Coffee and TIAS

I’ve been tatting the larger wings, checking if I’ve got the pattern correct. Good thing these wings were just practice and not planned for something. There was an incident with coffee yesterday…

Coffee on the wings on wandasknottythoughts
Coffee on the wings on wandasknottythoughts

Coffee stains don’t come out well. I suppose I could just put these in coffee and stain them as if I meant to do it. But I haven’t made the facing wings yet, I’d want to do them all together so they come out looking the same. I’ll have to keep that in mind to use them somewhere in the future. It would be a shame to waste all that thread and the time tatting for something like this. The coffee stains will just make them look old, I can work with that.

As I mentioned last post I’ve joined Jane Eborall’s 2022 TIAS (Tat It And See). We are on Day 3. No surprise I have no idea what it will be. I’m thinking it will be an animal of some type as she has just said that a bead will be added soon. But that doesn’t really narrow it down much on what it could be. She has a great imagination and a lot of skill. If you haven’t seen her patterns yet check them out at http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/, there are all kinds! Her TIAS is at https://tatitandsee.blogspot.com/ if you’d like to join, or just follow along with how everyone else is doing it.

2022 TIAS day 3 on wandasknottythoughts
2022 TIAS day 3

This is my version of the 2022 TIAS through day 3. Jane has said that we only need one bead but I have a habit of losing beads all over the floor or just in the mess of my table. While I was getting one bead I thought I’d better get a spare or two, just in case. How’s the TIAS going for you?

I haven’t done much with writing out the pattern for the wings this week, just the tatting. I haven’t been on my computer much, too busy doing other things. I guess I need to buckle down and work on it, maybe with coffee. I’m not taking any bets on getting very far with it though, except on the coffee.

“I don’t need an inspirational quote. I need coffee.” OurMindfulLife.com

Would you like coffee with your hearts?

Flower Heart earrings, pattern by Tatfully Yours 
I’m still having fun making Kelly’s ‘Flower Heart’ earrings.  I made a pair of pink ones for my oldest daughter who currently has long, very dark hair, which makes an excellent backdrop for the earrings.  These are in Lizbeth #622 size 20 with pink seed beads.  She  wore them to work the next day (at a Starbucks) and a little later I got a phone call from her.  One of her co-workers loved them and wanted a pair in Starbucks green. 
I looked through my stash of thread looking for a green that was close to “Starbucks green”.   I used the logo on a bag of coffee as my sample color.  The only green I had that came close was an almost empty ball of DMC size 8 Pearl cotton.  I have no idea the color number as the label was lost a long time ago.  When I gave them to my daughter to pass along she thought they looked good.  I’m waiting for a picture of the happy (I hope!) recipient wearing them.
Have you been participating in or following the 2013 TIAS?  There are only a few days left before it’s complete, leaving us with what surely must be a baby buggy (or pram if you’re on the other side of the pond).
TIAS 2013 Day 9
I’m very happy in what the TIAS is becoming.  Family friends are expecting a baby later this year and I was wondering what I should make for them.  I had thought about Jane’s stork like I had done for my daughter but this will certainly be fun, too.  It’s much too early to know if it will be a boy or girl so I’ll wait a little while to start one for them. 
Last month I saw on Lace-Loving Librarian Diane’s blog about some shuttles she found at Hobby Lobby.  Well, guess where I was yesterday and what I found?  Yes, I found them, too.  And, yes, just like Diane I didn’t really need them but I couldn’t not buy them, could I?    The left one is wood, the one in the middle is carved bone. The pink Clover is there to give a size reference.  Before I try tatting with them I think I’ll take some very fine emery cloth to the middle of both of them as they don’t look all that smooth inside.  That said I’m looking forward to giving both of them a test drive.

Am I done making hearts yet?  I don’t know.  I have made more hearts this year than I think I have for the last five years put together, but I’m having a lot of fun with them.  My boss has accused me of making a different pair of earrings every day – which isn’t true, by the way – but these heart earrings are so quick and easy and fun to make that it’s almost true.  And it’s fun to see them on my daughter (and her friends) that I might just have to keep on for awhile.  Time will tell. 
(Though I do have an idea I’d like to try that doesn’t have any hearts in it at all….)
I’m hoping to get my tatting and tea in for Tatting Tea Tuesday sometime this afternoon.  I’ve been too busy yet this morning, but the day isn’t over yet!  And though it is Tatting Tea Tuesday I couldn’t resist this poem.
Caffeine is my shepherd; I shall not doze.
It maketh me to wake in green pastures:
It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses.
It restoreth my buzz:
It leadeth me in the paths of consciousness for its name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of addiction
I will fear no Equal:
For thou art with me; thy cream and they sugar they comfort me.
Thou preparest a carafe before me in the presence of The Starbucks:
Thou anointest my day with pep; my mug runneth over.
Surely richness and taste shall follow me all the days of my life: 
And I will dwell in the House of Mochas forever.

~Author Unknown