VACATION!!

Yup, I'm taking one. I know it looks like I've been on vacation for a while, but I've just been busy getting things done at work so I could leave. I'm off to Disneyland with my sister and my two nieces. :) I'm taking a nice little supply of tatting threads, shuttles, and lots and lots of patterns. The patterns are all stored in my Nook, so that's how I can have lots and lots. I'm also taking two colors of size 10 thread because Bonnie said teaching her would give us something to do while waiting in lines. I hope it works, because she's a lefty and I'm a righty. I'm not much of a teacher either...we'll see. I'll report on our success (or lack thereof) when I come back. Maybe I need to learn left-handed (I did that to teach her to crochet many year ago -- and I can't do it anymore).
As for tatting -- I've been doing some! I've got some UFO's (one of which I'm taking with me) and I've been emptying shuttle bobbins by making lots of little butterflies. Some of the bobbins have quite a bit of thread on them, so I tried making something a bit bigger. This is Jane Eborall's newest butterfly bookmark -- with some oops things. I didn't load any beads first, and miscounted the ones I did add. Duh. It's made of one strand of variegated quilting thread and one strand of yellow Cebelia wound together. I also didn't have enough thread to make much of a tail...it's for marking tiny books, maybe.

Happy Blogoversary to TattingChic

You'll want to pop over to TattingChic's blog! She's having her Second Blogoversary and is celebrating by giving away a "Learn to Tat" book, a shuttle, and some thread. Doesn't matter if you know how to tat -- isn't there someone you want to teach?

25 Motif Challenge - Number 4

"Ice Crystal" by Blomqvist and Persson's Tatting Patterns and Designs is a beautiful piece worked in two continuous rounds (only one set of threads to hide if started continuous thread method). I modified it by using only six repeats of the pattern instead of eight. That made it cup nicely around the ornament. For the bottom I used the diamond motif made by the pattern, but used six repeats instead of four.

Lacing the top and the bottom on is just a trial and a pain. I thought I'd out smart this pair and just tat it right on the ball. Oh, yeah, that was clever. It worked, but it was worse than trying to lace the pieces together. It slipped all over and trying to get the final join done took me about 20 minutes. I was certain the thread was going to pop before I got the last ring to close. Finally!

I don't think I'm going to try that again. In fact, the next one is still in the thinking stage.

I've been working on a pendant for an exchange, and making some earrings for my niece's art night auction. I can't show the pendant, and the earrings are just same-old, same-old.

And the winner is...

I thought about Diane's comment that the kids have so much fun doing a drawing. Yes! That sounds right. I got the girls to participate. Allix offered to be the box holder (okay, I volunteered her), but I think it's just so she can show off her Highland Swimming sweatshirt! She looks very serious, doesn't she?
Nicole was happy to draw the winning name -- standing on the stairs meant she could actually reach into the box to pull out one of those little squares. I took the tiny piece of tape off and she opened it to reveal:
Congratulations, Wendy! Once we get the address squared away, I'll ship the charm and the big-eye needle off to you.

But, me, I can't ever leave well enough alone. Out of curiosity, I had Google find me a Random Number Generator. Cool. I just had to try it out. It was too funny!!! What's so funny is that No. 8 is Diane who thought the kids should have the fun of drawing a name! That gave me the giggles, but maybe you had to be there. Anyway, Diane, I've got another little charm that I'll send off to you. :)

Two Hundred!?

I'm not such a blabbermouth as I thought I was. It's taken me over three years to reach two hundred posts. I was going to claim that I promote quality over quantity. That might work until y'all read some of this stuff. Then somebody's going to wonder about the quality of the stuff I've been drinking (only the best tea, thanks).

It would be really fun to give away one thing for each post! Oh, yeah -- dream on. I don't have that much extraneous tatting stuff. I do have lots and lots of extraneous stuff, but I don't think anybody reading this wants my old shoes or the treasures in my ragbag.

There is a little something somebody might like, though. Oh, not my phone, but the charm. Well, not the charm that's attached to my phone (because it's attached to my phone). This nice dark green charm. It's made of size 20 Haklegarn worked over a plastic ring with a whole pile of clear seed beads built right in.

If you think you might like to have it, leave me a comment on this post, and a way to contact you. On Monday next (that would be the 22nd of March) I'll either get a random number generated, or have one of my nieces draw a name out of a box or a bag. Not only will I send you this spiffy charm, but I'll include a really nifty beading-threader-thread-weaver-inner-all-around-useful big-eye needle.

25 Motif Challenge - Number 3

Ta-da! I'm now caught up to the second week of February. Unfortunately, it's the second week of March. *sigh* No matter, I'm plugging away at it. I tend to get obsessive about deadlines and keep reminding myself I need to relax. If I fuss about this challenge I'm not going to enjoy my tatting, nor am I going to take time to tat other things.

This one is made of really inexpensive size 30 crochet thread that used to be dirty white (we found it in a box in the basement). My sister was trying out new dye colors, so I let her use some of the thread. (Yeah, I'm nice like that!) This is what she calls "Flame" in shades from deep scarlet to bright yellow. I love the color, I extremely dislike the thread. It's got odd little slubs in it here and there which made some rings very nearly impossible to close. Perseverance was the key -- okay, it was really, fuss, cuss, pick, pinch, pull, cuss, and slide one stitch at a time!

The pattern is my own snowflake -- the one I designed for Sharon Briggs' Design-Tat class. I made two then laced them to this matte-gold ornament with a single strand of gold thread. The beads are inexpensive clear glass. I don't know how Christmas-y this is, so maybe it's a Halloween ornament. :)

Jewelry Break

Very simple earrings on a ring and a pendant to match. The pendant would have matched better -- but I ran out of thread on both shuttles. The loop for the chain is a lock chain with a bead at every lock stitch. It looks quite nice up close and personal. I couldn't get a better picture (because I'm not a photographer).

These are made of a multi-colored metallic Oren Bayan thread and over 300 mini-seed beads. The beads are so tiny I couldn't even get my size 16 crochet hook through them so I could put them on the joining picots. That's right -- there are naked picots right there in that picture.

Just as soon as I get a padded envelope for the pasteboard jewelry box they're in, I'm shipping these off to a friend. She gifted me with a signed copy of her first novel and I'm doing my best to reciprocate!

Well -- back to the ornament covers. I've got another done, but am struggling with getting it on the ornament. After covering 25 of these slick plastic ornaments, I might be certifiable.

25 Motif Challenge - Number 2

Would you believe it? Now I've got two done. Amazingly quick, huh? W'azzat?

Oh. You noticed.

Yes, I admit it -- it is exactly the same pattern as the first one. It is the same adaptation of Iris Niebach's "Beatrice" from Tatted Doilies. Well, the top is the same. I had intended to make two identical pieces and fasten them to one ornament. I finished the two pieces but they wouldn't fit on one ornament -- too much overlap. That's when I decided to make two ornaments out of them and just do different bottoms for them.

If you look closely, you can see that the bottom on this one includes some long lock chains and a different arrangement of beads.

Once again, I've reaffirmed my opinion that satin covered styrofoam ornaments are the way to go. Pinning the tatting on with decorative pins makes it much easier to get it centered and even. Quite frankly, this lacing it on with beaded thread is an exercise in frustration for me. I'm not going to tell you about that blindingly brilliant idea I had for fastening on the bottom after doing the first one -- because it didn't work. Turns out I'm no so brilliant as I thought. How very lowering.

25 Motif Challenge - Number 1

At this after-Christmas sale I bought 24 unbreakable (uh-huh, it means plastic) ornaments for $2.50. About two weeks after that I bought 6 bigger ones for $1.00. Now, with a total of 3o ornaments (12 gold, 12 red, and 6 blue) sitting in the middle of my bedroom floor, I thought I'd better get busy and use them. That's when I got this really bright idea. (Rather, more like the Grinch's idea -- a wonderful, awful idea.)

In January I re-joined the 25 Motif Challenge. I challenged myself to cover 25 ornaments in the next year. That would mean I'd have to do two ornaments a month. Rrrrriiiiiiight, as if! So far I have done a grand total of (hmmm....let me count) -- it looks like ...and it is!... a total of one. This one. That means I'm two behind already. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. (But really, who eats plastic ornaments anyway?)

Be that as it may, this is an adaptation of Iris Niebach's "Beatrice" from Tatted Doilies. It is worked in size 20 Häkelgarn in a very dark green. The bottom is very loosely based on the center of the same doily. I fastened it together with strings of beads. After it was done, I thought of a better way to do it. But it's done, and I'm not taking it apart. I'll save that great thought for another time.

Sharing Valentines

These are the hearts Martha Ess received from me for the Tattinggoddess Valentine Exchange. The Butterfly Heart bookmark is from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. The ornament is an adaptation of Iris Niebach's Cornelia from Tatted Doilies. The last heart is the one I created for Sharon Briggs' Design-Tat course. Martha didn't get the one shown (it's got an oops in one pair of rings -- they are mismatched!), but I didn't get a picture of the one I did send. This was a really fun exchange. I never know what to put in a package for an exchange and always feel like I reap more than I sow.