Thanks to my son-in-law, I'm virus free and everything is intact! It was a fairly common virus and easily removed but he went further and checked my whole system out.

You might think I tatted up a storm in the blogging vacation but it was all this white stuff. LOL!

I mentioned that my lace friend Sally and I are going to play with dye in September and this is part of my preparation. I had a ball of DMC size 40 that was getting small so I've been tatting it away. There's still a bit more left. There's a yard of the hen & checks edging. I think around 14" of the ring and chain edging. The butterfly is from Adelheid Dangela's book, Tatted Butterflies, but I don't remember the name of this one and I'm not home to check.

The three flower fragments are from Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns, as is the corner motif which is the piece I test-tatted when I made my daughter-in-law's bridal hanky to see how far from the first row that the second row would be. Maybe I can make it into something special for my granddaughter some day.

I also have some crochet lace pieces I've picked up here and there and I intend to tat more motifs before the BIG DYE DATE.

Tatting Fool was looking for a simple bag to embellish with tatting since she doesn't sew. I offered (and so did others) to make one for her. I looked through several whites in my stash and come up with this one, which I later figured out was fabric from a skirt my mom wore. I think she even made it. I knew I would never wear it so I took it apart for the fabric. Well.....now I'm thinking this fabric will make some wonderful "memorial" gifts for family members. The fabric can be used for drawn work too so I'm just brimming with ideas now! Thanks to TF for prompting me to find it. I'm anxious to see how she decorates the bag too.

At the weekend I got to visit a little with my oldest grandson (the big guy) and my great-grandson (the little guy). I've mentioned him before but most people forget I have a great-grandson. I have this pic on my office door along with the most recent of my new granddaughter and when coworkers ask who he is and I tell them, they are surprised, even though I had a photo of Cameron in a Superman suit on the door for ages when he was a baby. He's four now and so smart. Remembers EVERYTHING!

Update - sorry- I was asked to remove the photos of my granddaughter.

I had to take this photo of my son's cat, Diogi, the one who lays on her back ALL the time. This time she is on the sofa back, obviously deep in sleep. As long as I put the terry cloth towels on the back, they stay on those which I like for fur control. I just pop them in the washer and put a fresh towel on. Not pretty exactly, but it works! I don't know what kept her from sliding right off the back but she stayed in place.

Hexagon in Black!

I think this looks much better with this flower color, don't you? (still not blocked) A pastel would go well with ecru or white or a pale green, but this is too bright and intense. I'll finish up the bag and put it on my other lace blog but I intend to continue the tatted version too and will show it here.

I changed the rose slightly, adding a chain stitch between petals and it lays much better. It's also a tidge bigger because it is laying flatter. For the tatted version, the outside will be mostly chains and josephine rings but I may use clunies too. Not sure I want to tackle that but it would be a good refresher and truer in replication.

Yep, one more done! That's me in the middle with my buddies. My personal one will probably have some tatted lace and a shuttle in her hand when I'm done.

I just get tickled when I see Diogi laying like this. She does it all the time. I don't know if it's to keep cool or if she's too fat to lay on her belly much. I don't know how much she weighs but she's hefty to pick up. My male cat that is outside is putting on weight again. The two sets of cats get stressed when in the same room together, even after a year. Mine always go out in the summer anyway so they're all getting some relief. I brought mine in one night thinking they might want to cool off with all this heat but a few hours later, they couldn't wait to go out again.

So, another late night post done. Night all!

Inspiration

Where do you get your inspiration? I know I've asked this before and I'm not looking for an answer so much as prompting you to think.

I followed a link on Craftzine the other day and found this handmade doily.

Not your ordinary doily! I can't see what she is using as a hook but this is super-sized crochet! The rug will be featured in a book, Crafting a Meaningful Home, and you can learn more about it at ladiesandgentlemenstudio.com

So why wouldn't you do this in tatting? Shuttle issues, for one thing. How would you make a ring? How wide can you spread your fingers for something this gigantic? I think a doily made entirely of chains might work. A needle tatter might be able to use the largest size knitting needle to craft it too.

Just a thought......

Souvenirs ~ a stone I picked up at Winona Lake

Stones collected by my parents and myself over time

More stones that sit on my ledge outside

I've mentioned from time to time that I liked rocks. I actually have a box of rocks somewhere but with all the moving around since my son moved in, I couldn't remember where they were. So I used the stone from Winona Lake, and inspired by crochet work of Margaret Ooman from Resurrection Fern, and prompted by a tutorial created by her and featured on Purl Bee.com, I set out to make my own ~ but with a tatted center. Once I get the hang of this, I'll try tatting the remainder where I've now crocheted, but crocheting is a whole lot faster and easier to rip out than tatting! This one isn't actually quite done, but you can see how it will look. I need to make a few more rounds to secure it underneath.

I had to take this pic of Diogi guarding the rock outside my bathroom. It's pretty big to tackle now but just wait til I get better at this and she is not looking.......bwah-ha-ha...

Oh, and check out the Flickr Group of Lace Covered Stones. There are some very creative folks there!

Whaddya Think????

How do you like the new 3 column look? That part really didn't take long because I've done it on another blog or two, but finding a background.....pshew! I'll bet I've looked at two hundred backgrounds this evening and my back hurts and my eyes burn. I don't like the stark white centers but most have that or a dark color which meant I'd have to change the color and font of all my text elements and I wasn't in the mood to do that tonight, so this is it for awhile. I'll still be tweaking it but I've wanted a 3 column blog for ages and ages!

I was at Michael's Crafts at the weekend and they had some grab bags for $2 each. I fondled and poked and pressed the white plastic bag up against whatever was inside looking for something good. I got two bags. One was tagged "artist grab bag" and the other was "misc grab bag". I could tell they had brushes but thought they were the CHEEP craft kind. I was actually hoping for other good stuff in the bag and there were a few things, but THE JACKPOT was a total of 47 artist's brushes between the two! I paint. I have a good supply of basic brushes, but these are all the other brushes I would like to buy but can't justify the expense! I was so excited. I sat at my kitchen counter for well over an hour on Sunday, peeling off the stickers and labels that were on them, looking them all over. Tatting is one of my passions. Painting is the other.

That's Diogi (pronounced like you're spelling D-O-G), my son's cat. I was trying to take a photo of the brushes and she was hoping there was something there for her. Or maybe it was the natural bristle brushes that got her attention. You know...squirrel, sable, badger....

Isn't this beautiful? My daughter crocheted it for her sister-in-law's baby shower - yep, same one I went to! She went to a lot of trouble to get just the right colors as well as the right pattern. It will go in the baby's room very nicely and the green is a nice balance for all that pink!

For those of you who have lots of badges and award signs on your blog, there's a way to manage them! Go to Mommy Moment and learn how to make a scrolling sidebar widget. One reason I stopped accepting awards and such was because it can easily eat up room on your blog and eventually clutters it so much that it's hard to see the newer stuff (and you can see I've already got LOTS of stuff!). They have lots of good information under Blog Tips/Tutorials. I could have used this tip during the OWOH giveaway! It's how to set up your blog for NUMBERED COMMENTS!



Knitting humor! I originally saw this on Little Grey Bungalow but went to YouTube to get a smaller version. Wish tatters came up with some funnies!

No actual tatting this time. I've been working on needlelace and if you've been observant, you noticed I added the link to a new blog up by my picture.

So much to do and so little time!