Wedding Stuff. Part 7. THE BRIDE!

Isn't this what you have all been waiting for

The star of the show!

Well

I can tell you for starters

that this one is a little madam!

I think it must be the eBay training....they teach them to know what they are worth and to look confident!

From the minute that she came out of the box, she has know exactly what she wanted.

She informed me that this was a designer wedding dress!

but

that it needed some exquisite lace to turn it into a dress to die for..

and

was I up to it!!

I asked her "who do you think you are"

and

she told me...

"I am Groom Bear's Little Princess.....

and I deserve the best!"

So, she gave me a list...

.......first of the things that she didn't want, like all that much....

1.I hate pink, especially when teamed with that yellow and blue!

2. The dress is far too plain, just is not classy!

3.I am really a simple bear!!! so no frilling up my veil!

4. No artificial flowers!

....and what she wants would like.....pretty please!....

1. A bouquet of specially imported Red Roses.....for my love for Groom Bear!

2. An exquisite edging for the train of my dress.....the finest tatting with silver beads if possible....lots of them!

3. A designer necklace!

4. Some shoes!

5.Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue! 

6. A Ring Pillow!

7. A Wedding Hankie!

Number 4 puzzled me as Bride Bears don't normally wear shoes.....

she confessed that she had stood on her tippy toes when she was being measured for the dress and thus it was actually too long!

I know the feeling BB...when does anything ever fit!

She said that the train was trailing on the floor and looked crumpled...and would be even worse when it gets the exquisite edging!

I guess that list is pretty much like most Brides want.

She will show herself tomorrow!

Wedding Stuff. Part 6 The Groom!

This has been the most fun for me.

I have to take you back to my daughter's wedding again.

I was taken by a pair of wedding bears....I LOVE BEARS!

So I thought it would be nice to customize them in the wedding colours.

The Groom Bear got a burgundy hatband and feather, Swarovski crystal burgundy buttons and a burgundy flower. He kept his grey suit as the real groom was to wear grey tails. the waistcoat colour looked good and I didn't know what was to be worn.

The Bride Bear swapped her bouquet for cream and burgundy roses and a burgundy ribbon, and a headdress of the same roses and ribbon. Her dress has a medallion of dimpled ring hearts like on the ring pillow, and her waistband was a cream ribbon. Her veil was scattered with little tatted flowers with bling crystals in their centers. Her veil was edged very simply.
They were gorgeous!

I was itching to do this again for my son's wedding but despite searching the shops I couldn't find the bears again...they must have been discontinued.
I was disappointed.

Suddenly it hit me
eBay
and lo and behold there was a pair of bears for the taking, was this fate?
Oh the agony of bidding!
Yipee! I won them.
So let's take a look at the Groom...

Apart from his hat being perched rather perilously on his head he looks very smart.

This time the real groom will be wearing black top hat and tails so this was a bit more of a challenge.
I haven't been near a pot of dye in a couple of months...but this should be easy...shouldn't it.
Took all the stuffing and card out of his hat and had to take his outfit to pieces as the shirt and waistcoat were attached to the jacket and so were the cuffs. Stitched the sleeves back on with white thread. so they wouldn't fray .....well it's all going to be black isn't it!!
Into the black dye they went.....
......imagine my surprise the next day when the black due washed clean out......
of the grey satin collar and lining....and the grey and white thread!!

Of course I should have realised that a cotton dye doesn't dye polyester!!!
A second dyeing produced a richer back....his hat band went a deep blue!

The groom will be wearing a champagne waitscoat and a teal cravat and hankie made by his mother in law to be.....
so
I made Groom Bear a waistcoat from the raw silk I had for the Ring Pillow and a teal ribbon cravat.Stitched it all back together in black thread this time
Matching buttons of Swarovski crystals, teal hatband and a red rose and he is ready.

Doesn't he look such a toff!!
 Every time I look at him I see my son!
Doesn't the contrasting collar and lining and stitching look great.

A great comment came in about the last post..saying that the Leps will be wanting to be a part of the wedding party!
Well didn't I catch Tadgh sprucing up Groom bear. Decided that he would be his personal dresser for the wedding. Can you see what the little blighter slipped into the waistcoat??
Tadgh said that there had to be Irishness there! and that  Groom Bear would need a bit of good luck!!

Wedding Stuff. Part 5d! Bookmark Marathon!

It has been like running a marathon

but I won!

I received another envelope of hearts....thanks a million Suneeti...that did help a lot.

So I knew what was left to do....of course I did get carried away...as usual!

I kept coming across Treble Clefs and Hearts in unexpected places and finally thought what the heck, I will tat 'till I drop!!

That should probably have read 'till my fingers drop off.

I can speed tat and these hearts I can do in my sleep!

Found that I could tat one heart in about 20 mins, that's if I breathe at the same time!!
and could tat 11 (5.5 pairs!)in an evenings TV watching.....jeepers that 3 hrs 40 mins!!

I must have clocked up an extra 25 pairs...and then my fingers fell off! ouch.

94 bookmarks

the 4 at the bottom are for ME!

They are a motley assortment, of colours and shapes and sizes......but then so are wedding guests.

I think every one is a winner, thank you so much my tatting gnomes, I couldn't have done it without you....or the designers Jane and Sherry for their inspiration, .

Even the glueing and sleeving took days.

But now I can concentrate on my fun project.

Pause for a birthday and a party!

Not related tho!

Daughter's birthday yesterday, this is the card I made for her.....3D Decoupage.

She texted...."Took my son for an ice cream",
First time I have heard her call him that. he is 21 months now.

Sent a tingle down my spine.

The party......my summer tat party......tat, talk, tat then eat.....preferably outside. Showed them all the things that I have made for the wedding and they advised on alterations to my outfit.

The new display stand for my little trees is finished at last and it's like little friends have returned to their home.....more about this after the wedding when I promise you a blow by blow account....If you think you can stand it.

The whole area in front of the stand has been 'done up' and it's BEAUTIFUL.

I set up a table and chairs there with the umbrella into the washing line hole and WOW.

Then it started to drizzle.... I had booked this good weather weeks ago so finally the weatherman remembered and the sun shone fit to crack the stones.

How I love my party with my tatting friends ..they are the best.

Wish you all could have come....they brought such goodies.The house elf made yummy Broccoli and Stilton soup. Someone even brought a mackerel smoker to have hot smoked mackerel.....but it didn't work. Well can't have everything.

I am on cloud nine.....

Have to get back to earth and concentrate on the last lap....getting to the fun stuff!

Wedding Stuff. Part 5c.....Today's job!

 Thanks to everyone who commented what a great idea this was....and how nice it was to have participation from other tatters.

It's like a big warm hug to have such friends out there.

Today

was the time to lay them all out and see how many I have.

At the top are the finished ones ready for the plastic sleeves, in piles of 10.

Next row are in process of glueing, hearts are on and waiting to have the Treble Clef glued on.

Then I come down to a few more recently arrived hearts to glue on as well.

Finally...horror of horrors 15 bookmarks with no hearts

oops! 

that's bad!

Next to them are a pile of Treble Clefs to spare,

that's good!

as I want to make some extras.

So it's back to tatting hearts....while waiting for the dentist for a start!

I will knock off 15 pairs and more...easy peasy....I do have 2 weeks left....almost!

and I will be able to make hearts to match the new treble clefs in the 'gone wrong' Turquoise Teal...which is gorgeous.

Byee, must get on!

Wedding stuff. Part 5b

Did you guess what I was making???????????????
Well
My DIL to be sorted out what she wanted to be given to all the wedding guests as 'favours'....and so I was most surprised when my son asked me....

Would I make bookmarks like I did for his sisters wedding?

Wowee! he likes his mother's tatting so much .

Well it seems that flattery will get him anywhere!

What would you have said!!!

OK so let's go back in time 4 years to her wedding time.

My very good friend Jane Eborall had told me that she had made intertwined hearts for her daughter's wedding and sent me her design...and even offered to help me make them. (Which she did!)
What more can you ask of a friend.

An unbelievable number of hearts later and a lot of printing, stamping, cutting and glueing and I had about 130 beautiful bookmarks made and put into plastic sleeves.

They even did double duty as place cards as I had the names printed sideways on the reverse. 

Cool or what!
I was so proud of these.

Her theme was Burgundy and Fuchsias.
It was a good job that I had made extras to keep as after the meal her day andIi got up for a photo shoot....when we got back our bookmarks and wedding souvenir CD's had been cleared away and put into the bin! and were never seen again.

This time the theme is Teal and Music.

80 + bookmarks to make

what have I let myself in for!

First job was to dye some thread to match the colour of the Bridesmaid's dresses.

Being a thread dyer of course I wanted a variegated thread.

It took oh! so many trails, I had to keep going darker, darker, bluer, greener!!

I had a tiny tiny piece of material to match...a very dark teal blue.

Finally I arrived at two threads that I really liked...a green teal and a blue teal. Neither of which were like the sample of material.....but this wedding is going to have a lot of dfferent teals anyway.

What the heck I thought, the bookmarks don't have to be all the same!

This is a 'Hope' butterfly by Sherry Pence in my teal green that I never showed you. It's one of my favourites.

These are the two threads and my favourite Hearts Desire by Susan Fuller.

Impossible to show you the true colours.

I did end up with a third variation ...a beautiful Turquoise Teal...when the green washed right out of the thread I had had the dye made up so long with all the trials!!

I was so taken aback....beautiful but unrepeatable...easily that is.

I had offers to tat hearts for me from Suneeti and Isdihara and they worked like trojans.

We tatted over 170 hearts between us.

The next thing to think about was what to put at the bottom of the bookmark with a music theme.

I was just about to buy a music rubber stamp when Sherry Pence showed her Treble Clef design.

Woopeee! How cool....

BUT

I didn't really think that I would have time or the stamina! to tat 80+ treble clefs....

My trojan tatters rose to the challenge and were joined by Fox and my tat lassies here.....

and so a sample was sent to the bride...

and she liked it!

During our tatting, one of my friends came up with a modified version using chains instead of the folded ring. We couldn't decide if the chain should run down the back of the clef or in front so we I ended up with a huge variety of clefs using Sherry's original and Jackie's version.

I hope that Sherry doesn't mind us modifying her design.... I really don't like messing with someone else's design.

Tomorrow....I really can't put it off any longer I must see if I have enough!!
See you then!

Wedding Stuff Part 5...Another project!

This is a biggy that I have been working on for months, together with my little team of helpers!

Little tatting gromes, tatting away in their homes!

I have two weeks left to get this finished.

Here is what I have still to put together....

Better get working on that tomorrow!

Wedding takes a back seat....news of Feargal!

Wedding preparations came to a dramatic halt when I got a message telling me to go straight to the Leprechaun's Blog for important news!
(You can always find a link to the Leps blog in my side bar. )

What could it be.......followers of Feargal's World Tour must have been wondering what had happened to the little fella!

Well it seems that our intrepid World Tourer overdid it a bit......way too much partying and late nights took their toll on our little fella......that and skateboarding into the early hours so that he could compete with his rivals....no one told him to take it easy.

Well Miss Scarlett did but he wouldn't listen.....and so he was ordered complete rest for a couple of weeks before he was allowed to continue his tour.  Miss Scarlett fussed over him as you knew she would.

SO

Completely recovered he went on his way, another flight another day.

AND

He has landed safely in

ALABAMA

at the home of the fearless Oisín.

This is what Oisín's mom had to say....in fantastic rhyme

Twas the day before Feargal

One day this week, I walked down the drive,

to see if the post had per chance arrived.

I was checking the traffic with not a little fear,

when two wee voices reached my ear.

I looked in the mail box and what should appear,

but an envelope screaming "we're in here, we're in here!

We can hardly breathe and it's terribly hot,

wherever we were headed, this can't be the spot."

I'd heard a rumour of a Leprechaun travelling 'round,

so I suspected the source of this indignant sound.

I tore open the envelope with excitement and trepidation.

Would it bring happiness or cause a sensation?

Inside was a box that said "open here" on the end,

I did so and out popped dear Feargal and his friend!

Gasping for breath and bent at the knees, he said

"This is Miss Scarlett. She is travelling with me.

My name is Feargal, my mum sent me on tour.

She said I'd find Oisín my cousin, behind your door."

"We are most glad to see you", he said wiping his brow,

but I just can't talk any more right now.

Could you bring us a cold one and let us sit for a spell?

We have lots and lots  of stories to tell."

I brought them inside with their travelling gear,

and whispered "Be quiet" in Feargal's ear.

"Our Isaac is asleep and you'll have no cooling down,

if he finds another Lep has come to town.

He'll be up soon, as will Oisín.

Let's get you both cooled off and you will be ready for them.

I didn't give them a cold one, which might seem mean,

but a Lep drinking alcohol isn't a good thing.

We had some iced tea with lemon and a sprig.

I thought Miss Scarlett was going to dance a jig.

We got them settled and went through their treasures.

So many things of beauty it was hard to give measure.

Treasures from his mum and souvenirs to take back,

the box is getting heavy. It is packed, packed, packed!

By this time my boys were coming awake,

and I wondered how long the discovery would take.

Not long at all, as luck would have it.

the Leps danced with glee and Isaac had a fit!

Oisín introduced Isaac to his visitors with glee.

They were all so intrigued no one even noticed me.

Isaac is having some trouble with Feargal's name,

but he'll get it just the same.

"Miss Scarlett" rolls off his tongue and send me to giggles.

(I don't think he learned that accent from watching "The Wiggles".)

I settled them down with some cookies and cold milk.

Miss Scarlett said it tasted like silk.

Then up from the table for fun and games.

My living room will never be the same.

I am not sure who is busier, 2 Leps or a boy,

but they rode every car and played with each toy.

They told stories and laughed until Isaac's mum arrived,

and then trouble started like a working beehive.

You see Isaac was 'reluctant' to leave the celebrations,

but knew that his mum would hear no protestation.

He tried with his granddaddy  and he tried with me,

but we never interfere with mum, no indeed!

Isaac went home and Miss Scarlett said "Goodnight ",

The Leps stayed up talkig until first light.

They had lots to catch up on and questions to ask.

Granddaddy finally had to take them to task.

"Now you have stayed up all night and a new day is here,

Isaac will be back and you are not ready - it is clear.

You'd better nap quickly and catch a few winks.

Our boy will be ready to work out the kinks."

They had barely dropped off when what did appear,

but Isaac and his mum, "I'm here,"I'm here.

Where are my lep friends and where is Miss Scarlett?

I want to play, let's get started!"

Thus the first day of Feargal  and Scarlett's visit, but it's not over yet, now is it!

Isn't that so cool, can't wait till the photos start rolling in.

 

Wedding Stuff Part 4.The Invitation!

This time last year we were staying with son and DIL to be....avid readers with long term memory (anybody out there??) will remember that we went to help sonny boy build a deck.

What you don't know is what DIL to be and I got up to!

Well! we didn't waste our time while the lads were busy in the summer sun!

Sun HUH!

We are now still having our typical July weather.... that is rain, rain and more rain, coupled with wind and temperatures of 16degC....that's about 66 deg F. 

It's 21deg C where they live in UK today......it's just not fair!!

It's the North Atlantic Drift that affects us....but then we do have lovely green grass!!

OK back to last year.

DIL to be wanted to make her invitations and had asked me for some ideas.

I would have liked to put tatting on all of the cards but that's just not realistic!

Last year our nephew's invites had a strip of bobbin lace which looked real to me...especially as his sister could have made them.

So I looked for some pretty lace...and found some lengths of machine made lace in a chunky cotton which looks a lot like bobbin lace to me.....so made up some sample cards.

DIL to be liked them a lot, so off we went to SHOP!

She had never made a card before but she threw herself into the task 100%, and we came back armed with card blanks, pretty pearlised paper, paper cutter, a fancy punch, some metallic embroidery thread and lots of peel offs and some bling....oh and some spray adhesive.

I must add that of course this all took more than one shopping expedition, we even had to go to The Lowry Center....near Manchester.

As well as the outlet mall, also on the quays is the Lowry Gallery with a superb exhibition of the paintings of L.S Lowry.

Back at base we soon had a bunch of cards made up to her liking.

 Let's take a closer look...

The theme of the wedding is teal....for the bridesmaids dresses and music (and lace of course!).

I did the lace which is frayed at the ends and threaded with teal metallic thread...while she did the paper cutting and punching.

We attached the lace to the card with spray adhesive which worked really well.

A heart peel off,a gemstone and a Wedding Invitation peel off and we were almost there.

She finished them off later with a double insert. First of more pearlised teal paper, and inside that a smaller sheet of white paper with the written stuff!

They looked very classy.

Her mum is making the place cards and the table names an seating chart all in marching teal....should look stunning. the tables are all to named after composers.

Her mum has also made the teal cravats and hankies for the lads, so she hasn't been idle either!!

Wedding Stuff Part 3b, Hankies and mum!

I  learned to tat in he late 1950's from a friend in school. She tells me that we were allowed to tat in our home economics class. I don't remember that, if fact I didn't even remember that she was the one who taught us.

I always had it in my mind that it must of been another of my friends....the real crafty one....I remember to my shame that she gave me a birthday present of two little tubes covered in linen with embroidery on the outside.

I was not impressed...I think I asked her what they were for!

They were meant to be for keeping hair grips in....I think.

I much preferred what my other friends gave, pretty notelets and teen age stuff.....oh how awful of me.

Now I would be so grateful that she took the trouble to make something especially for me.

What I do remember is coming home and telling mum that a friend was going to teach me to tat.

Imagine my surprise when she said that she thought she had a shuttle in her work box.

She never saw her mother use it so we can only assume that it must have been her grandmother...my great grandmother.

She found it and I can now identify it as hard rubber/vulcanite. It doesn't have the Novelty Rubber Company initials on it and I would imagine that it is British  made in the early 1900's.

I can tell that it is rubber as I get the smell of rubber when I rub it briskly.

This was my only shuttle for years and years, until probably the 1970's when I discovered Aero and Milward shuttles.

My mum????

She soon wanted to learn to tat too. People always assumed when they saw us tatting that she had taught me...but not so.

The funny thing was that she had to go out and buy a shuttle to use.

It was this little pink plastic one....

She tatted regularly or the next 40 years.

During that lifetime she only ever possessed three shuttles.

She only ever tatted edgings.

She never as far as I remember tatted
 a chain...I can't find evidence of a chain.

She never tatted with more that the one shuttle and she never tatted a motif.

She knew exactly what she liked to tat and edged endless hankies...which she used...they would go into the washing machine every week.

Sometimes she would tat an edging for a table cloth, or a tray cloth that she had embroidered.

She was still tatting at 89 when she died some 12 years ago. It kept her fingers supple and her mind occupied.

I have her little paper bag that she kept her tatting in,with her shuttles and the tatting that she was working on.

I have given away some of her hankies to special people and have about 12 left...some that she used so often they have holes in the material...but the tatting is perfect.

She really only did two different edgings, variations of the hens and chicks, and tatted in size 60 so good were her eyes.

My two favourite heirloom hankies of hers are...

I prefer the tatting in the second one, it has more definition.

I don't know where she got these hankies from they are heirloom quality.

Not only do we get beautiful hand embroidery...

...but also Drawn Thread Work and fancy filling stitches in he rectangular panel.

So 

What

has

this

all 

got 

to

do

with 

the 

wedding??

Well having given a hankie to daughter,

I thought that it would be nice to give one to daughter in law to be.  To have my son's grandmother represented at the wedding.

He will like that, hope she will too.

I chose one that fulfilled the something old, (made about 15-20 years ago), something new (it is) and something blue.....and this one filled the bill.

Maybe she is sentimental too!

I bet mum taught the angels how to tat!

Wedding Stuff Part 3.The Finished Hankie!

Oh my, Oh my!

Can you imagine how difficult it is to give this away !!

Do please excuse the number of photos I am going to show you!!

I can't believe how beautiful this is.

Just the embroidery on the hankie is stunning enough....

Madeiran hand embroidery is some of the best in the world.

This reminds me so much of the embroidery that was done in Ireland at the time of the famine.

Remember this post?

WOWEEE!

Did I really do that

I sure hope she likes it

It's an heirloom!

Let's talk more about hankies next time.

Wedding Stuff Part 2.The Hankie!

The Wedding Hankie

Played around with several different edgings.

This one is Lyn Morton's Pansy Edging from her book Tatting Patterns.

This is tatted in Coats Floretta 20 ( a bit smaller than Coats Mercer 20) in lavender and lime green.

This one tatting only the rings in the lime green....and joining the chains together...gives a stiffer edging....not sure which I like best. Very pretty tho'.
Looked at lots of others but kept coming back to this one.

So would it look as good in one colour....

Looking good but not as dramatic.

Now let's look at thread size....

I tend to find that 80 looks a bit stiff, not soft and gentle.....as well as taking a lot more work so decided that 40 was fine enough.

This is what it looks like at the moment....

The hankie is a beautiful hand embroidered one bought in Madeira just a few years ago. I bought so many as they were so gorgeous...I was very optimistic about my desire to tat edgings. This is only my third from my stock!

44 repeats of the design, only a few to go....should be finished in a couple of days.....fingers crossed!

Here is the wedding hankie that I did for my daughter.....the hand embroidered hankies from Madeira are exquisite.

and the other one that I did for myself.

Wedding Stuff Part 1.The Ring Pillow!

My Son is getting married in just under a months time......no I am not panicking ....YET! 

As I write the rain is still coming down in torrents so no more excuses.

Just trying to get things finished one by one.

The Ring Pillow first.

The material is ivory wild silk....the tatting is in Floretta 20 with pearls taken off an old jumper..that's the old bit!

The tatting design is from Emma Crew's 34 Hearts...sorry couldn't find a link to the pattern.

Here are a few close up's..

My tatting friend Marjorie did the machine embroidery for me.

The theme of the wedding is music as you can see.

It's pretty similar to the one that I did when my daughter got married, here is a link to that one....

why change a winning formula!! The edging helps to give the pillow stiffness.

This time her son, my little grandson who will be 21 months old is going to be the Ring Bearer.....with a little help from his mum!