Category: family

Thanksgiving

Can you believe Thanksgiving day has passed? It came and went so fast! We still have one Thanksgiving family gathering today, but I’ve put away my fall decorations and started on my Christmas decorating.

Table ready for family on Thanksgiving on wandasknottythoughts
Table ready for the family on Thanksgiving

This year we had a bit of rescheduling for some of the family get-togethers, so for Thanksgiving day we only had our daughters and their families and my mother over for lunch. We finalized the menu through texts a week ago. The meal was terrific, with minimal issues, as nothing burned and there was space for everyone at the table. We did add an extra table to the one in the picture so we could seat everyone, but no one was cramped. The weather in the afternoon was cool but sunny, so we ended up outside. Then we played a game before they all had to go home. There were a bunch of pictures taken!

I have been working on the edging for a Christmas table runner that I had been asked to do last year (!). She didn’t need it until this year, so I had plenty of time to get it done. Or so you’d think. I couldn’t make up my mind about the edging! I thought about it and tried several different things over the last several months, trying to come up with something I was happy about. I like the look of the edging I came up with, but I need to tweak it a bit more before I’ll be happy with the pattern.

Candy cane Christmas runner on wandasknottythoughts
Candy cane Christmas runner

The lady that requested the runner showed me another Christmas runner she had and her tree skirt so I had an idea of what type of fabric to use, and I still had a hard time choosing it. There were so many beautiful fabrics to choose from at Jo-Ann’s! And I needed to buy more than I usually do as she wanted a longer runner than I ordinarily make. The tatted edging also needed to be a bit wider than I have made in the past, another challenge.

In so many ways the tatting is the easy part. I rarely sew, which means it takes longer than I expect it to. And then I have to stitch the edging to the runner – on both ends! But the final result is worth it.

Now I’ll be working on perfecting that edging, as well as working on Christmas ornaments. I’ve had a hard time the last month or so not getting sidetracked from the edging by all the ideas I’ve had for other Christmas things. Now if I can just remember all those ideas!

About the September Angel pattern I have spoken about, there has been another delay. I had the whole thing written out but needed to make a correction. I printed it out to test tat it and noted the corrections that needed to be done. For an unknown reason, my computer shut down. When I went back to the pattern half of it was gone! Not sure what the glitch was, but thank goodness I have the printed version. Now I just need to re-write the parts that disappeared.

“The memories we make with our family is everything.” – Candace Cameron Bure.

Split rings and beads

One of my daughters had a birthday recently. We took her and her family as well as our other daughter and her family out to lunch to celebrate. The day before her birthday I thought about tatting her something (I always leave it to the last minute.) Earrings can be quick and easy – relatively speaking – so I decided to make her a pair.

Split ring and bead earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Split ring dragonfly earrings

The dragonfly wing beads I bought last year from JoAnn’s, the same time I bought the beads for these earrings. I used Lizbeth metallic thread #311 for the finished earrings, but, I didn’t start with that thread. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to make them so I practiced with cotton thread first.

Three tries for dragonflies on wandasknottythoughts
Trial and error for the dragonfly earrings

My first try was with cotton thread and single shuttle split rings. I was not happy with them at all. They might be good after a bit more refresher practice, but there was a time limit for getting them made. I like the look of the split rings in the middle one, but they looked a bit too big. So I made the split rings a bit smaller, which resulted in a happy tatter and a pretty set of earrings.

I used a few other beads bought at the same time for my Christmas gift ornaments this last year. They were made almost the same way as the earrings but with different stitch counts.

Beaded split ring Christmas ornaments on wandasknottythoughts
Beaded split ring Christmas ornaments

The biggest issue I had with these ornaments was I couldn’t put them in my Christmas cards to send them! Which in a way was good, as I didn’t have enough beads to make as many ornaments as I usually do. But those that received them were thrilled with them.

I don’t tat with beads often, usually because I make messes with them. I tat a lot in the car, so beads end up on the floor, between the seats, or lost. Okay, I’m also impatient with how much slower I tat with beads than tatting without. But once in a while beads are fun to work with, and usually turn out pretty good.

“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” Denis Waitley

Little trees

I am working on the ornaments that I put in Christmas cards to close family and friends. I also get side-tracked a lot.

I found a cute little tatted tree in a box I was looking through the other day and then saw another one in the Facebook group Tatters of Lace that was almost the same thing. While trying to empty a few shuttles I found one with green thread on it and thought that little tree would fit the bill to empty the shuttle. But of course, I couldn’t find where I had put the tree I had previously found OR the pattern on FB. So I did what I usually do and made one up myself. It is not quite the tree on FB, and I’m not sure just how close it is to the one I found and lost.

Little tatted trees on wandasknottythoughts
Little tatted trees

As I was cleaning and preparing the house for our Thanksgiving guests I had a thought about the tree pattern. Wouldn’t it be cute in fall colors as earrings?

Little tatted tree earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Little tatted tree earrings

I thought they came out well. I could have tried matching up the variegations a bit to make the match a bit better, but I was in a hurry to get them done.

Fall tatted tree earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Fall tatted tree earrings

And I didn’t get them done in time to wear. Not for our Thursday dinner, nor for the other dinner we had Saturday. I did get them done by the end of the weekend and wore them Sunday around the house.

I wore them around the house on Sunday because we didn’t go anywhere at all. We had planned on taking our daughter and grandkids home that day but we had blizzard-like conditions, with several inches of snow blowing sideways, cold temperatures, and extremely bad driving conditions.

We were able to take the family back home on Monday with minimal road issues. We did have to take another day of vacation, but it was a better choice than trying to go through the weather on Sunday.  On the way out the roads were still ice covered in areas, making driving a bit problematic still. The roads were much better coming home later in the day.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Now it’s time to get ready for Christmas.

Are you ready yet?

“Holidays – any holiday – are such a great opportunity to focus on bringing the family together.” Lidia Bastianich                                                                                         https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lidia_bastianich

 

Memorial Day 2017

Memorial Day, an Amerian national holiday that is celebrated the last Monday of the month of May.  On this day we honor those who have given their lives in defense of our country.  Over the years it has come to be a day that all graves are decorated and those who served in the military are marked with flags.

Decorated graves on Memorial Day on wandasknottythoughts
Decorated graves on Memorial Day

Sunday we visited local family graves, ones that don’t take hours to get to  It was a beautiful day for a drive. There was almost no wind, which in Kansas is very rare.  The sky had puffy white clouds that cleared off in the evening.  The sunset was amazing.

Memorial decorated for Memorial Day 2017 on wandasknottythoughts
Park Memorial

On Monday morning, all over the country, there are ceremonies conducted at cemeteries and other locations to honor fallen veterans.  I planned on going to a local observance but misunderstood what time it was.  I did make it to another one just as they got started.  Patriotic songs were sung, prayers were said, an uplifting message was given, and a roll call of veterans that died in the last year was read.  Local Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts assisted with the ceremony, helping to raise the flag (to half-staff) and set flowers for each name on the roll-call.  The VFW Auxillary  (Veterans of Foreign Wars) helped with the honor guard along with local members of the military.  It was incredibly moving.

Later in the afternoon, we had family and friends over for supper.  It was a great end to a lovely weekend.

“Memorial Day isn’t just about honoring veterans, it’s honoring those who lost their lives.  Veterans had the fortune of coming home.  for us, that’s a reminder of when we come home we still have a responsibility to serve.  It’s a continuation of service that honors our country and those who fell defending it.”  Pete Hegseth     www.brainyquote.com/quotes

Time well spent

Last month I spent a weekend with my daughter’s family.  One day my grandson had a fundraiser he had to work and wanted me to go, too.  I tagged along but forgot to bring a chair to sit on.  We did happen to bring a cooler, so I was able to sit down somewhat comfortably.  I did not have a particular tatting project to work on but I did have several shuttles I was going to empty making small butterflies and such.

Ashley, the mother of one of the other boys, came over to see what I was doing.  I demonstrated a bit using two shuttles to show the flip better.  As we were both going to be there a while, and she showed interest, I let her try.  She picked it up fast!  In a little over an hour she was able to chain and even do a couple of rings.

New tatter Ashley on wandasknottythoughts
New tatter Ashley

I was impressed with Ashley, she did such a great job!  What I thought would be a long two hours went by in a flash.  We both enjoyed ourselves sitting on the sidewalk outside of a Wal-mart. Best fundraiser I ever went to.

Between the wonderful time I spent with my daughter’s family and the time I spent with Ashley, it was a great weekend.

 

“Time is free, but it’s priceless.
You can’t own it, but you can use it.
You can’t keep it, but you can spend it.
Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”

It must be Wine Wednesday

It seems I’ve missed Tatting Tea Tuesday so it must be Wine Wednesday.  I haven’t had the wine yet, but the day is young.  I haven’t gotten any tatting in today, either, but I plan to do that next.  I did get tatting in yesterday and I drank tea, I just missed posting.
Yesterday I was working on Angels. Not these – these have been sent off already, but one just like it.  Though  I tatted for several hours I didn’t even get one little angel finished.  This is my design and I’ve been making them for years, but now I’m trying to revise the pattern to make it with only one end.  Unbelievable, I know, but all these years I’ve made them with multiple ends to hide. Why I’ve never thought of trying it other ways I don’t know, but the lightbulb did finally come on. Now the problem is making it work. I worked on it all day and never got even one Angel completed. The problem are the wings – they just don’t work starting from the top. I’ve tried different stitch counts, but nothing has really worked. Unless I plan on changing the wings entirely this may just have to have several ends whether I like it or not.
Did you all have a wonderful Christmas?  We did.  We were able to get together with both sides of the family and see both of our kids and their families. And then we were lucky enough to have both of the grandsons stay over Christmas night.  They kept us quite busy. I can sure tell I’m not used to having little children around that much anymore. By the time they left, I was tired. We did have fun while they were here though. We played games, strung beads and cut out paper snowflakes then they helped me on the placement of the snowflakes in the window.
I love Christmas. I love the season. I love the weather getting colder with maybe some snow. And I love the giving of gifts. Getting gifts is fun too, but I just love trying to come up with just the right things to to share with each of my family and friends.  It was a bit different this year. This year, when I went to the store I actually had a list of things I wanted to get – no impulse buying!  I made quite a few of the gifts this year, and not just tatting.  Actually, I didn’t get much tatting done this year, not as much as usual anyway. I guess I’ll have to start a lot earlier  for next year. I guess I’ll have to start a lot earlier for next year 🙂
Now we’re getting to the new year. Do you have New Year’s resolutions? I try not to make them, or at least any more than I would on any other day, because I have a terrible time keeping them. Today I’ll leave you with a quote from Hal Borland.
“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the 
wisdom that experience can instill in us“

Something forgotten

I went to visit my daughter this week and even took my laptop so I when I had a few minutes I could work on the cross bookmark pattern. And guess what? I had saved the pattern to an external hard drive at home but not on the laptop. So no cross bookmark pattern. Oops.
Not that I had all that much time to work on it anyway. You know how it is when you get around family and two-year-olds, right? I did get a little time after his bedtime to tat a little, but not much, though I did finally get my bookmark for the Tatting Forum’s bookmark exchange mailed off.

Instead of working on the cross bookmark I got some work done on the heart bookmark. Okay, very little, but some 🙂 I’m trying the second design out, finding out if the drawing can be tatted the way it is or if changes have to be made. It’s interesting figuring out the best way to tat what was drawn, can it even be done, and in one pass or do you have to cut and start in a different place?

My first attempt at the second version. I see a few changes are in order.

I didn’t have tea this morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday but a cup of coffee instead, flavored with French Vanilla La Crème, which I tried for the first time at my daughter’s house. Mmmm, very good. I also tried the Cinnamon Vanilla La Crème, which is scrumptious, too. They have been added permanately to my grocery list ♥

“Funny, I don’t remember being absent minded.”

Storks and not much else

Jane Eborall’s stork pattern

As predicted this was a very busy week. We had family here over the weekend, a baby shower and a family picnic. It was a lot of fun but my time was spent with the family with little time for tatting.

The only tatting that got done was this cute stork. This is a pattern by Jane Eborall found for free on her tatting patterns page. I had a lot of fun tatting this and it works very well on the photo album book, which was a gift to my daughter at her baby shower. The stork is made with Lizbeth white size 20 and DMC Cébélia ecru in size 30. Due to the size difference I had to adjust the stitch count a bit with the ecru. The Cébélia is also softer than the Lizbeth which was also something to get used to again. The baby’s sling is made with Lizbeth # 621, Dusty Rose Lt, size 20 . The baby is in DMC Cébélia #437, which is a gold color, size 30 . When I chose it every body that saw it on the ball had doubts about it for the baby, but once it was done and on the pink background it looked more like the color we expect the baby to be. It would work for the big brother so I thought it would work for the baby. It certainly shows up better on the pink background than a very light pink would have! I would have had to choose a different book to put it on. Again, it being a size 30 I had to adjust the stitch count and I added an extra split ring to each leg to make the proportions look right. And, yes, I put a green bead for the eye instead of a blue one.

Thank you, Jane, for the wonderful pattern! If you know how to do split rings this is an easy pattern. In fact, a friend of mine just recently became a grandpa again, and a neighbor is expecting a grandbaby soon. Hmmm, maybe a few more are in order.

The weather was great this weekend, though windy – it’s Kansas, I really don’t expect it otherwise. Saturday the temperatures were in the upper 70s and Sunday in the mid to upper 80s (degrees Fahrenheit). We were able to do a lot outside, including an Easter egg hunt for the little ones. One of my daughters won’t be able to be with the rest of the family over Easter so we took advantage of the chance to do one. All the little ones are just two years old – they were sooooo cute! It was a great day.

Wind around here is expected but sometimes the humidity is so low that we have fire weather warnings. That’s when you have high winds and high gusts with low humidity, which means any fires that start will be hard to contain and will spread rapidly. I think we’ve had fire weather warnings every day for more than a week. I haven’t heard of any major fires close to us lately but Sunday in Haskell County a town of 1,200 people had to be evacuated due to a grass fire that ended up covering 10,000 acres. Thankfully the only injuries there were a couple of people with minor smoke inhalation. Three families lost their homes to fire but the rest of the people of the town were able to finally return to their homes. We are thankful there was nothing worse, but I must say I’m glad it wasn’t close to my home.

I was so busy this week that I basically missed International Tatting Day on April 1st. I had thought to take time to tat and eat chocolate this year but I was too busy. I did read about some fun stuff about it on Isdihara’s April 1 posting over on Ambitatterous. If you haven’t been over to read it yet it’s not too late. April 1st comes once a year, so there’s time to plan for next year.

This last picture is of the tatted stork and a stuffed stork that were used as decoration, and gifts, at the baby shower.

“ It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money. ” ~Elinor Goulding Smith

Long time no see

Hello again! I see that it’s been almost a month since I last posted. It’s been almost a month since I did much browsing, too. And in all that time I’ve no tatting to show, either.

Last month I’d gotten in kind of a slump with my tatting but I had a plan on what I was going to do. I had a cute picture planned for International Tatting Day and Easter. And then we got the phone call that my brother-in-law was killed in a motorcycle accident. All thoughts of those plans were dropped and not really thought about for awhile.

Why is it that it takes a funeral to get families together? Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins come together to mourn the loss of a family member, then reconnect with stories of times past and memories shared, now shared again. We see how all the children have changed, startled to see how grown up they are since that last time we got together. We make new memories with them to be shared the next time we gather, hopefully for a more happy occasion, like a wedding or maybe even just a family reunion.

Our daughter from Washington, D.C. was able to come home with her baby for the funeral but her husband wasn’t able to make it. She stayed just over a week, going home yesterday. It was wonderful to see them and get reacquainted with the grandson again, though I wish it hadn’t been because of a funeral.

Now life can get back to normal for a little while, though that normal will be a little different than it was before. With the little one gone home and there aren’t any little fingers getting into just everything I’ll try to get back to tatting some. I do have several things I want to get done, so maybe next week I’ll have pictures to post. I’m hoping to have time to check out what everyone else has been doing, too. I haven’t been on the Internet much for weeks now so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

That probably isn’t going to happen today, though. I’ve got to do a few things I’ve put off, like dishes and laundry, those mundane things that come in second when there is a choice between them and spending time with the family.

Fun with Bookmarks

InTatters is having a bookmark exchange and I joined it. I’ve never done an exchange before, so I’m very excited about this. I’ve been trying to decide which pattern and which thread to do it in. I’ve made several but I have not been happy with any of them.

This one is pretty good and was my first attempt. It was going pretty good when at the end I pulled the thread up at the end – and the thread broke! It left just a few fuzzy little strands, not enough to weave into any ds. I used the other tail to work it in somewhat, but I don’t trust them not to come out again. I will probably put a touch of glue there to keep it from coming out, but it doesn’t meet the standard of a gift.

I have done a couple other bookmarks that I will share another time – they don’t meet the standard, either, but aren’t too bad. But I don’t like the way my blog decides where the pictures go (instead of me) so I’ll post them at a different time. I WILL learn how to set this blog up better, some time. I just need to know where I can find some of that time. I seem to be very short of it right now.

With a deep breath and a prayer I look for the family to be done with hospital visits for awhile. Both my mother and my DH’s mother are both home and doing well. My father is doing better but the doctor said he can’t go home but needs to be moved to a convalescence home. This will be hard on everyone but a relief in many ways. He has been getting weaker and more confused lately. Now the doctor gets to be the bad guy instead of the family for telling him he’d have to go to a home.

But this means that I won’t have much time for me for awhile. I’ve been taking a few minutes here and there to visit other’s blogs and InTatters, but not really enough time to get pictures ready and post. I hope to get the other bookmarks up in a few days. Wouldn’t that be nice?

And tatting is so portable I can take it with me almost anywhere. So I have hope in getting a few things done. Wish me luck!