Tag: angels

Christmas Gifts

It’s almost Christmas, and boy, have I been busy!

I attended our church ladies’ Bible study group Christmas dinner and gift exchange a couple of weeks ago. Each of us was to bring a gift for a random gift exchange. I tatted a cross bookmark that I put in a book of devotions. And I forgot to take a picture of it! It was my August SR Cross, made in Lizbeth thread HH20-181 Cranberry Bush. It looked good, and the lady who received it was happy with it.

The dinner was good, the company was terrific, and the gifts were fun to see. We all were given three gifts: one from the gift exchange, and two from the hosts. The gift I got from the exchange was a beautiful quilted centerpiece. One of the gifts from the hosts was a cute Christmas tree ornament; the other was a machine-embroidered tea towel.

Gifts from the dinner on wandasknottythoughts
Gifts from the dinner

The Bible study group wasn’t the only gift exchange I’ve had this year. This last Sunday my side of the family had our Christmas dinner and gift exchange. We play a form of the White Elephant game, with all of us interacting and having a good time. A few of us also give gifts outside of the game, which isn’t required but is a lot of fun. My sister gave all of the ladies hand-embroidered tea towels.

Little red truck tea towel on wandasknottythoughts
Little red truck tea towel

Last year I started decorating with Christmas decorations in the little red truck theme. She knew this and did my tea towel with the theme. It is so cute!

My birthday is coming up so she also gave me another embroidered gift. Previously, she had given me the runner – which I am supposed to put an edging on – and now she gave me the pillowcases. One day I’ll get to the edging, maybe for both the pillowcases and the runner.

Matching runner and pillow cases on wandasknottythoughts
Matching runner and pillowcases

In the previous post, I shared my new pattern, September Angel. This is the 2022 ornament that I am giving to close friends and family. While I’ve been making them I’ve noticed that it wouldn’t take much to make a tree with the pattern. So I tried it.

Christmas Tree 2022 on wandasknottythought s
Christmas Tree 2022

While coming up with the stitch count for this little tree I could see how the angels and the trees might make cute earrings, so I made some of those, too.

Christmas Tree earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Christmas Tree earrings
September Angel earrings on wandasknottythoughts
September Angel earrings

I gave these earrings to my daughter. And, again, I was in such a hurry I forgot to take pictures of them. My daughter was very sweet and did a photo shoot with them. They were such cool pictures I had an awful time choosing between them for which ones to use. The earrings came out as well as I hoped they would.

I’ve posted the pattern on the My Patterns page. Unfortunately, when I did that I seem to have broken the links to all the other patterns. This pattern is the only one currently that works. I’m working on the others but won’t get them all fixed tonight. If you’re interested in another pattern but it won’t come up for you, please email me and I’ll get it for you, or try again a bit later.

Here in Kansas, we are expecting an Arctic cold front in a couple of days, along with some snow. How much snow depends are where you are located, anywhere from one to six inches. Listening to the weatherman, it sounds like we won’t have it as bad as a lot of the country. Here, mostly very cold with a few hours of blowing snow. We might even have a white Christmas! We don’t have that every year. I think for the next few days I’ll sit back, tat, and try to stay warm without going outside.

Snowman cup and tatting on wandasknottythoughts
I think I’ll stay in and keep warm while I tat

My husbands’ side of the family is not having the family Christmas until after the 25th. There are some family members that will be gone until after that. The day isn’t as important for gatherings as is the family that will be there. Having it after Christmas is okay by me, it gives me a bit more time to get ready for it.

What are you busy with?

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” — Burton Hills

Trees and Angels

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We did. Christmas Eve I finally got a few Christmas decorations put up and decorated a tree.

Christmas tree 2020 on wandasknottythoughts
My 2020 Christmas tree

This isn’t exactly a tree, it is several branches from some evergreens that we took out of the yard a couple of days ago wire-tied together. The shape is not quite right, but it brought the scent of a real tree indoors, didn’t cost anything, and, when decorated, looked festive. The only ornaments on it that I made this year are the music angel and the round paper ornament. All the others are ones I randomly found as I got my Christmas decorations out. I found quite a few more tatted ornaments and hung them around the house.

The little time I’ve had to tat I’ve been making the Small Angel. Which isn’t hard, but that left wing! Making it look like the right is a bit of a challenge. It’s all in the picot size and the chains. And maybe the join for that longest picot.

Small angels on wandasknottythoughts
Three small angels

As you can see, neither of the red angels have wings quite like the original gold one. And they don’t even look like each other! I think the wings on the red angels look more like leaves than wings, but they still look okay. I must be holding my mouth wrong as I tat to make them so different! I’d love to see how they turn out for anyone that makes them.

Usually, between Christmas and New Years’ things for us slow down a bit, but this year it’s not that way. There are several things that need to be done before the new year, so many that we don’t have much time to do as we’d like. I have tatting plans that will have to wait a little bit more.

What are your plans for the New Year?

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” Woody Allen https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/woody_allen_136686

Christmas 2020

Can you believe it is only three days to Christmas? The year has gone so fast and the last three weeks must faster (it seems to me!). I have been so busy I haven’t gotten as much tatting done as I would have liked, but, looking back, I’ve gotten more done than I thought.

Christmas 2020 tatting on wandasknottythoughts
Christmas tatting 2020

Looking back, there was more tatting done for Christmas than I thought. I’m not sure how many of the music ornaments I finished this year, but everyone I had planned to send cards to received one, so it was several lol! It’s amazing how much time can be spent on such small tatting!. The angel wings came out great, and the angels were well received by the few that got them. I didn’t give anyone the small angel, but that was designed and tatted as well. Not bad!

Speaking of the small angel, the pattern is done and available! Please email me a request.

Small angel Christmas tatting 2020 on wandasknottythoughts
Small angel Christmas tatting

Now I’m on to more Christmas things, namely getting the house cleaned up and decorated so it looks Christmas-y!

Merry Christmas to all of you.

“Christmas is the day that holds all time together.” Alexander Smith https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alexander_smith_379476?src=t_christmas

Ornaments and Angels

I was on vacation last week, which was a good thing. I spent a lot of time making the ornaments to send out as Christmas cards. I would never have gotten as many made if I hadn’t had the week off.

Some of the ornaments for cards on wandasknottythoughts
Ornament cards for Christmas

Another batch of cards done except for the hangers.

More ornament cards for Christmas on wandasknottythoughts
More ornament cards for Christmas

These all have hangers now. There are still a few that need tatting as well as the hangers.

The good news, most recipients have theirs. Some were to be mailed yesterday but didn’t get picked up. I don’t know if the mail came early or we didn’t have a postman come by, so I’ll drop them at the post office today.

While I was tatting small things for these ornaments, I took a bit of a detour and did a small angel.

Small tatted angel on wandasknottythoughts
Small tatted angel

This is one of the few times I jotted down some ideas and a drawing before starting to tat. I had to make an adjustment due to a slight miscalculation, but it came out like I wanted it to. I even jotted down the stitch counts – amazing! I might get the pattern out later this week, though maybe not the nice drawing. We’ll see.

I was very busy last week with more than just the Christmas cards. There were so many things that had to be finished before this last weekend. The good news is that those things did get done. Now I can do a few of the other things that didn’t get done yet. Like putting up decorations in my house. But I have to clean a bit before that. Christmas is how many days away??

Are you ready for Christmas?

“It’s true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you’ll find you’ve created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.” Caroline Kennedy

Angels for Christmas

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I should make for my Christmas ornaments this year. These are gifts I give to close family and friends, each year different from the others. Some years I get an idea and everything comes together easily, other years, not so much. This year it was a little bit of a search but it came together rather nicely once I started.

I started thinking about something I had done a few years ago. In 2013 I decorated small bags with bits of tatting. On a couple of the bags, I had a bird made of material and a tatted wing. I liked how this wing came out and thought I might build on it for something more.

Bird with tatted wing on a bag on wandasknottythoughts
Bird with tatted wing on a bag

I wondered if I could use this wing to make wings for angels. This is a simple pattern that didn’t take long, which is always a good thing especially when I have a limited amount of time to get things done. Of course, I’d need two wings and figure out how they will attach to each other.

Angel wings on wandasknottythoughts
Angel wings

I’m very happy with how these came out. You might notice that the center of these wings has seven rings instead of the six rings of the bird’s wing. This was an un-noticed modification that I didn’t plan on. It changes the shape of the tips slightly, but in a pleasing way, so this is what I continued to do.

Something I wanted to incorporate in the ornaments this year was sheet music. Several years ago our church bought the most recent version of hymnals. We still had the previous two versions of hymnals, but not enough places to put all of them. The bookstores locally don’t have much call for this many hymnals, but I hated to just throw them away. Guess what? I kept them. I’ve been looking for some way to utilize them ever since. So I thought I would incorporate them in my ornament this year.

The first angel on wandasknottythoughts
The first angel

This is my first attempt, which I’m happy with. Then I had to make more.

Wings for angels on wandasknottythoughts
Wings for angels

Then it was on to making a bunch of wings. I wanted to give angels to my family at Thanksgiving, so I had to get a move on. If I don’t make mistakes they don’t take very long and I can get a lot done while I’m the passenger on the way to work. I thought white would be a bit too stark to go with the hymnal music, so I made all of them so far with Ecru in size 10.

Choir of angels on wandasknottythoughts
Choir of angels

Check out my choir of angels. I got all six of them that I needed to get done just in time! You can see I changed up the body just a bit, but either way, they came out well.

I still have a lot of Christmas tatting to do, more wings and a few other things, too. What are you tatting?

UPDATE – The pattern for these wings is done! It is on the My Patterns page.

“When we are touched by something it’s as if we’re being brushed by an angel’s wings.” Rita Dove https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/rita_dove_345421

December Tatting

I tatted during December but have been so busy, mostly with family, I haven’t posted much. I did discover Lizbeth Metallic thread and have been trying it out. I’ve seen other tatters have used it and finally decided to try it myself. Handy Hands are raising their prices a bit so I bought thread before the new year started.

blue 7 armed snowflake in metallic thread on wandasknottythoughts
Snowflake in Lizbeth metalic thread

This is an old snowflake pattern of mine that I tried it out on. It tats so much better than other metallic threads I’ve tried! This is silver #311 and Turquoise Green #321. I love how it turned out, even if it has seven arms instead of six so not quite a snowflake.

Angel in Turquoise Green metallic thread on wandasknottythoughts
Angel in Turquoise Green metallic thread

I tried the same Turquoise Green as an angel. This is my pattern which I modified slightly. This came out beautifully!

I bought several balls of the metallic threads in various colors. The silver and turquoise threads are the only ones I’ve tatted with yet, but I look forward to tatting in the others as well.

I have not yet had time to write out the tree patterns that I posted about a couple of weeks ago. Look for them sometime this year, hopefully in the somewhat near future.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/henry_david_thoreau_153926?src=t_busy

Angel revisited

 Remember my angel from a couple of weeks ago?  I liked how it came out and thought I’d try making another, but hopefully learning from my experience.   It did come out slightly different than the original.

Second angel
Can you see the differences?
First angel
I hadn’t really measured the material when I made the first angel.  When I made the second angel I thought I had made it the same size, but it obviously wasn’t quite.  It made the body/gown a bit narrower.  I didn’t find that a bad thing, so I continued. 
The wings are the same, the halo the same, I used the same size beads.  I did make a few changes, though, other than the gown.  For the hem I used graduating picots to give it a more – frilly? – effect.  The neck rings have different stitch counts and the front is longer with a larger ring at the bottom. This time when I made the neck/front I attached it to the wings before attaching to the body (the front wasn’t an afterthought this time!). It worked much better and I didn’t have a twisted picot, either. 
I look at each one and like them both, sometimes one more than the other, then change my mind.  I plan on making several more but I’m not sure just which way to go on them.  Which one do you like better?  And why?  
I am working on the pattern for the angel, starting with the wings – which have stayed the same – but haven’t got it done yet.  If you’re interested. 
Speaking of angels…
My granddaughter is going to be an angel for Halloween this year.  She had to show off her costume to Grandma and Grandpa while we visited this weekend. I can’t make one that is as cute and sweet as she is! 🙂
“These things I warmly wish for you:
Someone to love, some work to do,
A bit o’ sun, a bit o’ cheer,
And a guardian angel always near.”
– Irish blessing

The trouble with Angels

I’ve been thinking for a while now about making a material angel with tatted wings.  I finally sat myself down and did it. 
I started with the wings, which would determine the size of the rest of the angel. I had two shuttles already wound with Lizbeth white size 20 thread so I could just get started with my idea for wings.  They were turning out pretty much as imagined when I noticed something a little odd.  They already looked a little dirty.
No, I had clean hands, just two colors of thread.  What I had thought were two shuttles with color #601 white, in reality were one of #601 and the other of #602 Natural.  Things were going so well and I was so far along that I decided I wouldn’t stop but keep going, so finished the wings.  
Then it was on to the body, which I made of denim from a pair of jeans.  I spent a lot of time cutting down the material to the right size and getting it shaped into the body.  For as small as this is, the denim was hard to work with.  Instead of sewing the back together I used fabric glue.  Then I had to get the neck just right so it looked good with the head bead.  Again, if I had used a lighter weight material it would have been easier.
The front tatted piece is a circle, attached to the wings in the back, which are glued to the body.  I left a twisted picot back there – I’ll have to work on that. The simple rings and chains at the bottom of the skirt are glued on, which also helps to keep the denim from fraying without a hem. The halo is a tatted ring with an outside round of chains with beads, which makes it pointed. This halo is not the first one I tried, but about the third or fourth.
The finished size of this angel is about four inches tall.  The body is stiff enough that it can stand by itself, but then the head falls off because it’s on the thread but not held tight to the body.  I think I need to find another way to keep it there, whether a knot or a touch of glue.  The wings aren’t stiffened but they might need to be.  I’ll be watching to see if they start drooping. 
Yes, I’m lazy and used glue instead of sewing the tatting on.  This is a prototype and I just wanted to get it done. I learned a lot doing this one, things to do differently next time and things to do the same.  If it was for someone besides myself I might – maybe – sew on the tatting.  Time will tell. Overall I’m happy with my angel. I’m just hoping the next one – when, if – doesn’t take so long!
I’m call this #8 of this round of the 25 Motif Challenge.  It was quite the challenge to finish.

edited 10/16/12 to mention wings were not stiffened.
“But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.” Francis Bacon

Tatting for Special Days

These angels are ‘Tiny Angel #12’ from 15 Tiny Tatted Angels by Patricia Ann Rizzo.
Tiny Angel #12    Pattern by Patricia Ann Rizzo
I tatted these angels for two of my aunts for Mother’s Day.  They’re both Tiny Angel #12 but the one on the right I modified just a little bit.  (I sometimes can’t help myself, just can’t keep myself from making changes.) They are in Lizbeth #671, Christmas Red in size 20.  I like to give my aunts tatting but things that can be hung up or worn – they don’t need anymore stuff laying around than I do.  And it made it possible to get them done in time for Mother’s Day 🙂 
The other tatting I did was the pin for my mother’s birthday using the dragonfly I showed last week.  But it is such a light color it needed a darker color behind it. What better background for a dragonfly than leaves?  
Leaves © Wanda Salmans

These are made in Häkelgarn #2015, size 20.  I had to look through my entire stash of thread to find a green that would look good with the dragonfly and also the scarf that I was hoping it would go with.   Christmas green was definitely out, it was much too bright. In truth, I don’t have a lot of shades of green, but I do have a lot of thread that I had to dig through.  This was a perfect choice.

I know there are leaf patterns out there but I was running out of time, so, as usual, I tried to re-invent the wheel – I made up my own.  I was also going to use the Catherine Wheel join to make the edges smooth – think the beautiful designs of Marilee Rockley – but just couldn’t get them to co-operate.  Then I realized that the ragged edge looked pretty good on a leaf (at least I think so). So I made then next one just like it.

And then I put them together.

Dragonfly pattern by Jon 2010

My mother was very happy with this.  As you can see, I didn’t find the long hat pins I was looking for, but this worked.  I can see this being used as a scarf pin, too. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the scarf I gave my mother for Mother’s Day, which was the inspiration for the pin in the first place.  Oh, well, it looks good on the hat, too.

I didn’t get the cup done yet.  It’s all laid out, the tatting ready to be glued down, but that’s as far as I’ve got. It should take long now, but I’m running out of time before work, so it will have to be for another day – again.

The DragonFly Symbolizes Maturity and a Depth of Character
The dragonfly, in almost every part of the world symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self realization; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life.

The traditional association of Dragonflies with water also gives rise to this meaning to this amazing insect. The Dragonfly’s scurrying flight across water represents an act of going beyond what’s on the surface and looking into the deeper implications and aspects of life.


http://www.dragonfly-site.com/meaning-symbolize.html

May is Celiac Awareness Month.  The following information is from celiac.com.
Symptoms of Celiac Disease (as if it wasn’t bad enough by itself!)

Celiac Disease can appear at any time in a person’s life. In adults, the disease can be triggered for the first time after surgery, viral infection, severe emotional stress, pregnancy or childbirth. CD is a multi-system, multi-symptom disorder. Symptoms vary and are not always gastrointestinal (GI). GI symptoms can often mimic other bowel disorders.
Infants, toddlers and young children with CD may often exhibit growth failure, vomiting, bloated abdomen, behavioral changes and failure to thrive.

CLASSIC SYMPTOMS MAY INCLUDE

  • Abdominal cramping, intestinal gas
  • Distention and bloating of the stomach
  • Chronic diarrhea or constipation (or both)
  • Steatorrhea – fatty stools
  • Anemia – unexplained, due to folic acid, B12 or iron deficiency (or all)
  • Unexplained weight loss with large appetite or weight gain

OTHER SYMPTOMS

  • Dental enamel defects
  • Osteopenia, osteoporosis
  • Bone or joint pain
  • Fatigue, weakness and lack of energy
  • Infertility – male/female
  • Depression
  • Mouth ulcers
  • Delayed puberty
  • Tingling or numbness in hands or feet
  • Migraine headaches

SOME LONG-TERM CONDITIONS THAT CAN RESULT FROM UNTREATED CD

  • Iron deficiency anemia
  • Early onset osteoporosis or osteopenia
  • Vitamin K deficiency associated with risk for hemorrhaging
  • Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
  • Central and peripheral nervous system disorders – usually due to unsuspected nutrient deficiencies
  • Pancreatic insufficiency
  • Intestinal lymphomas and other GI cancers (malignancies)
  • Gall bladder malfunction
  • Neurological manifestations