Tag: buttons

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?

Gifting ideas

I liked how the photo albums from last week came out so well that I did another one.  This time using ‘Joy’s Heart’ in Lizbeth #159 Easter Eggs size 20. With flowers and butterfly in random colors.

I think these albums are great gift ideas – inexpensive to buy the album and quick to decorate to match the person you are gifting or just to have on hand for “emergency” gifting. The hardest part was actually finding the background paper to match the thread colors. This one has a white background with dabs of green ink.

Remember the buttons I decorated a while back? These are something else that would make nice gifts, for certain people anyway. When Odd Balls Yarn Shop was closing they had quite the sale and I picked up a bunch of buttons before they were gone.  For some reason I really like the idea of adding tatting and pin backs to these.  Some of the buttons are in kind of odd colors, making them a bit harder to match threads to.  This one is black so not that hard. I don’t know if you can see the texture marks on the button in the photo or not.

The dragonfly is in Lizbeth #131 Vineyard Harvest size 20.  One of the photo albums that I used had a drawing of flowers and a dragonfly on it originally which inspired me to make a small dragonfly. I just looked at the picture and came up with the pattern but I’m sure I’ve seen it out there, or something very close.

Has anyone out there been doing any of the Shuttlebirds’ Weekly Challenges?  I’ve done a couple, including #11 which was “Morgan Mouse”.  #12 is Nancy Tracy’s “Clover Drop Heart” which is a cute little pattern and not very complicated.  I thought it would look good on a photo album.

And I goofed it.

I made one chain a little too short.
This is what happens when you don’t pay attention.
It’s done in Lizbeth #117 Country Side size 20.
I guess I’ll try it again – hopefully paying a little bit more attention the next time.

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Button, button

Did everyone have a happy Mother’s Day?   
Did you get a nice gift for your mother?
Or did you make a nice gift for your mother?
That’s me, making the gift.  At least it was once I finally decided what I was going to make.
I had an idea but the reality was very illusive. I tried several things before the light came on and then, just like that, it came together.    

So much simpler than what I started with, too.  The butterfly is out of Oren Bayan size 8 thread, the flowers out of miscellaneous Lizbeth thread that I made while cleaning off shuttles. (Anyone else have a container full of flowers and other doodles?) I added a pinback to it so she can wear it.  She wore it pinned on her hat to church on Sunday. 
I liked the way it came out so well I made a couple more.
                                                                                                       
And then tried the idea with a few different buttons.
These were a lot of fun to make.
And aren’t these great buttons?  The local fiber shop, Odd Balls Yarn Shop, has a lot of cool buttons to choose from.

 June 15 and 22 I’m scheduled to give beginning tatting classes at Odd Balls and plan on having each student decorate buttons with tatting.  Simple tatting with a fun result don’t you think?
If anyone local out there is interested in taking one of those classes check out Odd Balls website at http://www.oddballsyarnshop.com/ or stop in the shop. It’s in the Chisholm Trail Shopping Mall just south of Newton, Kansas.   I’d love to see you there. 
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi
thinkexist.com

#9 – I think

In my current 25 Motif Challenge
I’ve been making things, even challenging things, but haven’t been counting them for the Challenge.  I looked  through my previous posts and I think I’m ready for #9.  
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
 Lizbeth #626 Shell Pink Light size 20

The center of this piece is made of stone.  I picked several up at Odd Balls Yarn Shop in Newton, KS.  Each of them is unique in coloration because they are stone.  I used this shade of thread because the stone has the same shade in it.  But then the whole thing looked really washed out against all the backgrounds that I tried it on even though the thread and stone look great together.  Then I tried it against this button, which I also got from Odd Balls. This button is almost the length of a Clover shuttle across (I was going to take the picture with a shuttle beside it and forgot) – a very large button.  I’m going to glue the tatting to the button and try it as a pendant.  Or maybe a brooch.  I’ll get back to you on that.

Lizbeth #122 Caribbean size 20

My daughter has returned a verdict on the bracelet I gave her to try – she likes it.  The only trouble she’s had is the closure, so that might have to change.  But as the overall bracelet works I’ve started another, this time with purple buttons.  I’m liking the looks of this one.   I also picked up some new buttons that I think would look really cute in a bracelet.  Now to pick out just the right color thread for each.  A challenge I look forward to!

“A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it.”
Ray Davis

Hat Medallion

I was given several very thin metal findings – ‘doodads’ – to see what I could come up with.  This is my first try.  The outside came easy enough but I kept wondering what to do with the center, which has a small hole. My solution, at least this time, is two rings, the larger on the bottom.  The tails of the two rings are threaded through the bead then through the hat to hold the medallion on.  The doodad is so thin it bends easily so I’m thinking maybe putting a button on the inside to help keep it from bending when wearing the hat.  
Lizbeth # 652 Royal Blue size 20
I put it on the side of the hat but I’m not sure it’s positioned quite right yet.  I think I’ll have to put the hat on a head to be able to see where it looks the best. 
Lizbeth #144 Leaf Swirl size 20

I’ve had the idea for while to make a bracelet with buttons and finally found a combination of buttons and thread that I like.   I’ve given this to one of my daughters to try out for awhile.  She has instructions to let me know what she thinks of it, what works and what doesn’t.  She hasn’t got back to me about it yet though I’m anxiously waiting.  I have some other, really cute buttons I would like to do this to but if there is something I should do differently I’d like to know before I start.

It’s funny, for as many hearts as I did for Valentine’s Day I haven’t done a thing for Easter.  I guess it’s still a few days away, I could still get something made…

Thank you to all of you who asked after my mom.  She is doing very well and is back home.  She does have some in-home care and a neighbor who checks in frequently so I’m not too concerned about her being alone.    She did spend a few days in rehab to get some of her strength back, which also relieved my sister and I.  We were afraid she would try to go straight home from the hospital.  This situation could have been a lot worse.  We are very grateful of how well things are working out and how well she is getting along.

“We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does.  Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining – they just shine.”
Dwight L. Moody
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Blogger Mobile hates me

I’ve been trying to post for two days now on Blogger Mobile and it stops during the upload every time!!!  I finally got to a hot spot (though it’s very, very, slow) so I can let you know that I’m still here.
Just a little something I made trying to empty a couple of shuttles.  I’ve been so busy doing other things I haven’t gotten much else done except a few doodles emptying other shuttles. 
I’ll try again later this week to get a longer post in.  I have some really cool pictures of where I’ve been the last week I’d like to share.  But that will have to wait for a better Internet connection. 
Happy Tatting everyone!