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

The Week before New Years

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas? I hope you did. We did. We had family get-togethers, presents, a Christmas Eve program, and a wonderful Christmas day. Now we are in that week just before the calendar year changes from 2021 to 2022. Are you ready?

I finally finished the wings for my tree-topper angel, the day after Christmas. But that’s okay, I still have my tree up and the angel is now ready for next year.

Tree-top angel with wings on wandasknottythoughts
Tree-top angel got its wings

I made the wings in Lizbeth # 601 Snow White in size 10. I had wanted to make them in # 602 Natural but I didn’t have any in size 10. I thought the color would go better with the rest of the angel, but this looks okay. I modified my Angel Wings pattern to make the wings come out larger than I made them before. I even stiffened them so they would stand out nicely. I’m very happy with how the whole angel came out.

At Christmas, our families play a white elephant gift exchange game so we don’t have to spend so much on presents, but there are still a few gifts some of us give because we want to anyway. My sister embroiders and always makes something for the women and bakes goodies for each family (the guys and kids don’t complain!) She enjoys embroidering tea towels throughout the year so we all get them at Christmas. The women don’t complain, either. This year they all had gnomes on them.

Gnome tea towel on wandasknottythoughts
Gnome tea towel

I love my new tea towel, isn’t it cute? Unlike some, I am not afraid to use the embroidered tea towels my sister gives me. I have them out almost exclusively. She put all that work into them, I’m not leaving them in the drawer!

This year has been unseasonable warm here. We’ve been hearing of snow in some other parts of the country, but here in the middle of the USA we have had warm temperatures and haven’t had any moisture but a few sprinkles in over a month. The weather is supposed to change a bit on New Year’s Day.

Weather forecast for the week before New Years 2021 on wandasknottythoughts
Weather forecast for the week before New Year 2021

It’s too far out to know if we really will have any moisture or in what form it will take snow, rain, or ice, or a combination. I’ll take it in whatever form we can get it.

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I don’t, I just review what’s been going on, what I’ve been doing, and consider if I’m going in the direction I want to be going. I do sometimes make a list of tatted things I would like to make, but I usually lose it. As I’m retired now maybe I’ll post that list on the refrigerator and remember to make a few of the items on my wish list. Check back at the end of next year to see how well that goes, LOL!

New Years’ Day is this coming Saturday. Are you ready?

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. They merely determine where you start.” Nido Qubein