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Something New

for the New Year.

Okay, I made it at the end of December, but just barely!

I had two shuttles loaded with Lizbeth Blue Ice #163 in size 40 and had a thought, basically on a variation of one of my other patterns. “What if I tried this…” And this is what came about. As you can tell by the Clover shuttles beside it, the star is pretty small made in size 40. It didn’t take too long to make and looks good in that color, don’t you think? (I had a hard time photographing it. I tried it on a black background and it was way too bright so showed up fuzzy and stark white.)

And guess what?

I have it diagrammed already! It didn’t take too long to do that, either. I guess practice does make things easier. Check the sidebar, I’m going to be adding it there. How soon depends on if I have trouble or not 🙂

I’m using the new blogger changes and still getting used to the way it looks. The one thing I definitely like is how it adds the pictures. It doesn’t add them all at the top anymore, where you have to move them down if you’ve started adding text. Some of the rest of the changes are still debatable on whether I like them or not, though I suppose that eventually I’ll get used to them.

Have you heard? Jane is having another TIAS (Tat It And See) starting on January 10. Check it out here. I did the one last year and it was a lot of fun. My piece from last year is actually hanging on the Christmas tree as an ornament – my grandsons thought it was pretty cool.

I started this Tatting Tea Tuesday with a cup of Zen green tea by TAZO, a gift from Tabatha. (Thanks, it’s very good!) I didn’t really tat yet but I did work on the diagram for the star – does that count? I do plan on getting a little tatting in today sometime, somewhere.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the New Year.

“Every day is a fresh beginning. Every morn is the world made new.”
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey

It must be Wine Wednesday

It seems I’ve missed Tatting Tea Tuesday so it must be Wine Wednesday. I haven’t had the wine yet, but the day is young. I haven’t gotten any tatting in today, either, but I plan to do that next. I did get tatting in yesterday and I drank tea, I just missed posting.

Yesterday I was working on Angels. Not these – these have been sent off already, but one just like it. Though I tatted for several hours I didn’t even get one little angel finished. This is my design and I’ve been making them for years, but now I’m trying to revise the pattern to make it with only one end. Unbelievable, I know, but all these years I’ve made them with multiple ends to hide. Why I’ve never thought of trying it other ways I don’t know, but the lightbulb did finally come on. Now the problem is making it work. I worked on it all day and never got even one Angel completed. The problem are the wings – they just don’t work starting from the top. I’ve tried different stitch counts, but nothing has really worked. Unless I plan on changing the wings entirely this may just have to have several ends whether I like it or not.

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas? We did. We were able to get together with both sides of the family and see both of our kids and their families. And then we were lucky enough to have both of the grandsons stay over Christmas night. They kept us quite busy. I can sure tell I’m not used to having little children around that much anymore. By the time they left, I was tired. We did have fun while they were here though. We played games, strung beads and cut out paper snowflakes then they helped me on the placement of the snowflakes in the window.

I love Christmas. I love the season. I love the weather getting colder with maybe some snow. And I love the giving of gifts. Getting gifts is fun too, but I just love trying to come up with just the right things to to share with each of my family and friends. It was a bit different this year. This year, when I went to the store I actually had a list of things I wanted to get – no impulse buying! I made quite a few of the gifts this year, and not just tatting. Actually, I didn’t get much tatting done this year, not as much as usual anyway. I guess I’ll have to start a lot earlier for next year. I guess I’ll have to start a lot earlier for next year 🙂

Now we’re getting to the new year. Do you have New Year’s resolutions? I try not to make them, or at least any more than I would on any other day, because I have a terrible time keeping them. Today I’ll leave you with a quote from Hal Borland.

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the

wisdom that experience can instill in us“

Let it snow

I’ve been so busy doing, well, lot’s of stuff, that I haven’t had much time to tat. Every year I try to tat snowflakes to put in Christmas cards. This year only a lucky few will be getting them in their cards. What you see is pretty much all I’ve gotten done this year snowflake-wise. They are simple and quick and pretty small. Three are made in Lizbeth white size 20, the other two are in Lizbeth Blue Ice size 40.

This doesn’t mean I won’t still be making snowflakes, it just means they won’t get them this year in their Christmas cards 🙂

I’ve tatted a few angels done as well, just didn’t get pictures yet. I’ve been working on the pattern for it, too, trying to work it up with fewer cuts and ties. It’s a lot harder to write it out than it is to tat it!

That’s it on the tatting front. I did get a cup of tea in today but no tatting on this Tatting Tea Tuesday. Busy again.

My husband and I did take a night off from everything to go to a concert last week. We went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Wichita. It was great! What a show – lights, lasers, electric guitars and a string orchestra. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously! If you like Christmas music done by a rock band you’ll enjoy them, too.

This is a song by them without all the lights and lasers, but I like it. Check out YouTube for more videos.

Getting ready for Christmas

I’ve been busy trying to get things made for Christmas. I found coasters – at JoAnn’s I think – that had Aida cloth and a cross-stitch pattern in them that I thought would look good with tatting instead. It came out well I think. The snowflake is one of mine, seen in this post from January 2009 and is made in size 40 Lizbeth Blue Ice #163. It was a gift but she has it already so it’s okay to share.

I bought these little composition books at the Dollar Tree, three for a dollar. They are about three inches tall, one green, one black and one blue. I had a thought that they would be cute with scrapbooking paper on them – and I was right. The paper went on smoothly and they actually came out looking better than I expected, yea! I’m definitely going to have to do this again. They make a great little gift, along with a cute pen. Quick, easy, cute and inexpensive – can’t hardly beat that.

I’m doing an Advent exchange with Tabatha at Crafting with Tabatha. We did this last year through Ravelry and had such fun we decided we do it again this year. She does a great job on decorating the packages and coming up with neat gifts! One of the things she sent me this year was some Fray Check which I’ve never used (I have used similar things) but am glad to have. And she made two of these cute crocheted tree ornaments. Up until this last Sunday they were the only Christmas decorations I had up.

Tabatha also sent me this wonderful case of interchangeable head crochet hooks. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Isn’t it great? I won’t have to search for just the right size hook when I change thread size and need help with joining (or whatever). As I said, she comes up with some great gifts :-).

I was able to visit with my daughter last week and do a little crafting. She had been given some exotic bird feathers and we played around with them: this is what we ended up with. We didn’t know what we were doing when we started but had a lot of fun doing it. We are calling this an angel : )

Hoping you are all looking forward to a marvelous Christmas.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,

Born a child and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever,

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit,

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Words: Charles Wesley

Music: Roland H. Prichard

Museum Stop Part 2

Now, back to Roebke Memorial Museum in Holton, Kansas…

They certainly justified the theme of “A Lacy Christmas” – there was lace and textiles of many types throughout the house. One of the front rooms showcased the work of one woman, Evelyn DeGraw.

Isn’t this display amazing? And this is only part of it!

These items were donated by the woman who lived across the street from the Roebke house The entire room was of Evelyn’s work.

December 26, the day we stopped by, they had three demonstrators in: a spinner, a weaver and a quilter.

This is Marty Mavrovich, spinning llama fiber as sock yarn. She likes to use as much local fiber to spin with as she can. She didn’t buy her spinning wheel new but thinks it’s either German or Canadian made. She made this look easy, but somehow I think that’s because she’s been doing it awhile.

This is Barbara Beyer weaving on her 8 shaft table loom. It can be converted to a floor loom if she needs it to be. This loom is from New Zealand. She was working on a tunic/vest similar to the one in the magazine behind her (which I didn’t take a picture of…).

Here is Donna Tudor hand-quilting a baby blanket. She likes to keep one or two on hand for new arrivals as they take a little while to finish. Her work is lovely. I hardly sew at all but I can appreciate the skill that it takes to do this.

These ladies were fun to talk to. It’s not often I get to talk to people who enjoy their craft like this, even though each of us had a different one. But I’m such a bad reporter that I forgot to ask where they were from!

I even got to take out my shuttles and sat with them for awhile.

Somehow I don’t think I’d pass as a Victorian lady, do you? I very much enjoyed my visit with these ladies and Margaret Utes.

I’m not sure if you can tell, but we were in the kitchen of the house. Miss Doris Roebke lived in the house after her parents so it was modernized as all lived-in house are sure to be. It was interesting to see some of the older furniture next to the older.

Upstairs the bedrooms were also decked out in Victorian style.

This room was done up as a child’s room.

In the hall upstairs there was a display of embroidery. Lovely pillowcases here. On one of the beds there was an cover/quilt with a lot of embroidery, also.

These lovely creations were the graduation dresses of the three Roebke daughters. Can you imagine wearing one of these? Just wearing one of these would make you want to act like a lady.

I put a lot of pictures in today but there is so much more there to see. On another of our trips to or from Omaha we’ll have to stop in again.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I tried Candy Cane Lane tea, made with peppermint. It is yummy! Didn’t get much time to tat today, but it’s not over yet.

Wishing all of you a wonderful Advent season.

“The advent of our God

Shall be our theme for prayer

Come let us meet him on the road

And place for him prepare”

Museum Stop

Did everyone have a happyThanksgiving? Ours was wonderful, spent with one of our daughters and her family. I didn’t even have to do any of the cooking! We’re very lucky that our daughter married a wonderful cook. We spent a couple of days there and then headed back to have Thanksgiving here with more of the family.

We took a slightly different route on the way home this time than usual because of an e-mail that I got from Isdihara. A few weeks ago she sent an message letting me know about a museum asking for tatters to do demonstrations in Holton, Kansas. I’m not exactly sure where she heard about it (it was in the Topeka Capital – Journal, a long way from the east coast). I told her I didn’t think we’d make it being it’s about three hours from home but I was glad of the information. But the timing was right: on the way home from Nebraska we were able to stop in. This time of year they’re usually closed except by appointment but they’re having open houses Saturdays through the 17th of December for a few hours celebrating “A Lacy Christmas.” We just happened to leave Nebraska on Saturday morning and were able to stop in about an hour before they closed.

This is the Roebke Memorial Museum, a block or so from downtown Holton, Kansas. Holton is a picturesque town, with quite a few old buildings and tree-lined streets. The original part of Boebke House itself was built in 1876 and added on as the family grew in numbers and prosperity. The displays are in each room are furnished in Victorian era style and changed periodically with items donated mostly from local people.

We were met as we walked in by Margaret Ute (pronounced ‘Oot‘), a lovely lady who gave us a personal tour of the house. Here Margaret is standing next to a Christmas tree decorated with crocheted ornaments done by one lady.

Following the theme “A Lacy Christmas” there was a lot of lace everywhere, as well as other textile exhibits. In case you are wondering around on your own there are easily read description plaques with information about the exhibits.

Check out this player piano! Okay, this picture mostly shows the tatting display, but the piano itself is beautiful! And it really works. And it looks very fine with that cloth with all that tatting on it 🙂 Margaret told me that when they found this cloth in the attic it was all brown. She soaked it several times and the stains started coming out. There were also some places where the tatting had come apart (maybe age-weakened thread?) and were repaired by Margaret’s mother.

I’m not sure you can read this, but there is a short explanation about the life-style of the Victorian age. It also talks about some of the items in the room, including the tatting.

Isn’t this blouse gorgeous? Can you imagine tatting this then carefully stitching it to the material? This would take an amazing amount of patience. But with such a beautiful result.

This is a child’s petticoat decorated with tatting.

I wish I had taken a better picture of these tatting shuttles. The one on the left was found in the house and the one on the right belonged to Margaret’s mother.

There were three ladies doing demonstrations there that Saturday, one spinning, one weaving and one hand quilting. I will share more about that next week, along with a few more pictures of the beautiful items on display.

I highly recommend this museum if you are ever in the area.

This morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday I enjoyed a cup of Cinnamon Apple Spice tea while looking over pictures from Thanksgiving – a nice way to spend the morning.

If you would be interested in hearing what a Victorian era song sounds like go here.

Happy Thanksgiving

The year has turned its circle,

The seasons come and go.

The harvest is all gathered in

And chilly north winds blow.

Orchards have shared their treasures,

The fields, their yellow grain.

So open wide the doorway-

Thanksgiving comes again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Old UFO found

While looking for something else (I can’t remember what) I found some tatting I started several years ago. Okay, it looks like I started and pretty much finished, too, except for tying off the last ends and clipping all the tails I left. They’re obviously edgings and at least five years old – I have no idea what I made them for. They are not very long, about 9 inches when blocked like this, and 3 1/4 inches wide. I’m sure it’s DMC size 30 ecru as I used to do a lot of tatting in it and is one of my patterns. I used to make a lot of cloth runners with tatting at the ends but they were usually at least 12 inches wide but I suppose they could be for that. Maybe for two small wall hangings?

I’m not sure what they were for originally but I’m sure I can figure out something to do with them. A UFO (UnFinished Object) that is actually finished – how cool is that?

While surfing the web the other day I found a darling little purse idea. Over at MeiJo’s Joy she has a tutorial for making the cutest little pop-open purse. It really caught my eye because of the shape of the pieces the purse is made of – they’re shuttle-shaped! And she did such a cute job of decorating it. I keep thinking it would be so cute to hold shuttles.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I enjoyed a cup (or two) of Apple Spice tea, very yummy. And I actually got a little tatting in!

‘Be who you are and say what you feel…

Because those that matter… don’t mind…

And those that mind… don’t matter.’

Glad I don’t live in Oklahoma

You’ve probably heard by now that Oklahoma had a 5.6 earthquake Saturday night. Did you know they had a 4.7 Saturday morning? And a 4.0 Sunday morning? Then they had another 4.7 last night. They’ve also had about 25 smaller ones, probably aftershocks, in between. I didn’t feel the first ones, but last night at work I heard the last one. It made the metal stairs beside my office rock and knock against my (inside) window. I thought someone was trying to be funny and scare me as the stairs are behind me right outside my office (inside the factory). I didn’t see anyone and just thought “funny, ha ha” until a few minutes later I was being asked if I felt the earthquake.

I wasn’t thinking of earthquakes at the time but stormy weather. We were having heavy rain and thunder but Oklahoma was having it worse, including tornadoes, hail and flooding.

Yep, that’s right. They were having tornadoes and earthquakes the same night.

I’m glad I don’t live in Oklahoma right now! I haven’t heard of people being hurt in all this so I hope everyone in Oklahoma is okay.

This morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m having a cup of

coffee 🙂 This time change is a pain. Okay, so we fall back and gain an hour. Someone tell my internal clock that it’s now 7:00 AM instead of 8:00 AM!

Today I’m sharing this handkerchief that my mother gave me. It is from her aunt, though I don’t know that my great-aunt tatted it. The hen and chicks edging was made first then sewn on, easily seen as several picots have come loose from the edge. The outside picots were curled a bit, as usually happens, so I pinned them out, though I didn’t take the time to iron the hanky itself.

I’m thinking of how best to display this and several other tatted pieces I have from other family members. Maybe a shadow box?

“There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control. ” Leo F. Buscaglia

Autumn is here

We had a hard frost this week. One morning we went outside and the yards and sidewalks were covered in leaves that had fallen, a golden blanket instead of shadows under the trees. I wish I could have captured it all: the bright blue sky, the crispness in the air, the colors all around. What a treasure this would be, to take out and enjoy during the cold days of winter or the hot days of summer. But, alas, this it not something you can bottle, or even capture completely in a picture. Like love and butterflies it is best enjoyed in the moment, without expectation, savoring whatever time it shares with you.

We didn’t expect to have pretty tree colors this fall due to the extremely hot and dry weather we experienced this summer, but I have been pleasantly surprised by as much color as we’ve had. Many trees are past the pretty stage by now, and sadly I haven’t taken the time to capture much with my camera. Some days I hardly notice what’s going on outside until we step out to go to work, which doesn’t leave much time to enjoy it.

I have gotten enough into enjoying the season to tat a few of theses leaves in autumn colors. They are Maple Leaf Motif from the February 1975 Workbasket magazine, with changes by Tammy Rodgers. One is made with Lizbeth #169 Autumn Apple Pie and #670 Victorian Red, both in size 40; the other is in Victorian Red only, still in size 40. I’m planning on making one more in Autumn Apple Pie only, too. I think they will make a nice set.

On the way home from work the other day I was able to watch the sunset, which doesn’t happen that often as I usually work second shift. The sky was amazing. I finally stopped and took this picture with my phone, though I really, really wished I had my camera. The temperatures and winds way up high must have been perfect for making contrails, they were all over, going every which way and staying visible for quite some time. I can’t ever remember seeing to many at one time. The sunset was awesome. By the time I got home is was getting too dark and I would have had to drive a bit to get a good view. But it was great while it lasted.

“Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf’s a flower”

Albert Camus

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