Look what I did!

Can you tell?

This is how it used to look. What is different?

Look close!

Spiral binding! A friend of mine takes her books to the copy place all the time and has this done. I really didn't give it much thought until I opened the book and the pages started falling out. This is one of my earlier purchases and well used. I took it there yesterday. He said it would take a day or two and cost $1.50. He called me that afternoon and said it was done! I love it. I can open the book out flat now. I can open it anywhere and fold the right half and the left half together so only one side is showing. The spiral binding is heavy duty and isn't going to pop out of the holes. I love it! I'm thinking of doing this to all of my bigger soft cover books.

Here's the rings only edging or insert again, this time in Manuela variegated yellow size 20. I'm not overly fond of this color either but when I repaint my bedroom, I want it to be in white with touches of yellow so I thought I'd go ahead and use up some yellow!


And here it is with the hen and chicks added on. It fits perfectly around my wrist so it would make a nice cuff trim, but I plan to put it on some kind of little pillow I think. You'll often see the rings only insert used on sheets or pillowcases and then the edging with the hen and chicks on the same sheets and pillowcases along the edge. It's very elegant looking but it's a piece of lace that can be tatted quickly in comparison to many other patterns. I filled my shuttle full for the insert and it tatted up into about 6 1/2" of length. Then I filled my shuttle again for the hen and chicks and while I added it to the entire length of tatting, I still have a fair amount of thread on my shuttle. The hen and chicks clearly doesn't eat thread as quickly as the insert does!

I really do love these charm packs! I need to do something besides look at them but still...I couldn't resist entering the drawing for these and you can do the same at the website http://www.quiltqua.com/, not Jan's Musing. Jan has a great site but I'm sure she doesn't want all the email for this!


Here's the last bookmark in Sharon's book. It's a split ring cross. This is the Lizbeth thread that I said seemed to be only two colors when tatted up. LOL! Well, I'll be darned - it IS only two colors! On the ball, it looks like three. I don't remember the name of it but I was disappointed the first time I used it. Lovely shades, but I guess I need a more gradual shift in color or more colors. I really thought there was some blue in it.


Now we're moving on to edgings. This is your simplest ring edging. I just used what was left on the shuttle. The next one is also an oldie but a goodie and one of my favorites for a quick lacy looking edging, hen and chicks. I didn't have time to tat it last night but may try tonight. After that, she puts the two together to make a wider edging. That's why the book has "Transitions" in the title. She shows how to build from one element to another.

It was beautiful yesterday - I shut off the AC and opened the windows. It was a welcome relief from the 90º+ and high humidity we'd been experiencing. Today is the same and very windy.

I took my son and daughter-in-law out to eat yesterday to celebrate their birthdays which were both last week. It was the first day we could all get tegether. I haven't seen my youngest son and his wife for several weeks now. Life is just too busy sometimes.


I tatted the next two bookmarks in Sharon's book. I know...I'll bet you're wondering when I'm going to get to the good stuff, the flowers. It's going to be awhile. We have edgings coming up first. This is a heart bookmark and clover bookmark. Sharon does have tassels on her bookmarks but they take time to make and I'm doing good to find time just for this.

The heart bookmark is tatted from the Lizbeth thread, Carousel, again. It's interesting seeing how the colorway plays out in the tail. Just a bit of white between each segment. I have one ball of thread that ends up looking like only two colors when tatted...I wonder what it would look like if I made this spiral with it? I may tat the next bookmark with it just to find out!

One thing I wanted to mention about Sharon's book is that she gives long notation, then short notation, and a diagram for each pattern so far. This is very helpful for beginners to learn how to read all of them and seeing them all together helps you make the connection if you ever have to read one of the methods on your own from someone else's pattern.

One of the classes I'm teaching for Fringe Element Tatters in September is how to intrepret vintage patterns. I think it will be great fun to condense the old terms into short notation and then into a diagram. AND to figure out the shortcuts along the way!

Not sure how much tatting I'll get done this week. My middle son is moving in at the weekend and I've got to do some major decluttering and moving around. I wish I also had time to wash everything down and paint. Maybe he'll sleep in his car a week or two so that I can. LOL! He's helping but it's still a lot to do all at once.

And hey, guess what? I'm going to see the King Tut exhibit at the Children's Museum on Friday!

I'm going with a friend who lives in Greenfield. We've been planning this since the Museum first announced the exhibit was coming last year. I used to love Egyptian history but don't have time to pursue it much these days. I wanted to be an archeologist when I was a child.