a tatting treat in the mail!
I'd love to hear from my bloggy friends so be sure to say hello! Have you had a pleasant surprise lately?

♥

XOXO

A Happy Accident!

In my last blog post I showed some tatted heart motifs done up in Zarina's new HDT colorways.
As I was tatting away I set my thread winder down on the coffee table to take a quick break. It landed right next to a ball of Lizbeth brand thread I happened to have out. I noticed that it seemed to coordinate very nicely quite by accident! It made me happy to see that an HDT all the way from Malaysia went well with a regular ball of thread I can purchase any old time! It was a "Happy Accident"! I then happened to find another ball of Lizbeth thread that went well with one of the other HDT's of Zarina's!

Well, OF COURSE I had to tat them up together!

Let me show you the results of these Happy Accidents!


If you would like to contact Zarina about purchasing her lovely hand dyed threads you can contact her by email at concerningzarina@gmail.com

~*~

This is Zarina's "By the Sea" on the butterfly
thread winder set next to a ball of Lizbeth
thread. It is "Country Turquoise Med" #661.

***
Since I am working on my second round of
The 25 Motif Challenge
I think I'll count these 2 motifs in
as I haven't done them before.
***

I tatted them up together in a design by Mary Konior.
This is called "Mixed Bouquet" from her book
A Pattern Book of Tatting.

Motif #14 Mixed Bouquet

The rings facing outward are all in
"By the Sea" HDT by Zarina.
The rings facing inward and all chains are
tatted with Lizbeth "Country Turquoise Med".

***
The butterfly threadwinders
were a lovely gift from Tattycat
last year! You can read more
about them here
***

The second Happy Accident was with
Zarina's "Pink Rose" thread. Here it is on
the thread winder next to the Lizbeth
brand ball of thread called "Leaf Green Lt" color #683.

I tatted up another design of Mary Konior's
called "Looped Sprig" from the same book.
A Pattern Book of Tatting
is now out of print.

Motif #15 Looped Sprig

All the chains are in the Lizbeth "Leaf Green Lt" and
all rings are in "Pink Rose". Yes, it just so happened
that I lucked out that the "leaf rings" ended up
as the green portion of the "Pink Rose" colorway!

~*~

Happy Accidents are the best kind of accidents! Have you had a happy accident lately?

♥

XOXO

Threads from Malaysia!

When Zarina of Concerning Zarina invited me to test tat her new HDT's last month I jumped at the chance! I was so excited to have the opportunity to try out these new colorways coming all the way from Malaysia!

Let the "show and tell" begin!

~*~

See the stamp and postmark from Malaysia?

See the lovely warm and muted hues?
I thought they had a "vintage" look about them.

The HDT colorways are as follows:

"By the Sea"

"By the Sea" is a hand dyed Flora brand thread.
This one is size 20

***

"Orchid Garden"

"Orchid Garden" is a hand dyed Omega brand thread.
This one is size 50

***

"Pink Rose"

"Pink Rose" is a hand dyed Hakelgarn Brand thread.
This one is size 20.

***

The "Ruffled Heart" pattern
(design by Vicki Clarke) was
used to tat up these lovely HDT's

You may notice the "Ruffled Heart"
being used a lot lately here.
It seems to be the perfect pattern for
a multi-colored thread and is fairly
easy and fast to tat up!

***

Here is "By The Sea"

"Orchid Garden"

"Pink Rose"

I found the Flora and Hakelgarn threads easy to tat

with. All the colorways are warm and seem to
have muted, "Vintage" looking hues about them!
I can honestly say these were the EASIEST
HDT's to unwind! Whatever you're doing to
wind your HDT's, Zarina, keep doing it because
I had no tangles when unwinding these skeins!

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Thanks for stopping by so I could share Zarina's new HDT's with you! I hope you enjoyed my show and tell as much as I enjoyed tatting them up for you! Thank YOU, Zarina, for this wonderful opportunity to try out your new colorways! What a pleasure it was to test tat for you!
I'd love to hear what you think of them too! Be sure to leave a comment before you go off to Zarina's blog to say hello!

If you would like to contact Zarina about purchasing her lovely hand dyed threads you can contact her by email at concerningzarina@gmail.com


♥

XOXO

Swap de Jessica

In the last blog post a sneak peek of a swap was shown.

I promised to do the "Big Reveal" when my swap partner, Jessica of "Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping!" received my swap gift. I'm happy to announce that Jessica did indeed get her package from me and now I can share our swap with you!

You see, in bloggerlandia I have had the good fortune to make blog friends, win a giveaway or two, and do some fun swaps! From all of these packages and cards I have a pile of addresses building up in a shopping bag that is out of control!!! I need somewhere to put all these very special addresses. For some of you, the solution might be to just put them in your computer, but for me I need something more aesthetic than a computer! I need a pretty address book...and not just any address book...a pretty one made with heart! I got just what I wanted in my swap with Jessica!

Jessica wanted some tatting for her fabulous scrapbook projects. I wanted a special address book. Boy, I had no idea that I was in for a real treat!

~*~

Just look at this darling
address book that
Jessica sent me!!!

Look at it! Isn't it cute!?!
It even has T-A-T-T-I-N-G on the cover!

***
Squeeeeeeeal!!!

***

OH my GOODness!
Look at the cute stamped alphabet tabs!

I can't believe she found some tatting to put
on the cover! It's PERFECT!!!

Each page has a different piece of scrapbook paper
adhered to some vintage ledger paper! It's awesome!

The spaces on the right of the address labels are just
the right size for me to put interesting postmarks
from my international friends!

YIPPEE!!!

~*~

Oh, did I say something about a
"Big Reveal" earlier?

I guess I better 'fess up, right?

~*~

Jessica wanted a tatted edging
and some tatted hearts and flowers
for her portion of the swap from me.

Here are some of the round motifs I sent her.

Going clockwise from the top left:
1) "Fleur de Jessica" design by TattingChic
2) Josephine Wreath design by Mary Konior
3) A flower (title unkown-help me out here) design by Mary Maynord Maynard

I am going to count some motifs
tatted for this swap for
my 2nd round of the
25 Motif Challenge!

Motif # 9 Josephine Wreath

The "Josephine Wreath" (Motif No. 9) is from
Mary Konior's book called
A Pattern Book of Tatting.
It is out of print now and hard to find,

but it has some real gems in it.

Motif # 10 Fleur de Jessica

This motif is one I made up or modified
from another pattern.
I called it "Fleur de Jessica" because
Jessica wanted tatted flowers for her scrapbook
project and I couldn't find one I really liked
so I made it up especially for her.

Motif # 11 (title unkown-help me out here)

Here is Mary Maynord's Maynard's design on the
left (motif #11) next to my modified
version, 'Fleur de Jessica" (motif #10). Mary Maynord
Maynard has a book called
"Tatting Rings of Flowers".
It is a book I do not own. I was lucky enough
to happen on this one pattern from the book
so that I could tat the flower on the left.
My modified version is on the right.
If my version is just like one in the book then
that is a coincidence since I have never
actually seen inside Mary's book.

If one of my fellow tatting friends has the book
and knows the name of the flower on the left
please let me know and I'll edit my blog post!

Here's a bunch'a flowers sent to Jessica all together!

***

Motif # 12 Peacock Heart

Here's a motif I haven't shown on this blog before.
It's called Peacock Heart designed by Birgit Phelps.
Jessica requested some tatted hearts as well as
tatted flowers for her part of the swap.

Here's 2 of the "Peacock Heart" motifs shown together
with some "Ruffled Heart" (design by Vicki Clarke)
motifs that were sent. I've shown the
"Ruffled Heart" before.

***

Motif #13 Cloverleaf Edging

Lastly, Jessica also requested a tatted edging.
I picked a cloverleaf edging. I love cloverleaf edgings.
They are so simple that a beginner can do them and
they are so elegant! Who says simple can't be elegant?

An edging similar to this one is found at
The Antique Pattern Library
in the Priscilla Tatting Book pg 5
(which is pg 7 of the scanned pages)

All motifs were done in DMC brand "Cebelia" thread
size 10, color 818 (a very pretty pink). I thought
the "chunky" size 10 would look cute for
Jessica's fabulous scrapbook projects.

~*~

Thanks for stopping by and letting me show you my super fabulous swap with Jessica! It was fun. She is one of the nicest bloggers out there! Stop by her blog post on our swap! She loves buttons and scrapping and swaps! Be sure to say hello here before you run off to Jessica's! I'd love to hear from you!

♥

XOXO