Safety Pin Brooch

I have a thing about using up all the thread on a shuttle, even when only a little bit is left. So I make little flowers and birds or try new techniques, doing anything to make me feel like I’ve not wasted more of the thread than I have to. This leaves me with lots of little flowers and birds and such. Now, what am I supposed to do with all of them?

While checking out videos on YouTube I saw one about slow stitching, which is embroidery. But I liked the result and thought that using tatting instead would also look good. Here is my first try.

Safety pin brooch on wandasknottythoughts
Safety pin brooch

To make the back I did have to do some stitching with needle and thread. Following the directions, I didn’t worry about hiding any of the stitches, letting them be part of the overall look. I have a package of coil-less safety pins, so I have a lot of opportunity to do more of these.

The butterfly is another try at the Picot Me Endrucks’ Life is Bliss Butterfly, this month’s challenge of the Endrucks 1920 Project. For this butterfly, I made longer picots on the top chain and then added a chain back over them.

Brooch on my coat on wandasknottythoughts
The brooch on my coat

My black coat is a wonderful background for the brooch. It’s getting warm now so this coat probably won’t be worn much more until fall. I guess I’ll have to find something else to put the brooch on for the summer.

I have two grandchildren in track this spring. Yesterday both of them had track meets in towns miles away from each other. The parents, my husband, and I divided ourselves so both kids had family in attendance. I went to the one that was an hour away and lasted six hours. Not much else gets done on days like this. And on Thursday there is one that starts at 10 a.m.! At least it’s only 30 minutes away instead of an hour!

Today I don’t have any track meets or other obligations. Except to work on something special for my granddaughter’s hair for her confirmation. This coming Sunday. I need to get to work on it!

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” Unknown

Little things

Adding tatting to buttons for brooches has really caught my imagination lately.  I pull out different threads to compare which ones look the best with the different buttons and dream about what I’m going to do with each one. 
I guess there are worse things to think about. 
This is the latest button.  On which I used another button as well as some tatting in Lizbeth Mocha Brown Dark #692 and Harvest Orange Med #694, both size 20.  It does have a pin back on it as well. Now I just need the right color blouse or dress to wear it on.  Or maybe a hat, or my purse…
I saw a neat idea over at Sew Many Ways awhile back that came to mind the other day.  I had a few of these clips handy and thought I’d give it a try.

They came out kinda cute, don’t you think?  I suppose they could be used for paper like they are intended as well.
A Soggy Tatting Tea Tuesday
It rained yesterday.  
One of the barn swallows that has made a house on the side of our house was out enjoying it.  It was raining pretty heavy and he was out taking a bath.  The post on our (decorative) hand pump is a favorite perch for the swallows all the time, even in the rain.

It rained yesterday.
This was later in the evening.

Did I mention it rained yesterday?
This is a picture the neighbor sent us looking out his front door to our back door.  Those lighter stripes there are his driveway.
No, we don’t live in the flood plain of a creek or pond or lake.  We actually live on somewhat high ground – for the neighborhood.  
We were very nervous about the water getting into the house but it didn’t. It came up to the thresh holds of the doors but didn’t come in. 
The roads flooded as well.  We had to take a detour to get home after work because of water over the roads.  We thought we might have to wait awhile for the water to go down but the road we detoured to had only about an inch running over it, so we chanced it (after walking it to verify depth and speed) and made it home okay.  This morning instead of tatting or blogging we drove around to see how much the water had gone down and if the roads were passable. They were.
We are still in a flood watch until Thursday morning though.  It rained so hard farther north that the creeks and rivers close to us could still come up in the next few days. 
Did I mention that it rained yesterday?