Submitted by: Mindy Al-Aaraji

Emerald clover Necklace Purse

Hi...My name is Mindy Al-Aaraji. I grew up in the beautiful state of North Carolina, USA. I now live in a beautiful country, New Zealand.

My passion is Irish crochet, which began 5 years when a friend gave me an Irish crochet pattern book of clothing. I've been hooked on it ever since.

I found that large projects took far too long to finish...and mine still aren't...but discovered that small items could be finished in a couple of days. Since lace is so valued, particularly hand lace, I began to design small heirloom projects, such as pendants and necklace purses, and incorporated beads in the designs to give them a different look from traditional Irish crochet.

If you'd like to take a closer look at my designs: http://www.geocities.com/innovative_crochet

Submitted by: Dana Smith

Hi everyone, let me introduce you to Dana and her new husband Travis. They make such a beautiful couple. Can't you just feel their joy and happiness from this beautiful picture. Dana bought one of my chokers to wear for her wedding. I can't tell you how honored I was when she thought it pretty enough to wear on her wedding day not to mention all the lovely compliments she gave me. I have to tell you I beamed with joy for over a week.

Submitted by: Lady Saera

I love drawing mermaids and faeries. I also enjoy doing art and needlecrafts. I especially love thread crochet. When I saw Ramona's stunning Victorian bag patterns I just had to have the book. I learned to bead crochet with her pattern..and after a few practice sessions, I made several lovely bags, following the step-by-step instructions.

Submitted by: Susan Drago

The Beads I used are (neckband) 12 Jet 12x6mm Czech Glass Swirled Ovals; 3 clear 6x3mm Czech Glass teardrops (top drilled); in the bottom center of the large swag, I used a faceted Czech Crystal teardrop (vertically drilled), surrounded by 8 2.5mm Czech faceted rounds and two 4mm fluted sterling silver rounds, with a silver plated 4mm side-drilled flower bead above the crystal teardrop. Drops are made of sterling silver 1mm rounds, one 4mm plated flower bead, and 4 and 6mm Czech faceted crystal rounds, with Jet Dagger beads on the tips. Between the two outer rows of swags A and C, I have strung size 15/0 silver lined crystal seed beads, and on the center swag (B), I separated the seed beads with a Jet 4mm faceted black round in the center. I used Black Nymo size D beading thread to attach all the beads.

I've also made a plain bracelet for the other hand by crocheting just the upper band portion. Both bracelets are fastened in the back with a crocheted loop to fit over a black Victorian style button.

Happy Hooking (I've always wanted a web site called that!)

Susan

Submitted by: Elaine White

Hi Ramona,

in June, you were kind enough to take an interest in my project about the Victorian portrait photographer Julia Margaret Cameron - and went to the trouble of sending me a crochet pattern for a fascinator to wear as a lace cap.

I did in fact make up a fascinator but eventually discovered a piece of 'antique' lace which I was able to fashion in to a shape that closely resembled one of the few photos I had found of Mrs C.

The occasion was the 10th birthday celebrations of a WI science discovery group and my portrayal of Mrs Cameron was the afternoon's entertainment. I'm pleased to tell you that everything went very well and everyone had a great afternoon.

I just wanted to thank you again for your help - I hope you won't be too disappointed that I didn't wear the fascinator in the end... but it was fun making it and I learnt something from the exercise.

I thought you might like to see a photo of me in my costume. It was made especially for the occasion by my friends. The colour was all the rage in England in the early 1860s as the synthetic colour of purple had recently been invented making it cheaper to produce. Apparently the whole world went mauve!

Warm regards,

Elaine

© Copyright by HB Publications all rights reserved