Pam’s Collage:  Grandma’s Flower Garden Doily                                        Complete 6/28/2017   

1. Karey Solomon [bottom left]

2.  Sue Hanson [center]

3.  Thornwell Ladies [middle right]

4.  Riet Surtel-Smeulders [top left]

5.  Bonnie Geiger [top right]

6.  Chocolate Therapy [middle left]

7. Grace Lown [bottom right]

Flower # 3 - The Thornwell Ladies

Flower # 3 - The Thornwell Ladies [Right]

There is a special group of ladies I call the Thornwell Ladies.  They are ladies who grew up at Thornwell Orphanage in Clinton, SC.  They have always stayed connected through the years with letters, phone calls and going back for Grand Rallies.  They make an effort to get together for good times and then they are there for the other times as well.  I have enjoyed meeting frequently with them to work on the Thornwell Alumni Association database.  We have spend many hours trying to locate alumni and working on putting the next Grand Rally together.  They have also listened tirelessly about my tatting projects.  One special piece was a scarf with tatted medallions around the edges.  It belonged to Professor Pinson and his wife.   I replicated the "Fessor Pinson Medallion" for each of these ladies.

Flower # 7 - Grace Lown

Flower # 7 - Grace Lown [Bottom Right]

Grace is my special friend.
We have been friends for over 40 years.
After I moved to Lexington and moved my membership from Congaree Presbyterian Church in Cayce to Lexington Presbyterian Church, I began meeting women in the church.  Because I worked 8 hour rotating shifts, I would visit the different circles.  I met Grace in the morning circle and drew her name at Christmas so for a whole year I was her "Secret Sister" and trying to do little things for her without her knowing who I was.  After it was revealed the next December, I had found out that Grace lived very close by and stayed at home to care for her husband.  I began visiting her at least once a month to just talk and do crafts.  In 1994 I was promoted to a nice day job and Grace felt she wouldn't see me any more.  She mentioned that she loved to play Scrabble. So, we began playing Scrabble once a week and have continued through thick and thin unless we are out of town or Grace is really, really sick.  When she was in Still Hopes we even had a Bible Study there.  When she was in Lexington Agape, we sat up the Scrabble board several times and played.

 

She has truly "graced" me through many years.

Flower #6 - Chocolate Therapy

Flower #6 - Chocolate Therapy [Middle Left]

             Chocolate Therapy was a name given many years ago to a group of folks that met and        are still meeting in 2017 at the Food Court at the Dutch Square Mall to talk and tat and                   eat chocolate of course.   This is a group of folks that basically know how to tat and just like to get together.  They help each other with projects and problems as well as behave as an auxiliary arm for many Palmetto Tatters projects.

There are some "faithfuls" that are almost always there and there are others like me that love to go but life often gets in the way.       

 These ladies has certainly helped and advised me through many projects.

My newest project - a ladybug aka doodlebug of course

I have been making ladybugs for over 17 years now because we started calling our grandchildren doodlebugs and using the ladybugs as their symbol.  Now we have 6 doodlebugs.  I have made many patterns but my simple standby in all sizes is from Ross Butler's inspiration.  He was 17 at the time and taught me the "dead spider" split ring.  I added complicated black dots because it is just in me to try to imitate nature.  Anyway, long story long, I have gone back this week to adding black beads and a string to make them faster and to make them for the SC State Fair.  These I can make quickly.  The only problem is that they seem to fly away instead of going into the State Fair bucket!

Here is my finished product:

Flower # 5 - Bonnie's Flower

Flower # 5 - Bonnie's Flower [Top Right] 

Of course, Bonnie's flower would have to be difficult. I was being so careful with the thread because it was thread that was discontinued and Bonnie had loaned it to me to use for contrast on the the Reticule Purse (another complicated thing for me full of split chains). I decided I liked the stained glass look of Riet's, so wanted to use these colors with the black centers. After I finished the 1st flower I finally realized that it was size 10 thread instead of 20 so I pulled it all out. Then found a similar color and started over.

It doesn't go together as easy as it looks when you aren't doing it random but it a pattern.  Anyway, got it wrong and pulled out what I had. Then on 3^rd  try I put it in the wrong spot! Bo, my brother-in-law in Florida said to "just deal with it", so I am. I must adjust the pattern and do stain glass ones on the other side to compliment it. I tatted this one while Kathy and I were visiting my sister Lynn and hubby Bo in Orlando, Florida at Christmas. We went on a peacock hunt, which is a long story so I will think about making a peacock blue flower for Lynn.

It seems that when Bonnie and I get together any simple project like a Tat Across Time piece, or a lesson plan, or a book pattern........it gets complicated. The good thing is that we laugh and have a good time far more than we tat and stress out over it!

Flower # 4 Riet's flower

Flower # 4 Riet's flower

While Riet was visiting again this year from The Netherlands, she was playing with the hand dyed thread of yarnplayer (Marilee Rockley) that is called "Garden Afternoon" and she was making the stained glass jewelry from Marilee's new book. Riet gifted me with a skein of the yarn which I just had to add to my Garden of Friends. I played awhile with using just the thread but it really needed the black accent to make it stand out. I used the purple cent to keep a little continuity with the other flower colors but really think that an all black flower in the center would have looked good too. It is really fun to play with the colors to see how they look. I was just looking at how Martha Esses pattern is doing. She is doing hers like Karey just adding one small flower at a time. Her colors really catch my eye...just like different colors of flowers in a flower garden might do. hummmmmmm