I’m a bit late to the party, but I made it! The day isn’t over yet. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Clover earrings
I wanted a pair of green earrings for several events this week. I waited until the last minute to make any, so they couldn’t be too fancy, but I wanted something a bit more than thread. I’ve had these little keys for years, never knowing what to do with them. They looked good for these earrings. They did end up being a bit longer than what I usually wear, but I like them.
I am a member of the lady’s bible group at my church. I decided this year that I would gift each of the members a bit of tatting for their birthdays, in their birthday month. There were none in February, four in March. I was planning on making crosses for them but ran out of time. They were not disappointed with these heart paperclips, even if they weren’t crosses.
March birthday gifts
Of course, I forgot to take a picture before giving any away. I did remember before I gave them all away. Too bad it’s a bit out of focus.
The weather here is mostly warm, trees and flowers are starting to bloom. Now we are expecting a hard frost… My poor apple tree.
“I don’t want to brag or make anybody jealous, but…I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school.” author unknown
Jane Eborall has published the last part of her 2023 TIAS, and it’s a good one. I was kept guessing until almost the end. You can never tell where she’ll take you on her yearly journey. You think you know what it is you’re tatting, and she surprises you. I encourage all of you to go check out her Tat It and See blog to see all the aliens that have been sent in. She numbers them so we know how many there are. Here’s mine.
TIAS alien
Jane put a lot of techniques into the TIAS this year. There are Victorian sets, Catherine Wheel joins, long twisted picots, as well as split rings. As in any of her patterns, if you have trouble with a technique, she has helpful hints and directions on her blog, so no one needs to feel that is too much for them. The clues are given days apart, giving you plenty of time to learn and work on the TIAS. The journey is always fun, as are the comments of everyone else traveling on it with you.
Even with the TIAS going on I was able to finish the paperclip heart bookmarks I wanted to and in plenty of time. They were warmly received. The pictures I posted of them on Facebook were also well received, with a lot of people wanting the pattern. I realized that I had the heart pattern but not the bookmark part of it posted. I suppose I should update the pattern with the bookmark option. Until then, here is what I did to make the bookmark part.
Replace RJ in the pattern with a split ring: SR 3-1–1—1–1-3/3-1–1—1–1-3. Repeat for the length desired. The last ring is R 3-1–1—1–1-3 join to paperclip, join to paperclip 3-1–1—1–1-3.
January Heart paperclip bookmark
Now that Valentine’s is over, I need to move on to other things. I am prepping to teach a class in April at a library. Not sure how many will signup, if anyone, but I’m getting my notes and such together. I was contacted by the librarian last fall about doing a class in the spring. I don’t know when they will advertise/promote it. I may not know much until closer to time.
March is fast approaching, with St. Patrick’s day and spring weather. I have a few ideas I want to try that reflect those ideas. I just need to get my thread together and get started.
My sister and I are starting to get more into our planning for the cruise we are taking in November. We are going on the “Knotical Adventures” Tat Sea cruise with Tatting Corner. It’s going to be so much fun! Are any of you going?
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.”Carl Sagan
I haven’t tatted a lot in the last month or so due to one of my hands hurting. Not sure what I’ve done to cause it, but it lets me know when I hold a shuttle or try to grip things with my right hand. I’ve been doing the recommended stretches to help it get better, which it has, but I’m still going slow with any tatting.
What tatting I’ve been doing are small things, like working on the Arlo bookmark. I think I’m finally happy with the ends, so now I just need to finish the pattern. While doing this, I tried the stitch count on just the ends. By the time I finished this sample, I was thinking it would make a cute earring.
Short Arlo bookmark
I’ve also been doing Jane Eborall’s TIAS (Tat It And See). A great way to tat without doing too much at a time, right? We’re only a couple of clues from finishing, and I’m still not sure what it is! This is up to day 12.
2023 TIAS day 12
Something has to attach at the top, but how exactly, I don’t know. It’s a person, right? Maybe? You never know with Jane! There are a lot of fun guesses over on the Tat It And See blog. Jane’s next clue for the TIAS is in a couple of days. I understood her to say there are two clues left. I’m looking forward to seeing how we finish this up. Are any of you doing it?
I’ve also been doing a few small bookmarks using my January Heart pattern on large paper clips similar to what I did for my niece last year. A couple are thank-you gifts, the other one for a friend. I have two more I’d like to make before next Wednesday. They are small enough I think it’s doable.
A trio of heart bookmarks
One of these is for an aunt, who recently sent me a couple of souvenir coins. She got these coins at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Fransisco, California when she was eight years old.
Animal League coin with a dog on one side
This coin is very lightweight. I’m thinking it is aluminum.
Animal League coin with a cat
I never thought much about how long animal care organizations existed.
The coin she thought I’d want is this Coleman coin.
1939 Coleman lantern coin
This coin is much heavier than the other, feeling more like an actual coin. You can tell it’s been carried around a lot, enough to rough up the lantern on it.
1939 Good luck Coleman coin
I started work for the Coleman Company in Wichita, Kansas in 1979. I never worked in the lantern factory, but it was a very important part of the company. This coin is so cool! I’m going to have to come up with a way to display it.
Now back to a few stretches, an ice pack, and my collection of things I would like to be tatting.
“Every experience, good or bad, is a priceless collector’s item.” Isaac Marion
I’ve been having fun this last week making heart earrings. I’ve even added beads to the January Hearts.
January Heart earrings
I have given several of these pairs away, to my daughters and a sister. I even kept a pair for myself! The little critter with the earrings is the Valentine my granddaughter made for me. She made these to give as Valentines to her classmates and I received one, too. Isn’t it cute?
While looking up hearts and heart patterns this week I reviewed how I posted about them since I started my blog. It’s amazing how many blog posts there have been in the last 10 years. If you are interested in the pattern, check out my Patterns page.
Thanks to all of you that have left comments about this pattern. I appreciate all of you! May you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!
“And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
Valentine’s Day will be here in a week and like most years I think I have to re-invent the wheel, or in this case, the heart. Sometimes I do okay, sometimes I don’t. I think I did okay this time.
January Hearts
I like the proportion of these hearts, which I don’t always get. These are made with only one shuttle and ball thread, simple and quick to make. Amazingly, I didn’t get overly complicated, LOL! I made these in Lizbeth # 671 Christmas Red in size 20, which makes a nice earring, but they wouldn’t have to be earrings.
Something else amazing, I have the pattern done for these already! Imagine that! I’ve added it to My Patterns page.
Speaking of patterns, I am making a few changes to the pattern page. The Keep and Share site where I have the downloads have a limit on how many downloads they allow in a day. If I want to allow more, it costs more. As I don’t charge for my patterns I don’t want to do that. I am changing which patterns can be downloaded to more recent or popular patterns. All the patterns are still available but may have to be requested by email.
I’ve been seeing a lot of tatted hearts on Facebook, Instagram, and blog posts the last week or so. Are you planning to tat hearts this year for Valentine’s Day?
“I enjoy celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s a nice way to say you’re thinking about your family, someone special, or dear friends.” Camila Alves
I’m still doing Jane Eborall’s TIAS, and it’s up to day 8. There have been a lot of guesses that it might be a seahorse, but after day eight’s installment, I don’t think so. Maybe a gecko? It’s fun guessing even if I don’t get it right.
TIAS day 8
I have actually gotten some other tatting done, too. I was in a bit of a funk with tatting, knowing I have several things I should be doing but not having the inspiration to do them. Doing small, simple things has gotten me back in the frame of mind to be creative.
I had some beads I picked up at Michael’s a week or so ago. I have been wanting to practice tatting with beads and these owl beads were an inspiration to do so.
Owl earrings
I used Lizbeth #122 Caribbean size 20 because I love the color. This is a simple use of beads, but you have to start somewhere, right? The owl beads were what I really wanted to do something with. There are several things I could do better and will do a bit differently with the next pair of these I make. I gave this pair to one of my daughters and want to give a pair to my other daughter as well.
I had plenty of the Caribbean on the shuttles to play with after the owl earrings. I want to review what I would fix/change before making another pair so thought I’d do something else. February and Valentine’s Day is coming up so hearts sprang to mind.
Doodle heart
This one was okay, but I could see it a bit differently shaped so I tried another heart with a bit of a change. I liked the change enough I made a pair of earrings.
heart earrings on music runner
Don’t they look good on this runner? My sister made this for me for my birthday. She told me about it while she was embroidering it because she thinks it will look good with tatted edgings. I think so, too. This is one of the things on my need-to-tat list.
While looking for shuttles I found a small piece of tatting I did some time ago. I can’t find a picture of it so I’m not sure how long ago I made it. I’m pretty sure I was just doodling again when I made it. Unless someone recognizes it?
Snowflake doodle
It looks kind of wonky, doesn’t it? I didn’t block it except for pulling it this way and that to make it lay nice. I decided I’d add another round, so found the thread I made it with and jumped right in.
Isla snowflake
This is made with Lizbeth #660 Country Turquoise Light in size 20. I like how it came out. I was fiddling with the chain length and the small rings as I was making it, so some are one size and some are another. But that is easy to fix. This is what happens when you don’t know what you’re doing when you start, LOL. I’ll have to try it again.
Today I’m working on another pair of heart earrings, this time in red as befits Valentine’s day. It was such a nice day the dog and I spent most of it outside. I did some tatting outside, too. I tried to get a picture of me with the dog, but she wouldn’t cooperate.
Tatting outside in January
Kansas has a wide range of winter weather, from mild to nasty. Today was mild and beautiful- sunny, light breeze, and 66 degrees F. How could I spend it indoors? But our nice weather is coming to an end tomorrow with nasty weather here by Wednesday.
Weather in Kansas January 31, 2022
Yep, it’s supposed to start snowing Tuesday night, keep snowing through Thursday morning, with wind chills in the -10 to -20 range. I could do without that. We are very blessed to usually not have as much bad, or cold, weather as other parts of the country, but it is winter. Six months from now I’ll be complaining of the heat, LOL!
“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” Vincent Van Gogh
The center of this cross is Joy’s Heart (pattern found on My Patterns tab) with arms added. It’s done in one pass with shuttle and ball only, no fancy or difficult techniques. Made with Lizbeth #670 Victorian Red thread in size 20.
This was made in memory of my sister-in-law who loved anything hearts who lost her battle with cancer this last week. We were the same age and though we didn’t see each other often we always enjoyed each other’s company. She will be greatly missed.
I had almost a week to make a bookmark for my brother-in-law but I had a hard time getting started – maybe denial? I finished the last arm and hid the ends a few minutes after the funeral. The picture was taken in the foyer on a table there. I should have found a better background but there were other things to do.
Funerals are hard to attend but can help so much with dealing with loss. Besides all of the memories shared you also reconnect with extended family that unfortunately doesn’t get together often enough. I also find myself reviewing my own life and wonder if I’m doing things I might regret or what things I might regret if I don’t do them.
As family and friends mingled, shared memories and tears, many of us kept saying “we have to stop meeting just at funerals.” Someone decided to do something about that – plans have been started to have a family reunion later this year. I’ve added it to our calendar and we’ve made plans to go. We not waiting until the next funeral.
There is a wonderful poem by Linda Ellis called “The Dash”. It really makes you think.
TIAS – Tat It And See – Jane Eborall’s annual fun-fest of teasing those of us in tat-land that choose to join with small snippets of a pattern every few days. There have been some pretty fun guesses made by participants but is anyone right? Only Jane knows!
TIAS Day 9
My TIAS through Day 11
What is it?
It started snowing here last night about midnight. They are predicting that we could get upwards of 9 inches of snow today with blowing snow and frigid weather tonight and tomorrow. I didn’t even open the door to take this picture.
The view from my front door about 12:00 PM
Just got news that work has been cancelled for today – yeah!!
ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards. These are supposed to be no larger than 3½ inches by 2 ½ inches (the size of most any trading card, like baseball, hockey, etc, as well as most playing cards) and can be made of and with almost anything you want. It’s a small piece of art to be traded or given away, not sold, to other artists. Originally this was done at face-to-face events but a lot of people now organize swaps on the Internet and through the mail. They are also sometimes used by artists to try a technique or idea on a small scale, kept instead of traded.
I have been admiring Singtatter’s ATCs for sometime, but never tried any. She and her friends do all sorts of different media and I haven’t seen myself being that ambitious. But I got to thinking the other day that I’ve enjoyed decorating the photo album covers and I had a lot of fun decorating the little bags. And I have quite a lot of flowers, butterflies and birdies and such from emptying shuttles. Hmm, it could be fun to decorate something small like ATCs.
So I attempted a few.
Tatting and colored pencils
Paper, thread and heart button – oops, no tatting!
Tatting, paper and ribbon Dove pattern by JoAnn Stearns, ‘Joy’s Heart’ pattern by Wanda Salmans
Originally I wasn’t going to put that butterfly on this last one, I was going to write a few words. And I messed up the few words. So I had to cover them up. Oh, well, this is just for me anyway, and I had fun doing it, so all is good.
These are very simple ATCs compared to many I’ve seen on the Internet, but now I have a lot more ideas to try. What’s funny is for some of these ideas I will have to do some tatting made special for them *hehehe*. I suppose as fun is the main reason to do these that’s not a bad thing.
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” Pablo Picasso www.brainyquote.com
