Progress

 

The long weekend was more sociable than I expected, so I haven't made much progress on the food net. I have finished knitting a pair of socks though, and started on another pair. 

Magnolia And Two More Ladies

 

Picotsnkeys suggested that I pair magnolia flowers with Martha Ess's crinolene belle on a food net. I knew I had a pattern for a magnolia flower in my tatting file and, after a bit of a search, I managed to find it. The pattern is Tatted magnolia bloom by Nancy Tracy of Be-stitched.com. It's three dimensional, but I think that it could still work on a food net. 

When I finished the turquoise belle, I realised that she was facing the 'wrong' way. So I made the apricot lady to match.  In case you didn't see my previous post, the pattern is Miss Caroline, the Crinolene Belle, by Martha Ess. 

The Sun Is Shining

 

The sun came out last week, so I was able to wash and dye the wool I'd spun. I've knitted one pair of socks in natural. The pink and green was dyed in the microwave. I'll make a start on knitting this it this evening, after I've finished off another tatted crinolene lady. 

Miss Caroline

 

When I was looking through my tatting files for butterfly patterns, I came across Martha Ess's pattern 'Miss Caroline, the Crinolene Belle'. I thought she would make a good candidate for food covers. I have used her before for milk jug covers, but not food nets. My plan is to make a lady for each corner and then tat something else for the middle. Perhaps a different crinolene lady, there are several of them about. 

I was rather generous when I wound the thread for the first lady, so I made daisy picot daisies to empty the shuttles. You can see that my second attempt I was closer to the mark of thread needed. 

Butterflies And Daisies

 

I've finished the food net. I've dawdled a bit because there isn't a deadline. I've written about the butterflies here.  Did you spot that I used Jane Eborall's SCMR butterfly too? I must have one or two of them! 

Sorting Out A Muddle

 For the last few weeks, we've been sewing at our craft group meetings in a retirement home. First we made felt dolls. I showed the sample here. There's a wide range of abilities in the group, so some people work more quickly than others. Those that finished their dolls first made a bed for them. The plan is to give the dolls to a children's hospital, so I thought children in bed might like to have a bed for their doll.

 On Friday we sewed felt Easter egg pockets. They have a 'window' of net that shows off the Easter eggs inside. Everyone went home with a couple of eggs in their pocket.

Someone else will be running this week's meeting, making Easter cards - no sewing. So I thought it would be a good idea to sort out our sewing supplies. There were scissors in the biscuit box, patterns in the ribbon box, needles stuck in random bits of felt... You get the picture. It took me a couple of hours, but now everything is ship shape. And, I solved The Mystery Of The Disappearing Needles. I retrieved no less that twenty needles from the inside of my big pincushion! 

Butterflies

 

I've tatted a few butterflies for my food net. The one on the left is Butterfly with daisy picots by Jennifer Williams. The middle one is called Together we fly butterfly. It's a collaboration between Claudia Huber and muskaan, to create a pattern for a butterfly by an unknown designer. The right hand one is Mary's butterfly by Maria Pop of maryshandmade.blogspot.com. I made a mistake on the red one, so I tatted another one. It's a one shuttle pattern.  I had all the patterns printed out, but I think you could find them online with a bit of help from Google or Pinterest.