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!!!!!

New Year's Give-Away!!!!!

Yessirreeeee! To celebrate the dawn of 2010, I'm giving these tatted earrings away. They are tatted with 2 strands of Mettler silk-finish thread (made in Spain) and beads I received from my SS. The pattern is one of the fragments from Mary Konior's Visual Tatting. They sort of remind me of Mardi Gras.

Just leave a comment on this post and I will pick the winner with a random number generator at the stroke of midnight. IF I stay up til then! Otherwise it will be first thing when I get up on Friday. As much as I'd like to promise I'll make it to midnight, my body sometimes has other ideas. LOL!

I've been waiting to hear that my SS recipient got her package and opened it. Should have since it's in the states (sorry Jane, it's not me if you still haven't gotten yours) and I sent it in plenty of time and put my first name in the card. I'd also like to burn all my photo albums from the year on to a CD and start fresh like I usually do so that means I'd also like to post those photos before I put them away. So...we'll see what happens.

And for now...I'm off to tat a black and purple version of the 2 tone earrings I've been tatting - still for the friend in Vegas!

HAPPY PREPARATIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR! PLAN LOTS OF FUN TATTING ADVENTURES FOR 2010!!!

Photo by Nina

Isn't this a beautiful Christmas photo? It's from the creative commons section of Flickr.com. The title link takes you to this particular photographer's work.

I finished up the other earring last night. I've used a needle to sew in the ends of these and it seemed to work well. It's usually easier for me to use my fine crochet hook but I was able to take the thread farther and less conspicuously with a needle this time.

I really hate to use stiffener, especially where beads are concerned. It tends to dull the beads and no matter how careful I am, I manage to get stiffener on them. This design appears to hold it's shape well and I suspect that is because of the beads which give it weight and make it less bendable. There is a matching necklace pattern but I'm thinking the gold would be too scratchy around tender neck skin. The other threads would be fine.

My family's Christmas will be Saturday instead of Friday. The bigger your family, the more schedules there are to work around. I have a son who works nights and has many mandatory weekends. Plus, one DIL works nights at a hospital and the days differ from week to week so she works some weekends AND they live about 45 minutes away. Then there's my sister's family and their schedules. Add to that, most of our kids are married and we're sensitive to them wanting to go to spousal family gatherings too. I well remember trying to go 6 places in the space of two days, with little kids and food and gifts, the throbbing headaches and the not being able to enjoy any of it because of the stress. I refuse to do that to my kids. That's not what Christmas should be. Back then I went to midnight mass too. When did I sleep???? LOL! Some things I miss, most I don't. This will be the first year in many years that my kids will all be at MY house. Because of all the scheduling, we just all meet up at wherever we are having Christmas and I try to get to each of their houses individually with their gifts. This year the gathering is at my sister's house but it's late enough in the day that the kids can come to my house for a few hours and we'll have our exchange then. I'm looking forward to it.

Well...except for the stress of cleaning! That's what I'm doing today, if I can ever get OFF of this computer!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Guess what? I didn't go out last night. I just couldn't make myself venture out in the dark with icky rain. So I'll finish it all up tonight.

Instead, I finished up these earrings requested by a friend for her granddaughter. The pattern is from Free Tatting.com. I love doing this pattern. It's easy, fast and a real eyecatcher. These are tatted in brown Flora size 20 and turquoise Altin Basak size 50. The beads are seed beads and either size 10 or 11. I think a more solid brown bead might have looked better but these were all I had.

So then I found this DMC Infusions Sparklers thread, actually meant for embroidery rather than tatting, but it's just SOOOOO pretty! I think I bought this in Ohio when I met up with Gail and Jane. You can find them online HERE. It's art.cisp09 - E131 Gold Blend, 5 yd/4.6 m, and $2.99 from the place I purchased it. Oh...maybe it was from The Needle's Point in Rensselaer now that I think about it.

Anyway, I tatted the entire earring in this thread instead of two colors and with gold beads. You should see the sparkle! I'll try to finish the other one up tonight. A pretty New Year's party earring, I think. The design is more striking with two colors but I think it still has appeal in a single color. I separated the thread so that I had 2 strands on each floss holder. Each strand was 2 ply. The pattern only takes about a yard of each color so that would be 2 yards of one color. That means I would get about 8 pairs of earrings out of this skein if I wanted to make that many pairs alike.

I always feel just a bit let-down at this time right before the holidays because I didn't get nearly as much done for gifting and food fun as I wanted. Actually, about nothing, zero, zilch this year, except for the two exchanges I was in. Time just gets away from me like water through a sieve. So many seemingly great ideas buried under other committments!

But I have the next 10 days off and I'm so looking forward to catching up at home. I really have made a lot of progress this year but haven't had much time to enjoy it.

I'll probably post again tomorrow, just because getting on the computer makes me take a break from other things, like gift-wrapping, that feels overwhelming sometimes unless I break it up into small segments. Actually, it's the cleaning part that I'm going to need breaks from. LOL! Yep.....last minute Lucy here!

Hmmm....I wonder how many of the last month's new designs I can tat over those 10 days? That would put me ahead for NEXT Christmas, wouldn't it?

I was very busy yesterday with actual cleaning and preparations for my family get together but I finally got out to the mailbox in the afternoon. There was only ONE thing in there - this package! I'm expecting a few things but this one came before the others. This isn't a very good picture but when I opened the envelope, there was all this coppery glitter facing me! BLING! What a lovely preparation for what is inside!

Inside were these two little containers, about the size of a US quarter. Ha! I knew what was supposed to be inside but all I could see were these rhinestone daisies!

I barely lasted long enough to take the photos. I ordered a pair of earrings from Penniwig's this week. The earrings on her blog have been enticing me for some time so I went to her Etsy store and drooled over several pairs before settling on ONE.

Much to my surprise, she was offering a bonus pair with each order so I got to pick another pair!!!!!! Early Christmas! And NO SHIIPPING extra!

I love both of these so much. Exactly my style. I may have to order more when I get paid on Monday! Thank you Old Dame Penniwig!!!

I was actually very good to myself this week. Not only did I order those gorgeous earrings, I bought a portable Ott light Thanksgiving morning from JoAnn's Fabrics. They were on sale for $29.99 (regularly $89.99) and free shipping, online only. I'd seen them while in Canada at the Fringe Element event. They were on sale there locally at the time but somebodies went and bought the stores out before I knew of them! LOL! Those somebodies know who they are. (grin)

I've been tatting a lot but will only show this snowflake that I didn't make a mistake on this time! I used a different color of beads though. For some reason, I'm not enjoying this snowflake as much as I have in the past. Not sure why yet.

I've been tatting some others though and enjoying them. Eventually I'll have more to show.

Well....could not sleep so got up and decided to post this but I really need to be getting to bed and sleeping.