Feargal writes from Zurich!

Feargal sent his first  postcard home! Postie just dropped it into my letter box.

 

Before I got the card, I had been sent lots of reports and photos.

the first message that I got said 

" Finnbarr and Feargal have disappeared. They said something about mates in Zurich and not waiting up ... At least the rain has stopped so they won't get wet!"

 

"The photo of them on the terrace was taken after 1pm - the first I saw either of them all morning. I have no idea what time they staggered in last night!" she said.

That's Finnbarr on the left...I don't think that you have seen him before.

He is reported to be taller than Feargal and with a lot more hair!! They thought that maybe he was Feargal's older brother...but no it's just that kids are getting taller and taller aren't they....he must have eaten better!!

It rained a lot during Feargal's stay so they didn't get to go out much.

Finnbarr made Feargal feel at home and offered to give him a suitcase.....he says that it opens on both sides so can hold tatting!! (he should be so lucky!!)and has a game inside. Feargal was delighted as he had only taken a small bag with him.

Is that cute or what!

Finnbarr is also insisting that Feargal take a Swiss Cowbell with him.....Finnbarr can hardly lift it!

Cute isn't it?

Finnbarr is also reported to be insisting on something else but i think not!

More about that later!

They went out on the town several nights and were pretty miffed when the clocks went forward and they lost an hour.

Here Scarlett has been hearing all about it and came to a decision to fly out and supervise/chaperone Feargal's activities....Feargal is NOT pleased.

The excuse that she gave was that she had forgotten to give Feargal the addresses of his hosts.....so being the good NPDA that she is she put each one in a sealed envelope and like Mary Poppins put them into her bag...and flew off!!

Feargal left Zurich on tuedsay for his next stop...this time he was accompanied by his hosts and Finnbarr so the two of them shared a seat on the flight.

Finnbarr and Feargal should have a ball in********* as neither have been there before. Scarlett hopes to meet them there.

"Finnbarr told Feargal about Scarlett meeting them in ******** and Feargal is now pouting. Much as he'd love for her to join him on his travels his intention was to sow some wild oats. He's not sure he can with Scarlett along for the ride!  If you ask me, this sounds more like something Finnbarr would say, not Feargal. The corrupting influence has begun". She told me.

International Tatting day 2010

I hope that all my wonderful tatting and blogging buddies have a stupendous day and tat their hearts out.

International Tatting Day
1. Eat all the chocolate you desire.
2. Wear a little tatting, and tell everyone you meet about tatting
3. tat only for yourself, only want YOU want to tat, and
4. Remember (or Honor) the tatters who have gone before you and
contributed
so much to our art.

My tatting friends couldn't come round today, so we tattted our hearts out yesterday. We made LadyShuttlemaker's 'Hope' butterfly. I told them about the Holocaust Project and they were very interested.

I tatted another one using Just Daffodils and Flora number 229.....

.....I think it's beautiful.

They brought Chocolate and I gave then Chocolate Bunnies....and we ate hot Hot Cross Buns.

Do you think this will be enough to last me througt the day!!!!

Of Course Tadgh and Nollaig had to get in on the act.They wanted to wish Feargal and ***** and ********a Happy International tatting day

Talking of butterflies ....did you see the amazing one that Step tatted

Go have a look at her blog and read all about it.

It's very special to me as all those 4 ring clovers are tatted in my Flame Lantana....!

There are lots of things going on today in tatland........pop over Tatting Chic's blog for her blogoversary giveaway...you have till Easter Sunday for this one..... a great book is up for grabs!

Then go to Ambitatterous's blog to take part in her giveaway-no fooling.....you should still be just in time today is the deadline.......It's a smashing giveaway for some of her sister's gorgeous lotion and hand made soap....and there is even some Vanilla Sky HDT.

Her sister Igoya's etsy shop is  New Hands Soaps and Lotions.

I have a little secret about this one, I have had a little Amber Romance up my sleeve!

When IsDihara sent me my giveaway win of her beautiful ornament...there was something else lurking in the box...as we had done a trade....my thread for.......

.......I took a peak inside that pretty packaging.....

 

......and there it was, a gift set of Igoya's Amber Romance....

Inside that pretty packaging was....

mmmmmm! hand lotion and handmade soap...a really tricky thing to make.

IsDihara says

  Amber romance is a warm and mildly aphrodisiac scent with black cherry, creme Anglaise, sandalwood, sensual amber and Egyptian musk.

Oh my! my entire study is perfumed from the soap that I haven't opened yet

If you are in any doubt about the quality of this product let me tell you that is superb....you will want to win this or to pop over to her shop to see what she has in store.

What will I be doing today with my silky soft hands!?? I hope to be dyeing Daffodil Dell, my friends liked it so much that they are tatting with all the thread pictured at the bottom of my last post........I dye so little that I have none left for my next project.

I will be tatting Vinnie's Spring Doiley Number 2....I started last night and am half way round. I am using a shuttle and ball but will use two shuttles for my next one to save having to make SLT's and it will look much better. They are spoiling the shape of the curved chains.It looked difficult when I looked at the diagram but spurred on by what others have done...I calmed down and numbered the progression of the rings and chains and hey presto it is easy! reminds me of the progression in Iris Neibach's doileys...using the downward picot that will be joined to later.

Transitions No 2. OYG!

Remember my first post about my Rainbow Bright Transitions. A month and a half ago ROY turned into Flame Lantana and wowed you all. Well it wowed me!!

Finally OYG is finished!(Orange,Yellow,Green).

Just in case you don't remember and haven't looked at my ROY post....this is what it is all about.

Take 3 adjacent colours from Rainbow Bright...exactly as they are....dye a 15 yds skein, tat up a heart and some butterflies......look at it critically.....to see what does it remind me of.......look for photos to inspire me.......and then decide what I should do to make it into a WOW!!

SIMPLE isn't it!!!

Well it's much more fun....and if it isn't fun then I don't do it.....with IsDihara testing and looking up what it reminds her of.....even if I do tend to go with the idea I first thought of!!

So what did my first tatting look like!!

Well I thought that it looked promising..but what did it remind me of??

Our first thoughts were citrus...oranges and lemons....well at least something tropical.

But the green was wrong for citrus leaves. Looking at it I could see that Rainbow Bright Green had drifted and become a blue green..that happens sometimes..I will correct that.

That blue green can also be seen in Rainbow 'Lite' Sweet Shop...but I actually quite like it as the' lite' green looks like mint and is edible!!

After we dismissed Citrus the next thing to explode into my mind was Daffodils...it just shouted Spring at us.....and we needed Spring!!

Off to the internet for us to find Daffodils to see if I was right.....lots of gorgeous images....one of them appealed to me so much that the name of the thread was born.

Daffodil Dell

http://www.pastelwood.co.uk/SMALL_P_GALLERIES/Cheshire/pages/sp044-ep-daffodil%20dell.html

I couldn't get this beautiful image out of my mind, two badgers drinking at a little pond with a host of Daffodils behind them. What could be more idyllic. I also noticed that the foliage was a blue green....Daffodils really are like that.

I also chanced upon this site.....a little village with woods that were named Daffodil Dell. It was even more nostalgic for me as it was very near, less than a dozen miles from where that I lived as a teenager and is where my son will be getting married later this year.

So I set my heart on finding a Daffodil Dell to photograph and to bring it to life in thread.

But Spring was still not Sprung and there was not a Daffodil to be seen.

I had to bring my Daffodils to life from memory...and then go out and see if I was right.

My very favourite ones are those with a orange trumpet...and the Narcissi which have creamy petals and an orange trumpet....in my garden they flower after the main golden Daffodils have finished.

Finally this last week....Daffodils were out in all their glory.

The first one to catch my eye was close to where I live. Gosh..and I only had my camera phone with me.

Last week we went on a trip to Northern Ireland and my passion was to find my Daffodil Dell.....or at least lots of different Daffodils.

Oh there were Daffodils in abundance, I only had eyes for them.....do please excuse my enthusiasm and all these photos.

First there were the dwarf Daffodil/Narcissus Tete á Tete with a long trumpet and backward facing petals, and really tiny.

What could be more perfect for a Daffodil fanatic's Tatting Tea Tuesday than a Cup Of Miniature Daffodils.

 

Then there were the beautiful large creamy petals with a short filly lemon trumpet.....

  

...the large showy golden daffodils with a long trumpet....

Still searching for my imagined Daffodil Dell this was the nearest that I got ....a beautiful woodland planting in a country estate garden.

But what did I spy in there....but the most intense orange Daffodil that I have ever seen....

...golden petals...short frilly trumpet.

Back home my garden was coming to life ...and an orange Daffodil that I had forgotten about...

with a longer trumpet in much more subdued colours. This really shows what I was trying to achieve. You can see the subtle change of colour with the orange getting paler and paler until it blends with the golden yellow.

On the trip we bought miniature Narcissii for the garden....this one is called 'Jetfire'..backward facing petals and a long medium orange trumpet.

This all gives me a much clearer impression of what I want to achieve......a gradation from a rich orange.....lighter until it becomes a golden orange...turning to golden yellow...through to a more buttercup yellow....getting lighter until it blends into a light green and finally a rich dark green.

For my second trial of OYG I used a new pot of dye...a ready made orange to give a bit of zing.....tatted some butterflies and LadyShuttlemaker's Hope butterfly....

...... while it does look nice in the tiny butterflies....I took an immediate dislike to the orange for my masterpiece!!  The green was not what I wanted either. The green in the Hope butterfly for the chains is a Flora mid green.....I really like that, so I decided to make that green for my Daffodil Dell.
What works best for me is to keep the number of basic colours to a minimum and mix all my colours from them...then they are sure to harmonise.
By trial 4 I had exactly what I wanted. IsDihara can tell you how much I agonise about getting it just right.
So ta da...drum roll
here is
Daffodil Dell

Compare it with my original test piece....

....and Daffodil Dell just zings with umph!
When we got home, I potted up my miniature Daffodil/Narcissi purchases into a hedgerow basket of willow...made when that was my one of my passions.
So a good test of Daffodil Dell would be to see how it looks among real Daffodils!

I LOVE IT!!
Warning...this thread is BRIGHT!

One more thing.
It occurred to me that while Daffodil Dell is a stand alone thread....that there may be times when I wanted to put it with a green thread for my chains to represent the foliage.
Therefore I wouldn't want dark green in my varig thread.

So I designed another thread with just the flower colours, it goes through the colours to a very pale lime green so is still OYG!....and is called.....
Just Daffodils.

I tatted Julie Pattersons design in it with Flora Green for the contrast.

I LOVE THIS ONE TOO!

Let's see this one among the Daffodils ....

Last but not least... I tatted Jon Yusoff's Heart 'O Daisies again in Just Daffodils and Flora.

WOW!
Spring is here in Tatskool land!

Oh My Gosh, Oh My Golly!!

Just before we went on our short holiday......the postman brought me a little box.....it turned out to be the surprise of my life!!

If you haven't seen the latest post on Lady ShuttleMaker's blog then you are missing a treat. Her skills never cease to amaze me. Now she is embedding tatting into her clay and making wonderful stuff....not just shuttles.

When I sent  Blathnaid the lady leprechaun to her for Christmas, I also sent her a few extra individual little shamrocks...like I put on the leprechauns belts.....and commissioned her to make a shuttle for me...ceramic...as that is what she did!

Little did I know that she was going to begin adventures with precious metal clay and make me droll over the fabulous shuttles that she would produce.

So inside the little box I expected to find a ceramic shuttle with shamrocks...even tho she hadn't told me that it was ready.....but she had told me that Blathnaid was planning a surprise for St Patrick's day. I expected High Jinks and photos on the web.

Can you imagine my utter surprise to open the box and find that she had sent me a gift of a shuttle, but no ordinary shuttle was this.....it was a silver shuttle.....and no ordinary silver shuttle (if there is such a thing!)....but a silver shuttle with the impression of my very own tatting!

Now how cool is that!!

Here is Blathnaid holding MY shuttle. She looks pretty pleased but not as pleased as I was to receive it.

No that's not tarnish, just the way the light was catching it.

It's unbelievable how you can see all the detail of my tatting.

Wow this is indeed a treasure.

Thank you so much my dear friend.

Feargal touches down!

Feargal landed yesterday at the first stop on his Grand Tour!!!

It was such a relief to know that he is safe.

Where is he????

Visiting his bro' Finnbarr,

in Zurich, Switzerland.

Finnbarr used to live in Dublin with his new mum Suneeti.....but.....

they have moved to Switzerland.

Wow what will he get up to among the Gnomes of Zurich!!

Tadgh and Nollaig have just got home form a visit to Northern Ireland....we will show you if we have time.

I asked them if they missed Feargal....... 

What do you think? 

they both said, in unison,

this is the first time we have ever got to go on a trip!!!

mmmmmmmmmm!

......and he is off!

Fergeal set off on his grand tour this afternoon, 

I guess his flight will be tomorrow. 

He has NO IDEA where he is going....but then neither have you!

Safe landing Fergeal!

Keep in touch....please...

I worry about you.

Feargal drops a bombshell!

I KNEW HE WAS UP TO SOMETHING!!

First things first tho'.

I know you are dying to know which of the ladies  got the job.

Maureen was the only one to take a guess...and she was right!!

It WAS the lady in Red... I had a hunch it would either be her or one of the ladies in Green, knowing his penchant for those colours.

Here he is offering her the job...

Of course the first thing we all want to know is...why did he pick her...was it for..

her typing skills,

proficiency at shorthand,

or even her neat handwriting??

NOPE none of these.

Apparently it was her ability to sit in his chair, get her feet under his desk and be able to work at his desk!! 

He reckoned some of those skirts and petticoats were so stiff that the ladies could never sit down...let alone work!

Apparently he asked her what he name was and she replied that she didn't have a name...aw shucks how awful! so he decided to call, her Scarlett....how sweet...or is it!!

Now you want to know what the job is...so do I,

making lists to start with he says....

......he showed her what he wanted her to do.

But her book looks awfully empty to me....

Nothing to write in it yet!!

So her gave her a tea break...and it wasn't even Tuesday!!

and with cake too!!

He doesn't bake cakes for me!

So what is the list???

We need to know Feargal.

Ok so he breaks down....

.......he has been feeling awfully lonely because every time he gets some more siblings or cousins they emmigrate....typical Irish!

That's why he wanted to keep Tadgh as his apprentice (just an excuse)!

But wouldn't you think that now he has Tadgh and Nollaig that he would be contented....

but nope they have jsut given him an excuse. He says that he wouldn't be leaving me on my own..with no help!

I feel like saying...help! what help! but he is getting a bit weepy and he knows that he can twist me

AND SO

WHAT IS HE UP TO!!

Here is the bombshell..

He has decided to go on a world tour...a grand tour to visit as many of his cousins/siblings whose mums will give him a bed for a week....take him out and show him the sights...and he says...give him a good time.

He wants to travel while he is still young......

(he wants to see Blathnaid again!!)

I warned him of the dangers of travel...he is going by air..can't take a long voyage!

He says that he will take the risk! Fingers will be crossed...for a long time.

So he wants names to go on his list, but he isn't going to plan an itinerary he says...so that he will never know where is is going to be landing next.

He needs Scarlett to manage things and tick off where he has been and has still to go to.

Sorry but he is restricting this tour to visit only other leprechauns....I know so many of you would like to be his host. Maybe next time.

Wow! how long will it take???

For St Patrick's Day, he gave me this...forgot to show you/forgot to wear it!

Can you read it????

How true it is!

So get in those names ASAP.

He says that he intended to leave on January the first, but it was toooo cold! so he postponed to St Patrick's Day...now he is determined to leave before International Tatting Day...

St Patrick's Day!

Leprechauns were spotted cavorting in the Shamrock.

Tadgh managed to locate the only snake left in Ireland after St Patrick banished them and cavorted all round the house on him while Shamrock's fell all around.

Feargal went to Brownies for the very first time last Friday.

Mostly he just sat on the toadstool and watched.

He sat and watched the fun....

....this is my favourite meeting of the year....I loaded up 4 bags from my collection, from my friend in Mississsippi, of all things green. Mostly necklaces but also dubloons, snakes, tankards, pipes and all sorts of novelties thrown from the floats.

They HAVE to jump up and down and shout

'throw me something Mister!' while we hurl them up into the air. I particularly like the sound of the dubloons tinking as they hit the ground.

I used to think that all American parades were like this! are they???

My daughter is in Canada at this very moment so I am dying to know what happens there.

Can you feel the excitement??

No prizes for guessing that the one in the big hat at the back is me! When I arrived with my hat and my neck festooned with necklaces and my green and orange earrings made by my daughter,,,,the other leaders remarked....'understated as usual!!'

Then we have our parade, they begged to let Feargal join in...

...he was in his element.

At the end of the day they have to give it all back so that Brownies next year can enjoy it all over again. But I do give them each a necklace, I have given hundreds away over the last few years. If I stay in Brownies much longer I will need to restock!!

It's a National Holiday today, we were promised the warmest day of the year so far but it's actually overcast and quite chilly with out the record breaking sunshine we have been getting. We will watch the parades all over the world on TV.

Hope you all have a happy happy day. The lads wish all their cousins and siblings a happy day and lots of mischief! He needs to know what you all did! Nollaig is a bit stunned by it all so far.

PS. Feargal has yet to tell me who he appointed as his NPDA!