I'm a little disappointed that I'm not progressing faster on the blanket - I didn't realize beads slowed me up so much! I used up one ring shuttle and had to reload another one which meant transferring the beads too. I'm almost at the end of the one I just reloaded again which means I'll have to separate the floss skein. I thought sure one skein would do it. I also realized that I attached the last chain in the wrong place so I need to retrotat the clover and the chain. sigh............. the good thing is that rayon thread loosens up easily. It also tends to shred a bit.

I noticed as I was turning this around that if you hold the part with the gold flowers at the top, then it would make a lovely looking bag, with a liner of course. Seeing Mark's bag on ebay triggered that thought. I hope he got good $$ for it. If I had made it, I wouldn't be selling it on there! I've looked at that pattern many times and thought I might try it at some future date.

At the moment though, I'm still in elephant country. I also plan to cut out 2 of the pink flowers and remake them. For some reason, they are out of shape and I noticed one has a mistake on it too, which I think is quite noticeable. They were made separately so it shouldn't be a problem to retat and add them in.

It's been such a busy week and weekend that I had little time for posting here. I found the cutest tatted "smilemakers" on Needle Tatting Two. I really like the little monkey which is on page two and the chicken is cute too. I haven't made any yet, but they look perfect for cards.

I'm getting ready to make a hanky bonnet - you can find the directions here. I'll be using Nell's edging which I linked in the last entry and probably do a bit of silk ribbon embroidery on the brim. The directions include one poem but I believe I've seen a few other versions too - if I can just find them!

I don't like feeling pressured to complete a project and now I've got 2 of them! Aaacckkk! I just remembered I need to have the petals done for the tulip when the tatting guild meets on the 28th!

On the plus side, my mailbox is back up so I can stop the hold on my mail and that will be one less stop every evening. It really is out of my way and the lines are almost always long.

I was excited to find an invite to Camp Wanna Tat in my mail on Friday. There's only one date I can go - in April - so I hope nothing comes up to change my plan. I've never been that far West before. I would love to plan a vacation to explore even more areas while I'm there, but I've already got 2 vacations planned in June and I want to start saving up my days for a bigger trip.

It's warmed up a bit and was sunny today which made it nice while I was running errands this afternoon.



LOL! I found a knitting smiley - now if I can just find a tatting one!