It suddenly dawned on me today that it is the LAST day of 2008 and I haven't tatted in days! I was determined to tat something before the day was over. I'd been lusting after Jon's celtic snowflake, (she has a different name for it but I can never remember it or spell it without looking it up) and I had that thread from Melissa, my Secret Santa, that I wanted to try, so here's the center. It has a very short repeat on the thread, about every inch, and it created this "beaded" sort of look.

Originally I picked a lavender to contrast with it but once I got the center done, it didn't look right so I tried this off-blue. Once I got that done though, it didn't seem quite right either.

So I tried this purple which really looked bad when I put them together! I did find a dusty sort of lavender in my stash but I was bored with making the second part by then so I just went with the blue. I was very pleased with the result.


Yeah, I made a bookmark out of it. You may have noticed I tend to do that quite frequently these days. A few years ago, I noted a great abundance of motifs as I tatted one of a kind just to try a thread or a pattern. I had so many that I even offered a challenge - to make 100 motifs in a year - as it seemed I must surely be doing. Apparently, that was too big of a bite for most people as I only heard from one person, Wally Sosa, and since there was only one person interested, I didn't pursue it. However, Wally and Sharon Briggs worked the whole idea over and came up with something much more palatable to tatters, especially new tatters, and it became the hugely successful 25 Motif Challenge. I'm so glad they did - it has encouraged new and seasoned tatters to tat more and design more and learn more. It also was the catalyst for all the tatting blogs we have now and ultimately, patterns like the one I just tatted.

Thanks especially to Sharon for setting up the blog and system to follow everyone. It really was a huge undertaking that I certainly wasn't equipped to do or even think of!

But all those motifs is also why I have started turning them into bookmarks! At least this way they aren't just sitting around and piling up. They become card inserts and small gifts.


Yesterday I ended up at a small (I thought) store in Rennselaer, Indiana called The Needle's Point that a friend recommended to me. I was hoping to find thread and there was thread, but it was all embroidery floss and quilting thread, nothing different from what I have. But the quilting section with fabric and threads and books was only part of the store. There was a room each for scrapbooking, for painting, for specialty kitchen items, and 2 rooms that appear to be a gift shop, like Hallmark's. In the end, I got the snowman tea-for-one which was 50% off. I wasn't going to get it, but ...darn...couldn't pass up a good price like that! I'll add it to my Christmas themed tea-for-ones. Also in the photo is the Tea Calendar from Daughter-in-law #1 and the tea ball with the tea cup. The white tea cup with detached infuser inside is from Daughter-in-law #2. She and my son also got me some assorted teas and a very nice hardback book on tea.

And this cute little Christmas tree tea infuser came with a bag of Christmas tea that I bought on clearance at Walmart today. I have several different shapes of infusers but not this one. Some day I'll have a way to display all these pretties.

Tomorrow I'll post about my plans and goals for 2009. For now, I want to wish everyone a magnificent year full of love and laughter and inspiration!

These are my teapots and the cup with a matching infuser. They are by Chantal. I just remembered there is someone on the member list named Chantal. LOL!

Tonight I'm drinking "Hiker's Heaven", a loose tea I bought in Missoula. It's flavored with black cinnamon and orange spice. It tastes very much like the spiced tea I bought at the Feast today.

I spent 3 hours at the Feast of the Hunter's Moon today demonstrating tatting. I got hot and sweaty which I didn't expect, but once I was done and got up and walked around, I cooled off. I kind of ate my way through. LOL!

I noticed lots of people knew the difference between tatting and bobbinlace. They weren't calling it knitting or crocheting for a change. So many people said these 3 things:
My grandmother tatted.
I want to learn how to tat.
It's a dying art.

sigh.............

We have an interactive bobbinlace pillow. I'm going to work up something that will be interactive in tatting for next year's Feast.

I've been working on another finger-purse. This one has a blue rose in the center and variegated blue for the outer part.

I managed to add a "to do" list to the right but I named it "wanna tats". I figured out how to do a strike-through so now I have to finish something so I can cross it off my list!

I'm really congested tonight - I think from the wood-smoke and being outdoors. I took an allergy pill but it didn't help. Also ate my son's cream of crab soup which is very spicy and made my nose run last night, but it didn't do anything for me now. I know there is a nasty cold virus going around right now. I think I just need to drink lots of water and flush everything out.

Speaking of tea

I was thinking about putting the tea infuser from this page on my Christmas list until I read the article and saw his designs start at $900! But that started me on a google and froogle search for tea infusers and I ended up ordering a duck shaped one and a teddy bear shaped one. And then later, I saw some more I wanted here and here. For the frog collector, there is even a frog-shaped infuser!



I wonder if there is a tatting shuttle shaped one?

Tonight I met with coworkers & their mates after work for drinks and dinner since one of them is going to TX in anticipation of a new grandbaby. She asked me last week if I would go with her to shop for a christening gown when she gets back. The one used for the last grandbaby is so old and fragile, it fairly disintegrated. She wanted my help with embellishing it - meaning tatting lace. LOL! Then this evening I saw in Sew Beautiful that there is a christening gown with a lace celtic cross on the gown part so I'm going to see if she would like a hand-stitched gown instead. I've wanted to make one for ages. Her son-in-law is of Irish descent and they named their first son an Irish name to continue the heritage so this gown is so appropriate for them. It's designed so that either boy or girl can wear it and in fact, the maker's grandchild that she designed it for was male. My friend's coming grandbaby is also a boy. I was not thinking of tatting an insertion for the celtic lace cross until this very minute. I was thinking of tatting an edging, but by golly - it's possible to tat an insertion too......big breath......that would be an awful lot of work though. Better just stick with the edging and use lace for the cross.



Remember my tatted bracelet, black with gold beads? Looked like honey bees? Well.....I have tons of those beads still, so I'm going to use those and black thread and gold blending filament to make some Fantasy Flowers that I will put in these gold glasses that I bought at Walmart. Perfect Purdue decor! And that's where it's going - in my office. I do believe I have some amber colored bugle beads too! This just keeps getting more and more funna.