I've been busy surfing, surfing, surfing! I love inspiration.

For decades now, I've been saving "fancy" fabrics as well as bits and pieces of embellishment potentials and I've had a book for many many years of crazy quilt embroidery stitches. YEARS NOW! Don't you think it's time I did something about it?

I do

I would love to show you all the photos that have inspired me but that would require me to email each person and ask permission to use their photo and then wait...and wait..and wait...

I could just give you the links but that's not nearly as enticing as the visual.

Part of my "decluttering" process is to use all of those things I've been collecting over the years or get rid of it. As I've mentioned for three years running, this will be the year I finish my son's quilt. At least the box is now right next to my sewing machine. I still have one more quilt to make for my youngest son after that so I really need to get busy.

I'm currently tatting Martha's celtic teapot. I rejoined the gym on Tuesday and have spent the last two nights doing pool workouts which are so invigorating. They wear me out when I do them but the next day - wow, more energy than I've had in a long time! It also cuts unto my tatting time.

I was surprised this morning as I followed up on the google alerts for tatting posts to find myself featured here: http://www.learnthecraft.com/needlecrafts/tatting-hiding-the-1st-end. It's my YouTube video on hiding ends in a beginning ring. It's public and available so it's not like anyone has to have permission to use it, but it would have been nice to know about beforehand. LOL!

I started this post yesterday and am finishing it up today. I hoped to have the teapot done but I had company last night and by the time I got started on the final round, it was late. I'm almost to where I start the spout. I want to do a smaller version and I've been trying to figure out if it's possible and how to make it possible. I may try using a size 80 thread first to see how much smaller that makes it. The instructions include a finished size in relation to the thread size used and size 20 and 30 are both mentioned but not 80 so I think size 80 might make it small enough for what I want. If anyone has made this teapot in size 80, please let me know what the dimensions are!

I added a tail to the square teapot and am using it as a bookmark in the book I'm currently (s-l-o-w-l-y) reading. It's titled Burnt Bread & Chutney, a memoir about a subculture, Jewish Indians. The author was the odd girl out, a Jew in India, and then an Indian girl among American Jews. There is a wonderful secondary story about her Indian grandmother that is central to the overall story. It's not that the writing is riveting, but I enjoy learning about the religious impact in mixed cultures. A lot of the reviews describe it as boring or disappointing but I am happy that it is not sensationalized. It feels more real to me.