Here's one motif I had in mind to surround the wheel motif. It's too small as it is and I will have to find a way to enlarge it if I am to use it. In the meantime, I've gotten so many ideas from others and now my brain is percolatin'...or it would be if I weren't so tired.

I had 4 days off in a row and I'm naturally a night person so when I'm off long enough, I revert to night hours. It was 1:00 a.m. before I went to sleep and I had to get up at 6:00 a.m.. Then....a vehicle was not readily available for me today so I walked everywhere I went and 2 of my appointments were way way across campus. And then I walked for our fitness program after work AND...it's hot! So I'm kind of dragging. Not a good time to puzzle the motif thing out.

Bina and Jules both had great diagrams for potential surrounds and Sharon Briggs arranged the motifs in a staggered fashion that I really like. I thought about making 2 bookmarks,which is useful.....but these are heirloom things and since the ends were cut instead of buried, I'm afraid they would not hold up to long use. Lila (motif owner) and I talked about a flat mat or doily or something she could frame. She didn't think she was likely to frame it so mat/doily it becomes.

Tomorrow night I'm getting a hardanger lesson from Sally, a fellow lacer, so I need to dig up the last few supplies I need. My cleaning frenzy yesterday reminded me that I need to get back to T.A.T. again. And there is that quilt I need to finish piecing.

okay - a quick google on "quotes about never getting it done" led me to this from LifeHacker Blog:

Select one of your goals or intentions, especially one where your progress has been disappointing. Now ask yourself if a person with different character attributes would be more capable of achieving this goal than you are. What kind of person would find your goal easy to achieve?

ummmm....someone who doesn't have a life? ROTFL! Well, actually, I'm getting closer....just cleaning my craft room, the little bit that I did, has made it more inviting to sit down and sew. I think I should just pick a day of the week, one evening, and designate that as my "sew Jason's quilt" time. I think it took me an hour to piece one block. I could do 1 or 2 each time I set aside and by summer's end, I'll have them all done. Gosh...doesn't seem like it should take an hour for one little 8" block. Hopefully my memory is faulty and it only takes 15 minutes. That would be SUPER!

The thing is...I start a real estate course June 12th, 2 nights a week, I want to get back to my watercolor classes on Monday nights, so how much time does that really leave me? Weekends? sigh.....magic genie, where are you?

Need Help!

I recently rediscovered these motifs that a coworker had given me to find a way to put together....oh...2 years ago! So now I'm determined to finish the project before I lose them again! These were in her mother's things but she knows her mother never tatted so she thinks they were from an aunt who is also deceased.

It's a common wheel motif, a ring with 12 picots which have 12 small rings tatted alternated with 12 larger rings. There are 8 of them. I've been trying to figure out how to turn them into squares. I'll use either ecru or white thread so that the original tatting will stand out and I can join the squares as I go, creating a small rectangular doily or mat. I considered sewing them on to a fabric center but I have a feeling I'll have to tat another wheel or two to get it to come out right and that could be tricky. I'm having a hard time finding an exact match for the thread.

I'm currently working on a squarish motif from one of Konior's books that has a center opening that I thought might be big enough. I just started the 2nd repeat and it's not, but I'm going to go ahead and finish it and then xerox it and and see if I can't increase the stitch count around and make it fit.

In the meantime, if anyone has an idea on how to proceed, feel free to contact me!

testing...more later....I added the songspot last night which suddenly does not work but IE7 is one bug for them and "publishing" might do it too. Lovely song, btw, and they recommend Foxfire browser but that's impractical for me at the moment. Off to tatting guild now!


Okay, back from Tattng Guild in Greenfield and see what I bought? Well...no...it's not actually shown, but I bought the Crazy Cords Motorized Crafts Cord Maker and made a cord to add to the snowflake, turning it into a bookmark!

This pattern is Snowburst by Teri Dusenbury. I was intrigued by the way the rings slanted against each other. I know I've made another one similar to this, as far as the rings, by someone else, but I can't find it right now. Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, I've been making bookmarks to tuck inside some books I've been giving away. I have plans for playing with this motif too. I made one mistake on a ring...giving it an extra picot which I didn't see until I was ready to join from the other side, so I kind of fudged on it. If you do it....I put 8 yards of size 30 thread on each shuttle. That would have been plenty if I hadn't messed up and cut a whole point out to do over. Then I barely had enough on one shuttle, but I switched it with the other one which still had a yard or so on it and it worked out fine.

This pretty little Flower for Mary was designed and taught to us by kaye Judt today. I just used what thread I had on shuttles so the colors are not stirkingly pretty. This might be a nice little decoration for my Tatting Trash to Treasures bag.

I want to tat some more of Teri's snowflakes. One I really like is in a raw schematic only so that will be quite the challenge. In the meantime, our rainy day seems to be clearing up. I've already made a pasta salad and deviled eggs. I need to go buy more eggs for a cake I'm making.

I have to mention here that Jennifer at the Zig Zag Corner is the most wonderful baker. She always has such wonderful fat-enriching desserts for us. Today there was a delightful concoction of chocolate, coconut, pecans, and cream cheese. I can't tell you how many diet plans she has short-circuited. I decided to give up and enjoy it!

BTW, the music works!

You should be able to click on the image and then save it to your computer. It should show up full size, big enough for you to read. If anyone is looking for a challenge, this looks like a fun one. I'd be happy to post anyone's attempts here - just send me jpeg when you get it done!

I tatted both of these bookmarks last night. They are quick tats! The brown variegated was given to me by a friend - Tilley Thread from the UK, size 20. The other is an Altin Basak pastel variegated,size 50. They're going out with some books I've given away.

On my way back from Wisconsin,I stopped at a few antique stores in IL. I found some early Workbasket magazines, the fold out kind. They were in the original mailing envelope and I mistakenly thought the pattern on the outside of the envelope was inside. Instead, it was a teaser to encourage people to tell their friends about Workbasket and then they could get the pattern as a result of bringing in new subscribers. One of them was new to me and they all had sheets of transfers that were not with the ones I already had. I also bought 2 bags of lace that had been recovered from linens or clothing,all crocheted.

In another stop just down the road, I found a 1929 Needlecraft that I didn't already have. It features some padded tatting that looked quite interesting.


While I was gone, I worked on a sample tassel that has a macrame heading. I have a few more rows to do. It's way more tedious than I expected.





Looking at my hardanger workbox which probably hasn't been open since 2002, judging from the magazine dates inside, has been a fun adventure! I'm meeting with a lace friend next Wednesday to work on Hardanger.

Here are her samples for an upcoming workshop for our lace guild. The white will be finished into a pincushion, I think she said. The other can be appliqued on clothing or whatever.

This is an edging from Fantasia, a tatting book by Iris Niebach. I'm tatting it in size 50 Flora. In this case, the thread really is a size 50...some threads, like Altin Basak, tat up like size 20 or 30. This is her edging Fiordaliso. My intention is to turn it into a bookmark. I am about 3 bookmarks behind now. Besides the exchange I am in, I'm tatting bookmarks to go with some books I'm giving away.

I've been so busy lately that I've had very little time for tatting. I know..you guys probably can't believe it but it's true! Today I started planting my garden: tomatoes, peppers, green beans and green onions, and basil so far. I had to quit to get ready for my grandson's boy scout banquet. Tomorrow I'm leaving for Madison, WI for a seminar until Tuesday afternoon. I haven't even packed yet! Laundry is still drying and I've been finishing up last minute stuff. My son & his girlfriend were also out this afternoon and planted some flowers for me..a belated Mother's Day gift since she was graduating from Nursing School on Mother's Day. They also brought me 2 hanging baskets so now I have such a pretty spot to sit and relax in.

I'm taking plenty of tatting with me even though I won't have a lot of time to tat...you never know.

If you're looking for resources online, be sure to check out YouTube. In the search box, put in "crochet" or "tatting" or "knitting" or whatever craft you are interested in and you'll find all kinds of goodies!



After watching this one about continental knitting, I can see that it is much more efficient than the way I knit. I'm anxious to give it a try now. Portuguese knitting is intriguing too. The needles look like crochet hooks. And if you watch The Manly Art of Knitting, you'll see one gentleman using pointed shovel handles to knit a hammock!

Some sewing humor:


Human re-enactment of the sewing machine!


Okay...time to stop...

I want to make a few more repeats of the stem and leaves but here it is. Since the flower part is layered and too thick to actually be between the pages of a book without doing some damage, I may make the stem & leaf part extra long.


I decided to join the Trash to Treasures bag challenge beause I've been wanting to make one of these bags for ages! The original suggestion was for recycling denim but I want something elegant so this is my choice...if I can ever narrow it down to one.



And these are my practical choices for other reasons - but I don't plan to use one of these for the challenge. You know....that sunflower bookmark would look good on a bag. AND...Dianna Stevens' animal bookmarks would also look good alternated heads up and down along a big bag like this...oooooh....maybe!

I've started on the sunflower bookmark in Nancy's bookmarks, That's Where I Stopped. I got sidetracked at the weekend and I know the cranberry part had me stumped a bit...just need to take some time and study how it's meant to fit together.

later....I got the cranberry part done and started the stem but got sidetracked. Maybe tonight? LOL! I've been taking advantage of the beautiful days and spending a good part of my evening outside walking.

Okay, here's the vintage pattern again. This time I chained between the rings since I really couldn't undertand what was meant about making 7 stitches OVER the thread between unless it was crocheted. I think it needs more stitches in the chain though to spread the rings out enough to see the long picots. This is described as an insertion, so it probably was crocheted over but I'm doing the chains instead.

Here is the cockerel from Dianna Stevens' book, Animal Bookmarks, A Tatted Zoo. Same thread as the peacock because I still had plenty on the shuttles! I had wound them almost completely full, but not quite. They're empty now though. I also like to add a short tassel to the split ring tails.

I've been giving away some non-tatting books on another list I belong to and I've been trying to include a tatted bookmark for the winner of the book lottery. I also joined Mary Donohue's exchange for the next month which is a bookmark exchange so I'm getting plenty of practice!

I stopped at Big Lots on my way home and found some hot pad/kitchen towel combinations that I may use for gifts. So quick and easy to do! I had such an intense week with some training. Today was my 1st day back at regular work and that involved a lot of catch-up besides the full schedule I had already made. I'll have to go in on Sunday for awhile to prepare some training we're doing early Monday morning. I am SO happy to have tomorrow to sleep in for a change.

For now, I think I'm going play with that insertion some more, make some adaptations and see what happens.

I made another attempt at the tiny basket, this time in size 20 thread and I stiffened it. I continue to use the set stitch for the handle. It gives it a rope-like effect, I think.

I tatted the peacock bookmark from Dianna Stevens' book for a friend. I messed up on the feathers...missing the number of repeats for the bigger picots so the feathers are not as long as they should be but it was a fun tat anyway. I'm working on another bird bookmark from her book that I should finish tonight. The past 4 days have been intense, but I'm now an OSHA 501 trainer! I probably won't do any training for them specifically right now, but I can if needed. We can also do our own 10 hour and 30 hour training on campus now.

It's so nice to have time to just sit back and relax so I think I'll do just that!