Can you believe it is only three days to Christmas? The year has gone so fast and the last three weeks must faster (it seems to me!). I have been so busy I haven’t gotten as much tatting done as I would have liked, but, looking back, I’ve gotten more done than I thought.
Christmas tatting 2020
Looking back, there was more tatting done for Christmas than I thought. I’m not sure how many of the music ornaments I finished this year, but everyone I had planned to send cards to received one, so it was several lol! It’s amazing how much time can be spent on such small tatting!. The angel wings came out great, and the angels were well received by the few that got them. I didn’t give anyone the small angel, but that was designed and tatted as well. Not bad!
Speaking of the small angel, the pattern is done and available! Please email me a request.
Small angel Christmas tatting
Now I’m on to more Christmas things, namely getting the house cleaned up and decorated so it looks Christmas-y!
Merry Christmas to all of you.
“Christmas is the day that holds all time together.” Alexander Smith https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alexander_smith_379476?src=t_christmas
I was on vacation last week, which was a good thing. I spent a lot of time making the ornaments to send out as Christmas cards. I would never have gotten as many made if I hadn’t had the week off.
Ornament cards for Christmas
Another batch of cards done except for the hangers.
More ornament cards for Christmas
These all have hangers now. There are still a few that need tatting as well as the hangers.
The good news, most recipients have theirs. Some were to be mailed yesterday but didn’t get picked up. I don’t know if the mail came early or we didn’t have a postman come by, so I’ll drop them at the post office today.
While I was tatting small things for these ornaments, I took a bit of a detour and did a small angel.
Small tatted angel
This is one of the few times I jotted down some ideas and a drawing before starting to tat. I had to make an adjustment due to a slight miscalculation, but it came out like I wanted it to. I even jotted down the stitch counts – amazing! I might get the pattern out later this week, though maybe not the nice drawing. We’ll see.
I was very busy last week with more than just the Christmas cards. There were so many things that had to be finished before this last weekend. The good news is that those things did get done. Now I can do a few of the other things that didn’t get done yet. Like putting up decorations in my house. But I have to clean a bit before that. Christmas is how many days away??
Are you ready for Christmas?
“It’s true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you’ll find you’ve created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.”Caroline Kennedy
Have you sent your Christmas cards yet? I have not. Have you received any yet? I have not. And when you receive them, how do you display them?
Displaying Christmas cards is a conundrum for me every year. Every year I receive such beautiful cards and I don’t have a way to display them. Some years I’ve had a string where they can be clipped to and be seen. Some years I don’t have a place to do that. One year I had a cute basket I put them in, but they did not display well. Then when the season is over I hate to throw them away because they are so beautiful and some have wonderful messages or greetings. I keep a lot of them, but really, then what?
This year I decided to make them. Now, I’m not much of a card maker. I have a cousin who does that sort of thing beautifully, and tattingmargaret at Margarets Designer Cards does lovely cards. But I thought I’d do my own cards this year, at least to the few that I’m sending them.
My first try at an ornament card
This is my first try at making a card that is an ornament as well. It can be hung as an ornament on the tree, or where-ever, and saved for another year, too. It incorporates some of the hymnal pages and a little bit of tatting. I was pleased with the first one, so a made a few more.
Ornament #2Ornament #3
I suppose they are not really cards, though I put our Christmas greetings, the year, and our names on the back. Does that make them cards?
One of my daughters was over and I drafted her to help me cut out the paper. That made things go a lot faster.
Ornament #4Ornament #5
Some I like better than others. Some worked, color and tatting wise, better than others. But the over-all look of them came out better than I was thinking they would.
Ornament #6Ornament #7
I even incorporated a decorated button on one. Right now on Facebook the wonderful Lace-lovin’ Librarian Diane Cademartoi has started another group, this time with decorated button ornaments. I’ve done a lot of decorated buttons before, but the group inspired me to do a few more. This decorated button decorates an ornament.
All seven Christmas ornaments I’ve made so far
I gave out five of these already and they were well received. But I’m going to need a few more. Good thing I have the circles cut out already! But, wait! I don’t have enough tatted parts yet. I’d better get on it!
How about you? Do you have your cards done?
“The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church’s greatest ornament.”Igor Stravinsky
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I should make for my Christmas ornaments this year. These are gifts I give to close family and friends, each year different from the others. Some years I get an idea and everything comes together easily, other years, not so much. This year it was a little bit of a search but it came together rather nicely once I started.
I started thinking about something I had done a few years ago. In 2013 I decorated small bags with bits of tatting. On a couple of the bags, I had a bird made of material and a tatted wing. I liked how this wing came out and thought I might build on it for something more.
Bird with tatted wing on a bag
I wondered if I could use this wing to make wings for angels. This is a simple pattern that didn’t take long, which is always a good thing especially when I have a limited amount of time to get things done. Of course, I’d need two wings and figure out how they will attach to each other.
Angel wings
I’m very happy with how these came out. You might notice that the center of these wings has seven rings instead of the six rings of the bird’s wing. This was an un-noticed modification that I didn’t plan on. It changes the shape of the tips slightly, but in a pleasing way, so this is what I continued to do.
Something I wanted to incorporate in the ornaments this year was sheet music. Several years ago our church bought the most recent version of hymnals. We still had the previous two versions of hymnals, but not enough places to put all of them. The bookstores locally don’t have much call for this many hymnals, but I hated to just throw them away. Guess what? I kept them. I’ve been looking for some way to utilize them ever since. So I thought I would incorporate them in my ornament this year.
The first angel
This is my first attempt, which I’m happy with. Then I had to make more.
Wings for angels
Then it was on to making a bunch of wings. I wanted to give angels to my family at Thanksgiving, so I had to get a move on. If I don’t make mistakes they don’t take very long and I can get a lot done while I’m the passenger on the way to work. I thought white would be a bit too stark to go with the hymnal music, so I made all of them so far with Ecru in size 10.
Choir of angels
Check out my choir of angels. I got all six of them that I needed to get done just in time! You can see I changed up the body just a bit, but either way, they came out well.
I still have a lot of Christmas tatting to do, more wings and a few other things, too. What are you tatting?
UPDATE – The pattern for these wings is done! It is on the My Patterns page.
“When we are touched by something it’s as if we’re being brushed by an angel’s wings.” Rita Dove https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/rita_dove_345421
Can you believe it? After three weeks (?) I finally have the pattern finished. Yay!
I have never had this much trouble diagramming a pattern before. And then I realized, I’ve never diagrammed a doily before. I’ve done snowflakes, bookmarks, edgings, earrings, even an airplane, but never a doily. May I just say, it is a lot more complicated than all the others!
Arches Over Arches – diagramming is hard!
I started working on this, thinking it’s not that hard a pattern to tat, it shouldn’t take too long to diagram it. Was I wrong! I’ve made doilies before, just never written them out with a diagram. Not like this, anyway. Wow! I was ready to quit several times. I would think I had it, then things wouldn’t line up and I’d have to try again. It still isn’t that pretty, but I think it can be followed.
No-one except me has tried to follow this pattern, so there may be mistakes hiding in it. But I need to get on to Christmas tatting! I did say I would get this out, so here it is. If anyone would like to have it, please email me. And if you find mistakes, let me know so I can fix it! I’d love to hear from anyone who does make it.
Arches Over Arches Doily, love the Christmas colors!
“All things are difficult before they are easy.” Thomas Fuller
I collect shuttles when I can. Sometimes my husband surprises me with one – or two – and has even made me several. The most recent shuttle I purchased is from Shuttle By Design.
Helping Hands shuttle by Shuttles by Design
Rita Richmond does such spectacular work, doesn’t she? This shuttle was designed as a fundraiser for Lisa Adams and her husband Chuck, who recently underwent bypass surgery. Lisa is the owner of Tatting Corner in Chesterfield, Indiana, and Rita has designed and made this shuttle and donated some of the proceeds to help them out.
This is a Moonlit shuttle, decorated with a beautiful design by Rita. I purchased one to both help Lisa and be able to tat with such a lovely shuttle. I just got it in the mail yesterday and am looking forward to tatting with it.
I have not finished writing out the pattern for the Arches Over Arches doily. I am having difficulty diagramming it. I am still working on it and think I am going in the right direction now, so hopefully it will go faster. Maybe, maybe.
“To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.”Milton Glaser
Back in 2009, I made a doily that I called ‘Arches Over Arches‘. I had originally thought to call it ‘Arches’, but Yarnplayer had recently made a doily of that name, so I had to come up with something else. I am not good at coming up with names for the items I design and make, so I just modified the name a bit. I made the same doily later that year but in different colors and called it a sunflower. Other people liked the doily and requested the pattern, but I never got to it. I was recently contacted by another person who requested the pattern, and I thought it was about time to put it together.
The problem is I didn’t write down dimensions or specifics for diagramming the pattern. So, I needed to make the doily again.
Arches Over Arches doily first round
This time I’m using Lizbeth #181 Cranberry Bush in size 20. It was in a thread collection of Christmas threads and I hadn’t tried it yet. As I’m thinking about Christmas gifts now, it easily suggested itself to this doily. I like how this came out.
Once I got started this doily goes pretty quickly. The hardest part, for me, is the long chains. If I’m not careful, I lose count and have to recount to make sure all of the chains are the same length. Then of course, there is the tension on chains. Careful, careful!
Arches Over Arches doily Christmas
I noticed after I uploaded the picture that the center doesn’t look quite round. I didn’t do a good job of blocking it, did I? The chains look pretty good. They have to be blocked or they are all over the place.
The center is right at two inches across, with a total diameter of just short of nine inches. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to add a center as I did with the sunflower version. I think I’m going to write out the pattern this way first, maybe add the center later. I am working on the pattern now, looking for it to be done in a day or so. If you are interested in it, let me know.
As soon as the pattern is done, it’s on to Christmas tatting in a big way. I didn’t leave much time for that, did I?
I have been thinking about what I want to do for Christmas ornaments this year, the ones I will give to family and close friends. I’ve been surfing Pinterest, blogs, and Craftree for ideas. There are some really cool things out there, but none have them really tripped my trigger, so to speak.
In the meantime, I’ve been playing with a medallion I first made a few of years ago when I went to Palmetto Tat Days. I came up with a medallion I used in an outfit for the costume contest they had that year. I made quite a few of these for the costume and had a few that were made but didn’t get used.
My Shuttle-shaped medallion
Thinking of Christmas ornaments I gave a thought to making this medallion a bit larger and adding beads. I added a few stitches to each of the rings and chains, made the joining picots big enough for beads.
Shuttle-shaped medallion first try with beads
It didn’t come out quite like I thought it would. Not that it’s bad, just not as expected. So I tried again.
Shuttle-shaped medallion with beads second try
This one didn’t come out quite like I hoped, either. Again, not bad, just not what I was hoping for.
The first one is closer to the shape I was looking for but was open in the center. The second one just didn’t keep the shuttle shape as much as I’d like.
Shuttle-shaped medallions, all three
I did succeed in making them larger, and I do like them with beads. I’m just not sure this is what I want to make as Christmas ornaments this year.
I used size 10 Lizbeth threads on all of these, so it is obvious that I did get the goal of making them bigger right. They just didn’t meet all of my goals. I’m not saying I don’t like them, they just didn’t come out quite like I was looking for. But I now have two modified medallions to hang around the house. Or maybe at work. This was not a waste of time. But when is tatting anything a waste of time?
The hunt continues for what I want to make for Christmas ornaments. Are you tatting anything for Christmas this year?
“Most discoveries even today are a combination of serendipity and of searching.”Siddhartha Mukherjee
This year on our vacation we stayed at the same cabin we did two years ago, beside Lake Granby, Colorado. The colors were changing, showing us a lot of fall colors in the trees and brush. We did have to detour both coming and going due to the forest fires around the state, but we were never in danger from them. The air was smoky causing the mountain views to look hazy most of the time. This did not stop us from enjoying our stay.
View from the porch
The view from the porch was still mostly green, but very inviting. We drove around to see the colors but spent a lot of our time at the cabin or fishing in Lake Monarch. I had a bit more time to tat and watch the wildlife. Do you see the two Stellar’s jays in the tree?
Some of the wild life was more friendly than others. The jays and the nuthatch liked checking us out to see if we left anything for them, but the ground squirrels and chipmunks were braver.
Curious ground squirrel checking out my tatting
This ground squirrel wasn’t sure just what I was doing while I was tatting, so came to check out the situation.
“Do you have something for me?”
I kept telling him I didn’t have any food, but he didn’t believe me.
He kept on getting closer to see what I was doing
Do you see those cheeks of his? He would get seeds and stuff himself, but was so greedy he kept coming back to see if I had anything.
He really wanted to know if I had something for him
I know he was looking for food but he really, really wanted to see what I was doing. I love sharing tatting and showing others how it’s done, but I’m pretty sure the squirrel wasn’t getting it.
This guy and several other ground squirrels and a handful of chipmunks kept us entertained the entire week with their antics and curiosity. These little guys were friendly from the time we got there. One of our friends fed them with critter food (nuts and seeds) so they became more and more friendly as the week went on.
Two years ago we saw a lot of moose and a fox at the cabin, this year we saw neither. We were sad that we didn’t see the fox this time, though it didn’t look young then. There were also a lot more people at the lake this year. A lot more. With the dry weather and wind, we also dealt with a lot more dust. This doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy our stay – we did!
I always look forward to our getting away for vacation, and seeing the wildlife is a bonus. And even more so when they are up close and personal!
“I have great instincts, like the instincts of a squirrel. You know, like when you’re driving and a squirrel stops in the middle of the road.”Simon Helberg
Every year before vacation I start thinking about what I will take to tat while we are away. What thread, what patterns, what findings if necessary, and how many shuttles. And every year, when it’s actually time to leave, my mind goes blank. Maybe because there are so many other things to think about, but whatever the cause, it happens. This year I had thought I would be working on my china hutch edgings. Surprisingly, I had them all done before we left. The unfortunate part is that now I had to think of something else to take with me.
I checked what threads I had on shuttles, to see if any would inspire me to finish off those threads. It would be a handy way to empty them, right? I looked through my thread collection to see if any of them would spark an idea to create a new project. I tried to think back on my wish list of patterns I wanted to try (I wish I wrote them down!). I really didn’t want to take half of my thread or shuttle stash with me this time.
I finally settled on the green I had used for my recent ice drop, as both shuttles still had thread on them; a ball of Lizbeth 129, Purple Splender, because it looked fun; and a few others that tickled my fancy at the time. I also brought a small selection of findings in case I wanted to make earrings.
Vacation purple doodle
Just to get the juices flowing, I started with a little doodle in Purple Splender. The finding in the center I had recently picked up at JoAnn’s thinking they would be good for earrings. Not a bad doodle, but I only made one. So I put it on my billfold.
Vacation purple doodle on my billfold
Then I doodled a bit more. I’m thinking I might try and put this on my billfold as well.
The second vacation doodle
Then I picked up the shuttles with the green thread from the ice drop. And then I added just a little more thread because it got bigger. And then I added just a little bit more thread again because I thought I was almost done. Then I wasn’t, so added thread one more time.
Vacation snowflake 2020
This snowflake is the end result. I noticed that it has some kind of stain in the center after I had gone on to the second round. Not sure what it is, but it doesn’t want to come out. As this was tatted by a lake and while on a pontoon boat day trip, I didn’t get it cleaned and didn’t worry about it. I have no pictures of the individual rounds as I did them, just this one is as finished. Not bad for doodling.
I enjoyed some beautiful scenery while on vacation this year. We like to go in September to see the Aspens while they change into their fall colors and we were not disappointed this year.
View from a pontoon
Though the water levels of Lake Granby and the Colorado River were down a long way, it was still fun to mosey up the river while the guys fished and relax in the quiet and beauty of a pontoon trip.
Tatting at Lake Monarch
This is the view I enjoyed while tatting beside Monarch Lake.
Hiking trail by Monarch Lake
I did not take my tatting along when I hiked a little ways up this trail. The colors were so splendid and changed a little bit every day I could have gone back daily while we were there.
I have a lot more vacation photos I’d love to share, and I will share a few next week. Including one of an interested observer of my tatting.
“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.”Wallace Stevens
