Happy Holidays have begun!

I've been cleaning this week. Today we put 4 bags out for the garbage. I normally only have one! I took 3 boxes to Goodwill yesterday and I have several empty boxes now that I also broke down to put out with the garbage. Earlier in the week, I met with Carol Amich to give her a box of painting and craft magazines and to chat. I wasn't expecting a Christmas Treat but I got one!



I'll bet I took 20 pics of this trying to get it to show clearly! Finally I hung it on my white blocking board and it showed up. You still can't see all the details. Carol made the kitty and the shuttle it's holding from clay and painted it. The tatted motif is attached to the shuttle still. Kitty is sitting on a green tatted motif with gold beads and there are 3 tiny balls of thread too. Isn't he an adorable ornament?

She also tatted a little gingerbread house which hung inside the card. It smells wonderful! She spritzed it with cinnamon scent so that makes it all the more "delicious"!

She also gave me a shawl pin and a tube of beads. I had trouble getting the shawl pin to photograph nicely and now can't find it. I have lots of shawls to use it with and may even use it this Saturday at Dickens of Christmas in downtown Lafayette. I'm demonstrating with my lace guild in the storefront of the Lafayette Brewing Company. I usually have lunch and a glass of their Christmas Ale afterwards but my friend Paula won't be there with me this year since she just moved to Texas!

OH, I almost forgot - I got to see Bella and baby albino Bella! Baby Bella isn't done but she is gorgeous as is her mum. The photos online can't define their beauty. One of the wings is done and it sparkles with tiny pink and clear beads. Carol does beautiful work.

One night, desperate for a tatting fix, I tatted this "galoon" from a vintage DMC publication from the Antique Pattern Library. What is a galoon? Theresé Dillmont apparently knew it as different from an edging and an insertion. So I googled it. Google kept trying to get me to search for "gallon" instead. I did find this one post from KnitaPug blog and the author had the same problem I did but she persevered. I gather it is considered a braid or braid-type of embellishment. I have an idea, some fabric to put it on, along with a few other tatted bits so I think an embellishment would be the correct term.

Needing another tatting fix last night, I tatted this angel for an aunt who broke her leg a few weeks ago and is confined for awhile in rehab. This is Marjorie's Angel by Martha Ess. I think it's called Marjorie's Angel because that is who it was originally made for in an angel round robin many years ago. It tatted up faster than I remembered and I even used two colors for a change. I think I'll retat the halo. I had a lot of trouble with the gold thread and the rings didn't close right. I love the skirt of this angel! It is tatted in Aida size 20, color 875 (green) and color 107 (pink) which I bought in Australia when I visited in 2005.

Sale at The Tatting Corner! They're having 5% to 10% off selected items each week for the next three weeks. Manuela thread the first week, shuttles the second week, and tatting needles the third week. You're also entered into a drawing for a $25 gift certificate each week. They have the new Clover shuttles but I thought I would wait until I go there for tatting guild and save myself the shipping fee.