A couple
of years ago, my 'Blue Ribbon' doily didn't live up to its name and
came third at the Castle Hill Show. This year, the 'Blue and White Square'
doily has made it to the top and came first. The doily is now sitting on a round
table next to my rocking chair where I sit on when having a
quiet time to myself. As for the bookmarks, one came second and one received a highly commended tag. I took photo of all prize-winning
tatted pieces for the next newsletter of Tatters' Guild, NSW Branch, due out at the end
of this month. So, here are the pictures of my winning pieces. The
variegated red bookmark is on its way to Russia. Are you reading this,
Boris? It's for you. Cheers.
At the end of last month (February), by chance, I have caught the moment when the visit to my blog reached 2000. When I started writing the blog back in May 2010, with the encouragement from Linda Robertus, every so often, I would be wondering if there would be anybody who would take time to read about what I have written. So, having 2000 visits on the blog has proven to me that, yes, my communication and sharing of my craftwork do reach people in the community. I'm very happy with how it's going and have decided to incorporate my (part-time) machine quilting business into the blog. I have also set up my own domain for the blog; www.mountcolahquilt.com. Mount Colah is where I live. It's about 8 minutes drive north of Hornsby (from the shopping mall), along the Pacific Highway. I provide my machine quilting service to my friends who quilt and other local quilters in Hornsby, Asquith, Mount Colah and surrounding area, and it's slowly taking shape....so far so good. :-)
I really like the purple and teal square doily pattern by Debbie Arnold and would like to make one for myself. It would have taken me a long time to accomplish the task if I didn't have a deadline to work against. So, the deadline for entries to the Castle Hill Show this year comes in handy. I picked blue and white colours for my version of the doily. After 10 hours into tatting the doily, using cotton size 50, I broke a couple of tatted stitches while sewing in the tails. Now, what did I want to do....give up or start again? I would have felt some kind of failure to give up, so have decided to have another go. This time, cotton size 20 was chosen so that I could actually see what I was doing and I could appreciate the stitches better. Rainy days and being sick with flu helped me to sit still longer at one time. A few long sessions of sitting down and a total of 50 more hours later, I have managed to finish the doily. It will be on its way to the Show this week. There was 'trying time' in the process, with having to unpick a few rings and chains when I wasn't fully alert and didn't read the pattern carefully. If some people think unpicking sewing stitches is hard, try unpicking tatted stitches. The former one would seem 'easy peasy lemon squeezy', as my Sunshine often says. :-) I'm, of course,
pleased with the doily. I have also felt that I have had a good share of
tatting split rings for quite some time, from now. So, I will just stick
with tatting rings and chains for my next tatting project....But before embarking on another tatting project, my next immediate task is to find a place for this newly finished doily in my 'spacious' home.!!
