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.

March 17th and all things Green, White and Orange!

St Patrick was brought to Ireland in 492 as a young slave boy. He lived here for six years working as a shepherd, a very lonely life until he managed to escape. Later in his life he returned to Ireland as a missionary.

He is said to put a curse on all the venomous snakes in Ireland and driven them into the sea where they drowned. A remarkable task as we never had anything venomous. The most dangerous animal we face is the wasp!

Well he didn't get rid of this snake...but he looks harmless enough.



Another Irish tale which may have an element of truth about it, tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He apparently used it to show how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing the shamrock on his feast day, and shamrock green remains the essential colour for today’s festivities and celebrations.

So today I am going to celebrate all things green, white and orange, some in tatting some not!

My favorite shamrocks to tat are these, my favorites being the one with three beads on the long picots and the bunch of shamrocks and beads. A little bunch of shamrock is always worn on St Patrick's Day, it's a small leaved creeping low growing plant.

I am not sure who designed the original with the twisted picots, it is slightly different from the ones I can now find. The beaded one is my own modification..



This piece of shamrock tatting is my reworking of a design in Godey's Lady's Book and magazine Vol 85 August 1872.





Here is a Shamrock type edging for a handkerchief tatted in almost patriotic colours, but definitely spring like.
I rarely tat handkerchief edgings after a lifetime of tatting white ones in my early tat days. But a couple of years ago I bought way too many beautiful hand embroidered hankerchiefs in Madiera. each one I saw was nicer than the others and I thought they would look so beautiful with modern, colour matched tatted edgings. Well this is the only one finished so far. The pattern is by Judith Connors in Contemporary Tatting.



This is my favorite card to make for friends. Using simple shamrocks is a great card for a beginner to make...see my website for instructions.



Nothing is more emotive of Ireland than the Leprechaun and so this is what I have been making to send as my trademark in exchanges and to special tatting friends. I wish I could send one to every tatting friend....well maybe next year!! I learned to make them at an International Girl Guide camp in a field next to Blarney Castle to celebrate Cork 800 in 1985! Lots of Guides and Girl Scouts from all over the world.I remember it as if it were today.
800 years as a city ..wow.

I was trying to think of something hand made and Irish to send for my Christmas exchange...not the usual tacky stuff in the gift shops and suddenly remembered this little fella. He didn't look half as cute as these guys do tho.

Two went to America for Christmas, one to Pennsylvania and another to Mississippi.
I hear that one just made it to New York for a certain somebody's birthday and another is winging it's way to......!
So that only leaves two, must make some more.

Here they are in various stages of completion.



And here nearly ready to go.



They're a jolly lot and infinitely poseable







Now to some silly stuff, things my daughter and I made over the years. Oh those were the days, such fun we had...well we still do.She still loves to make things and is way, way more talented and original than I will ever be.

Earrings in enamelled copper from my enamelling days. Oh and a green lizard..also enamelled copper...well he is green.






More earrings made for me by my daughter from beads and fancy pipe cleaners and yes I do wear them...my Brownies love them.



More things we made with Brownies, a cute snake brooch for them to wear, more pipe cleaners.



Finally another leprechaun that I made with Brownies. More of an elf I think as he looks like a working shoemaker with his leather apron. What would we do without pipe cleaners and wool.



Of course geckos are often green!!! There are going to be more to show but better leave them till later...and I have started dying my own thread as i can't get enough greens!! Marilee and sherry what have you started!!

P.S. I have been asked what the difference is between a Leprechaun and an Elf, so here is my take on it.

1. A Leprechaun is native only to Ireland and should have been born here, they often travel a lot tho' and can be found all over the world nowadays..especially hand made ones!! Beware of phoney leprechauns.
Elves on the other hand are endemic to many countries.

2. Elves are hard working and are often shoemakers, work diligently for Father Christmas or can be found in Brownie Guide packs.
Leprechauns have never been know to do physical work (correct me if you know one that does, I may be wrong about this). Their mission in life is to bring good luck to those who meet them...can't say own them as you never really own a leprechaun...a bit like a cat really.

3. Leprechauns have a wicked sense of humour and are often very mischievous...they get up to all sorts of shanagings......don't know much about elves in this respect.