Motif Mat Complete

I have enjoyed working this piece, and am happy with the result.
I am now trying to decide on my next challenge.

Back on track

It has been a while since I caught up with my blog. So much has been happening in the family, including a wedding and my husband's retirement, and the days just fly by.

I also paused to crochet a granny aquare cape. My friend makes capes to give to the District Nurses to distribute to elderly patients who need a little extra warmth
around the shoulders and back, now that our cooler weather is here.

Although I like to crochet, especially for a cause, my fingers itched for my shuttles, and I have begun a table mat, using Jon Yusoff's square motif. I have done "four along" and now I am on the "three across". Thanks to Jon for sharing this pretty motif. The thread is Altin Basak 50, Shade 316

Petunia Doyley

All of my tatting during December/January was given away, and it was only afterwards that I remembered that I hadn't photographed it. This is my first completed project for 2009. I fell in love with old-fashioned tatting in white and ecru, and although I admire all the lovely things
that are being produced these days, I look at this doiley and think it would have been better in white. Perhaps it is because I haven't the talent for choosing colours. I think it is more that I am a control freak and dislike the fact that where the colour change occurs is out of my control.

Highly Commended

My first Christmas Ball for 2008

Here is my first Christmas Ball for 2008 (the dark blue one) together
with a few from Christmases past.

Ta-da! - Finished!

My large centrepiece is finished at last! I haven't yet done anything about the colour difference in the balls of thread used, but I will get around to it.

It took a long time and gazillions of pins to block it out, and it still isn't 100% right. However in the interest of retaining my equilibrium and poise, and also
the need to get started on my Christmas tatting, I eventually invoked the "man on a galloping horse" rule. I am not sure of the exact wording of that rule, but its
meaning is not to fuss over a detail that will not be apparent to others.

The finished piece is 51cm or 20 inches at the widest point. It was tatted in
60 Coats light ecru cotton from a picture on the net.

A little progress, a little disappointment

I have been working solidly on this table centrepiece for a few months now. I haven't put any pressure on myself, saying that I will finish it when I finish
it, but the aim was to put it in one of the shows - whichever is closest to when
I finish it. So I have been ambling on, enjoying the project, and being satisfied with how it was coming along. I last blocked it out when I did a progress blog.

To work it, I chose to use two balls of light ecru Coats 60 from my late mother's
crochet stash, and I made very sure that the colour number and the dyelot number
was the same on the two balls. Imagine my disappointment when I took it to our regular Neighbourhood House tatting group, when I put it on the white table under a powerful light, to see that where I had run out of thread and commenced tatting with thread from the second ball, that there was a discernable difference.

Taking it out of my bag and working on it during the evening, I hadn't noticed any
difference, indeed in some lights there is no difference, but I wouldn't now submit
it to a show. I really felt like flinging it into the realms of UFO's - so much
work has gone into it, but the group suggested I press on and finish it, then soak it in a coffee solution. I can't imagine how this could have happened. Certainly the thread had been in Mum's stash for a few years, and I have had it for a while, but both balls still had their plastic protective covers so it couldn't be exposure to the air.

That excited impetus has somewhat abated and I am now just plugging on with my eye
on finishing.