I'm in the process of tatting the cat bookmark from Dianna Steven's book, A Tatted Zoo.
Amazon says it is out of print so look for it from the individual vendors.

I'm making this for my great-grandson and will probably make a bunny one too. They're so cute. He has not forgotten. My sister stopped there the next day and we look enough alike that he gets confused about who is who. He asked her if she brought her sewing and she was completely lost on what to answer. I should have it done already but I got sidetracked on some needle lace I'm learning. I'm tatting it in some size 40 thread I got from Tatskool. I call it Tequila Sunrise but it's actually called Flame Lantana, after a flower. I'd forgotten it was size 40 so the bookmark is smaller than others I've made.

A few days ago I decided to upgrade to IE9 since it was offered along with some MS updates. Oh my....it did not play well with Blogger at all! It took me the better part of the morning to get the information that it actually was IE and not something I wasn't understanding. So I uploaded Google Chrome as suggested by someone and I was able to publish my blog - my lace blog. Hadn't written here yet. Unfortunately, not all browsers are the same. Fortunately for some people, from their POV, but for me, it's a pain. Chrome is fine but I can't tell you how many times I closed everything I had open by accident! It also wouldn't show my work email with the folders which I need to refer to sometimes so I was using IE for that email and Chrome for all the rest. Today I tested blogger on IE to see if it would publish now and it did so apparently that glitch is gone. I'm still getting used to IE9 but at least I'm only using one browser now. Another thing I couldn't do with Chrome is create a shortcut to my computer from the site. It did have some features I did like, so not all was lost and I still have it when I need it.

I got more cleaning and sorting done in the basement yesterday, emptying 3 more storage cubes. Yay! I'm going through the remainder this afternoon so maybe I'll have everything back in place by next weekend, including moving what is upstairs down to the basement. I found a needlepoint kit that I had never finished. It was a Christmas ornament, booties, personalized with your child's name and the year. I had done the center on both booties, with my youngest son's name, Jesse Smith, and the year, 1982, his 2nd Christmas. I made myself pitch it. I probably un-pitched it 3 times but in the end, it's in the bin. Now the bag isn't in the garbage can yet, but no worry, I won't pull it out. Sometimes you have to be strong! He's 29 years old now. HE DOESN'T CARE! LOL! And there are plenty of other things that I did complete. He is not deprived and I didn't enjoy that kit anyway. That's why it never got finished! It was one of several kits I bought at an after-Christmas clearance CHEAP. Ooooohhh....I hear you groaning.....you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about!

BTW, speaking of clearance,at one time, Walmart was trying to sell these magazine holders for $7 each. In Designer colors along with other desk accessories.

Well, apparently they were overstocked because they were on sale a few weeks ago for half price and I just happened to be in the store. I bought six of them. See how nicely my tatting books look on the shelf now?

When they were still regular price, I did find some black plastic holders for less and bought three, no four, of those. They are wider than the white ones but the back is narrower than the front so they don't sit as nicely on the shelf. They're okay but I was glad to see the white ones on sale. I still don't have all my books here though. I plan to get rid of my collection of How-to books in the near future so that should open up an inch or two.

And these are my binders of printouts. There is a second row as full as this one and several that are not on the bookshelf at all. Not all the printouts are tatting, but the majority are. Some are sewing, embroidery, knitting, crocheting, "other" crafts. I hope to get a second bookshelf.

I don't know if I can get rid of any tatting books. I think some of the vintage stuff is reprinted in other formats so if I would just take the time to sort it out, I might open up some space that way too. Really...I feel blessed. Once upon a time all I had for tatting was Workbaskets and the patterns in the How-To book. A little over a decade later, I'm overflowing. May you also be so blessed.

Nora

This is Nora from Tatted Butterflies by Adelheid Dangela. It's tatted in Tatskool's Berry Burst, size 40, and Venus Black, size 40. I'm disappointed in how puny it looks in the scan as the colors are really very vibrant. The camera shot was even more washed out.

I kept making mistakes in the stitch count of the rings and just made them consistent all around. Then I realized I was off on the outer chains by a stitch or two also. It might have been more noticable with a bigger thread but it wasn't really a problem with the size 40.

Enough of this diversion! I'm back to the challenge now. It's been so busy between work and home lately that I haven't had a lot of spare time. I hope it slows down soon.