Happy New Year!
Author: wandasknottythoughts@gmail.com
Tatted Star
One of my granddaughters had a program this week, which meant I traveled up to Nebraska to see it. Instead of taking the time to cook supper, we went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday in Bellevue. As we walked in I was pleasantly surprised to see a tatted star ornament hanging from the hostess desk.
Of course, I brought it to my daughter’s attention. The manager over-heard my remark and commented how surprised he was that someone recognized what it was.
While we were waiting for our order the manager came over to talk about tatting. His mother tats items like this then gives him a stack to pass out at work during the Christmas season. I learned that his mother is 88 years old and has been tatting for about 10 years. She has tried teaching people to tat – to share the fun – but most have decided it was too tedious (?!) for them.
I had brought my collection of Ice Drops with me to visit the family so the children could choose which one they wanted for their tree, but did I have them in my purse? Surprisingly, no, I had left them at the house. I showed him a picture of the Cosmic Ice Drop I’d made, which he thought his mother would like. It was an amicable conversation.
I wished it would have worked out that I could meet his mother. As that wasn’t possible during my short trip I decided to give her the Cosmic Ice Drop. After the program, we went back to the restaurant so I could deliver it to him to give to his mother. He was amazed that I would do this. But it is the season of giving, isn’t it?
“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” Boris Pasternak picturequotes.com
Ice drop for Christmas?
It’s that time of year when I start getting worried I won’t have my Christmas tatting done in time. It would help if I started earlier, but every year there is some reason or reasons it doesn’t happen. My main seasonal tatting is making a tatted ornament of some type to give to family and special friends. I’m just now getting started on them, and there is definitely not enough time to get them done!
I think I’m making Ice Drops again this year. I made simple, basic ones last year.
This year I’m getting a little more adventurous! Of course, they’ll take longer…
I started out with a Cosmic Ice Drop, pattern by Nicola Bowersox.
It’s not very cosmic without the beads her pattern calls for. I used white thread and a clear center. It came out well and I remembered how to do it – yay!
The Cosmic Ice Drop pattern is beautiful, but I don’t have time to locate and use beads in my tatting this year as I’ll be doing a lot of it in the car. So I came up with a different outside. I also had to modify the back, as the gem is cut like a diamond and sticks out the back.
I’m going to try some with darker thread, maybe blue. The white shows every bit of dirt that might be on your fingers. If I’m going to get many done I might not have pristine hands to tat with all the time.
I haven’t figured out how to tat in my sleep yet. I’ve dreamed about it but there is no solid evidence that tatting was done when I wake up. I guess I’ll have to stay up later instead.
“Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake.” Sara Raasch
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Two Cross Bookmarks
It seems like a long time since I last posted. Oh, it has been! Every time I tried to sit down to post something more urgent or import came to my attention. If it wasn’t for the family it was for the church. There were grandchildren’s ball games to attend, their concerts to enjoy, a few birthday parties to celebrate, and several activities with the church. All of these events included some length of travel. Unfortunately for my tatting, I was driving instead of a passenger to most of these events, so very little was accomplished.
Sadly, what little tatting I have completed lately has been for funerals; one of my husband’s cousins and the father of a friend of mine passed within a week of each other. Both had been ill for some time so they weren’t surprising, but that doesn’t make them any less hard on the families.
Traditionally, I put a tatted cross bookmark in the sympathy card. I usually have several already made, kept in a drawer to be handy for such occasions. I’m sure I have a couple somewhere, but they are temporarily misplaced. Still, I needed two. One I started on the way to work and finished on the way to the funeral. The other I was actually able to sit down at home and do.
This one was finished on the way to the funeral. The best background I had was my leg. It is in Lizbeth size 20 #136 Autumn Spice.
I took the time to tat this one at home. It is in Lizbeth size 20 #131 Vineyard Harvest.
I am now trying to figure out how to I’ll find the time to tat Christmas ornaments. Every year I include them in Christmas cards for family and special friends. I haven’t even started. I haven’t even decided what I’m making yet.
Do you think I could tat them in my sleep?
“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” Norman Cousins
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Luther’s Rose
October 31 most people think of as Halloween – trick-or-treating, jack-o-lanterns, and scary movies. But it is also the anniversary of the Reformation, a change in religious, political, intellectual and cultural life in 16th-century Europe. It is usually thought of as starting in 1517 when Martin Luther’s 95 Theses was first published. This year is the 500 anniversary of that event. In Bible study, we’ve been learning about Luther’s life and influence. One of the things I learned about is Luther’s seal, known as Luther’s Rose and how it represents his theology.
A few weeks ago while I was talking about something else I had tatted, our pastor had jokingly said something about me tatting Luther’s Rose. That got me thinking about how I could do it. So I made one.
The red heart was the first thing I tried. I reviewed other tatted heart patterns and pictures I found on the internet and in my books at home. I put this one together, which is very similar to a couple I saw. It has a few small mistakes but no-one will know except me.
I tried several versions of a small black cross before I ended up with this one. The version I thought I was happy with ended up being a bit too small, so I had to enlarge it a bit. This is a very simple pattern that came out well as the center of the Rose.
The white rose was the hardest to come up with – at least to get started. Once I started it just came together. Okay, I just kept increasing each round by two picots :-). There are a few things I would do differently if I made this again, but overall I’m happy it.
The blue round was only having to decide on how many stitches in each chain fit around the rose. Luther’s rose description does not describe having green leaves but I think it helps define the separation of the rose petals.
The first of the gold outer rings was easy, too, again just getting the stitch count to work. The second round was a little trickier. I wanted to use Catherine Wheel joins but I’ve never used them in a project before. YouTube is a wonderful invention! I was able to watch Marilee Rockley do Catherine Wheel joins over and over until I got them right!
After finishing the tatting I needed to mount it. I had a large frame at home that would have worked, then I saw one at the store that would work sooo much better. Or a least looked like it fit the project better anyway. I chose two shades of grey cardstock to display it on, with two layers around the tatting so it didn’t get squashed up against the glass. I don’t have a round stencil that fit around the tatting so I used a cottage cheese container – worked great!
As part of the display, I included the meanings of the theology of the Rose. It came out very well!
At church, we celebrated Reformation today, October 29. I took my finished and framed Luther’s Rose and presented it there. I think it will look great there. My pastor liked it well enough he took my picture.
I get no compensation for any of the links in this article.
“Known commonly as Luther’s Rose, this symbol was devised as a personal seal by Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation and founder of the Lutheran Church, to symbolize his personal theological beliefs. It is now generally used to symbolize the Lutheran Church.
Luther describes his emblem:
The first thing expressed in my seal is a cross, black, within the heart, to put me in mind that faith in Christ crucified saves us. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.”
Now, although the cross is black, mortified, and intended to cause pain, yet it does not change the color of the heart, does not destroy nature — i.e., does not kill, but keeps alive. “For the just shall live by faith,” — by faith in the Savior.
But this heart is fixed upon the center of a white rose, to show that faith causes joy, consolation and peace. The rose is white, not red, because white is the ideal color of all angels and blessed spirits.
This rose, moreover, is fixed in a sky-colored ground, to denote that such joy of faith in the spirit is but an earnest and beginning of heavenly joy to come, as anticipated and held by hope, though not yet revealed.
And around this ground base is a golden ring, to signify that such bliss in heaven is endless, and more precious than all joys and treasures, since gold is the best and most precious metal. Christ, dear Lord, He will give grace unto eternal life.”
From http://symboldictionary.net/?p=2283
Little Horse Earrings
Our neighbor asked me a few months ago if I would make a pair of earrings for his granddaughter. She likes horses and the color turquoise. Oh, and a halter on the horse would be nice.
I immediately thought of Debbie Arnold‘s Seahorse pattern. I’ve made it before as a horse head bookmark and thought it would work well for the earrings as well. I also wanted to make it in a small thread, as they are for a little girl. Oh, and get the right color turquoise!
I tat front-side/back-side, so I also had to make sure that I made them facing opposite directions. Between this and the small thread, I had some troubles making these. And then making the harnesses! I spent a lot of time dreaming of how I was going to do this.
My neighbor likes these, but the reins not so much. (I thought this was an excellent way to not have to hide ends of the black thread!) I’m thinking to knot the thread at the ring on the bottom with maybe a touch of glue.
The color was acceptable but I put the ball away and can’t find it to say what it is. I know that it’s Lizbeth size 80.
I’m happy with these earrings, even if I have to get rid of the reins. Maybe I’ll make me a pair…
“What if the blue I see is not the color blue you see?” Neo Shamon
Butterfly Edging
There are a lot of tatting projects that I need to get done now that I’m back from Palmettos Tat Days. I knew about them before I went to Georgia but didn’t have time to do them, so it was rush, rush, rush when I got back. I did get two of my projects done, two more to go before the end of October.
One project I finished was an edged doily. Our church participates in an auction to raise money for a local retirement home, which is supposed to be a ‘basket’ of items that we donate. This year, it’s not a basket at all, but several items of a theme that we’ll bundle together. I try to include something tatted every year, and this year I planned a doily with a tatted edging.
Our theme this year is butterflies, so I envisioned a doily with a tatted edging of butterflies. I had an idea of what I wanted and got started without a pattern. While on Craftree I found an edging that was exactly what I wanted: Mary Konior’s Butterflies from her book “A Pattern Book of Tatting.” I don’t have the book and I don’t know the stitch count of her pattern as I made it before I saw a picture of it. As it is so close to her pattern if you want to make it, check out her book.
I loved the butterflies but thought the edging needed to be a bit wider, so I added another row. The result is more suitable to what I planned for the doily.
At this point, I didn’t have a center for the doily, I made the edging first 🙂 I had time to tat but not the time to cut and sew the doily center. With the edging done I had to figure out a way to get the center the size needed and found a paper plate worked out nicely. I miscalculated a bit by not making the seam a tad bit wider (making the doily diameter smaller), but it still came out okay. Finished size with edging is about nine and a half inches across.
These are the items we put together for our auction ‘basket.’ We had members of our congregation add the butterflies to the grapevine cross.
This is one project down out of four that I want to have done before the end of October. I have one other completed that I’ll post about later. Now on to the next!
“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” Rabindranath Tagore https://brainyquote.com
All Dressed Up
This year at Palmetto Tat Days they had a costume contest during the Friday evening banquet. Once I knew I was going to Tat Days the contest sounded like fun. But what to dress up as? A lot of thoughts later – and a lot of time later – an idea came to mind that I thought I could handle. My sister agreed to help me with the major sewing parts which would get done a lot faster than I could do it. If I did it I might, maybe, have been ready in a year or two. Then the tatted parts had to be designed and placement figured out.
I didn’t know I was going until about June, not much time to get a costume together. With vacations and normal life in the way, I was tatting every chance I got. My sister ran into sewing machine issues and her time was taken up by things beyond our control so the costume was a lot different than originally envisioned. My Tat Day roommate, Diane, helped me put it all together for the first time when I dressed for the banquet.
Neither Princess Peach, aka Kayleigh Osborn, nor I won the contest, (isn’t her outfit amazing?? She sewed it herself!) but we all had a lot of fun.
I know it doesn’t look like I have all that much tatting on my outfit, but I kept changing my mind! There were quite a few motifs of different colors tatted that I did not use. There were also a few things tatted that just didn’t work out.
Most of the medallions/motifs that I ended up using were in Lizbeth #657 Ocean Turquoise Dark in size 10. The earrings were in #657 as well but in size 20. The other colors were #641 Lilac Dark and #638 Christmas Green.
It was a blast coming up with a fascinator. All three colors of the medallions were originally going to be used in the entire outfit. Due to unforeseen problems with the costume, this was the only place I used all three colors in medallions. The scissors are not real but an accent piece I found at JoAnn’s (I think). The shuttle is one side of a Susan Bates shuttle that came apart. An elastic headband did an excellent job holding it in place.
I thought the cuffs came out great! The hardest part (other than the sewing!) was positioning the frogs in the right places. Notice the optical illusion?
These are the same cuffs with one cuff turned around.
I made spats* instead of wearing boots. They are more like leg warmers, but spats sounds better 🙂
One day, soon I hope, Palmettos will have their pictures up from this year’s Tat Days. I didn’t get many pictures of others in costume but I’m sure they have some. I saw some of them before the end of the weekend, there were some marvelous ones.
It was awesome to be able to go this year but it went by so fast! I only finished one project while there and haven’t had time to finish anything here at home yet. I plan on getting them done before Tat Days next year!
“Playing dress-up begins at age five and never truly ends.” Kate Spade
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*from dictionary.com “a short gaiter** worn over the instep and usually fastened under the foot with a strap, worn especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
**from dictionary.com
“1.a cloth or leather covering for the leg or ankle buttoned on one side and usually strapped under the foot
2.Also called spat. a similar covering extending from the ankle to the instep
3.a waterproof covering for the ankle worn by climbers and walkers to prevent snow, mud, or gravel entering over the top of the boot”
Home from Palmetto Tat Days
It’s hard to believe that Tat Days have come and gone so fast! I was bustling about to get things ready for the trip for more than a month, then hustling to get to my plane to get there, rushing around to see everyone and do everything when I got there, then dashing around to get back to the airport when it was over.
I’m exhausted! Well, I was Monday anyway. But I had a fantastic time! It was fun to see so many people from last year and to meet new people. To encounter so many people in such a short amount of time makes it interesting to see if I can put the correct names to the faces 🙂
As always, the volunteers for the Palmetto Tatting Guild put together wonderful goodie bags. These are just a few of them. I love the emergency tatting kit with a couple of shuttles from Tim Kaylor. And check out that wonderful zipper pull! Well, everything is pretty awesome!
The first class was for everyone in the gathering room Thursday night. The spaceship by Tonya Smith was cute and not hard but I didn’t get it finished. I was having too much fun talking and laughing with everyone.
I roomed with Diane again this year. We have so much fun together and keep each other up late talking about anything and everything. Here you can see her concentrating on her spaceship.
Surprisingly I didn’t take very many pictures this year but I have a few. I’ll be sharing them here or on Facebook soon.
“There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.” William Butler Yeats
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Where have all my shuttles gone?
I’m excited that I am going to Palmetto Tat Days in September! I’ve got my classes chosen and my entrance fee paid, I’ve got my plane tickets and my car rented, and I’ve got my roommate chosen and confirmed (hey, Diane!). I do not have my bags packed – it is three weeks away yet – but I am planning what clothes I will be taking. Now I’m working on getting ready for my classes, which includes finding threads and enough shuttles for all my projects.
I know I have enough shuttles for them all, but where are they?
I’ve gone through drawers, bags, and boxes trying to find them. What I found are multiple projects that I haven’t completed still attached to the shuttles I was working with at the time. Some projects I left alone, others I unwound the thread from the shuttles and wrapped it on bread ties. Quite a few shuttles had thread on them but no work attached. If there was only a small amount of thread I tatted flowers and butterflies to empty them; if there was a significant amount I wound it off onto bread ties. Several projects were in dreadful shape, tangle with other threads. How did they get that way?
During my quest, I found this cute little box with compartments. I think it is part of a tackle box that was never used. Yet. Seems perfect for three Clover shuttles and one Aerlit shuttle with spare bobbins.
I expect I’ve found enough shuttles for my trip now. 🙂
As I was searching for my shuttles I kept humming a tune without really noticing what it was. When I stopped and thought about it I realized it was “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” I couldn’t resist re-writing it a bit. It doesn’t have the emotional feelings of the original, or circle ’round to the beginning again as the original does, but this did keep circling around in my head.
Where Have All My Shuttles Gone?
Where have all my shuttles gone?
Long time passing
Where have all my shuttles gone?
Long time ago
Where have all my shuttles gone?
Gone for projects every one
When will I ever learn?
When will I ever learn?
Where have all my projects gone?
Long time passing
Where have all my projects gone?
Long time ago
Where have all my projects gone?
Hidden in boxes every one
When will I ever learn?
When will I ever learn?
Original song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” by Pete Seeger