new blooms

Pin It now!

I have a lot of tatting to share, but this simply couldn't wait!

 It took a month and half for this orange jasmine or madhukamini plant to flourish in this way! We got a flower here a flower there, but not in such glory. A quick count today revealed at least 15 flowers, not to mention their lovely fragrance. 

And I wonder if you can see there are several more buds waiting to open in the next few days. Sadly the flowers remain open for only a day but they do spread so much joy. Gardening requires patience and perseverance.

Here's how the plant looked when I first posted pics here https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/03/spring-magic.html

spring magic

Pin It now!

 It certainly feels like it! A mere week before there were no buds, no blooms. The potted plants were just about awakening from the cold winter months. And then here we are with such beautiful vibrant flowers! Spring magic or magic springs? Let's not forget the mighty role of the sun, though!

I haven't curated my pics .... sharing all I took, though a few were not rotated back to how I had taken them. Also these are only some of the plants in my hubby's balcony garden.

Petunias -

Love the vibrant shade! It is a darker magenta/purple than what I see here, though.

Dormant throughout winter. And now it can't seem to stop growing ;-D

 

A single plant. The very first flower dropped today after five days of giving pleasure. The buds just keep emerging and opening up. I'm glad they stay a while. 

Madhukamini or Orange Jasmine - 

These are not as fragrant as the mogra, and are also quite small. It is fun to look for them among the foliage each morning!

 

There are quite a few buds springing out almost daily and it has red berry-like fruit. Cute aromatic flowers. Expecting the plant to show many more flowers as the temperature and sunlight increases.

Ajwain or Oregano -

We have two plants and both have been fairly prolific even during winter. 

 

Last week I pruned and snipped off a Lot of the leaves and they are drying out in the fridge. Within a few days the branches and leaves are growing! 
Very happy and satisfied with their growth.

Money Plant -

It was difficult to take a good pic of the entire climber. The above pic shows only the leaves at the base.

We had to let go some of the plants sadly. Cycle of life. But the remaining potted plants continue to provide pleasure and hope. The moment the French doors are opened in the morning, we are greeted with enticing fragrance from the blooms and aromatic leaves/herbs. All this is my hubby's handiwork (including the title of this post!). This time my only contribution was to spot the first buds and/or leaves every morning and give him the good news! :-D

happy fragrance

Pin It now!

This is just a quick photo of the flowers my hubby picked from his garden and handed to me this morning. He knows I love to inhale their fragrance, LOL. It is night now (2130 hrs) and they still look pretty fresh and the soft fragrance is just as intact. 

These mogras (jasmines) are from one of his potted plants which has been giving us flowers in huge numbers throughout this year! There are five here and there were still fully bloomed flowers on the plant which he did not pluck. We try to leave them if there are buds around them. 

Interestingly, the early flowers did not have much fragrance despite being prolific, unlike the other plant which gave few but extremely fragrant blooms. And I was quite disappointed - good to look at, but not to inhale. Suddenly a month back, in its third or fourth flourish, the heavenly fragrance arrived! 

I haven't taken any pics of his potted plants in a long while, but many of them are doing really good, giving us so much pleasure including a 'crop' of ajwain (oregano) leaves, etc. Some, though have had to be replaced.

waiting for spring

Pin It now!

 It's been a long winter and we are barely stepping into spring. We expect a few more weeks of waning winter since Holi is late this year.

Hubby has been prepping our little balcony garden and this time we have Jasmines. There are plenty of blooms and buds on the plant, I simply picked up two that had dropped. Their fragrance is milder than mogras (which I've shared before). 

Hubby took this sunrise pic on the leap day! The sun looks a lot farther (smaller and less red) than in real life, blame it on the phone camera. 

For almost three months we barely had any sunlight during the first half of the day which is mostly the only time we get direct sunlight. A lot of it had to do with severe air pollution. Finally the last ten days or so have been glorious and we've been able to sit and enjoy some Vitamin D time!

And I pruned some ajwain this morning. These leaves have since been washed and separated, and the twig broken into smaller pieces to dry and use in dishes. 

Just wanted to say Hi and hope you are all doing well! 

happy Endrucks 3

Pin It now!

 Continuing from part 2 (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/09/happy-endrucks-2.html), this is the final batch of pics. All tatted solely by Krystyna Mura, and derived from just one doily pattern #31 of Endrucks' ‘Die Schiffchen-Spitzen’, 1920. And if you were amazed by the first two batches, be wowed by the following! 

Link to the pdf - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lcQrl0f6PdLYApe4YVM2ZVorLsHToAm1/view and part 1 - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/09/happy-endrucks-1.html

YOUNG  EINSTEIN

I for one could never in my wildest dreams imagine this! Would somebody be inspired to tat the iconic older Einstein, too, LOL?!

 

STRONGMAN

And flipped over, we have this! Tatted optical illusion.

DOG  ROSE

One more version in pale lilac tints is in the pdf.

POPPY

Krystyna had derived a 3D poppy from pattern #12 as well. (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/04/show-stopper-or-show-topper.html)

PURPLE  DHALIA

There are more models in different colours in the pdf - Bright Pink and Sea Shell Dahlias.

RED  LILA  BUTTERFLY

PURPLE  STONE  BUTTERFLY

Both butterflies have one more version each with minor variations.

BUTTERFLY  BROOCH AND EARRINGS

GOLD  MOTH

BEETLE

SCARLET  DRAGONFLY

WISE  OLD  OWL

I especially like the horned ears ;-D

3D  MOUSE

Didn't expect this, did you?!

Ninetta and I cannot thank Krystyna enough for her wonderful and beyond-imagination work; way beyond what she volunteered for and what was expected!

Many many many thanks, Krystyna! You have gifted us a plethora of ideas and patterns. Frau Endrucks would definitely have been amused and amazed. 

I love tatting 3D

Pin It now!

This month’s task was laid out by Renata – my favourite kind of tatting – 3D !!! She has listed some very inspiring projects and I wanted to tat them all !!! Participants have already sent in quite a few completed projects. My apologies for not being able to comment on each blog. I’ll wait to catch up in the round-up.

As soon as I read the task, my mind started building up ideas – it was getting difficult to choose! Time (the 4^thD?) always sprints many paces ahead of me. This month it went even faster ;-P 

I have ended up with a medley of past, but as yet unshared, projects.

I Love Tatting / Kocham frywolitke – February 2018

3-Dimension 

While rummaging for this star flower medallion (bottom right), I came across an old edging. It is actually the center of Renulek's 2014 Spring doily. After 7 rings, I switched direction and repeated thus getting 4 alternating segments (see collage below). At the time I was trying to create an edging but it went awry ;-P

3D Carnation

It coiled easily into a possible flower, though as in the one against black background. Intending to make that 'rose' shape, I needled green thread through all the picots. When pulling tight, I liked the carnation-style shape much better! Worked a 3-sepal calyx (tubular), then carried on down encapsulating the thick threads, with a spiral chain and added floating twisted picots for leaves. For the bottom pair I twisted 2 threads together, then hiding one again.

3D Lavender trial

Next is the overlapping onion rings trial. many of you may recognise my inspiration - a pin from ameba.jp on pinterest.

I think it came out okay, considering it the only trial I did. Need to make time to practice and make more.

3D Star Flower trial/prototype

Remember my overlapping split ring effect I shared here? This is a 5-sided medallion that emerged from that motif.

The later repeats have the right stitch count to show a balance between overlap and negative space. 

Obviously need to change the colours used. But I also want to try it with 2 thread sizes. Would a thinner thread show a better effect? This looks too bulky.

3D Kayak trials

This was a request from a kayaking enthusiast (some of you may be able to identify who ;-P). I started it in early 2015! 

Again, to create a 3D effect, I used overlapping split rings. Notice the single curled ring on the right ? And a twisted picot for the pointed end. I wanted to come back with a straight line to show depth, once the body was completed.
Thinking I had a good idea of the process, I started afresh with the tinted blue. This time I used 4 overlapping split rings for the broadest center and also flipped the overlapping SR. 
Unfortunately this is as far as it sailed ;-( Haven't had time to pick it up again.
I still think the overlapping SRs have quite a potential to create any geometric shape with faux Celtic effect.

Hope these will be accepted by the talented Renata & Justyna. I do love 3D tatting - all my early patterns are 3D freeform! 
And the book from from which this pic was taken .....

happy tatting everybody J