LadyShuttleMaker Giveaway!

Hey! Look at this! Sherry, LadyShuttleMaker, is giving things away every Monday. Can you believe that? [She must not have that pack-rat hoarder gene I've got.] You do realize that means hand-dyed threads, ceramic shuttles, original watercolors, tatting books, bits of tatting, and other goodies, right?

All you have to do is go over to her blog Tatting Tales - All Things Tatting http://www.ladyshuttlemaker.blogspot.com every Monday and leave her a really good comment -- or a plain vanilla one if you don't happen to have a really good one churning around in your brain. I'm leaving her banner on the side-rail until she's cleared out all her stuff -- or at least until she comes to her senses and starts hoarding it. Click on the banner and head over there. She's always got something interesting to say...

Well...oops!

No tatting for a little while. I did an oops. Monday night I was slicing bread for supper. That's not all I sliced. Really, I can't imagine how my thumb came to be there -- not at all, really! What was it thinking?! I think thumbs must not have any brains -- at least mine don't. My sister took me and my thumb down to the "InstaCare" (what a misnomer -- we were there more than an hour and dinner was ruined). First they made me wait behind curtain number 2. This guy whose razor hasn't worked for at least three days must have been the winner. Oh -- nope. He was the doctor. He filled my thumb full of lead...er...no,no, he filled it full of some kind of numbing agent. He did it with a NEEDLE (shudder) . Sadist. Then he demanded someone set up a suture kit for him. (He apparently couldn't open the cupboard and take out a box and put it on the tray by himself. I hoped it was a sign he was just uppity -- not inept. He was gone forever. I thought might be thinking the box would open itself if he waited long enough. Nope. He finally came back, then spent 10 minutes complaining that it was some kind of disposable kit. The nurse told him they were out of the regular kits and this was all they had left. His response, "Well, that's not a good enough answer." What kind of answer could he want? They all ran away from home? There really are some of the others, but we don't like your patient? The others are being saved for the best doctors? Doesn't matter -- that's the only answer they had to give him. Grumbling, he decided he could use "that piece of crap". Great. I want my thumb fixed with crap -- oh, yeah. Still, fix it he did. Stitched it right up, and tied the knots with a couple of hemostats. It was beautiful to watch him tie those knots -- 30 years experience, he said. "Wow," says I, "I'd certainly like to have a couple of those hemostats." "Why would you want 'em?" he mumbles. "Oh, because I can use them with my tatting!" "Whazzat?" he says. Heathen. I told him it was lace making with a bunch of little knots, and I could use those for short thread joins and stuff. He looked at me like I was speaking Ancient Egyptian. (I could have told him tatting wasn't that old.) Still, when he finished he told the nurse to give me the hemostats -- since they were disposable anyway (maybe they melt in the autoclave?). They didn't look disposable to me -- see:

I should get the stitches out next Monday. Plenty of time to still demonstrate tatting at the State Fair!

Ornament Rings

This is a set of winter decorations. I'd use them on the Christmas tree, but they'd do just as well in the window or hanging from the ceiling.

Hanging from the ceiling actually sounds pretty good -- like they've been to a really wild party. YeeeHaaawwwww...party on, dudes. Who's got the music?...

Wait...what was I talking about? Oh, yeah, these ornaments.

All of the white ones are made with Coats Dual Duty Button Cotton. The red and green ones are made with Lizbeth size 40 in Christmas red or Christmas green. All of the white and red ones are either directly from Jon Yusoff's Snowflakes Collection or are adaptations of those patterns to get them to fit into the silver bangles. The green ones are either directly from DMC's Tatting for Today or have been adapted to fit into the bangles. It does seem strange to be making Christmas ornaments in August (given that the temperature outside is upwards of 90 F). These are for a gift. I don't think the person who's getting these even knows this blog exists, though. Sometimes it's a good thing to labor in obscurity, right?

Fairly Floating

The earrings I tatted, using Jon Yusoff's techniques for covering a ring (and inspired by her earrings), had to be entered in the Creative Arts area. I ran out of categories in tatting -- they didn't have one for jewelry. These were entered in Creative Arts: jewelry, mixed media. They had to be mounted on a card to be entered. My so-called cards were cardboard cut from a boxed-something-that-came-in-the-mail covered with cloth. I stitched the earrings to the fabric so they wouldn't get lost.
Both sets were made for my niece (who modeled them in my original post about entering the Fair). The purple ones (made with size 30 Cebelia and inexpensive clear glass beads) won a first place and a high blue (that is, considered for sweepstakes). Those are my own favorites, but apparently the judges thought differently.

The high school my niece is going to has black and white for their school colors (somebody is in dire need of a dictionary to look up the meaning of color, in my opinion [ooooo, maybe it's me?!]). The second pair is made with size 30 white Cebelia and tiny black glass beads with a larger black drop bead in the center. The metal rings I used had a little hole there, so I had to attach something to it! I have to tell you my first reaction was confusion, then total amazement when we saw these in a glass case at the Fair. I really did win all the marbles: a blue ribbon, high-blue, sweepstakes, judge's choice, and Best of Show! Who'd'a' thunk? With the best of show I got a recipe book and this nifty bread basket. It has a square porous ceramic stone inside a zippered bag. The stone goes in the microwave for a specified amount of time, into the zippered bag, into the basket and keeps the bread warm. Wow!-- it would be even better if I still made bread!

More than Fair

Hey, I've got bragging rights on this one! Some of you might remember this from Tatting Treasures from Trash in September 2007. I had the right side done as Summer and was going to finish all four quarters (two front and two back) as seasons of the year. I decided putting stuff on the back would be pointless because who would see it? Not only that, it would get rubbed against my clothes which mght mess up the tatting. So, in the middle of July [this year!] , I decided to make it Summer Day / Winter Night. I made a bunch of snowflakes to go with the pocket edging representing the moon. I do believe most of the snowflakes were from Jon Yusoff's Snowflake Collection, though there might be a couple of strays in there. This one got a blue ribbon, a high blue ribbon, a Home Arts Sweepstakes ribbon, and the tatting Judge's Choice ribbon. Pretty good, eh? Not that I'm feeling puffed up about myself -- but I very nearly had to sleep in the garage because that was the only place with a door big enough for my head.

Tat's Fair, too

Three tatted doily entries -- two of which have been on the blog before. The pair of "Anemone Sylvestris" from Iris Niebach's book Fantasia 2 were entered as a dresser set/table runner. "Milena" is from Iris's Tatted Doilies made in Yarnplayer's "Rhubarb Crisp" hand-dyed-thread. All of the comment cards mentioned the beautiful color (thanks Marilee!). The last one is "Lucky Clover" from Tatting Patterns and Designs by Blomqvist and Persson. It was made within the last two months just for the Fair. It's made of one strand of white sewing cotton and one strand of Signature machine embroidery thread. None of the pictures I took manage to show the subtle color changes though (one even looked a nasty yellow) -- so here's a partial image I scanned.

[Blogger is playing tricks on me. If your comment didn't appear, it's not because I didn't appreciate it! I selected the comments and said publish -- but not all of them showed up. Hmpf. Thanks, Blogger]

Fairly Tatted

I've shown these ornaments on the blog before. The first one -- with the second place ribbon -- is being donated to the "Festival of Trees" tree being decorated by the Bonneville Tatters. The pattern is my own and I quite like it (but never did like the color). The comment card said it needed more sparkle. I think they liked all the beads on the other set -- because those got a first place ribbon. These are the ornaments I made from an adaptation of Iris Niebach's "Cornelia" from Tatted Doilies.

The dragon, from a pattern by Anne Bruvold, has also appeared on the blog before -- I made it as a gift for my sister and she made me a loan of it for entering in the fair. The butterfly is new, but is the same pattern I made up for the InTatters butterfly exchange (oops -- with the addition of a couple of extra rings on the top of the wings). The comment cards for both of these mentioned the wonderful use of color -- I have to say thanks to my sister, because they were both made of threads she dyed for me (the dragon a size 10 and the butterfly a size 30). One of the comment cards for the butterfly also expressed delight with the beads. I think some judge out there was as much a crow as I am -- gimmie the shiny stuff!

Fair Enough

The County Fair allows entries of things made within the last three years, that have not been previously entered in the Fair. These are the three crocheted doilies I entered. Actually, the center one was entered as a crocheted table runner, but it's my dresser scarf. The last one was made more than three years ago, but it was hand-dyed just a couple of years ago, so I entered it anyway. They all got blue and high blue ribbons (that is, considered for sweepstakes in Home Arts). I never did find out why I also got a $25 gift certificate from The Wool Cabin with the dyed doily. It must be something they give out themselves, but it's certainly nothing to sneeze at! We're going to go see what they've got. Wool Cabin -- sounds fibre-ish to me, and that sounds good.

Fair Results -- Yes!

We went to the fair yesterday. Talk about pleasant surprises! The County Fair doesn't charge an entry fee, and allows a person to enter two things in each category. Between the four of us we entered 31 things, and we won 46 ribbons. Conspicuous consumption in a rather ostentatious way, eh?
The seven-year-old entered two tiny clay pots and a little sponge-painted canvas bag. She got blue ribbons for the pots and a red ribbon for the bag.
The fourteen-year-old entered a very tiny penguin and a little turtle made of baked clay, an interesting representation of xeriscaping, and a bag she made from a pair of jeans. She won a third place for the xeriscape stone, a second on the bag (but they forgot to put her age on the card, so she was competing with the adults), a first on the pengin, and a first and "high blue" on the turtle. High blue means it was considered in the sweepstakes round.
My sister entered a dress she made, crocheted slippers, blankets and dishtowel sets, and tie-dyed scarves, a baby onsie with hat, long-john jammies, and a sheet set. She got a second place for her slippers, firsts for her other crocheted items and her dress, and a "high blue" for her blue and green baby blanket. She got seconds on her long-john jamies and one of her scarves (the one that's my favorite!), and firsts on everything else. In addition, she got a high blue and a creative arts sweepstakes ribbon for her sheet set. They're so loud, I don't think she's going to be able to sleep if she puts them on the bed!

I'm so proud of them all -- aren't they clever?

Is it Fair?

I won't know until next week. Yesterday we packed our oxygen tanks and headed out to the Equestrian Center and County Fair Grounds to enter lots of things. (We have to pack the oxygen because the place is soooooo far out in the valley the air is thin [thus speaketh an east-bench snob].) I entered two things in every tatting category available, and one in "bags". My sister entered her crocheted baby blankets, shawl, and kitchen sets. They had a difficult time with her tie-dyed items. We thought they belonged in decoration on a pre-made item, but they thought she should enter them as wearable art over in the creative arts section. They finally let her enter her sheets in home arts but sent her to creative arts with her union-suit jammies and baby onsie. The girls entered things too. I think I should win all the marbles -- but then, I lost my marbles years ago and am always hoping to replace them. We shall see. I'm not worrying about it, though. There was no entrance fee, and I don't think there are monetary prizes either. This is just practice for the state fair. These are the earrings I entered (of course, I displayed them differently for the fair: