No Rose Without a Thorn UPDATE

Rose Doodle by Mary Konior
This past Saturday Tat Land lost a treasured rose. Mary Konior passed away from Alzheimers. So today's post begins with a quiet moment of reflection.

Mary, rest in peace and tat with the angels.

I never met Mary, but own two of her tatting books and refer to them often for inspiration. The volume of responses to the news of her passing shows how well loved and respected Mary was.

Today I settle in with a steaming cup of Pomegranate Rose tea and tat the rose doodle from Mary's wonderful book, Tatting with Visual Patterns. All the while thanking the powers that be for her time spent among us and the vast talent she shared.

After that I will start Queen of Hearts from the same book. While Yarnplayer's Roses is an obvious and lovely HDT choice, I have been saving Tatskool's Chocolate Raspberry for a special heart motif and this one feels just right. Photos will be posted as soon as I complete them.



I leave you with a beautiful song by Francoise Hardy, Mon Amie La Rose. Lovely, lovely song.

And the sensual and moving remake by Natacha Atlas. It is a song I choreographed a veil dance to several years ago and dedicated to my older sister who died from complications related to end-stage Multiple Sclerosis. Lovely, lovely song.

Natacha Atlas - Mon amie la rose
Uploaded by bernie-noel. - Explore more music videos.

If you would like to see the belly dance, let me know and I will ask Big Daddy to format the video for upload.

UPDATE: WED January 20: Rose doodle uploaded. I left the tails visible to show that I padded the stem. It looks good without padding too, I just wanted to try it to see. That said, I have never finished off padded tatting before. How is it done?

Should I just give the padding threads an extra snug, snip them close and cross my fingers that the ends won't show? Your comments and suggestions are welcome!

And with that, I leave you to your tea and tatting.  Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful.

See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Set the WABAC Machine

Crank back the clock to 12/29,
The last Tatting Tea Tuesday of 2009.

A lacing day full of chat,
Yes, there was lots of that.
And of tea and of threads intertwined.

IsDihara & Sw4nkyL4c3r on Tatting Tea Tuesday
Let's turn back time briefly to a lovely afternoon spent in the company of a new tatting friend I will call Sw4nkyL4c3r. She does not have an online identity and gave me permission to make one up for her. Brave lass!

DH (Big Daddy) had the whole week off. He and the Sprout went out for the afternoon, leaving us girls to our gossip, tea and lace appreciation.

Sw4nkyL4c3r and I each picked a fine china cup and saucer from my china cabinet and settled in for a good lace-in while Lady Grey steeped in my favorite teapot.

She met Ciarrán and suggested I write up his arrival adventure for my lace guild's newsletter. (Now why didn't I think of that?) Not only will his tale be published in the guild newsletter, but also submitted to a local newspaper. And so Ciarrán's fame grows!

Handmade Card from Carol Lawecki
Teapot Tuesday Tatting
A quick update on this ongoing project:
Celtic Strawberries have been completed and are ready to send to MotherMark. I have received Carol Lawecki's lovely tatting as well and will be mailing out MotherMark's envelope later this week.

Carol Lawecki's Tatted Samples
Aren't Carol's samples stunning, not to mention her handmade card with the tatted teapot and butterfly?

Cross your fingers that we will see her tatting show up on MotherMark's hand-made cards sometime in 2010. But the very first teapot photo she ever received ended up as Teapot Tuesday card #76! So we'll just have to wait until  inspiration strikes.  It will be worth the wait.

I am working on a Shamrock to send her for a future St. Patrick's Day card.  I will keep you all posted as Teapot Tuesday details become available. Do drop by her blog, it is always an entertaining read!

NOTE: What's a WABAC machine, you ask? Find out.