Mercy!

Now you can do your needlecrafts in the dark! No tatting shuttles there but I'm sure if the manufacturer were educated about tatting that there would be! There ARE crochet hooks and drop spindles as well. hmmm....something to consider when the power is out ...or those long camping weekends in the middle of nowhere. You can buy these luxury needlecraft tools at an Ebay store. Of course. You can get anything on Ebay. LOL!

I helped a friend in Greenfield pack in anticipation of moving this coming weekend and in addition to several other things, she gave me this wooden round thing. During my lunch hour, I happened to pop into Ding-a-Ling and saw an instruction booklet for a device that looked very much like this one, only those are plastic. Turned out to be like a Knifty Knitter. Giant spool knitting. Well....then I decided to google and explore the links. So much out there!

And now that I'm thinking about it, I think I have a straight one somewhere,which is called a knitting rake. Always wondered what that thing was!

Last night I crocheted on the shawl. It seems so slow-going. Wanted to tat but there were only a few empty shuttles do I tried to empty a few instead...which still involves tatting but only little bits of fluff. Maybe tonight.

I redesigned my RPL teapot. I like this one much better. It could still use some improvement, but I probably won't do anything further with it for now.

I've been sorting through my clothes today. During a heat wave, I got all of my summer clothes out, but we had a cold blast right after that so I still had some winter things upstairs. I also knew I had way too many clothes taking up space that I wasn't wearing so I went through everything in my drawers and closet. Changed my sheets, started laundry. I plan to paint the bathroom next weekend over the holiday so I'd like to get a lot of other stuff out of the way. I'm also pre-treating some clothes that had spots on them. Got a nice little pile for hemming......it never ends.

I helped a friend with her packing in Indy yesterday. She's moving from an already small efficiency size apartment to an even smaller one and watching her ruthlessly discard things she has had for years and years was motivating. I've lived here 29 years. I'm going to have to be more than ruthless. LOL! I don't need to get rid of that much stuff but it's made me very aware of all the things that I don't use and don't need so why do I still have them?

Well...in the interest of continung my momentum....that's it for now!

The tatting books I ordered from Toni Storer came last night! I've barely had time to look through them. I took them to tatting guild today for everyone to look over too. The first two books are $20 AUD and the smaller third one is $15 AUD. Contact Toni at tatters_rule at dodo.com.au (change "at" to @ and remove the extra spaces) to pay at Paypal and arrange for shipping. I can't say when I'll get to tat from them. I'm so far behind now that I don't even make a list! LOL! I love the bluebells and I'll probably try at least one Christmas ornament before Christmas.



Here's the fob we made today at Tatting Guild in Greenfield. No, Kaye's pattern is not yet available. It was a challenge. I've never done stacked rings before. I had to leave before I was completely done but as I waited in the car for my friend to show up for lunch at a restaurant, I finished off the ends which was way easy!

I've been steadily working on this shawl. Hot weather is not normally a good time to work with yarn, in my opinion, but it was very chilly when I started it. It's going along well but I have to pay attention to the rows. This is yarn I bought on clearance a long time ago. I think there is just enough. Maybe not enough for the fringe.


I took a break from crocheting last night and stitched the filling in this teapot. The teapot design arose from one of my cookie cutters. I used traditional colors this time. I'd like to do the teapot again but this time curve the braid so that the lid is separate from the pot and maybe round out the side with the handle. There are lots of variations I could do. I found the filling stitches in a book from the library, Starting Needlepoint Lace - A Course for Beginners, by Valerie Grimwood. (Donated by Lafayette Lacers, btw) The stitches all looked the same when I glanced through the book but I picked these two and they are delightfully different. I really like them!

So...what about tatting? Nancy from Be-Stitched.com has a new fan bookmark pattern today for subscribers. It says it is for a beginner, but I think it's probably meant for an experienced beginner. LOL! I notice lots of cuts and ties which can't be split rings and you have to pay attention to where to place the next segment.

There are 2 hatbands that are works in progress. I'd like to finish one of them for the fair. There is an art contest for the zoo. I'd like to tat animals and collage them within a painting but I don't think I have time to plan that well before August 1. I have a couple of designs I was playing with that I'd like to get back to. And lots of work to do outside now that it isn't raining anymore. One son has a birthday on Thursday and his wife on Monday......I have no clue what to do for them.

So....back to work.

I was determined to get some tatting done this weekend and more pointedly, this eagle! It's for a friend and I bought the pattern specifically for that purpose! It turned out to be a challenge. I think I started Wednesday night. Had to email Carol and find out what I was missing. I discarded my first try and started again Thursday night. No time Friday night or all day Saturday so about 10:30 Saturday night, I tried to finish the wings....finally accomplished my goal after midnight! I did take a break in there. LOL! I made this version out of size 20 AIDA thread that I bought in Australia. It measures about 3" x 3" but the wing span is slightly over 3" because of the picots.

I spent the majority of the day at a workshop led by local artist Lorie Amick. I started a painting but never got past the misket. I did play with some techniques with color that Lorie showed me. Mostly I just admired the other artists' work.

After that I came home, showered and headed into town to volunteer at the Taste of Tippecanoe. It was incredibly hot. I didn't stay long after my stint was over - just long enough to eat and gab a bit.

Guess I should get to bed. There is mowing and garden work to be done when I get up..........though I heard thunder awhile ago!

I bought a new purse at Walmart during my lunch hour. The one I bought in Australia and loved so much is disintegrating. I know it wasn't the best quality - but it had pockets in all the right places and held everything perfectly. I was considering sewing one with the same dimensions but I doubt that I'll get to it anytime soon. The summery beige number I bought today is BULGING. Clearly, I need to downsize somewhere.

No, there is NO tatting in there so it's not a question of making a decision on that. I carry a 15 x 20 inch canvas tote for my tatting. Everywhere.


I don't think I really need that clutch billfold. In the process of transferring stuff from one purse to another, I found an edging I started last week. Ooooops!

I'm crocheting a shawl now. RED! I'll wait until I get into the pattern stitch before I show it. This isn't the one I was doing before. That one is an official UFO waiting to be pulled back into a skein. I'll have to do some intensive study to figure out what I did wrong on that one before I'll try it again. This is also not for the Feast - which can be neither red nor crocheted to be period correct.

I crocheted a heart motif for a sachet last week and finished it Sunday night. As I finished up the LAST half of the LAST round, I could see where I messed up way back on round 3 or 4. I kept thinking something didn't lay right. Now I know. sigh.....it should have been obvious...guess I have too much on my mind. So now you know why I'm not tatting bunches and bunches! Crocheting or knitting is a breeze to rip out. I used to hate it, thinking of all that work going to waste. That was before I learned to tat and understood what sheer torture picking out tatting was. There is no RIP OUT in tatting. It's half stitch by half stitch. Most of the time it's easier to cut the offending part off and attach a new thread, but if it's not very far back OR you're running low on thread, you un-tat. I'm just a little reluctant to do anything special right now for that reason.

The County Fair is coming up. All I have is samples from classes to enter and I will definitely enter them just so there is something in that category.

Later...oh, well I HAVE to tat now. Carol Amich's celtic eagle pattern arrived today. I will try to get to it before the evening is over!

Want to learn Japanese Embroidery? This is quite fascinating! Or Armenian Embroidery? I was looking for specific ergonomic tools having to do with needlecrafts when I found these. Also lots of neat projects here at the Embroider's Guild online. And SHISHA!This is a beautiful form of folk embroidery embellishment from Russia and Central Asia.


Gourd art There are numerous gourd tutorials at this site. Check out her galleries - beautiful work there. I even found some teapot gourds! This particular piece is a candle holder but there are drums and vases and birdhouses. The site is one in a gourd webring so I imagine you could find all kinds of good information there. I still have a whole bunch of gourds that I grew ...ummmm...not sure how many years ago now...but I'm pretty sure I can still paint on them or better yet....add lace. My friend Bette showed me a gourd she bought somewhere with needlelace covering the outside of it. You can tat with anything so you could tat sinew or wire if you wanted to make sure it would hold up in the elements.




A hand quilting thread by Coates in a color I haven't seen before - I'm not sure which number is the color: Art. V62V Y L 887. Here's the butterfly edging I'm trying out with it! It's interesting to see that the tireder I got, the looser the middle of the butterfly became. It's turning into some vivid jewel-like colors.








Okay, I came up with a practice template for the Romanian Point Lace. One book said to use single count canvas and iron interfacing over it because the grid would still show beneath. I opted to use a plastic canvas and forget the interfacing. The problem with plastic canvas is that even permanent markers tend to wear off fairly soon.

Blogger kept having problems over the past few days so this is the first opportunity I've had to publish.

I spent all of Saturday in Chicago listening to inspirational speaker Esther Hicks. My views on religion and such are probably considered unconventional by some and uncomfortable by others. I have no interest in trying to pursuade anyone about anything but I've been studying this material or line of thinking for 40+ years. It's bound to come out now and then. Anyway, I had a great time and lots of food for thought. This was my 4th workshop.

My oldest son and a friend were out this morning way, way too early to cut up the Maple tree that fell in the last major storm. I'm getting driveway stone next week. Going out to set my tomato plants and plant the rest of the garden when I'm done here. I've spent 3 hours making up samples and a worksheet about tatting with beads for my new tatters. I even found a few methods I hadn't tried yet. I also have to work on my Romanian Point Lace project for next weekend.

On my way home I stopped at a convenience store yesterday that I was in a few weeks ago and got this Gypsy Doll. I fell in love with her then but wanted to check online and see if I could find something similar. No luck. This one has been there awhile, I think. The rubber bands holding the bubble wrap on were dried up or disintigrating. I'll definitely change her jewelry. It's all cheap plastic stuff. She needs real shoes. And I'd like her blouse to have handmade lace on it. So....here's yet another UFO but at least it looks good as is.


To my delight, when I got home yesterday, Martha's book had arrived! I wasn't expecting it until she returned from Palmettos. OH....hey, everyone's off having fun there, aren't they?

Well, I better get out in the garden so I can tat later!

Oh mercy, it's June already!Last night I finished my latest Romanian Point Lace piece. This is one I designed myself. Basically, I was trying a "doodle" because that's what we've done in lace guild and what we're encouraging members to try to develop their own piece from so of course, I had to have an example. I got sidetracked along the way and put away the threads I was using for filling and don't remember exactly where I put them away, so I pulled out a few new colors to finish up with. I didn't like the way they were working out anyway. LOL! I have another idea in mind using the same pattern though. My divider bars were an experiment that didn't work out. Well...they're okay, but not as okay as I visualized. But then, nothing is perfect first time around, is it?

And speaking of Romanian Point Lace, also known as Macrame Crochet Lace, the latest issue of Anna features this as the course of the month. There is a new filling stitch I've not seen before and I used it or a version of it on the piece above. I started out well but something went wrong along the way. It was too late and I was too tired to go back and correct it, but I'll work on it somewhere else.

I don't often go looking for craft magazines on ebay these days but I saw an Old Time Crochet recently that I didn't think I had. I won and it came quickly though I didn't really have time to look at it until last night. I don't always remember what I already have but I was rewarded - this isn't something I had and look at the unique tatted basket! I really can't quite figure it out but I haven't read the instructions yet. It says netted but some of it looks like mignonette. Okay, the 1st round after the center medallion is tatted but after that, it's a buttonhole stitch so it is netting. The border around the top edge is actually needle woven and then the handle is done with a knotting technique that is not tatting. Definitely a challenge. There is much I would change, to tell the truth. I would have a larger and sturdier center for one thing. I would have less netting, and more rings or something for the sides to make it more substantial. I like the handle though.

Well, I'm making a dedicated effort to spend less time on the computer and more time with household ......things. I bought some different fabric tonight for the kitchen curtains. I'm still not sure about them.