Ice Drops are Little Wonders!

Yup they sure are!

This is the second variation by Lace-Lovin' Librarian.

A pretty white snowflake with a clear Turquoise Glass Glob.

My Hand Dyed Thread in a very slightly variegated pale turquoise blue/green.

With sparkly white colour lined beads.

The Glass Pebble is a gorgeous Turquoise blue green with an AB coating.

It look so pretty in real life.

I have tatted these two in the same colours as the previous variation to let the pattern stand out rather than being influenced by new colours.

Ice Drops getting to be stunning!

Lace- Lovin' Librarian

sent me a great selection of her designs for more complicated Ice Drops.

This was the first that I chose to make.

She gave them names but they are just the colours that she used…I think.

Turquoise clear Glass Glob

Turquoise beads

My hand dyed thread

AB coated Turquoise Glass Glob,

Turquoise beads,

White Coats Mercer thread size 20

Ice Drop a little bit fancier!

Beginning to get the hang of these cute little thingies.

Lets try a few frilly picots.

5 Graduated Picots, my hand dyed thread and a clear Diamante Disc.

Beautiful.

5 Graduated Picots, yellowish AB Glass Glob

and my Rainbow Bright Hand Dyed thread.

Gorgeous.

7 Graduated Picots, clear Diamante Disc

and my Sweet Shop Hand Dyed Thread.

Even prettier, I think.

Getting better every day.

More little Ice Drops!

Oh yeah! Here I go.

Still on the basic simple ones today.

Here they are:-

This Glass Glob is transparent. Yesterdays had an AB type coating.

This one is tatted in my hand dyed thread Coral Reef,

I dyed a big batch of it last year as it's one of my favourites.

Looking around for something else to encapsulate I came across

this Diamante sew on plastic gem. It's a little too small….

I could of course use finer thread or alter the stitch count.

Not quite as globular as the glass ones but it does sparkle.

Easily available and comes in lots of lovely colours.

More to come

Blogging Again

Oh dear, I can see that another whole year has gone by since I wrote a blog post.

A whole lot of water has gone under the bridge.

A new hip.

A whole lot of tatting has been done

Plus so many other crafts.

The question is where do I start

A wise friend

said

START FROM NOW!

So here goes.

I am addicted to Lace-Lovin Librarian's

ICE DROPS

She very kindly sent me her patterns and Tutorial.

Searching for Glass Globs/Gems/Pebbles where I live is almost impossible.

A few come into charity shops.

I have tried Candle shops,Flower shops,Aquarium shops to no avail.

So I have to use what I already have until my internet order arrives.

My First Ice Drop

The tutorial was great.

Oh Yeah! Feargal is HOME!!

Wowee! can you believe it!!

Feargal left for his Grand Tour on March 22nd 2010.

That's almost 6 years of travelling!!

I am announcing his return on St Patricks Day 2016 as it seems like a good day for celebration.

But

actually

he

arrived

home 

just 

in

time

for

CHRISTMAS. 

A big box arrived in the post. It had come from New York in rather a roundabout way stopping for a short respite in Stratford On Avon where I believe Feargal was oh sooh! tired that he flatly refused point blank to hear anything about Shakespeare! and begged why am I here? I just want to go home.....aw!

Inside the box were many goodies and associated

Leprechaun Grand Tour Souveniers and more... just stuff!

More about that another time.

Isn't that a cute little sleeping box? See the lovely piece of Rainbow Bright tattingto make him feel at home?

Well I opened it very carefully and what should I find inside but Feargal and Miss Scarlett fast asleep.

So I let them sleep it off, opening the box to take a peek every now and then.

They slept right through Christmas,

.......right through the New Year,

We went away on a winter holiday and they were still asleep when we got back tho' Feargal did manage a GO AWAY, CAN'T YOU SEE WE ARE TIRED!!

I guess they were jet lagged! double jet lagged!

And so to today.....when I peeped into the box up jumped a wide awake Feargal.

Next thing Feargal was on his way out of the box.....

Miss Scarlett gracefully stepped out and brought out with her a new edition to the Lep family, A little baby Lep sleeping in half a walnut shell. Haven't found out it's name yet??

 

Well it just so happened that I was just sorting through a bag of St Patrick's Day hair ribbons that I have bought for all The Brownies in my Brownie Guide Pack.....

and didn't Feargal spot them in an instant.....and dived in head first.

What was he looking for.......a pot of gold.....fat chance Feargal!!

Then over he rolled and with a look of ecstasy on his face muttered under his breath...

"Oh it's so soft after years in that hard travelling box!

Come on in Miss Scarlett, it's divine."

So she did.

But wait....what's that sitting on Feargal's shoulder???

Mmmm! Methinks a stowaway!

Anyway.......its

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY

from all at LEP HQ

More soon I hope as Feargal tells his story.

How many places did he go to?

Another St Patrick's Day!

Time goes so quickly nowadays.I cant believe that it's the middle of March already.

Time to wish all my friends

A HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY

I wonder how Fergal is celebrating the day, here at Lep HQ we would love to hear from him.

Thomas Brown is wearing his gear again and flying the flag.

I am having a ME day

Have watched the Dublin Parade on TV.

It must be one of the best in the world.

If you get a chance to watch the highlights, maybe on line.....do!

Have tatted some bookmarks I wrote for a class I was giving at my Lace Guild, nothing new there but they do look lovely.

 

Tatting a Pineapple Doiley designed by Camelia Crapo Lambert

 

7 rounds finished,10 to go and it's got to be perfect!

Then it's out to my Dye Studio......yes I am dyeing again!

Haven't dyed since last summer.

Mixing up some GREEN dye,

for  

CORAL REEF 

one of my all time favourite colourways.

So watch this space.

A new colourway to be announced soon.

 

Happy Leprechaun Day!

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY

To ALL my Tatting Friends, some Irish some not so Irish but all very dear to me.

(I would have posted this much earlier but the internet connection went down mid composition!)

Last night my 5 year old grandson....aided and abetted by his mum.....

set a

Leprechaun Trap

Top view......

 ....and inside a trail of coins and trinkets has led to what looks like a crock of gold....and stuff!

(I have brightened these photos as it is very dark and mysterious inside, but hard to see anything!)

......I wonder if they will catch anything.....

 Here at Lep HQ. we were ready with THE SNAKE on watch

and lo and behold he caught an intruder and trapped it in his coils.

 Elsewhere another Leprechaun continues to sit peacefully in the rocking chair. When disturbed all he will say is....

"Hush!

I'm rocking my baby 

and babies don't keep!"

Tho' in his case he has been rocking that baby for years.....maybe only a moment in Leprechaun time.

Tatted Lep and baby were gifts from Carol Amich at the height of Lep Mania. They are just wonderful.

Rock on!

Elsewhere the house is in celebratory mode.

We all hope that Fergal the Roamer is having a great day.....please log into Lep HQ when you have a free moment.

Hello Silver Dawn!

OMG can it really be THREE MONTHS since I last blogged and promised you a new colourway!

So much has happened since then, 

Christmas celebrations... hope you all had a happy one.

New Year celebrations....hope you all will be happy and healthy,

Holiday in the sun.....more about that soon..ish.
Coming home to the worst storms we have ever had.water everywhere, the whole country is still soaking wet .

Looking after gorgeous grandchildren while their mum is away lecturing.

And of course Tatting and Dyeing, working on my TAT Master...and its hard to do it well.

Only one out of twelve completed to my satisfaction.

So back to Silver Dawn.

Imagine if you will very early in the morning just as the sky begins to brighten to pure silver...no hint of blue yet, gradually it becomes tinged with pink giving the sky a slight purplish tinge, which soon turns into a pink flush.

Above the horizon comes a hint of peach, then apricot tinting the pink.

Wow! then suddenly the sun begins to break through on the horizon an the whole scene becomes lit with gold.

Sounds idyllic doesn't it?

Well I am lucky enough to be able to see this happen with nothing to interrupt the  view of the horizon.....if I should get up that early that is......and it was one such morning that took my breath away.....and shouted out SILVER DAWN.....you must dye that!

But

While we were on holiday in UK I was witness to a sky that was even more like I imagined
my
Silver Dawn to be.

So here goes....this is my interpretation of this beautiful sky.

This is how it looks when tatted in my favourite patterns. It's very soft and gentle.

And

Tatted in my favourite pendant pattern.

If you like Silver Dawn you can find it here.

Adding the WOW factor!

So far so good

I LOVE all of my new pendants.

But

I thought....

I need Earrings to match....

well obviously!

I have both of Marilee's Jewellery Books...

Boutique Tatting,

Tatted Jewelry.

Having  uumm...hd and aaaa...hd as to which I should do first....
I settled on Carnival Earrings from Tatted jewelry...listed as a beginners project.
so here goes....
Next pendant in RAINBOW BRIGHT My all time Favourite of My Threads.
The Pendant 

....and the earrings....

This is one of those WOW moments...
I love the way the colours just follow one after the other,just the way that I intended them to.
The red Wonder Bead is gorgeous  too....
....The Set

The pendant need a red Wonder bead in the center, I think.
Lovely to wear.

Remember the pendant that I made in Sweet shop....in the very first of these pendant posts?
Well that colourway got the earring treatment too.
You actually already saw me wearing them on my Birthday Canal Boat trip.

Finally my third favourite thread is Berry Burst...so here goes....

....which also strangely enough goes really well with what I wear....
the silver beads against the dark thread simple glow against my skin.....
.....and with the earrings is just gorgeous....

I used Swarovski Bicones and top drilled Swarovski drops and gosh do they sparkle!
This was the very last of my Berry Burst so you can guess what I am dyeing now!
See you soon with a new colourway I have to show you.