Gina's Tequila Sunrise

I was very touched by the response to my post renaming Flame Lantana for Gina.
Something that I always intended to do.

Thank you so much, I think she would like it.

It was interesting how many of you had never seen a Tequila Sunrise up close....me included

so I looked it up.

Here is a link to a recipe,

The photo is gorgeous

It's normally made in a tall glass but Wikepedia shows it in a highball glass, 

photo by Evan Swigart.

Wow aren't they stunning!

I never thought it would look that good!

The tequila is mixed with orange juice over ice and the trick is to pour the Grenadine syrup down the inside of the glass so that it sinks to the bottom without mixing, poring over a spoon is said to help.

Wow must go and see if we have any Grenadine syrup left....dates back to our Pacific island days, I remember hating the stuff but the kids loved it. maybe I should change my mind!

Well done Gina, you were spot on.

I forgot to put in the link to my original post about Flame Lantana, here it is ....

Just read Gina's comment on that post, before she had the actual thread in her hands...

Makes me think of fireworks! I like lantana too, we just don't have much of it around here so it wouldn't be my 1st thought. I like bright colors.

So now I know that she did like bright colours.

I got as far as testing a skein today to see if the colours are right.

 Dont hold your breath this is a slow, slow process.

If you have any questions about this thread please email me.

Please know that this is just my memory of Gina.

Essence of Gina.

There has been a lot of suggestions that it would be good to dye a thread in honour of Gina.

I wish I could mix a brew that would remind me of Gina every time I looked at it

So what was essence of Gina to me?

Life wasn't always easy for her and often she got a raw deal.

But she seemed to pick herself up and just get on with it.

Her blog was always so interesting to read, she ha a natural gift for communication.

Her metaphysical blog showed the much more thoughtful, unsure side of her.

But to me she was a ray of sunshine when she landed in my inbox. there was always something to make me smile. she ended all her emails with a smile

:-) Gina

Sometimes it would be a funny story or picture or a beautiful Powerpoint presentation of photos and music and sometimes it was just to chat.

Can I distill my essence of Gina?

Well I think I already have!

 Way back in 2010 I sent Gina a sample of my new thread Flame Lantana.

The second thread in my Rainbow Transitions series.

she broke her blogging sabbatical to write a post.

This is what she said-:

I got a Lantana sample from Tatskool and I think it's misnamed

I think it looks like a tequila sunrise!

watch the video clip of 'Tequila makes her clothes fall off!'

it will make you smile too.

So....uh...be careful when you tat with this thread. she said!

She obviously knew far too much about Tequila Sunrise and what it can do!!

I must admit  that I have never seen a Tequila Sunrise before, she is spot on with the colour.

This is what she got

.......this is what she tatted.......

and

.........and this is what she said....

"I was VERY surprised at the way it tatted up.  On the card, the colors look so bright and you miss that gradual change in shades. As I moved on to the 2nd half of the first earring and saw how the colors played out, it really did remind me of that drink, tequila sunrise, how it's all different layers and then you stir it and it's so pretty as the colors blend.  I wondered also if the 2nd earring would follow the same course so that they matched or if it would be off a bit but they match".

Don't you just love it when a length of thread tats up relatively symmetrically without having to engineer it!

Tequila Sunrise is such a beautiful name...I wish I had thought of it.

I fact I had planned to change the name when I dyed another batch.

You can read about why I called it Flame Lantana here and see what I tatted with it.

So today I got up off my backside and went into the dye studio for the first time in so many months and mixed up some dyes for......

GINA'S TEQUILA SUNRISE

My essence of Gina.

Gina I see you tatting with the angels brewing up one heck of a sunrise for us all.

I will never forget you.

Gina Brummett.....my dear friend.

This week the tatting community lost one of it's brightest stars.

I lost a friend.

I knew that Gina had lung cancer and was in contact with her during her battle with it. To my shame not nearly often enough.The last thing that I heard was that she was in remission and so I never expected the news that I was to receive on Tuesday.

Not Gina, we couldn't lose her.

She was just too important to us all and had so much more to give.

During my internet/virtual tatting life I have only met 3 tatters who have become real to me.

Gina was the first. The sort of tatters that you can give a real hug to.

In October 2006 we went to Chicago to a gecko meeting. Jane had constantly told me what a lovely person Gina was so I contacted her and told her we were in Chicago.

She wanted to drive up to meet us but couldn't and so we rented a car and drove down to Indiana to West Lafayette.

We were early, so we wandered around the campus of Perdu University where Gina worked.

Wow it was beautiful with autumn leaves in full show.

We asked in the parking garage for Gina and found out the she was known as Regina...quite a surprise.

She arrived and we hugged, she was smaller that I expected but other than that was the Gina I had come to know from the Tatting Goddess Group.

She took us to a Greek Restaurant where we met with her friend Bette another tatter who had come along.

Over dinner we chatted and chatted and chatted. Hubby enjoyed all the chatter too and Gina learned a lot about us!

I had taken along some tatting and some Irish things that I knew she would be interested in.Particularly the Lace Trail booklet.

Gina loved Ireland. She had visited with her sister (I think) and toured around and really wanted to come back. She planned her trip but had to keep postponing it.

Now it's not to be.

After dinner she took me to her favourite bead shop Vons, a treasure chest. It even had a bookshop to keep hubby occupied while we drooled over beads!

The visit was all too short.

But it was the start of a friendship.

There wasn't a week went by without Gina appearing in my Inbox with a 'funny'. We shared a similar sense of humour.

In 2008 I was lucky enough to win one of Gina's monthly giveaways.

You can read all about the many things that she sent me here.

There was so much more than I showed as she said she had sent me more than she should.

The package also include a lovely letter with a recent photo of all her family.

Her gifts are in a box, all together,well mostly, I will have to search for the ones that I have used.

They will be looked at and re read many times as tangible memories of a friend.

She had promised to send me a little plastic Tatting Goddess and I like I do had said 'no hurry'.

Gina thank you for being a part of my life, I will miss you.

Merry Christmas 2011

 

Hi everyone!

To all my tatting friends out there

I have been absent way too long.

BUT

Life happens

and

sometimes you just need to take a break.

I am fine, still tatting.....just not reading blogs or writing them, or even dyeing thread!

I will try to get back to normal next year and be back to my old self.

 I have finished 23 out of the 24 Easter Eggs...will show you sometime.

BUT my latest tatting adventure has been with Ruth Perry's Sweet Little Christmas Edging.

I have made a couple of bookmarks in size 20 Flora, but my favourites right now are these Christmas

tree ornaments.

I just cant make enough to give to all my tatting friends , I wish that I could.

I shopped around looking for little bells and was delighted to find these tiny ones in several colors.

The tails without the bells fit better in an envelope tho!

they all add enough weight for it to hang nicely on a tree without stiffening.

They do match my Christmas table cloth to perfection.

I LOVE this pattern, thank you so much Ruth.

Happy Christmas, talk to you all next year.

Easter Eggstravaganza 15!

Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen

Onwards and upwards!

Easter Egg number 15 had left me a bit cold when I first saw it...like so many of the designs in this book! I don't know why these designs didn't appeal to me...must be the lack of colour.

Until I saw what others had done with it.....Barbara Gordon had tatted a white butterfly with a variegated surround. Umi and Tsuru had tatted a variegated pink butterfly with a pale green surround.

Ok then...on to the practice piece....I forgot to make the joining picot on the antennae so mine are a bit too short. the dimpled rings were difficult to close....I could have made them a different way but decided to stick to Kirtsen's pattern...for now!

The rings in the trefoils are not connected so tend not to lie very flat...really needed blocking to put on my tree.

For the next one I chose to tat the butterfly in my Blue Lagoon HDT with flowers round the outside in my Berry Burst HDT and chains in my  Daffodil Green HDT all in Lizbeth 40 and it looks lovely and very delicate.

I like this a lot. What a difference using different colours makes.

Easter Eggstravaganza 14!

Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen

 Easter Egg number 14 had a new challenge hidden up it's sleeve...

....Roll Tatting.....

something that I have never tried before.

Of course i went straight away to Google to see what I could find out about this technique.

I found instructions from Jennifer Williams and Jane Eborall and a very recent blog post by Jon entitled
Rolling! Rolling! Rolling off the Shuttle

followed by an even more interesting post 

Rolling a Stumpy

she points to a video by 

Karen Cabrera's video 

It was well worth a look but i did find her method rather overcomplicated. 

So Off i went armed with this knowledge and of course Kirsten's explanation in her book.

Well

it was really easy..once I held on tight to the roll stitches that I had made. 

Karen's video was great for showing how quickly they can unroll!

Time now for some fun!

I tatted the inner chain in My Daffodil Green  and the rings in my  Just Daffodils HDT.

 It looks so pretty, one of my favourite colour combinations.

This one was tatted in Coats Mercer size 30.

Here is a size comparison...

 Here is a close up of my roll tatting

I am dying to try it on something else now, Jon's idea of Kersti's  Stumpy sounds great. 

I have made that before.

The Mary Konior Lupins look great too. 

Easter Eggstravaganza 13!

Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen

Number 13 unlucky for some!

But it worked a treat for me!

Made in one round using a split ring, it finishes with three rows of chains.

Thought that this would look nice with the chains in a different colour

This one has them in Coats Floretta 20 in a deep raspberry variagation.

Don't like this thread much as it's a 3 cord thread, but the colours are pretty.

Next thought was to build another dessert!! using my own HDT.

I started with my Vanilla Ice Cream in the center.

The chains are in

my Raspberry Juice,

Blackberry Juice

and

Blueberry Juice.

All the solid colours from my Berry Burst thread.

Looks prettier in real life without the white background.

I didn't even get time to block these last two, but they came out pretty firm to start with.
Multicoloured ones really make the inner round stand out don't they?
I think this design would be lovely on the tree with a jewel hanging inside it.

Easter Eggstravaganza 12!

Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen

Number 12 has  bugged me for some time!

It wasn't the tatting that was the problem

it was finishing off the egg with a final round of crochet.

It's not even that I don't know how to crochet, I haven't done it for a long time,but I was sure I wouldn't have forgotten the basics.

I guess it was just that the instructions didn't make a lot of sense to me, even tho' they were perfectly correct.

I intended to scan the first round of the egg with it's fringe of picots round the edge...looked pretty.

I had measured the picots with a picot gauge to get this fringe even enough to crochet round. I used 9mm measured horizontally.

But I forgot!

When I saw that Barbara Gordon has succeeded then I was eager to pick up my discarded egg again!

My problem begins with.....do I need to use a extra thread to crochet with or is it really as simple as Kirsten says.....

well yes it seemed that it really was that simple....

so my next problem was...what do I do when I get to the end and have a final loop on my crochet hook????

anyone got the answer????

My final loop actually is just lying there not attached and not sew in and it hasn't come undone.....but that's not really good enough.

I contemplate putting in a magic thread to pull it thro'...but that wouldn't work with a loop!

Do I have to sew it in with matching fine thread.

Anyway at the moment I am not feeling like making another one!

Does look pretty tho'!

Another great lace trip!

Interrupting the Easter Egg saga on this blog to bring you........

Last week I had the pleasure to go along to Dingle in Co Kerry with my Lace Guild to take part in a 'working exhibition'!

This was the Festival

Representatives of all the Celtic nations were there...from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and The Isle Of Man.

During the week there was singing and dancing in the streets...not that we saw much of this...we were there to work!

Click on the photo to get a better view of the programme for the days we were there.

We settled in for the day in this beautiful venue do go and have a look especially if you are interested in stained glass windows.

During the morning a TV crew were there to film part of a programme featuring us.

Then in the afternoon it was open to the public to come and look at us and ask questions. There was a talk on Kenmare lace and the showing of an old TV programme....you can read about it in the photo above.

The room we were in was dedicated to Nano Nagle founder of the Presentation Sisters and was beautifully decorated with murals. You can see that on the website too.

Wowee....watched the TV programme last wed and I was actually on it.

Just  had to photograph the TV screen and also make a movie of it with my camera.

You will know which is me as I was the only one tatting!

We have quite a lot of interested members of the public asking questions.

One guy made me laugh

"I think you must be a rebel!" he said

"Why?"

"Because you are the only one using colour!

How true, I really am not traditional enough for the group!

This is my work area.

We had to take something to show and something we were working on. Sorry that I can show you what the others took or them at work.

You can see the easter egg that I was working on and also some bookmarks that I made....will show them another time.

I did have white tatting too...Marilee's Arches doiley.

You can also see my pieces of unfinished Carrickmacross lace, my favourite lace after tatting.

It was the day of the Royal Wedding and we were delighted to see the beautiful lace dress that she wore.

It made our day.

There was a craft sale going on outside with all sorts of lovely things including hand made furniture...all made locally.

That evening there was a parade, the Irish contingent were well represented by some young leprechauns!

Tatters keep asking about the whereabouts of Feargal, I honestly don't know!

Maybe he was here before me.....sign spotted in a local shop!

Lots of local fish was eaten and some handmade Ice Cream.

On our way home we stopped to look at the s bronze statue of Tom Crean the famous antarctic explorer.

Behind him you can just see the famous Inn (with the blue chimney).

A stay at a friend's holiday house by the sea and some garden centers and a few more seedling maples to make in to bonsai and it was a lovely weekend.

Easter Eggstravaganza 11!

Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen

On to number 11

This looked easy until I took a closer look at how it was made.....it was just a bit tricky to keep one stitch flipped...nuff said...!

Tatted in Flora 20 I used beads from my selection pack of silver lined size 8 beads.

I thought that I had chose all turquoise beads until i came to tat in the daylight last weekend...more about that later!...and found that there were two different greens also in the.....so I continued in the same vein to make it look natural!

Haven't got round to tatting this one again either...but it would look lovely in.....and.....and......