Introducing . . .

Hi Everyone!

Well this has been frustrating month for tatting I'm doing tatting I really am but can't show any of it because it's for my Secret Santa Exchange. Well of course that's been done and has been sent already but still I can't show anything. Here lately I haven't been doing any tatting at all! GASP!!! Why you might ask? Welll. . .



What is that? I know it's a lima bean!!! No.

Let me introduce you to one of my presents and formally known as the curve ball! Yep I'm expecting! Although this may not sound like an astounding announcement. I assure it is! You see I'm 40 something years old and didn't think that I would be able to have another child. In fact my OB doctor ask my birthdate 4 times and then I laughed and said okay let's not pass out yes I am that old!

I did have a miscarriage in May of this past year which was very heart breaking. So I am nervous and excited about this one. I give God all the glory for blessing me with a new little one! We go for another ultrasound on Christmas Eve. Yep that's right Christmas Eve morning as if I did not have enough to do! ROFL They are sort of freaked out about my age. Well anyway that's all for now.

Oh before I forget someone asked me about the snowflakes I did and put in my Christmas cards. Those have been sent and I usually hear comments about them when I go and visit over Christmas. So I'll give an update about how they liked them after Christmas. Maybe then I'll have time to hunt down all my widgets that I lost changing my blog background.

Christmas is Coming!

Wooo Hooo! It's almost here! I've been making my Christmas list for DH with lots of tatting books, thread you know the essentials. Still no pictures of tatting to show as I'm not allowed to show what I've been working on because what I have been working on is my Secret Santa Exchange which I will show after Christmas and after my partner has received it. I know bad, bad, bad girl but hey those are the rules complete secrecy until after your partner receives it and we can't open our exchange packages until after Christmas. I put up my Christmas tree. Yeah! I would have it up before Thanksgiving but DH will not let me put it up that early. Oh well. I still can't tell you what the curve ball is but it is very exciting and I am extremely happy. Not to worry I'll spill the beans soon but for right now I'm working like mad on getting my tatting done. I changed my template to reflect the season. Pretty neat huh? Unfortunately I lost all my extras that I was keeping to the right. So I'll have to hunt for them again as well as my blog list. Ugh! One day I'll get better at this computer thing. LOL Merry Christmas Everyone!

Craft Fairs

Hi All,

No pictures of tatting today although I've been tatting hard and heavy to get everything done. My time was taken up this past week getting ready for this past weekend's craft fair. I was mainly working on my painted gourds. I also like to demonstrate tatting when I'm doing a craft fair. All in all it went pretty good. I sell tatting and gourds to make a little extra spending money to spend on. . . .

Give up? To spend on more tatting supplies of course! Wooo Hooo!

I have an observation about craft fairs and a little complaint, now don't run away just a little complaint. I have increasingly noticed that when I show my tatting at craft fairs there are a lot of other stuff there. For example, at this last craft show I did this past weekend, Hot teas and house plants are not a craft. Tupperware, Pampered chef and Premiere Jewelry are also not crafts. Worst of all there was a chiropractic clinic there advertising for their clinic. DEFINTELY NOT A CRAFT! Wouldn't you think? Sorry it just irritates me a little when I do a show and there's stuff like this being sold at a "craft" fair. I've been to one show where a vendor beside me was selling costume jewelry and not the kind made by her but store bought stuff. Ugh! Nice people but still not what I would consider a craft. On the up side though I have shown what tatting is and a lot more people are starting to recognize it. I got a lot of questions about tatting so that was fun talking to people and demonstrating.

Oh still have no news on the curve ball I mentioned earlier but stay tuned it's coming. I have to go get the son up for school.

Has it been that Long?

Hi Everyone! Wow has it been that long? Sorry about that. Life sort of threw me a curve ball of a surprise. But we'll save that for another post. On to tatting and what you've all been wondering about, how did my gloves do in the fair? Well. . .

I GOT A RED RIBBON, SECOND PLACE!



















Isn't that cool! I'm one away from the elusive blue ribbon. LOL My doily unfortunately did not place. However, I'm not disappointed about that as I sort of entered it on a whim and originally had not planned to enter that one at all but did it anyway.

Also remember the baby booties I was working on well finished those too just in time for the baby shower and she loved them. I actually got a couple of inquiries on me teaching a few how to tat. Wonderful! More potential tatters. Soon we'll take over the world! Bwa ha ha ha ha! Ahem, I digress. Well anyway here's a pic of the booties the patten in from Sharon Briggs' newsletter which she is no longer publishing (sniffle). They are lovely! Oh I did count up the knots as someone always asks how many knots and how long it took me to make a certain item. A friend of mine counts her knots which I think is a grand idea. Obsessive, hmmm maybe but still a grand idea! Anyway in one bootie there are 6,512 knots. That's for one! So needless to say aching hands had to take a rest after 4 weeks of continuous tatting. So now it back to Christmas tatting in earnest.





As to the curve ball you'll have to stay tuned for that one.

Fair Entries and other stuff

Well I took both my doily and my gloves to our state fair but I don't know how they did in the judging and will not know until Monday. We were going to go to the fair on Thursday the opening day but they did not open until 3:00 p.m. on that day so that day was definitely out. So plan B is Monday. Woo Hoo! I realized after I came back I forgot to take a picture of my doily so you'll see that after I get it back. I'm toying with the idea of taking my camera along with me to the fair but I don't want to have to lug it around with me everywhere for the rest of the day. I haven't decided yet.

On to what I've been tatting now. I tatted this bookmark three or four weeks ago I think that's the right time frame. A better question is what haven't I been working on?!


This particular pattern I found on line and fell in love with it. It is by Edda Guastalla Bianchetti .

I did it with Size 40 Cordonnet. Remember when they actually had Cordonnet in color? Ah the good days! But now we have all these wonderful people who make HDT (hand dyed threads) that are even more lovely. But I digress I had this ball of 40 Cordennet in black and decided to give this pattern a go. I usually like putting tassels on my bookmarks but decided to follow the pattern on this one. I did it in one pass! This is motif # 21 of my 25.



Ok now you ready for what I've been working on, my Secret Santa Project and I did one baby bootie I was not totally in love with that one as the new baby to be is a boy and the pattern I worked had a lot more picots and I don't why it just said girl to me. So back to the drawing board, I then tatted another baby bootie from another pattern and this was just right except I didn't like my spacing on the top row so after taking that off, I am now in the process of retatting the top row. Whew! Are you as tired as I am?

As for my Secret Santa, I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you. (A little James Bond humor there.) Ok very little. Until next time.

Too Little Time!

Wow I keep looking for my bag of extra time! I know I've put it somewhere but can't seem to find extra time! I've been super busy lately! As a friend of mine would say busier than a one armed paper hanger. Did you know that Christmas is only three months away! Yikes!

I've been trying to get my fair entries ready to enter for next week. Well my gloves I worked on last year are ready but I still have to block my doily. I don't think I have posted a picture of my tatted gloves on my blog before so here they are.



Not to toot my own horn but I'm proud of these as I did them from a pattern from an Italian magazine, Il Lavoro chiacchierino #9. I found some translations for Italian tatting terms and followed the picture and was able to do them. I almost didn't purchase this magazine but I'm glad I did the patterns are beautiful and luckily most are diagrammed. The gloves, however, were not but with the translated terms and being able to look at the picture it wasn't too hard to figure out. Although in some areas I used my best guess, it was, in my humble a opinion, a very worth while project.

The doily I did is from the same magazine but like I said I have to block it so I'll take a picture of that before I enter it. I'm excited about entering my tatting into the fair this year and can't wait to see how it does. I'll keep you posted.

Motif 20

Hungry? How about some more ice cream? Yummy!




I've been playing with bead placement on this design. Oh I absolutely love it! It's a fun, summery design from Eliza. Just lovely! Although I liked the beads placed in the middle of the ring on the last one. I wanted to try to do it again without adding beads to the middle of the ring. I asked my husband what flavor he thought this was he said Butter Pecan but I was thinking more along the lines of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. On the last one I showed him the ball of thread and asked if this was an ice cream flavor what would it be. He immediately said strawberry and this one I showed him after it was done. He's getting used to odd ball questions like this and answers them where he used to look at me as if I'd temporarily lost my mind. LOL

Blog Award

I have been given my very first Blog Award. Wooo Hooo! Thank you Tattingchic! That is awesome!

Now for rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog;
2. Link the person you received your award from;
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;
4. Put links of those blogs on yours; and
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you’ve nominated


I would like to nominate:

Laura Blanton Laura's Tatting Muse

Rebecca Ramsey Wonders Never Cease

Melissa Honey Bee Bliss

Sherry Pence Tatting Tales

Umi & Tsuru


These are a few of the blogs I read and enjoy! I do mean few because I have many that I like to read. Reading blogs can be quite addicting. I apologize to my nominees if they've been awarded this before. I didn't see any mention of it on your blogs but I truly love reading your blogs.

Motifs 19, Non-Hurricane and Fire Ants!

Thanks to all the well wishers concerning the Hurricane. Yep our NC Officials were suffering from chicken little syndrome. The sky is falling! It wasn't that bad. We did loose power for about an hour so that was good. We had lots and lots of rain and thunderstorms. So this, thankfully, for us was sort of a bad thunderstorm and a Non-Hurricane.

On to tatting I've been playing with Eliza's ice cream cone. Playing around with bead placement. So here is my strawberry ice cream cone. Yummy! Also Motif 19.



I would have posted before now but my son was on the playground at school and sat in the grass on some fire ants. Oh Boy! So I had to pick him up and rush him to the pediatrician and we've been dealing with that. Luckily he didn't have a bad reaction so the bites are healing slowly. Poor little guy!

I'm still tatting on my snowflakes too! I've gotten 6 done! Woo hoo! And that is without being able to tat everyday.

Hurricane Hannah

Hi Everyone! Well no tatting today I was going to post something but it'll have to wait. The powers that be in my neck of woods, North Carolina, are freaking out because of the approaching Hurricane. So it is likely that we'll lose power at some point. So if you can't in touch with someone down NC way that's probably why. I have to run today is my son's therapy day so I have to get into Mom's Taxi Service Mode. I'll write more later weather and power permitting. It always makes me laugh when we're without power listening to our battery powered radio and the announcer comes on and says "For further updates on the storm log on to www. blah blah" knowing that most of the state is without power. When Fran came through we were without power for 7 days. I'm hoping our powers that be are suffering from the chicken little syndrome. You know telling us the sky is falling when it really is not that bad. Well we'll see. At least I can always tat when the power goes off. Until next time, keep tatting!

My Wonder is Autism

In Celebrating Wonder Wednesday, my Wonder is Autism. Autism you say! How can this be? Why did you choose that? Well the reason I chose it is because my son has autism. I agree with you Autism is a bad thing but it can also be a Wonder.



Now don't sign me up for sainthood. When my son was first diagnosed, me and my husband were devastated. We did have our pity party, "why us" kind of thing. I used to get really depressed and want to give up and think why did God punish me in this fashion. Then I realized something! God did not punish us. It was like God held this special soul in his hands and said to himself, this one, this one is special. This precious little one is going to need extra care who can I give this one too that can do this special job. So you see he didn't punish me he just trusted me a little bit more. Although at times I wish he didn't trust me quite so much. Ha ha!




Anyway back to the Wonder part. Autism is a great teacher. It has taught me patience, lots and lots of patience. One of my friends remarked on my patience to which I replied it was trial by fire. I sort of developed it through a series of trial and errors. Autism teaches you how to be an advocate, educator and a negotiator. I have had to negotiate my way through many a school meeting. I also had to educate many a medical professional about autism and what it is. And finally it has taught me how to advocate for my son in other words be his voice because he is non-verbal. I'm grateful for all these lessons.

Most of all Autism has challenged my pre-conceived notions of how to view people that are not typical. In other words we are all not typical and are all different from each other and that is what makes our world different and new every day. Just because someone can't talk doesn't mean they can't think or feel the same way we do. Autism has shown me the wonder in my child. The wonder of ordinary objects likes rocks and sticks and even water running over your hands can be wondrous. I have learned to look through my son's eyes and see everyday wonders in the world around us. I must tell you spinning around, and around, around, around in circles is great fun! This is his style of dancing. Thinking outside the box and using everyday situations and things as teaching tools is a wonderful feeling. Almost as great but not quite as close as all the hugs and kisses my son gives me.

Back To School Motif # 17 and 18

He went back to school! Isn't it ironic that as a parent you are so ready for them to go back to school and then when they do you miss them terribly! The first day was not without it's bumps in the road. By 1:00 p.m. my son decided he had enough of school and wanted to go home so he got his book bag and kept going to the door. The Teacher Assistant said it took some convincing for him to know that he really wasn't done yet.

Now on to tatting. Remember I posted about finding a pencil case that was a soft vinyl and trying to decide which motif to put on it and how. Well I did finally find the perfect motif.


No not this one. Although it is lovely, it just didn't seem to look right on my pencil case. I did it in Perfect Quilter thread #059. Wonderful thread which is equivalent to Size 80 and such lovely colors. This is motif # 17.



I found the pattern I used in Karey Solomon's Tatting Times. Wonderful publication and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.















And here is my pencil case! The color just sets off the thread so well. It is so roomy on the inside. It's amazing what you can find and use for tatting purposes. I also found a little plastic box yesterday while I was out and about just perfect to carry one project in. It even has a removable top shelf and still small enough to be entirely portable. I might put motif # 17 on that or do something entirely different. I haven't decided yet. My husband always asks but don't you have enough tatting containers. To which I replied one can never have enough of those. he he. Oh I'm counting my pencil case motif as Motif # 18.

Christmas Tatting & Mystery Motif

Well I've started on my Christmas tatting already. I've started tatting Laura's snowflake or shall I say snowflakes in earnest now. I also wanted to tell you about this wonderful ball drape pattern I found through Ds9designs. It's gorgeous! There are so many different colors to choose from I may have to order a couple of different bead packs soon. The one I did is entitled Rocking Christmas. Debbie Arnold sales the pattern and bead kits here. Debbie is so awesome to deal with! Didn't it come out great?! My plan is to do one for my Mom for Christmas. Last year she got a new tree and didn't have enough ornaments for it so I'm going to help her out. LOL Shhhh don't tell! Oh this is Motif #16 of my 25.




I also managed to do the August Mystery Motif which is Motif # 17 of my 25. Woo Hoo! I'm almost there! I may just have to start another 25 possibly. I'll try not to have too much fun! I was teasing Gina about being left out of her blog entry on the Mystery Motif and she gave me my very own post. LOL Thanks Gina for the giggle.

Have you listened to any Tatting Podcasts lately? I've listened to Ruth Perry which was great! Now I'm enjoying Arlene's Podcasts. It's been great to hear about her adventures and misadventures in tatting as well as knitting. You can find Arlene's Podcasts here and Ruth Perry's podcasts here.

Snowlfake Quest

Guess what? My snowflake quest has ended! Every year I strap on my hiking boots and put on my trusty jungle hat and wade through books, patterns and online patterns searching for a snowflake to include in my Christmas cards given to my family. It's quite a quest trying to decide which one to do and I try not to do the same one 2 years in a row. If I did a round shape snowflake last year then I do a different shape for this year. Why do I do this? Mainly because my Aunt loves my tatted snowflakes and she writes me a handwritten note every year thanking me for my snowflake. It makes me feel so good that my tatting is so appreciated and I treasure the notes she has sent me.

Without further ado, I am very pleased to announce that the one I've chosen for this year is Laura Blanton's Easter Egg Snowflake. Doesn't it look gorgeous in white! Call me old fashioned but snowflakes to me should be white. LOL Here it is! Isn't is lovely! Also it's Motif #15 on my 25.

Gecko Motif #14

Yikes! Has it been that long since I've last posted. Egads, I've been neglecting my blog. I have been having a time with my son. He has been a real bear the past few days and I was wishing the rest of the summer away and thinking the start of school couldn't get here fast enough. LOL Well I took him to the doctor for what I thought was a stomach virus and poor little thing had an ear infection! It's hard to tell since he is non verbal. So he has had a reason to be bear-ish.

Anyway the things on my blocking board yep still there! Did I mention I hate blocking no I really, really hate blocking. It's very tedious and time consuming and I would like for my tatting to fall from my hands wrinkle free. It does sometimes but not as much as I would like. I worked on Jane Eborall's pattern "Pamela's Gecko" which I thought was so cute and have been wanting to try it for the longest time. So here is motif #14.

Small Motifs

Hi all! Or should I say Ya'll since I am southern. I've been working on some small motifs in different colors trying to decide which one I want to put on this pencil case I just got. It's perfect for carrying tatting supplies. It's made of a soft vinyl not hard plastic. I don't have any pictures yet as it is a work in progress and to tell the truth I haven't had time to take any pictures. I will soon though. Then the next thing will be to figure out how to attach the motif to the pencil case. Sewing it on probably will not work so it will probably be glued on and I'm stumped as to what glue to use. I'll have to research a little on that. That's all for now.

I have loads of blueberries and loads of birds getting a free feast which I am not at all happy about since I want my blueberries for myself. My husband put out a plastic owl to scare the birds. I told my husband that owl is not doing a thing to which he replied he's plastic give him a break and then proceeded to sing "if I only had a brain". Speaking of owls, I found this little clip that is too funny! Apparently it was made by a teacher to get his 5th grade class interested in owls. Take a look! It's a real Hoot! (Really bad pun, I know but couldn't resist).

The Joys of Pink

I have a funny story to share. As you can tell I like pink but pink is not my only favorite color. I like blue, purple. teal, and red.

Now my husband, gotta love him, will not use anything that he considers a girl color. I'm still trying to change his thinking on this because men can wear pink as well. However, I have found out something wonderful about pink. Anything I buy that's pink he will not use therefore, it remains in my possession. An example of this would be that I had this calculator that my husband "borrowed" which I didn't see for a long time and lo and behold he claimed it for himself and it became his calculator which in itself is not a bad thing except when you want to use and can't find it. So I bought a pink calculator and do you know it hasn't vanished and it is still considered my calculator. He does use it but it never vanishes to locations unknown.

So now we come to the backpack, I "had" this black backpack that I used to carry mine and my son's things when we went on school field trips and to the park which made life a whole lot easier since I wasn't lugging around two or three things. I just put what I needed in the backpack. Weeelll lo and behold he says can I "borrow" the backpack so I said yes but told him I use it to carry stuff in when our son and I go on school field trips and other places. To which he replies, well you can get another one and I'll use that or you could use the new one. Well I think you can guess I bought a lovely pink one just for me. When he saw it he said "But it's pink?!" in obvious dismay. I told him yeah I bought it for me. Then we both had a good laugh. That my friends is the joys of pink.




















On the tatting front I finished my tatted scrunchie but I did not have enough of the same kind of bead so I used different beads throughout. Who said you had to use the same bead? LOL The pattern is from Wally's book Up to the Hair.

Not much tatting today

Well yesterday was non tatting day as my son spent most of his time in Tantrum City, USA which is adjacent to Cry A Lot Town on Scream Ave. I've never been so ready for a bed time in my life!

And did you hear the news?! My Christmas ornament does count toward my 25 motifs! Woo Hoo! But rest assured ahem (Sharon) and everyone you will see more of my tatting. LOL For all those who want to take a look. ;-) LOL

Here is a picture of a heart I did from Martha Ess' book that I did a couple of weeks ago. What am I working on now? I'll never tell you'll have to stayed tuned for that one. Oooh love a good mystery! My 25 motif challenge as it stands now in the previous post my ornament would be No. 10, bridal garter No. 11 and this lovely heart is No. 12. The heart is one from Martha Ess' Tat's Amore.

Roses Abound

I love roses! Roses and daisies are my two favorite flowers. Especially pink roses. I can't grow roses. Okay let's be honest I can't grow a thing because I have what they would call a black thumb. I actually killed a cactus like plant one time! A plant called hen and chicks and I really tried to keep it alive, I mean I really
tried. How does one kill a plant so closely related to a cactus? Well if there's a way I'd find one without intentionally doing so. I mean all I did was notice that the leaves were darker at the base and I touched it and it literally fell apart. I'm not kidding! All the little branches/leaves fell apart. The plant literally disintegrated right in front of my eyeballs. So it's a safe bet that houseplants are not a good gift for me. Ha!

Anyway there is a way I can have beautiful roses around me and that is to tat them. So all is not lost. I really love doing Jeanne Lugert's rose. I did a little designing last year and designed a green background to cover a Christmas Ornament and then attached Jeanne's roses to that. Came out very pretty I thought. I don't know if I can count it as part of my 25 motifs since it was tatted last year.


I also did a wedding garter this year using Jeanne Lugert's rose as well as Gina Butler garter pattern. It came out lovely! My friend who was getting married and could not find a garter to fit her liking or price range so I offered to make one for her. And here it is:



























And here is the lovely bride.

Ever had that craving?

In my last post, I forgot to mention that my cards are numbers 8 & 9 on my 25 motif challenge. Lack of sleep makes you forgetful. LOL



Did you ever feel this way when tatting something?
I sure have!

I got Martha Ess' book Tat's Amore and I absolutely love it! The only thing is deciding what to tat first. This is one of those books where you want to tat everything in it! Then there's the excitement of figuring out which thread to use. You know you go in your thread stash and they're all saying "pick me, pick me!" So I chose a lovely orange variegated which brings us to Motif 10 of the 25 Motif Challenge. I tatted Martha Ess' Scallop Heart from Tat's Amore.


Isn't it lovely? When I was looking at my finished heart, I got this strong craving for orange sherbet so it was off to the store and you know that was possibly the best orange sherbet I've ever tasted! Have you ever done that?

Cards

Ack! Isn't it amazing how things slip up on you and you end up tatting gifts for birthdays and get wells in a hurry. Just call me flash! My motto, sleep is for sissies! Sleep what sleep I'm running on fumes here. Can't stand coffee so I'll make me a nice cup of tea. Not to mention my son decides he had enough sleep and got up at 4:00 a.m. 0400 hours folks! What does the 0 stand for "Oh my gosh, it's early! Here's a couple of cards I made one a get well and the other birthday. As for the things on my blocking board, they're still there. I'll take them off soon. Say, Ask me tommorrow but not today! (Wow I've been reading too many Dr. Seuss bedtime stories!) Not to mention a Wiggles tune running around in my head "Blue Wiggle in the Ring, Tra la la la la!" or "Hot Potato, Hot Potato!"





Anyway I digress. The first one is the get well card and the second is the birthday card.




















Have a great day! Hopefully I'll have a restful night.

Shuttles and other stuff

Hi everyone! Well we had a busy weekend we had! We first took my son for therapeutic riding session on Saturday morning. He had a great time! Although he wasn't too thrilled with having to wear a helmet. Here is a slide show of his horseback riding session.

Next for tatting, I have finally found. . . drumroll please. . . a group of ladies that meet monthly and tat! Wooo Hooo! Now for those of you that are saying big deal, let me assure you it's awesome after having to rely on no face to face contact with other tatters it is a big deal to me anyway. LOL :-) We had a great time talking about tatting and other things. Just wonderful! We met Saturday afternoon and we all had a blast.

I've got a few things on my blocking board so when they're dry I'll show you those but for now I've always wanted to post about my shuttles that I've collected over the years. My favorites by far are my GR8s. Love them!

Starting from the shiny shuttle on the left and going clockwise. The shiny is an abalone shell, next rosewood with abalone shell inlay, next laminated woods in multi-color, next green laminated wood, next plastic with a swirl of green and blue, next deer antler with scrimshaw letters, and finally is birdseye maple. These are all GR8 shuttles. I didn't buy one of these for a long time as all the posts I had read said they were fiddly to work with. Well once I bought one I found out how to use it which when you use a shuttle for the first time you kind of get a feel for how it works. Also Randy who makes the GR8s included some instructions on how to operate the shuttle. Once I followed the directions it was easy and I was hooked. Now I'm never without my GR8. Love them, love them. They are by far my favorites to use!


Now here starting at the top and going clockwise first is
red cedar, next a rainbow silent tatter shuttle, next ash with ebony spot silent tatter double shuttle, next is plastic tan/multi GR8, next Osage orange GR8 with relief carving, and finally Zebrawood GR8. Lovely!






I have other shuttles too. Not to mention clovers, aeros, and a couple of metal Boye shuttles. Clovers I use mainly as my second shuttles. Here's a shuttle that falls under the heading "What was I thinking?!" It's awful! I've only used it once I absolutely hate it that much. The thread gets caught on the side and the pick is too big to be usable. It is a cheapy shuttle I got thinking it was going to be like a clover only slightly bigger. It's awful! Yuck! Well live and learn. At least I learned which shape of shuttle not to invest in. ;-)

Leftover Thread

Well I had yellow thread left on my shuttle so what do you do? Well I made another bookmark! I went through some of my tatting patterns that I had printed off from the internet and found this cute edging which was pretty simple to do so I made it into a bookmark. I can't post the link because it seems the original site has disappeared. Nothing I dislike more than reading someone's blog go to click on a link and it's not there. The pattern was from tat and tat I believe that was what the site was called. It came out pretty well! This time I tried an even lighter green. Wow I seem to be stuck on green. I'll have to do something with no green in it soon.

Egads! I just realized I messed up my count on the 25 Motif Challenge so a correction is in order. Last post I said 3 and 4 but it should have been 4 and 5 so that would make this 6 and 7. Woo hoo! Almost half way there!

I also did Gina's July Mystery Motif at her threadgoddess blog. It turned out really well although my version doesn't look like the original. I love doing the mystery motifs it kind of gives you some experience in reading old patterns and knowing what they mean. However, I must say that I'd take new pattern notation any day. I do love the new pattern notation much better than the old as it's definitely less confusing.

Bookmarks! Motif 3 & 4 of my 25

Well have you ever tatted something and was not pleased with the color? I tatted this bookmark from Lenore English's site. The first one I did I used a lighter green and was not real pleased with the overall effect. I can't seem to get the exposure right on my digital camera. As I said tatting with this green kind of gave my bookmark a washed out look so I tatted again with a darker shade of green which I thought made the daisies pop. I like it better with the darker green. I tatted this bookmark years ago for an exchange with Altin Basik green #333 but they have discontinued it. I really loved that color of green. (sigh) I do think the darker green did beautifully though. As for my 25 motif challenge this is numbers 3 and 4. Woo hoo!
Here is the darker green.

25 Motif Challenge

I have jumped in and joined the 25 motif challenge. Wooo Hoo! So motif No 1 was my cherub doily in my first post and motif No 2 is my cross. Cool! I don't really have a theme just whatever comes up tatting for presents or tatting just for myself.

On another note it's happened! What's happened you ask? Well my eyes aren't what they used to be so I had to break down and admit I needed a little extra help when hiding my ends especially on Size 80 threads. Soooo I bought me a pair of the loudest colored ones I could find complete with a matching case and here they are.

DH laughs at me when I wear them. I laugh too! Aren't they cute!

I can't believe what I did!

I can't believe it! I just can't believe it of all the stupid things for me to do! Arrrrgh! Well I had a lovely batch of comments from a wonderful group of people and I was going through and published one then I found where you can publish all at the same time and guess what I did? Put my cursor on the wrong thing and rejected every last one of them . Arrrrgh! I think I can safely say computer savvy I'm not. To all those wonderful people that commented I am soooo sorry because getting comments are half the fun. But wait! All is not lost! I have the comments in my email so I will post them here on the blog!

Jon writes:
Welcome to the world of bloggers. It is a great way to communicate and keep in touch with the other tatters.

I like the colour and the design for the background.

Melissa writes:
Tara,
Your blog is so sweet! I love it!

Babara Gordon writes:
I know how it is to get started, but so far your doing a very nice job. It's so colorful! Maybe I better do something to mine, hmmm!

Angie writes:
Its very very beautiful and colourful too!!!

Jeff Hamilton writes:
Your cross looks awesome. Which Mark Konior book is the pattern from?

Clyde writes:
First, congratulations on starting a blog. I know it can be a little overwhelming at first but you will be blog savvy in no time. The cross you made your friend is beautiful and I am sure she will treasure it.

Thanks to all of you who posted and rest assured I will be more careful in the future when publishing comments. Ack! I still can't believe I did that!

My cross I did is Mary Konior's Large Cross from the book Tatting with Visual Patterns. I love this cross pattern and have done it several times in different sizes of thread. My favorite size of thread is Size 30. Love it! Mary Konior's patterns are sooo lovely and I wish I had more of her books but sadly I only have two. LOL Always room for more tatting books, I always say. Although DH would tend to disagree with that statement. :-)

I know what you're thinking

You're thinking did she get the cross tatted and finished on time and the answer is Yes! I delivered it last night to my friend who is going through surgery this morning.

I tatted Mary Konior's Large Cross. I did it with Venus thread which is Size 80. Venus is now called Majestic. I don't know the color number as I lost the top label. It is sort of lavender/mauve color. It was 3 1/2 inches finished. I'm real pleased with the way it turned out. It fit perfectly in the card I gave her. I wanted to get her mind off her up coming surgery.




















This is the card I made her as well. I love tatting for other people.

What an interesting weekend?

Well what an interesting weekend. LOL Saturday morning our central air broke down. It was hot! It was 89 inside and when I say hot I mean hot. 89 degrees is not sooo bad but here in North Carolina we have what I like to call jungle kind of hot where the humidity is super high which unfortunately makes it that much hotter. My poor son wanted to turn on the lights but I kept telling him to turn them off and he didn't understand why we couldn't have them on. LOL My son has autism and he is a real sweetie.
There he is getting his honor roll medals at school. Anyway we did call someone to come fix it which they did and all is well and blessedly cool now!

As for tatting I am working fast on a cross bookmark for a friend of mine who is going to have surgery on Wednesday. I hope I can get it done by then. I'm doing the large cross from Mary Konior's Visual Patterns book. I'll post a picture of the cross when I'm done along with the card I'm making her. Since I didn't have a blog before I'll show you my "Saloon Girl" which I did for the Tat it and See it was so much fun! I was watching old Westerns with my husband like Gunsmoke, Marshall Dillon, Rawhide so I made a Saloon Girl. Howdy Parter!

July 5, 2008

Wow my first ever blog post! I've been following different tatting blogs for a while and decided to start my own tatting/craft blog. Not much to say today I'm going to poke around and try out different things. This is called Cherub Doily. I got the pattern off Gale's Tat's All site. Gale's site seems to be down at the moment.

I was inspired to start this blog by reading different blogs. As soon as I get more time I'll post those links for you. So stay tuned there is more to come.