Remember when I mentioned tatting Patti Duff's Mini-Tats? This is one that is so quick and versatile. I've tatted it with beads in the past in a few different ways but this time I left off the beads since it was going in a frame.

The reason I haven't posted about it is because it is a gift for my sister, whose birthday was last Sunday but I'm just seeing her tonight. I was disappointed that the scanner doesn't show the motif clearly through the front of the ornament but it really does like nice. I used some textured card stock for the backing and you can't see that either.

But here's the secret - this is a second motif with a second backing that is behind the first one so when she gets bored with it, TA-DA! She can just switch them out! The white motif is in a bigger thread and has 3 picots at each point so it practically touched the frame inside. That's why I altered the direction so that it looks like a square instead of a diamond.

My sister's gift is wrapped in a simple box but speaking of gift wrapping, I wanted to pass on a video I found yesterday on one of the OWOA blogs, Loose Ends. She got it from somewhere else but wow...doesn't the person in the video make it look soooooo easy! Now I know what I can do with all that fabric in my stash!

Furoshiki gift wrapping from RecycleNow on Vimeo.

Roses, Roses!

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed wandering through the blog of Luci Ayyat, known as DuhBe.com. I need to ask her how she came up with that name! I won 10 hand stitched roses in the colors of my choice at the end of the OWOH blog event.

Here's the box and you can see the roses are so lovingly packaged that I almost hated to open them up!

Luci has tons of colors available and I came close to getting 10 different colors but I plan to paint and rennovate my bedroom when it warms up and the color scheme will be white and yellow. Mostly white, so I decided to choose 7 lemon yellow roses and 3 ivory ones.

Here's a close-up of the yellow one. They are so luxurious to touch too. Soft and slick.

And a close up of the ivory. My other first choices were teal, 2 shades of green and 2 shades of purple/mauve. But that's not all Luci has on her blog! She has tutorials on all kinds of things, including her fabric roses. Tatters aren't the only fiber artists generous with their knowledge!

Thank you Luci!

Tatting Tea Tuesday 2-23-10

Well, here it is ~ Tatting Tea Tuesday and I have neither tatting nor tea news to pass on. I did see some teapots at Goodwill today but refrained from buying them. Instead, I bought a set of 4 wooden TV trays that I've been wanting for ages! That way I can set my tatting on the opposite side of my tea and one will not slosh all over the other.

(SMILE) Covered my butt there, eh?

As promised, here is another gift I won in the OWOH blog event! These lovely handmade Gnome Greeting Cards are from Paula Niziolek in Oregon. Her blog is On a Rainy Night, and features all kinds of handmade goodies.



"On A Rainy Night" reminds me of this song, Love a Rainy Night and it keeps going through my head while I'm writing this!

Paula crochets these cute little gnomes - well, the chick is definitely knitted - so I think she does both, and then follows them around for their adventures, photographs them and records their stories. Kind of like we do with the Leprechauns! She has stitched the photos onto the card and added some decorative stitching here and there.

See his cute little blue bag? It made me wonder what kind of treasures he found.

Here's the whole set. I think I know some kids who may end up with these at some point during the year. It should spark their imagination!

And look at this sweet message stamped on the envelope flap. I didn't catch the tree stamped inside the card or "handmade" on the back with a little birdie as well as a tiny chick sticker until just now!

Thank you Paula for such a cute little gift!

I intended to post this much earlier but had forgotten I had a dinner to attend right after work. The Environmental Health section of our department oversees food safety as part of their responsibilities all over campus. Often their student workers are enrolled in the Hotel & Restaurant Management program. A requirement for graduation is to plan and prepare a full course dinner in the John Purdue Room. When you go to all that trouble, of course you want people to show up and eat. It's pricey but it's only once or twice a year since we keep the same students for a few years and they only do this once. I've only gone to one other one. So I met 2 other coworkers there and we all ordered the Beef Wellington. Meals are regularly served in this campus restaurant and I've never been impressed with the portions or taste so I would never blame it on the students. They are only doing what they are taught to do. The beef was good and I liked the flatbread and asparagus, although some butter on the asparagus would have been nice. The blueberry dessert was quite good too although I seldom eat dessert. The soup wasn't one I'd have again and the appetizer - I don't even know what it was other than pink and mushy and rather tasteless. The roasted potatoes were just okay. The spinach salad had a bit of wonderful spiced pear in it and almonds but you could barely taste the vinegrette. In fact, my friend swore hers was just oil and no vinegar or other seasoning. As I said though....the meals prepared by regular staff at this place are not the best. We were there to support the student and it's a lot of work to plan and prepare not only the featured special but other items on the menu for dozens of people arriving at different times. It certainly was not a disaster and I left feeling quite full!

I worked a bit on my T.A.T. last night and am down to ONE project. I may retat another and I have to do the finishing part of another segment. Then I am done! None of them are quick and easy get-er-done things but once I get to it, it should be a fairly smooth ride.

Then I have BABY STUFF to be tatting! My granddaughter will be here in less than 3 months!

Here's the momma finishing up the painting. My son will put up the chair rail afterwards.

I can't wait!

I stayed home today for an ssortment of reasons but two naps ended up being part of it! I thought about the mail a few times but I have to walk 2/10ths of mile-long lane and it's drab and slushy and I just couldn't quite make myself go. I secretly hoped that my son would pick up the mail when he got home instead, even though I knew it wasn't likely since I'm the one who almost always grabs it as I come home. So I'd just about decided I'd wait until I headed to work tomorrow.

Then I happened to visit Icela's blog. She got the faeire pouch that she won in the OWOA blog event! I was a lucky winner five times ~ how can you forget about that? Well...I got involved in my tatting. That explains it, huh? At least for today!

So I trekked out to the mailbox and yay!, it was full. I actually received THREE parcels today but I will only post about one each day. I want each participant to shine on their own.

This is one of the first I learned about, a beautiful pendant from Trudi Sissons at http://www.twodressesstudio.blogspot.com/ Actually, the photo she took is much better than this one! Trudi is a mixed media artist in Canada. She is multi-talented, working with blog design as well as mixed media in various other forms. In fact, her blog designs have been featured in a few magazines which are listed in her sidebar.

This is the backside of her pendant which looks as good as the front side! I had a lot of fun looking through Trudi's blog and discovering we had more in common that I would have suspected. Well...from my point of view anyway. LOL!

Now that the OWOA is over, I am visiting the blogs a few at a time, not 100/day to get through them and I'm finding so many creative and inspiring folks around the world. I've already added a few links in my "inspiring blogs" category.

Be sure to visit some if you can. We can all benefit from each other!

And Trudi, Thank You again for your wonderful pendant! I love it!

It was a busy week and it flew by! Monday night my son was stuck sideways in front of my garage and Tuesday night the furnace was out, requiring a repairman visit and then HE got stuck in the very same way. I was able to help my son get out but the repairman had to call a tow truck. I really need to send an appreciative note to that company. Wednesday night I recovered. Thursday night I sorted through more of the Christmas decorations before they are stored away. (still going on) Next thing I know...here we are, Saturday!

I haven't been tatting much. but I worked on a project a bit both Thursday night and last night. This is all I'll show for now. It's a motif from Patti Duff's Mini Tats, which I'm beginning to consider a tatting classic. It's been tatted in size 40, 70 and 80. I keep thinking it might look better if I do it with 5 petals instead of 6. Hopefully you'll see the comparison tomorrow.

I stumbled across this thrift find last night that I'd forgotten about. I got it in Greenfield at the end of January for 75 cents! It's a bell, obviously with some age on it.

But look! It's not just a bell! It's a music box! Tucked inside like that, it's difficult to wind up much but it does play. It's a common music box tune but I can't remember the name. In my search to jog my memory, I found The Music House, which makes music boxes to order and repairs them. They have several tune samples to listen to but I didn't find this one. I've heard it in a lot of movies. sigh...

Here's another view of the "clapper". I was also playing with "macro" on my camera and zoomed in too.

Another macro test...see the glitter on the bell??

I can't figure out what it is made of. There is not a single identifying mark on it. I was wondering if it was cardboard heavily varnished. You can see a bit of paper peeled back here. It IS solid under the paper but very thin. I can't tell if it is glass or metal or...eggshell. I'm tempted to think it is a goose egg but don't know how to tell.

It was damaged which is probably why I got it so cheap. See how part of this piece is broken off? I think that is the letter "R" and it looks handwritten so I'm really wondering if this is not handmade?

I did find a few goose egg bells on Culturopedia.com. This link is an exhibition but check out the goose egg galleries 1-6. You can follow directions to make your own egg bell at the Eggstravaganza.co.uk site. They list several musical movements too, both the press on kind and the wind up kind so now I'm convinced this truly is an egg and handmade. Extravaganza is in the UK. I didn't find any other images on my google search.

If this one is not extremely valuable, I might try to remove the bottom circles where the one piece is broken. Don't you think it would look even more delicate with tiny tatted rings where the gold braid is? Just an idea........

Tatting Tea Tuesday 2-16-10

Image by Hocus-Pocus Chick

I can't believe I forgot today! I had this post started but barely. While visiting blogs yesterday, I found a tea wallet tutorial that I thought was so cute. You can find it here! It's felt applique with embroidery but use your imagination...how would you add tatting to it?

I did tat a quick bookmark last night but it's already in the mail and missed the camera. I stitched quite a bit on the needleroll on Sunday night but at the moment my fingers are so sore from the tips cracking in this low humidity and cold weather. I was out last night helping my son get unstuck for about an hour. Once I got back in and warmed up, I noticed my thumb and two fingers had split open near the nail corners. I opted for superglue, not wanting to wear bandaids, but they are so tender - I kind of wish I had.

I keep saying I'm going to finish up my T.A.T. course but haven't yet. SIGH!!!! I just got my Christmas tree taken down at the weekend! Ornaments are in a single box though and have not been put away properly. I'm trying to get to that evenings this week. Last night I emptied one storage container. I'm also going through everything again. I'd gone through my Christmas decorations last fall but there were some things I wasn't sure about getting rid of so I kept and thought I would revisit it after Christmas....that's what I'm doing now. So my living room floor is a mess again but should be clear by the weekend. Then I will do my taxes and my T.A.T. for sure.

I think.

Valentine's Day is over but I thought I'd show an old favorite. I tatted these for an exchange many years ago. The center daffodils or blossoms are from a collar in Mary Konior's Visual Patterns. The heart is also hers - the Queen of Hearts. I added a repeat of one of the side segments to make it big enough to hold the blossoms in the center. I need to make a duplicate of these for myself.

Well...back to work.

One World One Heart Winners!

Dorcas ( Comment #82 )from Wondrous Strange Designs is the winner of the pouch with tatted embellishments!

The winner of the beaded tatted heart is comment #2, Shelly of The Art & Musings of Shelly Rae Wood!

Thank you everyone for stopping by and peeking in!

Tatterly's Heart

My next heart is one I've been wanting to tat for years - the printout says 1999 on it! The link no longer exists but I found one with the Wayback Machine and you can find it here. It is a design by Dianna Stevens. (update - forgot to mention the name of this pattern is Tatterly's Heart.) UPDATE - if the link does not work for you, copy and paste the following into a separate window:
http://web.archive.org/web/20071111170606/http://members.aol.com/DomestArts/Heartinst.html
I tatted this one in Manuela size 20 and color 124. It's about 3" wide and 2 1/2" tall.

I didn't like the way the loose rings flopped around. It made it hard to keep track of what was joined where. Dianna designed it in 1998 and I do think it is such a delicate looking heart but I wondered if it wouldn't look even better in a finer thread.

So I went to DMC size 80, color 3706. The number of stitches is consistent on each ring so I added side picots to join the rings to each other which kept them from flopping around. If you look close on the bigger one, you can see the petals are mostly unjoined. I don't think it really has a visual impact on the finished heart either way, but it was so much easier to keep track of where I was and where to join. The smaller heart is 2 1/4" wide and 1 3/4" high. I thought it would be even smaller. It does look dainty though! This might have to go on something for my granddaughter to-be in May!

Here's a shot with the two hearts together. There are several split rings in this too. I was just wondering about the chains maybe being green and the petals a flower color but that would just get too fiddly with all those split rings. Yeah...SSSR...but I'm a great believer in "if it ain't fun, don't do it".

And once again....I'm up WAY TOO LATE!!!

Tatting Tea Tuesday 2/9/10

Remember the giveaway I had of the Simplicity pattern? I had a duplicate and the one thing I really wanted to make was the tea cozy. (or cosy as it is spelled in some places) I've been determined to make a tea cozy for TTT for weeks! I started crocheting one I found through a link from the OWOH but the directions were horrible and I finally reached a point where no matter what I did, it was not going to come out right.

I thought I'd have to wait yet another week - but - out of nowhere, I was inspired to sew the one in the pattern!

Here it is! I used a couple of fat quarters in my stash and a purchased hanky. It's currently hugging a tea-for-one which wouldn't work at all since I would be drinking out of the cup but I do have some teapots big enough for this. This is the smaller 3 cup pot pattern. My tea-for-ones are in all sizes, some very tiny, some very tall, some very round, some inbetween. Now that I've actually sewn one though, I can play with the dimensions and make more.

And do you remember the tatted lace in that same post about the giveaway that I was considering putting on the little tea envelope? I haven't attached it to anything yet, but I did pin it on one side here just to see what it would look like. I've been debating whether to tat the lace in white or red, but I will go with white. Some of my red tatting has bled just a little and the colors in the cozy are a very deep red so might be hard to match.

I'm just so proud of this little cozy! True humili-tea!

This heart pattern is fairly new, designed last year by Linda Davies, also known as Tattyhead. You can find the link on her blog which takes you to the PDF HERE!

I have to admit I took some liberties with the pattern, though not exactly planned. (in other words, not paying attention!) I couldn't find an email on her blog or profile but I wanted to let her know the clovers have "RW" after each ring and it only needs it after the 3rd ring. Once you read it's a clover, you'll know you don't reverse work but I was hoping to contact Linda before anyone printed out a new pattern. I mistakenly made all the lower chains with 5 picots when actually they were supposed to be descending in number to 3 in each chain. I also threw a tiny ring off the bottom point chain out of personal preference. That part I meant to do!

I tatted it in King Tut quilting thread, using 2 strands wound together. It is size #40/3 in color 945. The size is according to sewing thread, not tatting. It's more like size 80 and I did try tatting with a single strand but it broke on the 3rd ring and looked too sparse. Most tiny threads look delicate and wispy. This one just looked starved! The color shadings showed up better with 2 strands too.

Another big favorite of mine is Betsy Evans' heart bookmark. I've used the hearts alone for many other uses, like here!

HEARTS!

I managed to get more of my living room floor opened up. What's left is mostly empty boxes so whenever my son brings up the Christmas storage containers, I can take the tree down. FINALLY!

Tonight I tatted one of my favorite hearts, Heart's Desire by Sue Fuller. The book is currently out of print but hopefully Sue will reprint it soon. There are many other patterns in the book worth having. I have tatted her Holiday Tree many many times as a card insert or small gift. It's SO EASY!

I tatted this in Altin Basak size 50, color #356. It's a sort of salmon or coral color. I scanned it several times but my camera brought out the color at its truest.

As you can see in this scan where I put it in a birthday card for my daughter-in-law, the scan makes the thread look much pinker. Another reason why I'm not fond of this scanner/printer.

These are from Birgit Phelps Peacock Heart pattern. When I tatted Irene's Heart of the Butterfly, I filled both shuttles nearly full and I didn't need all that thread so I tatted Birgit's heart and still had enough to tat another one plus some heart balloons. If I'd been thinking, I could have tatted the two together to make a basket, but it didn't occur to me at the time. Birgit has some clover earrings on her pattern page too if you are planning ahead for St. Paddy's Day.

I've currently visited over 800 of the 1049+ blogs in the One World One Heart blog event. Pshew...that is hard on the eyes! The ones with music annoy me because they always make my browser very slow. I open up 5 at a time and it's hard to find out which one (or two sometimes) has a player. If I can shut the player off, everything works normally. I understand the desire to have music on one's blog. I did too for awhile but it was more trouble that it was worth. I try not to have hardly any third party applications going on with my blog. The more you have, the more portals a virus can enter in through.

Well, I've already started another heart so I think I'll get back to it while there is still some evening left. My son went to friends' to watch the game which is perfect for me!

Heart of the Butterfly

I loved this pattern the very first time I saw it. I tatted this one in Cebelia size 30. No color number on the label or inner spool but it is obviously red! I used a printout from 2001 but that's only because it was in my Heart binder and handy. I also have the book edited by Georgia Seitz titled "Tatting Online, The Official 1999 Tat_Chat Pattern Book." You can email Georgia to find out if the book is still available. The pattern is on page 65 (corrected 3/13/10) and designed by Irene Woo.

I met Irene when I went to Palmetto one year. She is a sweetie. Quiet, unassuming, but taking it all in. Irene tats up a sample of every thread with the same pattern and writes every bit of information she can think of on an index card with the tatted sample. One of the classes at Palmetto one year was presented by Irene Woo and Hope Green about how they organized their samples. They go to way more trouble than I ever will but it is because of their perserverance that we know about the properties of many threads. If you want to be serious about your tatting and potentially designing, it's a good practice to tat up samples of new threads and keep notes about how they perform.

The book has patterns shared by about 60 tatters. Isn't that fabulous? I often visit other blogs about other crafts, like crazy quilting, knitting, crochet, polymer clay art, and stitching. Tatters are, by far, the most generous with their patterns and techniques. That may be why no one is getting rich selling their tatting product, but it still says something very positive about us. I also find it interesting that even though I have an extensive library of free patterns via online printing, I still buy books from as many as I can afford, currently at least 100. Freebies hasn't stifled my purchasing habits at all!

Well...hoping to have a very productive weekend! Nope, I'm not into football.

Yesterday I had lunch at Sgt. Preston's with my cousin Deb (left) and my sister Linda (right). Both are talented craftsters. Deb had made a photo album for her son of her late father and his family and I was getting a sneak preview. It was beautiful and I loved seeing old photos of people who were part of my childhood. Her dad's family actually grew up on a farm very close to where I lived. In fact, her mother and another sister of my mom, married brothers in that family so they are all near and dear to my heart. It was the first time I'd seen such early (aka YOUNG) photos of her grandparents and aunts and uncles. It feels funny to be way older than any of them were in those photos.

After my last post, I decided I NEEDED to tat! So I threw all my pinks and reds into one bag with the intention of tatting hearts with my Valentine colored stash. I started out emptying a shuttle with red thread and got almost done before running out of thread. I'll get back to it later. It was late and I didn't want to try to figure out how much thread to put on the shuttle to finish it.

Then last night I got home later too, but sat down and wound a few shuttles and tatted this sweet little heart basket. The pattern is by Witt Wittman and you can contact her from her website to purchase the pattern. It used to come with one of her books but I think she sold it separately too. I forgot to put a tassle on this one but it's nice even without it. I tatted it in Oren Bayan, size 12 perle, and in color 99.

I hope to tat a few more from favorite patterns over the next week. This little heart basket is a favorite,as well as Mary Konior's Queen of Hearts, Sue Fuller's Heart's Desire, and Irene Woo's Heart of the Butterfly. I also love the Daisy Heart from Workbasket, a heart basket by Rosemarie Peel, and Martha Ess's entire book of hearts, Tat's Amore! Those are my absolute favorites. There are a few I haven't tried that I want to try yet, but these are the ones I keep coming back to.

Watch for more valentines as the days progress!

- - Tuesday

I have pretty much NOTHING for TTT this week!

I've been so busy taking the magic carpet tour of blogs that I haven't done much handwork at all. One night I stitched a bit on the needle roll and another night I did start crocheting a tea cozy, a pattern I found through the tour of blogs. I'm only on #400 and there are currently 924! Do you think I'll make it through all of them before the 14th? I suspect not. I open up 5 at a time but I've noticed the browser is slow once I click on a few links and once I'm seriously looking at them, the browser gets even slower. I think it's because it's caching all these sites. Happens at home and work both. There are so many I want to explore further but when the browser is slow, I just look at the post for the OWOH and go on to the next. I've favorited a few but I'm not real good about going through my favorites.

At any rate, I'm raising awareness about tatting - except I'm NOT tatting! LOL! And the two things I want to get tatted are for T.A.T. and I can't post them. Well, it's only Monday so hopefully I'll catch up with myself by the end of the week!

I'm also making a strong effort to get to the gym more consistently. I got some of the boxes in the hallway into the closet yesterday but I'm not sure where I want which box. I'm trying to make it convenient to get to what I will use the soonest and that's like playing Wheel of Fortune. LOL!

I'm sure I'll tat something soon but for now....nada.

Oh...but look! It's a faerie tea party tea cup by Christen Brown!


And I don't have permission to post this so look quick - I'll probably have to remove it even though I've linked back.

See what I do in a pinch???? I'm hoping to inspire you though....where would YOU add tatting?