Happy Valentine’s Day
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Cats and Dogs
I have been doing some tatting lately, not always what I should be doing but enjoying what I have been doing. I realized a few days ago that it will be autumn soon, with cooler weather and fall colors. This inspired me to tat with browns and oranges. And try a few different patterns.
I’m not sure I like the burlap as a background, but I do like the kitty and pumpkin. The kitty was motivated by my Morgan Mouse pattern. I thought I saw a kitty in it the other day when I glanced over it. I’m pleased by how it turned out, the right background or not. I used size 20 thread and a 1/2 inch button. I have the pattern done if you’re interested, it’s on My Patterns page.
We have a cute dog, Bonnie, a Corgi mix. We did some training to get her to obey and have better manners, and now she and I spend our days together without too many problems. But once in a while, there are still times…
I must admit that leaving my tatting where she could get at it was my fault, not hers. But it was aggravating to find an almost full ball of thread in a tangled mess. It took an hour and a half to untangle it. I didn’t even think about it being left out when I went out to water my plants, or that she was in the house by herself.
I have a lot of pretty shuttles I could use, but I usually tat with inexpensive Clover shuttles. I’m so glad I did this time because it wasn’t only the ball of thread she got to.
As you can see, she thought the shuttle was a nice chew toy. I used fine sandpaper to smooth out the teeth marks, which worked well. It might not be pretty, but it is much smoother now.
Bonnie chewed on the backend of the shuttle so the pointy tip was not damaged. The backend was sprung, which didn’t mean it couldn’t be used, but I thought I’d try fixing that, too.
I put the shuttle in hot water for a bit, then clipped on a clothespin and did it again. The tips are closer than they were. I’m going to try it again, to see if I can’t get them a bit closer. I used the shuttle on a small project the way it is and the thread did not catch on any rough spots, so even if I can’t get the ends any closer I haven’t lost a shuttle.
I submitted the pattern that I’ve been working on to Tatting Corner for the chance to teach it on the cruise. I received nice comments from the test tatters on it, so I’m hoping there will be enough interest in it for others to want to do it.
I do not receive anything from Tatting Corner for including them in my post or if anyone clicks the link.
“Cat’s motto: No matter what you’ve done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it.” – Unknown
Happy 4th of July
It’s Independence Day, 2022!
I haven’t tatted anything new this year for the occasion, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been enjoying the season.
Last year I made a runner for my daughter that I was unable to get to her by the 4th of July or her birthday. It was eventually delivered in November in time for Veteran’s Day. She was able to use it this year for Independence Day. She loves decorating for this holiday.
She does such a great job of making her house look festive!
It’s amazing where you find people showing their patriotism. A local farmer showed his 4th of July spirit with these large hay bales.
My dog also dressed for the occasion.
We celebrated the holiday at my daughter’s house last night with family and friends, tonight we’ll do it a bit more locally. We celebrate and thank all of those that have fought for the freedoms we have.
Today I’m packing for our trip to Indiana tomorrow. I’m going to Tatting Corner’s “Artful Tatting” Tat Days at the end of the week. My husband took vacation so he could come with me. Looking forward to seeing all those fellow tatters!
May you all have a happy and safe Independence Day.
“A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works.” Bill Vaughan
Found
My mother is going through a lot of things with the thought of selling her house and my sister and I are helping. We have come across so many things that bring back many memories. We are also taking items to second hand stores, keeping some things we can use or want to save, or disposing of them in other manners, as dictated by their use or sentimental value. But some things are a surprise.
Somewhere, probably some garage sale, my mother found this box of miscellaneous laces. I took it first to see if there was anything I might want and them I’ll give it to my sister. She does a lot of sewing and can probably use most of them. I like lace but have no need for nearly this much. But I found some interesting things while looking through the box.
I don’t crochet myself, but I’m pretty sure that’s handmade crochet mixed in with the machine-made lace.
It looks like the lace is attached to the blue ribbon, but it’s not. I haven’t unwrapped any of them so I don’t know how much is there. But a lot of work and time are wrapped around these pieces of cardboard.
There was also some tatting in the box.
There are 54 inches of the red, single-shuttle tatting, maybe made for an insert? The doily is 7 1/2 inches across with a material center of 3 inches across. The picture makes it look very stained, but it is still damp from a quick blocking done so I could see what it looks like. The doily center seems a bit too big for the tatting, but if properly blocked it might be better.
I don’t know if my mom knew about the tatting or not, but I doubt it. She would have mentioned it to me I’m sure. A nice surprise to find it.
I also found the earring wires that Marie sent me! They were on different earrings than I thought they were, and if they had been a snake I would have been bitten several times while looking for them.
These are my Angle Wing pattern made in Lizbeth Metallic #HN20325 Gem Stone. These are bigger earrings than I usually wear and the color does not show up well with my hair color. But they were fun to do, so why not? And the earring wires make it easy to change out with other things.
It’s fun finding things you weren’t looking for. And in those you are.
Earrings
There are a lot of tatted earrings out there on Pinterest, which inspired me to make a few. Most of the ones I’ve been seeing have beads and/or other sparkly things on them. For all that I don’t use beads and baubles much, I do have quite a few stashed. The problem is they are stashed in a location that is hard to get to at the moment. So a quick trip to JoAnn’s was in order to pick up one or two.
It was supposed to be a quick trip to pick up a specific type of dangle bead. If you have shopped at JoAnn’s you know they have discounts on things and, if you are lucky, what you are shopping for is what’s on sale. I was lucky! A large part of the bead section was on sale. My quick trip was not quick.
I ended up buying many more beads than I intended. By a lot! In my defense, at 75% off I figured that now was the time to buy any I even thought I could use at some point in the future.
Surprise, surprise, I went home and actually used the beads I had gone to look for.
I found this pattern on my computer from a previous online search. I do not know the designer and haven’t seen them anywhere lately on line. If anyone knows the designer, please let me know so that I can give them credit.
I’ve made two pairs of these, one in purple the other in pink. I started a third pair that just didn’t cooperate. I’ll come back to it later.
Then I made another pair of earrings that are much simpler. They also used the same drop beads. I didn’t follow a pattern here, just something uncomplicated and easy. With beads!
These went much faster. I like using the smaller beads along with the drop.
I also played around with another type of bead. This took a lot more thought to use them.
The first two are very unbalanced due to the weight of the hummingbird bead. I did better with the third one by adding another bead with the flowers, but it is still not balanced correctly. I’m still working on them.
I keep looking through the beads I picked up that day, dreaming of how I can use them. Some are going to be very challenging to use with tatting so I may have to do something else with them. There are so many it will take years to use them all. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, is it?
Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent. Billy Graham
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/billy_graham_626358?src=t_waiting
Sunflowers
Can you believe it? I actually tatted a sunflower and finished it! Several sunflowers even! Yay!
I’ve been wanting to make small sunflowers to decorate a few things for a trip I’m taking this summer. I found a necklace of tatted sunflowers on Pinterest from a Japanese site called Creema, which I based these on. I have kept changing things up as I figure out what works for me and what doesn’t.
These all have a single brown ring with eight picots in the center. The outside rings are facing out with short chains between which join to the center ring. All three of these have different counts for the outward facing rings, and all are made with Lizbeth 170 Pineapple Parfait and 692 Mocha Brown Dark in size 20. The #170 was already on a shuttle and is yellow, so it works, right?
I’m pretty happy with these, but still not done yet. The shuttle of #170 made these sunflowers and few that ‘wilted’ and were disposed of before I moved on to Lizbeth #616 Daffodil Med. The ones in #616 are made with pointed chains, which I will share later. They are made a bit differently, the only ring being the center.
Tatting is again more in the forefront of things I want to do, but life still gets in the way of my tatting plans. I’m easily distracted from moment to moment by other things that need to get done, and unfortunately, some are more important than tatting. But, hey, I made several sunflowers! Yay!
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do. Helen Keller
Faux Tatting
Recently we were in an office waiting room that has some beautiful antique furniture. When we’ve been there before the china hutches and shelves were empty. This time they had different antique collections in them. While looking those over I noticed several framed doilies that I had to get a closer look at.
Aren’t these pretty? There is a lot of inspiration for tatted medallions in these.
I haven’t been inspired to tat much lately, too many other things are taking my attention and energy. I have a few plans for tatting that I’m gathering my threads for today, small projects for quick satisfaction. Planning on having more time to tat! (Crossing my fingers for more things not popping up!)
“Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.” Madeleine L’Engle https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/madeleine_lengle_122317
International Tatting Day 2019
I hope you have had time for a bit of tatting today for International Tatting Day!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day 2019
Heart challenges
On Valentine’s Day I posted this new heart. Since then I’ve been working on the pattern for it.
This Pensive Heart is made in Lizbeth thread size 20. Somewhere along the way I’ve misplaced the ball and now I can’t remember the color name or number. It is a dark purple, which made it somewhat challenging to tat without plenty of light. Dark color notwithstanding, it worked up smoothly.
I tried it again while I wrote out the pattern. This time I made it in Lizbeth size 10 Grape Dark, which is a lighter color than the first heart. It also worked up smoothly except for one spot on the second half where an inside picot is needed between two chains. I had no problems with this when I made the first heart but had some trouble when making this second one. Maybe I thought about it too hard. I’m also trying to figure out what to call or reference this technique. I know I’ve seen it somewhere.
I made a third heart trying to follow the pattern I had jotted down. This time it is in two colors, Lizbeth Sky Blue Dark # 707 and Denim Blue Light #650 in size 20. Again I had trouble with that one inside picot. Why didn’t I have trouble with the first heart but have trouble with the rest?
I haven’t finished the pattern yet. I’m hoping to have time this weekend. Maybe I’ll figure out what I did with that picot the first time that worked so well. And have a way to describe it.
“If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.” Carlos Santana
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/carlos_santana_454496?src=t_heart