It suddenly dawned on me today that it is the LAST day of 2008 and I haven't tatted in days! I was determined to tat something before the day was over. I'd been lusting after Jon's celtic snowflake, (she has a different name for it but I can never remember it or spell it without looking it up) and I had that thread from Melissa, my Secret Santa, that I wanted to try, so here's the center. It has a very short repeat on the thread, about every inch, and it created this "beaded" sort of look.

Originally I picked a lavender to contrast with it but once I got the center done, it didn't look right so I tried this off-blue. Once I got that done though, it didn't seem quite right either.

So I tried this purple which really looked bad when I put them together! I did find a dusty sort of lavender in my stash but I was bored with making the second part by then so I just went with the blue. I was very pleased with the result.


Yeah, I made a bookmark out of it. You may have noticed I tend to do that quite frequently these days. A few years ago, I noted a great abundance of motifs as I tatted one of a kind just to try a thread or a pattern. I had so many that I even offered a challenge - to make 100 motifs in a year - as it seemed I must surely be doing. Apparently, that was too big of a bite for most people as I only heard from one person, Wally Sosa, and since there was only one person interested, I didn't pursue it. However, Wally and Sharon Briggs worked the whole idea over and came up with something much more palatable to tatters, especially new tatters, and it became the hugely successful 25 Motif Challenge. I'm so glad they did - it has encouraged new and seasoned tatters to tat more and design more and learn more. It also was the catalyst for all the tatting blogs we have now and ultimately, patterns like the one I just tatted.

Thanks especially to Sharon for setting up the blog and system to follow everyone. It really was a huge undertaking that I certainly wasn't equipped to do or even think of!

But all those motifs is also why I have started turning them into bookmarks! At least this way they aren't just sitting around and piling up. They become card inserts and small gifts.


Yesterday I ended up at a small (I thought) store in Rennselaer, Indiana called The Needle's Point that a friend recommended to me. I was hoping to find thread and there was thread, but it was all embroidery floss and quilting thread, nothing different from what I have. But the quilting section with fabric and threads and books was only part of the store. There was a room each for scrapbooking, for painting, for specialty kitchen items, and 2 rooms that appear to be a gift shop, like Hallmark's. In the end, I got the snowman tea-for-one which was 50% off. I wasn't going to get it, but ...darn...couldn't pass up a good price like that! I'll add it to my Christmas themed tea-for-ones. Also in the photo is the Tea Calendar from Daughter-in-law #1 and the tea ball with the tea cup. The white tea cup with detached infuser inside is from Daughter-in-law #2. She and my son also got me some assorted teas and a very nice hardback book on tea.

And this cute little Christmas tree tea infuser came with a bag of Christmas tea that I bought on clearance at Walmart today. I have several different shapes of infusers but not this one. Some day I'll have a way to display all these pretties.

Tomorrow I'll post about my plans and goals for 2009. For now, I want to wish everyone a magnificent year full of love and laughter and inspiration!