Happy Valentine's Day!

If you wondered what the heart looked like on Christina's Heart, a link I got from Bellaonline, which is overseen now by Georgia Seitz, this is it! I used the shaft of a crochet hook as the picot guage and since the picots are only 1 ds apart, I just left it in place and made continous picots which keeps them all the same size and creates this sort of figure 8 in the picot when you slide the hook out. Blocking it would take care of that but I kind of like it. I was tempted to crochet around the edge but kept forgetting and cutting off the thread. Maybe another time.

Crazy Mom posted the link to this heart yesterday but I'd already tatted it from a printout I had from last year. It was only when I went to block it last night that I found my mistake. Do you see it?

Hint: It's leaning to the left because it's a bit heavy on that side.

I have a binder full of heart patterns from the Internet. I've tatted most of them but there are still a few I want to tat. Nell's Old Glory Heart is one. I even bought red, white and blue sewing thread for it. I have no clue why sewing thread unless that was the fastest way I could get the right colored thread in 2001. Martha Ess's Two Hearts as One pattern is the other one. This is the link to one of the hearts. You'll need to visit the 2nd link to make the complete heart. Both patterns have been around since at least 2001 and I wanted to tat them from the get-go but I haven't. Why? Because I will have to really concentrate and sit still! LOL! And I'm making them for ME so it's like...no hurry...I'll get around to it! So if someone would please send me a Round TUIT, I'll tat them! It's been TEN years, for cryin' out loud!

I only need to hear from two more winners from the Blogaversary celebration with their mailing address and I'll be wrapping up the OWOH tour on Thursday/Friday so then I can get back to the 25 motif challenge. I've been eyeballing it but not too closely or I won't get everything sent out in a reasonable time! I already started knitting something last night to get my hands busy for a bit. It might turn into someone's birthday gift so I don't want to post it. But you all know how SLOWLY I knit so maybe it'll turn into a Christmas gift instead.

Take some time today to tell those you love that you LOVE them and for those you wouldn't feel comfortable saying "I Love You", then tell them something nice about themselves that you like or admire or deeply respect. We should let people know we care about them. It makes them blossom!

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.

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!

A "delphinium" from Tatting Collage by Lindsay Rogers becomes a Christmas or Evergreen tree with green metallic embroidery floss.

And upside down.....I think it might almost look like a dagger if done in gold and black. I may have to try that later - will check my shuttle leavings. One of the big rings looks a bit lumpy and I could tell it was going that way at the time but it was late.











I didn't really intend to tat so many hearts! This is a pattern I found while cleaning out that box at the weekend. It was a pattern in the Heartland Lace Guild newsletter that had been donated by Dorcas Newkirk. It says it is a tatted version of Eva Baumgartner's Bobbinlace heart found in Pillowtalk #51 - February 2003. It was in my lace guild's collection.

It went quite well until I joined to the long picots. The picture from the original shows the picots nicely crossed. I somehow twisted my first picot and then the last one somehow caught the picot before it too in the join. So now I have to make another one! This time I will pull the picots through each other because they will lay better that way and be more visible AND I'll make sure nothing is twisted or caught elsewhere. Yes, I could cut out the bad parts and re-tat but I like to keep my mistakes to help me remember the next time what not to do. I'm also feeling a powerful desire to put some beads in there somewhere and maybe even cross some more picots!

I used a picot gauge for the picots, the required length, but I wonder if they shouldn't be just a smidgeon longer? I believe this is a Flora thread, size 50. Very nice to work with - but I haven't found the ball to that one either. I can't imagine where all this missing thread is! Oh...I do remember something that might have some thread in it......

Great practice for split rings, btw. There is only one ring that is not a split ring!

Taking a break from tatting, which I'll get into shortly. Earlier this evening I headed to my daughter's to help celebrate a grandson's birthday - age 9 instead of 10 - I could have sworn he was going to be 10! But Katie will turn 10 next week so there is a 10 year old somewhere! The rain had turned to snow early on but the temperatures were still hovering right around freezing so it was mostly slush on the roads, but slick too. I stayed for a little over an hour, not wanting to push my luck too much with the weather. My son went on to friends but said he's probably coming home, even though I hinted he should stay in town. Don't know why a 21-year-old wants to come home, but maybe he doesn't trust me being home alone. I might party and drink up all his booze!

I'm having a bit of angst from this tatted heart. I started the side part again, watching for the extra picot this time, and then forgot that one side of the split ring had 2 picots and the other side only had 1, so I had to retro-tat 2 rings and redo them. Everything went pretty well from then on and I just finished that half - only to realize there are 3 josephine knots on the top arch of each half and the photo and diagram only show 2 JK. Dammit!!! I go back and read the directions which say to repeat * to * twice more........which means a total of 3 times, but it's only supposed to be 2 JK total. So now I have to find a way to compensate for the added distance between two joining rings at the top. I think I'll just do 1 or 2 little split rings to bridge the gap, but it pisses me off because there is nothing else to do except start over. I think it will look alright, but I won't know until it is finished.......grump, grump......... It is very pretty so far though. Maybe I will learn something about photos by the time I get it done and be able to put it on here! LOL!

My grandson liked the ruler with the alligator and stuff. My son-in-law liked it even more! My daughter hinted he would like a tatted rosary after I made the ones for my godparents..........so I should keep that in mind for his birthday in October. I get picky about the beads for those.......and I would like a crisper thread than what I used before. I got some really nice thread on a vintage shuttle once - which I've not been able to find anywhere quite the same, regardless of how high quality the thread is.

I think I'm going to change the text color to black - I found out how to do it but it will wait until tomorrow.

sigh.....my sister canceled out of the birthday party due to the weather so I didn't get to give her the bookmark yet. I've also enclosed a paper with several tearooms in Indiana listed on it. We adore tea rooms. She gets to pick and I'll treat for the travel and tea.

Well, now to tackle the other side of the heart.

Here is the heart pattern I'm using for my sister's bookmark. Betsy Evans is the designer. Rainbow Heart Bookmark