This is where I left off last time, getting ready to tat these beauties!

I took them to an Easter Dinner I was invited to and tatted one for each lady plus gave her a suction cup to hang it in the window.


You know how some of our creative bloggers in the tatting community build up the suspense by posting a photo of an unopened package they received in the mail?

Well...I'm not one of them.

I rip into the package (carefully....sort of) and take a gander at the contents without the least bit of thought for any of you. Within a few short hours, this is how my package looked:


Yep, I'd already gone through every page and post-it marked where I wanted to return to! It arrived on Friday, April 9th, my first day of vacation. I'd planned on leaving that day for Hector originally but as expenses piled up in February, March and into April, I withdrew my registration knowing I didn't need to incur more debt, no matter how much I wanted to see everyone. This was a nice consolation prize.

In her foreword, Angeline Crichlow starts off by saying, "It is the author's opinion that very few persons can successfully learn to tat from a book." Amen Sister! I did teach myself from a book but it was, as Angeline says in her second statement, "filled with a tremendous and shattering frustration."

And then, only a few paragraphs later, she is recommending Coats & Clark's SpeedCroSheen for beginners! I hope Angeline had the pleasure of tatting with a good 6 cord thread in her lifetime. I think she did from some other comments, but I was floored to read her early recommendation.

I was intrigued that she started off with Josephine Knots and finger tatting. Finger tatting is not an unusual way to start, but Josephine Knots? Then I realized that it was a good way to get used to the motion of tatting and actually making a ring without the complication immediately of going in the opposite direction for the 2nd half of the stitch. Good idea!

I won't tell you any more about the book - I'll leave that for future recipients, but I do want to thank Fox for this EXTREMELY GENEROUS gesture! The book is hardbound and stitched at the spine. It is also a signed copy:


I trust that all recipients of the book will handle it with respect and do their very best to get it back to Fox in the same condition it arrived in. It truly is a treasure and is now on its way to the Land of Leprechauns, where Tatskool resides.


Now, the same day the book arrived, I also got another treasure in the mail - my T.A.T. package! I am now a Tatting Artisan! I would love to get started on the last phase but due to the aforementioned unexpected expenses, I think it will be June before I can afford the fee.


So...what kind of tatting have I been up to?

Once again my lace guild is making lace ornaments for a small Christmas tree that we donate to a charitable organization to auction off as a fundraiser. There is so much happening this summer and we also have a big exhibit to get ready for (the tree is included) so I'm trying to get as much tatting done as I can. We make ornaments in sets of three because the tree is divided in thirds and the ornaments equally spaced. So here's my contribution:




The angels are a pattern by Birgit Phelps that was subsequently adapted by Martha Ess. I suppose we all add our own little twist. These are tatted in size 50 and I've used a variety of beads and charms for embellishment. The doves are actually a chick pattern by Karey Solomon that was featured in her February issue of Tatting Times. When I got it, I put it in my work bag thinking I would check it out on a lunch hour but somehow it got lost in all the other things in my bag and it wasn't until I cleaned it out over vacation that I found it! The chicks were actually meant for Easter but I'm using them as a Christmas symbol. There is also a very cute heart on a cabone ring pattern in there that I'll get around to tatting eventually. I did block the pieces but the organizer is stiffening them all so they will be uniform. I just wanted them to have a little shape before she gets them.


One night very late, I decided to take a break from all the ornament tatting and tat Jane's butterfly bookmark, except I don't use beads in bookmarks (unless I can figure out a way to keep the beaded part OUT of the book) so it's just a butterfly.

Timing was bad, I was tired and I didn't really read through the pattern and prepare other than getting thread and beads. I was ready to throw it across the room before I was done! I needed six hands to juggle beads, shuttles, crochet hook, glasses, and pattern!

It's really not that hard, but you need to prepare. Have some safety pins on hand and you need a very fine hook - I had to use my Lacis size 16 hook - to pick up the beads. When you go to make the long picot, put the beads on it and secure the thread loop with a safety pin until you are ready to join it to another element later on. Have your beads counted out and ready to pick up. It would probably be better to be sitting at a table instead of in a comfy easy chair. Read the pattern all the way through FIRST! And before you know it, you'll be done!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Okay, I'll admit it. This sabbatical is not working out all that well for me. There are things I want to blog about. There are things I want to show. Posting only once a month makes it a huge post to read. It's not really keeping me OFF the computer which was meant to push me to finish other non-computer related stuff. So I may be back sooner than I expected.


One night this past week, I got home to find an unexpected package in the mail. At first, I couldn't read the name but it was from Singapore!

I opened it up and found this pretty pink envelope with a sweet note to me. I opened the envelope and there was a pink tissue paper package tied with delicate looking novelty thread and I could feel that inside was a bubble wrapped item. I couldn't tell what it was though - too much padding!

Much to my delight, it was a pair of earrings from Wendy over at Umi & Tsuru! I had commented at one point that I loved those little shell bits hanging from the earrings she makes. They are so delicate and pearly looking. What a lovely surprise! You can see examples of her jewelry on the left side of the blog. They are certainly beautiful eye-candy! Thank you Wendy!


Speaking of eye-candy, earlier this month I paid a visit to Pat Winter from Pat Winter Gatherings. A few members of my lace group and I are taking a dye class with her in May and I needed to scout out the location and surroundings. Pat is such a gracious lady and her crazy quilt work is exquisite! I got to see the studio we will be working in - or out in the garden, weather permitting. I went to a few bead stores later that Pat told me about in the area and had hoped to visit some other places too but $$ were a little short so I decided to come home instead. As it turns out, we'll only have a short time after the class before we have to head back to Lafayette so we won't be able to go to anything too far away. I'll have to make a trip on my own later in the summer. I wanted to spend some time at the Dunes and that will be an additional luxury for me.

It seems like I've been on the computer all day today (4-25) but I've unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, made meatloaf to take in my lunch, washed some laundry (still in progress) caught up on email and blogs and added to this post. My son helped me move a heavy piece of furniture earlier so later I will clean up all the stuff around it.


One reason I'm so behind is that I've been tatting intensely all week to make some booties for my little Miss Smith who will be here in another month. Yeah, I gave up on the bonnet, at least for the shower which was the 24th. For the booties I used the pattern I've always used, an adaptation by Lenore English. Unfortunately my printout shows geocities.com as the host and it's shut down so I don't know if the pattern is available elsewhere or not.

Lenore came up with her own design using one from Anne Orr's baby shoes, something different for the toe, and an Aunt Ellen pattern for the edging. I used all of these elements but then added a motif I've used in many of my own patterns, a two-layer rossette that I placed on top of the original round motif. I put a tiny little button in the center. Now that I've finished it, I see a few more ways to tweak it but those notes will go into the next pair I make. I also would like it to come up a little higher on the ankle and that could be a major tweak.

(Originally I had 2 collages here but finally decided which one I liked better and removed the other)

I used size 20 thread. Lenore's pattern used size 30 but the only pink I liked and had was in size 20 so I used it instead. If memory serves me right, size 30 seemed just a tad small when completed. Fine for a newborn, but for someone using these for a christening, the baby is often 3-6 months old. The last pair I made had to be lengthened to fit the baby. I also tied the ribbon in the back instead of in the front. It was just a whim but the rosette takes up more room than the original motif and I think it would be too bulky to have the bow there. I finished the final tatting at 9:48 a.m. on the day of the shower. I had to block them and put the ribbon in, take pix, and then wrap them.

It was worth it. Look at 'em dance!

Make your own animation

http://makeandmeaning.com/2010/04/01/original-ideas-influences-copycats/
Great article with comments about a subject that plagues all of us.

International Tatting Day!

Well...I shouldn't wait for the summer to be over to post everything. My granddaughter will be 3 months old by then and this will be a book! So I decided to do a monthly post until I'm ready to get back here. I am getting a lot done.

The OWOH event was back in February but there were 2 prizes I won that took awhile to get here.
This cute pin, which I knew as a "kilt pin" back in my youth, came from a lady in Israel with a couple of handmade beads on it. Can you tell which ones are the handmade ones? Her name is Shirley van Der Veldt and her blog is (love this name!) Things That Make Me Go Whoo! I love those rings she just made. You can visit her Etsy shop here.

This original artwork came from Pam Aries in Florida. Unfortunately, she didn't put the name of her blog in her emails. I found it after the initial notification but have forgotten the name. I'm sure it's on the list of participants though and you could always contact her by emailing me if you wish.

I was going to try to visit and email every participant who commented on my post during the OWOH event but I think I got sidetracked at about #35 and haven't pursued it further - I will.

Vinnie tatted a couple of small doilies and then tatted a heart using one segment of one doily. I'm not much for tatting doilies, even though I do still want to try doily #1, so I tatted this heart instead in some of Tatskool's choco-raspberry in size 40.

I added picots and an additional chain at the top, then I tatted a tail and it has become a birthday gift to my first Mother-in-law.

It's probably just as well that I'm not blogging. This was worthy of a rant. I'm still not convinced of the reliability of Lizbeth thread. The colors are to die for but I keep running into issues. There isn't a single one I've used that didn't split at some point when I retro-tatted. Usually a split thread is one I've picked at a lot or rarely just poked in the wrong place, but this thread has performed like this more than I think is a fluke. This little clump came from a ball of pumpkin colored thread that I bought recently from either Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's. I had used between 15 and 20 yards when I came across this. I was just winding it on the shuttle - - nothing sharp had been poked in it and it hadn't been wound and unwound or anything to stress the thread. I still haven't used enough thread on any ball to know how it looks from beginnning to end. I'm trying not to be too pessimestic about it - I know it's very popular. Buyer beware is all I'm saying.

I happened to find this on flickr when I was looking for something else and the link took me to an Etsy shop so I ordered it. After seeing the other items there, I recognized them as the work of Little Lace Lady. It's quite sweet.

One thing that has consumed a lot of my time was making this baker's dozen of earrings that a friend requested I make to sell in her spa. We'll see how it goes.

The baby's room once the painting and trim was done.

The bonnet as of 3/22/10. I'm not at all sure this is going to work out so I'm going to trim a cloth bonnet with tatting so that I will at least have something for the baby shower! You'll have to wait for next month's summary to find that out!

On March 25th, a Ft. Wayne tatter named Millie was visiting relatives locally and contacted me to see if we might meet. Well hey, I don't pass up a chance to meet a tatter!
I wanted to give her a little gift so what would be more appropriate with Easter coming up than to tat an Easter Egg? Easter egg #23, in fact, from Tatted Easter Eggs by Kristen Wind Hansen. I don't know why I haven't made more eggs from this book. Someone else posting one on their blog prompted me to look my copy up.

The thread is a Coats thread, size 20, that I bought in Ireland, probably in 2002, my last trip there. The ball is getting puny because I liked the color a lot and have used it in the past for many tattings. I was surprised at how big the egg turned out - about 4" x 2 1/2". This book has a minimum of instruction. You have to refer to the symbols in the front to know what they mean. The only instructions on this page: 2 shuttles; Make the Easter egg in one round.

I had to study the diagram quite closely. There was a tiny triangle to indicate "paperclip" which I didn't even know until much later. I thought it meant starting point and figured out I needed a paperclip there. I actually needed to put the paperclip there every time I ended up on that side to make an inverse picot to join in. (about 35 times) The diagram looked like two rounds but she said to make it in one round....so that's when I figured out the rings were thrown off the chains. (34 of them!) I got a little confused by the numbers too. Where some larger rings were, the numbers 4 and 4 were underneath. I actually had to retrotat when I finally figured out that meant the upper chain part, not the ring. I did get it done in one round.

So I blocked it and then decided to add the ribbon with the button here. Originally, I was going to make a bookmark but it was so big, it would have looked funny. This way she can use it as a photo frame or hang it or whatever she likes. Turns out she scrapbooks so it's even possible she might use it there.

I had a great time visiting with Millie. We sat in Starbucks and talked for THREE hours! Wish I'd gotten a photo!

And here are my last tattings for April 1 - International Tatting Day!

More eggs from Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen. Easter Egg #19 had me skeptical clear up until I blocked it. It looked pretty in the photo but not quite so in the actual tatting. I made a mistake or two but I'll leave it to you to find it. If I tat this one again, I will use 2 shuttles instead of shuttle and ball - just now noticed it actually says TWO shuttles! I was doing a lot of SLT's. (shoe lace trick) I would also add a picot on each loop of the "bow" to attach the triple rings to. They are not done as onion rings but rather a ring and then two chains which is how I prefer to tat these anyway. I believe it was a size 20 thread, Coates. I really like it since it is blocked. Already in a card for a goddaughter.

The second egg that looks like it came from a peacock is Easter Egg #3. I've made this one before and always forget to block it so that it has a "swirl" to it. It's tatted from some Superior Quilting Thread, 30 wt. which is about size 40 or 50.

The next is Easter Egg #5. You can do it one color but I really like using two. I suppose you could mix it up even more by using 4 colors and making each part a different color ring from the chain. It's very simple and quick. I used some Flora size 40 for this one. This one is already in a card too!

The last one is Easter Egg #8 and I was disappointed in it. Maybe I should have stuck with one color but I was feeling adventurous. The disappointing part was the spiral chain. Even with blocking it just did not look as neat as the photo. Maybe another stab at it would come out better as I would focus on making the spirals more even.

I will be tatting even more eggs before Sunday.

In the meantime,if you celebrate Easter - many warm and loving wishes to you with friends and family and the same if you do not celebrate it.

TODAY - Tat, Eat Chocolate, and tell everyone you know about tatting!!!!!

Watch for a post on International Tatting Day, April 1st!

NO JOKE!

Only for a Minute!

Yes,....just for a MINUTE! LOL! I got a Lantana sample from Tatskool when I ordered some other thread and I think it's misnamed.

I think it looks like a tequila sunrise!

So....uh...be careful when you tat with this thread.

(probably not for children!)


Back to my regularly scheduled sabbatical......

Sabbatical

I completed the T.A.T. Artisan phase at the weekend and it goes in the mail today. Immediately after that, I started a baby bonnet - tentively.

I got the pattern from Tatman's website, under vintage patterns and actually started on a whim. The directions don't say what size thread to use so I used size 80. LOL! No, I don't like to torture myself. It was a pretty color and I wanted to see how it might work up. I think it might be too fine for this however and if that's the case, it will become a doll bonnet. I've already found an error in the instructions. The round after this one does not match the photo, grainy as it is, so I've changed the directions to match as well as I can tell. Except for all the retro-tats, it's been going along quickly.

February has come and gone and I ignored my blog anniversary - forgot it actually. February 13 marked the end of 7 years of blogging here. I'm reminded of the saying that the cells in the human body are completely replaced every 7 years.

It wasn't on my mind at all but I've decided to take a sabbatical from blogging for awhile. I'm not going anywhere. I will continue to keep up with what is going on in the tatting community and will continue to read everyone's blog. I'm just not going to blog myself for awhile. I have a couple of projects I want to focus on that I wouldn't blog about anyway so deliberately stating I won't be blogging helps alleviate some of that guilt I might feel about not posting.

I'm still available by email of course. I also have a few video tutorials in mind that I hope to add here. The blog itself may undergo changes as I update certain features. I can't tell you at this point if it will be several weeks or several months, but I'll be back. I just want to put my attention elsewhere for awhile. I'll also be deactivating my facebook account, for those who might notice my disappearance.

In the meantime, I wish you all a wonderful Spring! It's almost here. Can you hear the birds singing?

Remember when I mentioned tatting Patti Duff's Mini-Tats? This is one that is so quick and versatile. I've tatted it with beads in the past in a few different ways but this time I left off the beads since it was going in a frame.

The reason I haven't posted about it is because it is a gift for my sister, whose birthday was last Sunday but I'm just seeing her tonight. I was disappointed that the scanner doesn't show the motif clearly through the front of the ornament but it really does like nice. I used some textured card stock for the backing and you can't see that either.

But here's the secret - this is a second motif with a second backing that is behind the first one so when she gets bored with it, TA-DA! She can just switch them out! The white motif is in a bigger thread and has 3 picots at each point so it practically touched the frame inside. That's why I altered the direction so that it looks like a square instead of a diamond.

My sister's gift is wrapped in a simple box but speaking of gift wrapping, I wanted to pass on a video I found yesterday on one of the OWOA blogs, Loose Ends. She got it from somewhere else but wow...doesn't the person in the video make it look soooooo easy! Now I know what I can do with all that fabric in my stash!

Furoshiki gift wrapping from RecycleNow on Vimeo.

Roses, Roses!

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed wandering through the blog of Luci Ayyat, known as DuhBe.com. I need to ask her how she came up with that name! I won 10 hand stitched roses in the colors of my choice at the end of the OWOH blog event.

Here's the box and you can see the roses are so lovingly packaged that I almost hated to open them up!

Luci has tons of colors available and I came close to getting 10 different colors but I plan to paint and rennovate my bedroom when it warms up and the color scheme will be white and yellow. Mostly white, so I decided to choose 7 lemon yellow roses and 3 ivory ones.

Here's a close-up of the yellow one. They are so luxurious to touch too. Soft and slick.

And a close up of the ivory. My other first choices were teal, 2 shades of green and 2 shades of purple/mauve. But that's not all Luci has on her blog! She has tutorials on all kinds of things, including her fabric roses. Tatters aren't the only fiber artists generous with their knowledge!

Thank you Luci!

Tatting Tea Tuesday 2-23-10

Well, here it is ~ Tatting Tea Tuesday and I have neither tatting nor tea news to pass on. I did see some teapots at Goodwill today but refrained from buying them. Instead, I bought a set of 4 wooden TV trays that I've been wanting for ages! That way I can set my tatting on the opposite side of my tea and one will not slosh all over the other.

(SMILE) Covered my butt there, eh?

As promised, here is another gift I won in the OWOH blog event! These lovely handmade Gnome Greeting Cards are from Paula Niziolek in Oregon. Her blog is On a Rainy Night, and features all kinds of handmade goodies.



"On A Rainy Night" reminds me of this song, Love a Rainy Night and it keeps going through my head while I'm writing this!

Paula crochets these cute little gnomes - well, the chick is definitely knitted - so I think she does both, and then follows them around for their adventures, photographs them and records their stories. Kind of like we do with the Leprechauns! She has stitched the photos onto the card and added some decorative stitching here and there.

See his cute little blue bag? It made me wonder what kind of treasures he found.

Here's the whole set. I think I know some kids who may end up with these at some point during the year. It should spark their imagination!

And look at this sweet message stamped on the envelope flap. I didn't catch the tree stamped inside the card or "handmade" on the back with a little birdie as well as a tiny chick sticker until just now!

Thank you Paula for such a cute little gift!

I intended to post this much earlier but had forgotten I had a dinner to attend right after work. The Environmental Health section of our department oversees food safety as part of their responsibilities all over campus. Often their student workers are enrolled in the Hotel & Restaurant Management program. A requirement for graduation is to plan and prepare a full course dinner in the John Purdue Room. When you go to all that trouble, of course you want people to show up and eat. It's pricey but it's only once or twice a year since we keep the same students for a few years and they only do this once. I've only gone to one other one. So I met 2 other coworkers there and we all ordered the Beef Wellington. Meals are regularly served in this campus restaurant and I've never been impressed with the portions or taste so I would never blame it on the students. They are only doing what they are taught to do. The beef was good and I liked the flatbread and asparagus, although some butter on the asparagus would have been nice. The blueberry dessert was quite good too although I seldom eat dessert. The soup wasn't one I'd have again and the appetizer - I don't even know what it was other than pink and mushy and rather tasteless. The roasted potatoes were just okay. The spinach salad had a bit of wonderful spiced pear in it and almonds but you could barely taste the vinegrette. In fact, my friend swore hers was just oil and no vinegar or other seasoning. As I said though....the meals prepared by regular staff at this place are not the best. We were there to support the student and it's a lot of work to plan and prepare not only the featured special but other items on the menu for dozens of people arriving at different times. It certainly was not a disaster and I left feeling quite full!

I worked a bit on my T.A.T. last night and am down to ONE project. I may retat another and I have to do the finishing part of another segment. Then I am done! None of them are quick and easy get-er-done things but once I get to it, it should be a fairly smooth ride.

Then I have BABY STUFF to be tatting! My granddaughter will be here in less than 3 months!

Here's the momma finishing up the painting. My son will put up the chair rail afterwards.

I can't wait!

I stayed home today for an ssortment of reasons but two naps ended up being part of it! I thought about the mail a few times but I have to walk 2/10ths of mile-long lane and it's drab and slushy and I just couldn't quite make myself go. I secretly hoped that my son would pick up the mail when he got home instead, even though I knew it wasn't likely since I'm the one who almost always grabs it as I come home. So I'd just about decided I'd wait until I headed to work tomorrow.

Then I happened to visit Icela's blog. She got the faeire pouch that she won in the OWOA blog event! I was a lucky winner five times ~ how can you forget about that? Well...I got involved in my tatting. That explains it, huh? At least for today!

So I trekked out to the mailbox and yay!, it was full. I actually received THREE parcels today but I will only post about one each day. I want each participant to shine on their own.

This is one of the first I learned about, a beautiful pendant from Trudi Sissons at http://www.twodressesstudio.blogspot.com/ Actually, the photo she took is much better than this one! Trudi is a mixed media artist in Canada. She is multi-talented, working with blog design as well as mixed media in various other forms. In fact, her blog designs have been featured in a few magazines which are listed in her sidebar.

This is the backside of her pendant which looks as good as the front side! I had a lot of fun looking through Trudi's blog and discovering we had more in common that I would have suspected. Well...from my point of view anyway. LOL!

Now that the OWOA is over, I am visiting the blogs a few at a time, not 100/day to get through them and I'm finding so many creative and inspiring folks around the world. I've already added a few links in my "inspiring blogs" category.

Be sure to visit some if you can. We can all benefit from each other!

And Trudi, Thank You again for your wonderful pendant! I love it!

It was a busy week and it flew by! Monday night my son was stuck sideways in front of my garage and Tuesday night the furnace was out, requiring a repairman visit and then HE got stuck in the very same way. I was able to help my son get out but the repairman had to call a tow truck. I really need to send an appreciative note to that company. Wednesday night I recovered. Thursday night I sorted through more of the Christmas decorations before they are stored away. (still going on) Next thing I know...here we are, Saturday!

I haven't been tatting much. but I worked on a project a bit both Thursday night and last night. This is all I'll show for now. It's a motif from Patti Duff's Mini Tats, which I'm beginning to consider a tatting classic. It's been tatted in size 40, 70 and 80. I keep thinking it might look better if I do it with 5 petals instead of 6. Hopefully you'll see the comparison tomorrow.

I stumbled across this thrift find last night that I'd forgotten about. I got it in Greenfield at the end of January for 75 cents! It's a bell, obviously with some age on it.

But look! It's not just a bell! It's a music box! Tucked inside like that, it's difficult to wind up much but it does play. It's a common music box tune but I can't remember the name. In my search to jog my memory, I found The Music House, which makes music boxes to order and repairs them. They have several tune samples to listen to but I didn't find this one. I've heard it in a lot of movies. sigh...

Here's another view of the "clapper". I was also playing with "macro" on my camera and zoomed in too.

Another macro test...see the glitter on the bell??

I can't figure out what it is made of. There is not a single identifying mark on it. I was wondering if it was cardboard heavily varnished. You can see a bit of paper peeled back here. It IS solid under the paper but very thin. I can't tell if it is glass or metal or...eggshell. I'm tempted to think it is a goose egg but don't know how to tell.

It was damaged which is probably why I got it so cheap. See how part of this piece is broken off? I think that is the letter "R" and it looks handwritten so I'm really wondering if this is not handmade?

I did find a few goose egg bells on Culturopedia.com. This link is an exhibition but check out the goose egg galleries 1-6. You can follow directions to make your own egg bell at the Eggstravaganza.co.uk site. They list several musical movements too, both the press on kind and the wind up kind so now I'm convinced this truly is an egg and handmade. Extravaganza is in the UK. I didn't find any other images on my google search.

If this one is not extremely valuable, I might try to remove the bottom circles where the one piece is broken. Don't you think it would look even more delicate with tiny tatted rings where the gold braid is? Just an idea........