Look! I found these adorable printables on a link from How About Orange? They're created and hosted by Wild Olive!

You can even personalize them a bit once printed out. For those who are participating in the tatting thread exchange, what a nice touch! I just used a sheet of card stock. That orange blob was meant to be an earring. Heavy hand. What can I say?

I sent off my application for the final segment of T.A.T. I'm looking forward to wrapping it up.

So here we are - the tatted snowflake center #3 from Lene Bjorn's 24 Snowflakes. None of this has been blocked, btw. The tatted center is slightly smaller than the crocheted one but blocking could easily remedy that. I hope to start crocheting the black tomorrow night - well, after crocheting another center. Both of these centers tend to bowl up in the middle. I may be crocheting and tatting the chains in both a bit too tightly.

I don't want to start yet a third pattern but I liked Umitsuru's comment about Jeanne L's rose center too. There are hexagon shaped tatted doilies out there so the outer part could be patterned after those if you didn't want to try this Irish Crochet effect. I'm excited to see where this will go with both.

No special comments about tea other than I drank plenty of iced tea today as well as fit in this tatting. I keep seeing all kinds of things to post about for TTT, but the day just seems to creep up on me like a sudden rainstorm!

Oh Look! Our very own Nina Libin!



Okay, only her hands and certainly not her voice. If you have ever met Nina, you know she is Russian and has a strong accent. This video is a result of an interview posted at www.readymade.com Chains aren't shown but once you master the making of the stitch, chains are easy.

I've been having great fun on my magic carpet ride! I've visited 185 of the 796 (currently) blogs involved. New blogs are added every day so it's a challenge to keep up! I've seen a little tatting, mostly used in other projects and gotten so much inspiration in other places. I'll be posting about some of them as we move along.

I've been very busy this week. Ah...I have a free night! I misread an invite to the Sugar Creek Art Center and thought an event was going on tonight but it's TWO weeks away. I spent a few nights this week finishing up the tatting for my giveaways in the OWOH blog event. My weekend will be a bit busy too but I'm going to work towards finishing T.A.T. and getting the remaining boxes out of the living room. I want to get a new TV soon and need to be able to get to the old one!

I would also like to take my tree down. It's almost February. Maybe I could just take all the Christmas ornaments off and put tatted hearts on it? I've probably given away every heart I've made though. Just have a few I've received in exchanges and one of them is bobbinlace. Oh..actually, I think I made several hearts last year as I was trying out different patterns and they are still in the pattern pages. I put my printouts in those clear protective pages and then in binders eventually. I have one binder labeled "hearts" and it's full. It's not that hearts are my favorite motif to tat, there are just so many patterns available!

I also plan to visit my son and pregnant daughter-in-law. I haven't seen them since Christmas and she was just getting a little bump there at the time. We're halfway there so that means I need to get busy figuring out what baby stuff I want to do! I need to make one bootie. Yes, ONE. I already made one a few years ago for the little 3 year old who is my goddaughter. I tested it on her before I made the 2nd one for her christening. She was 6 months old by then and the bootie was too small so I adapted the pattern and made it bigger. I planned to make the 2nd of the first pair for my son anyway - just hadn't gotten to it.

Well...back to work. Hope you all tat this weekend!

Last week was my first full week back at work since the holidays. The week before should have been but I was sick two days, not deathly ill, but enough to not want to expose anyone else. I thought it was a cold but I think it was a different virus now as I got over it way too quickly for a cold. So this week was tiring. I wasn't overly busy although I had appointments scheduled every day. It was those evening activities that wore me out! Monday I managed to make it to the pool/gym again. Plans to continue that did not materialize but I will go today. Tuesday night I met with a lace friend to look at her new all-in-one printer/scanner. I'm seriously considering giving my current one to my son and getting one like hers that does what I want it to do in a way I can follow! Then we went to dinner. Wednesday night I went to my daughter's house and she highlighted my hair and I visited. (new photo shows new highlights!) Thursday night I ran some errands and was just plain tired. Time to stay home for a change and I went through several boxes. And I did try to tat. More on that later. Friday, last night, I was again tired. Came home, went through some boxes, stitched, and went to bed on time. I don't remember when I got up but it was after 9:00 a.m. so I probably slept at least 10 hours. I'm very happy to have a 3 day weekend!

So...after that marathon earring tatting, I needed a break. By the time I started tatting on Thursday night, it was late and I was tired. I started one of the 2 remaining projects in T.A.T. Too late, too tired, and poor instructions. It is a new technique to me. I did finally get it but the instructions leave a crucial diagram out. There was only one phrase that gave me a clue: piggyback shuttles. Now I've done that before. These are samples of a technique I taught at Palmettos one year which required holding the shuttles that way but it's not the same kind of project. You just have to hold 2 shuttles together which is also called piggybacking them. So once I got that, I could figure out the next part although it was not really explained. The next step was way too much for my tired brain at that point. I'll have to tat up one of Martha's brain cells to get me through times like this!

I'm finding so many treasures as I downsize. This is a cupid stamp that I made in art class in high school. I buggered up one of the eyes a bit but this is my one and only attempt at making a stamp. We used a 3 x 3 inch linoleum block manufactured by The American Crayon Company (cost 28¢) and then transferred our design that we sketched on tracing paper and then carved away the background. Then we inked it with a roller and stamped with it. Messy. Looks like I might have slipped with cupid's arrow quiver and slid across his poor little face! I'd like to try stamping with it if I can find an ink pad big enough in my stash. I don't think I have one. I've only got a few stamps but my sister might have one. She's got a HUGE stash!

This is the stitching I did last night. This isn't entirely counted cross stitch, which I'm NOT good at but I've been itching to stitch, embroider rather than be limited to cross stitch, so I thought I'd start this. I've already got a needle roll started somewhere, but I'm determined to finish this one.

This should be the end result. The others I have are herb design needle rolls. I think I've actually given most of those kits away.

Here's one I'd forgotten about too. The embroidery covers a heart shaped tin. I've been putting my tatted motifs in decorative containers, mostly ceramic, lately. I don't think I've got a ceramic heart shaped conainer but I do have several tin ones.

And look! It came with a tin of Altoids in the kit! This one will be good for me to get a little different exposure to stitches without it being a huge project. I have a big one that is a "tea sampler" and I'm just not sure I want to tackle it. I actually have a coworker stitching one that is teapots because I can't fathom doing it myself. She likes cross stitch. I don't. LOL! I do like embroidery but not xxxxxx.

This is another kit that was a real bargain. Originally it sold for $27.76 and I got it for $2.77. Can't tell you when....but it has everything included in the kit. I wonder how long a bee's wax wheel is good? Oh, I do have to provide the fabric for the embroidery...velvet, linen, whatever...

I also found my teneriffe wheels and instructions. Some ancient knitting and crochet booklets. I have a group of maybe 5 that are only bags. I don't even like them. Why? Why? Why did I get them? Maybe they were included in something else. I'll probably sell those on ebay.

I have tons of wooden stuff to paint on. I didn't have the time to do it but I had the inspiration. I'm trying to downsize that pile.

Fabric and patterns. I've cut my patterns in half...again. I'm not as good about letting go of fabric. I'll have to work on that.