Author: wandasknottythoughts@gmail.com

My first giveaway!

Yes, it’s true, I’m having my first giveaway. Why, you ask?

Believe it or not, I’ve been blogging for a year come the 26th of October! And I thought I’d celebrate by giving away some goodies!

As this is my first ever I’m keeping it simple (I hope!)

All it takes is posting a comment on any of my posts, starting with this one, through midnight October 25, central time, and asking to be entered into the drawing. One entry per person.

The winner will be chosen randomly from all of the qualified entries. On October 26th I will announce the winner here.

I think that’s all. Good luck!

There are a lot of giveaways out there right now. Check out LadyShuttleMaker’s Mondo Monday giveaway at http://ladyshuttlemaker.blogspot.com/; Wickedtats Halloween giveaway at http://wickedtats.blogspot.com/; and Isdihara’s Fractured Quotes giveaway at http://ambitatterous.blogspot.com/. These are all pretty cool, don’t miss them!

Tatting Tea Tuesday with Sophie and giveaways

Who is Sophie, you ask? ‘Sophie’ is the pattern I chose to make for the InTatters October Tatting Challenge. This example of Sophie, here with my pink ribbon mug – for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – is not my entry to the challenge. I made this with a thread that I like very much, thank you, but I was having trouble with my project, so made it first in this. It’s DMC Perle Cotton, color 115, size 8.

Below is my entry for the challenge. It is made with Knit-Cro-Sheen size 10 in Deep Coral. The Challenge is to use a thread you don’t like or don’t use and I don’t use this kind of thread any more. There are too many threads out there that are much nicer for tatting with (anyone heard of Lizbeth?). This thread is something I must have picked up some time ago. I don’t know why I have this thread – it’s not my color really – or why two balls of it. I must have had something in mind when I bought it but I have no idea what it was.

The problem I was having was actually with the pattern. It’s by Lyn Morton of Tatting & Design, which I found a link to in the pattern library on InTatters. The problem? It’s written in long form with lots of words. I found it a little hard to follow. Of course, if anyone has noticed, I make a lot of things with my own patterns, which means I just have to figure out what I meant and not what someone else might mean.

So I took a few minutes and wrote it out in shorter form then made it with a thread I like working with so I could concentrate more on the pattern than the thread. I thought it came out great! (I won’t mention that I forgot the last chain of 10 ds – good thing I cut my tails long – but I didn’t mention it, shhh!)

I have no idea what I’ll do with these, but they came out looking pretty good, even the one in Coral.

Did everyone see that LadyShuttleMaker is having a giveaway? If you haven’t seen it yet, or haven’t posted a comment yet this week check her blog out here.

And Wickedtats is also having a giveaway! Check out her blog here.

Good luck to everyone in the giveaways. I think they’re contagious, because I’ll be having one this month, too! Check back for more details.

LadyShuttleMakers Weekly Monday Mondo Giveaway

LadyShuttleMaker is having a giveaway and the more people who enter the more prizes she gives away. Wow, what a concept! I’ve finally got her banner on the right side of my blog, but it doesn’t take you there (my bad), but this will! She has some awesome stuff she’s giving away, including, sometimes, her HDT (hand dyed thread)! I’ve not bought any yet (I hear it’s very addictive!) but others say it’s wonderful, and I would love to try it. This may be my chance!

Tatting Tea Tuesday Sept. 29,2009

I’m sitting here with my feet up with a cup of tea realizing I have no pictures for today 🙁 I’m tatting something a little bigger than the snowflakes and bookmarks I’ve been doing the last several weeks and have not taken pictures of it yet.

I enjoy Tatting Tea Tuesdays, sharing a few moments of tatting with others who may also be having a cup of tea while they are tatting somewhere in the world. Not quite the same as being in the same place, but still a feeling of belonging. Kind of a virtual tea party.

I happened across a site this week about having tea parties. We’re talking proper tea parties where you dress up and have fancy cups and saucers and everything. Some of these sound like fun – a lot of work, though. They are like our communi-tea in that after your tea party you share it online with others. If you’re interested in learning about how to give a fancy tea party check out Sandy’s Tea Society. She even has books on how to do it right.

One day, if we ever get our house updated like we want, this might be fun. Until then, I’ll stick with our Tatting Tea Tuesdays – I get to have my feet up and I don’t have to clean the house!

I missed it! Sort of.

Yesterday I got up, fixed a cup of tea, put my feet up and tatted for a little while. In fact, I kept tatting when I should have been writing this! I did finally put down the shuttles, but then it was time for work. Which was a very long day, so I didn’t have time to post after work. It was Tuesday, I had tea and I tatted, I just didn’t get it posted for Tatting Tea Tuesday. So, just for a minute, pretend it’s yesterday, have another cup of tea and see what I was doing.

I’ve been making snowflakes in both white and colors. The one in the bangle is, of course, Lizbeth thread size 20 in Caribbean (surprise!). The white one is in DMC size 20 Cebelia and the other one is Lizbeth size 20 in Christmas Delight. (Okay, the paperclip has a horse on it – they’re fun to make and I had to try it in this color!)

I had a terrible time finding a background for these in the short amount of time I had yesterday -oops, that’s today, I mean. At least they show up.

I have several projects that I need to start but keep on with the snowflakes and bookmarks. They are so quick I feel I’m getting a lot done with the time I have to tat. Still working a lot of overtime so I don’t have a lot of energy to think up the next thing. It’s easier to keep doing what I’m already doing, momentum I guess.

Thanks for joining me for my Tuesday Tea and tatting, even if it was a day late. I’ll try to be on time next week!

Grandma’s tea cup and a new bookmark

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I used a cup and saucer that belonged to my grandmother, the one who taught me to tat. I’ve always loved this golden tea set. It looks so rich and elegant. And it really looks good with that bookmark, don’t you think?

The bookmark is new this week. The center is entwined together before it’s joined at the last clover. I’ve seen something like it somewhere but I don’t remember where. Thank you, who ever you are, for a great idea. My husband really likes the look.

This one is made with Lizbeth thread “Springtime” in size 20. And it does look like springtime! I also made one in Lizbeth “Caribbean” with black on the outside. That looked pretty good, too.

This should be #25 of my 25 Motif Challenge. That is a wonderful site. They gather together what other bloggers have done, which is great so you don’t miss some wonderful work. I might just have to start it again!

I hope everyone had a few minutes to enjoy a little tatting and a cup of tea. It really is a great idea.

Tatting Tea Tuesday September 8, 2009

It’s Tatting Tea Tuesday again. Today I’m working on snowflakes.

All of these snowflakes are my patterns, the two smallest ones are from a design made last week.

All of these are made with DMC Cordonnet Special white in size 30. I’m planning on doing a few in colors as well, but I’m doing the ones I know people expect first – you know, white. But they do look good in white.
I found some bangle bracelets in gold and in silver. I thought I’d try putting some tatting in a few. I’m not much on working with beads but I might even try a few with beads – maybe. I’m sure they would really be eye-catching, I’m just a little lazy. You’ll see them if I do any.
Now, back to the white thread and more snowflakes.

Work, work and very little time to play

It’s inventory time where I work. And that means I got to change hours for a week, oh yeah. Instead of working a late shift it’s really early AM to whenever we get to a stopping place. Doesn’t that sound like fun? (NOT)

No, I’m not counting widgets. My department along with maintenance is doing some major line changes that have to be done before the plant returns to production next Wednesday. Between the change in sleep hours and the long work days I am pretty much done when I get home. Not very conducive to getting any tatting done.

I did get these snowflakes done. I know it’s not the best picture, but I just wanted to sit down and put my feet up, so this is as good as it gets for now. This is just something I came up with because I didn’t think I could follow a pattern and have it make sense. The colorful one is Lizbeth size 20 in Jewels. The other is DMC Cordonnet Special, size 30. The outside round has a strand of Coats Metallic Decorative sewing thread in bright gold added. I was kind of leery about adding it but it went very well. Of course, there was nothing very complicated going on, so we’ll try it again later.

This is my #24 of my 25 Motif Challenge (I think), well, I’m calling it that any way.

Now, I’m going to let my brain take a break. Hopefully we’ll be done tomorrow and get the whole three days for Labor Day weekend. That sounds so wonderful!

Tatting Tea Tuesday with more horses and butterflies

It’s Tatting Tea Tuesday again, and yes, I’m still doing horse and butterfly paperclip bookmarks. They’ve been a lot of fun and I have a lot of new colors to try them in. I’m getting quite the herd of horses and a rabble of butterflies. Debbie’s sea horse makes such a wonderful horse for this, don’t you think? The butterflies are my patterns.

All of these bookmarks are made with Lizbeth thread size 20. From the left starting with the horse: horse in Caribbean and purple; butterfly in Grape Pizazz and purple; horse in Grape Pizazz; flower with pearls in Grape Pizazz; butterfly in Jewels and purple; the cross is in purple.

This morning I sat down with a cup of tea to finish off this cross that I started last night. I’m not sure who to credit the pattern to as it’s so very basic. You don’t so much follow a pattern as follow the logistics of a cross. I vary the count of the double stitches and picots in the rings and chains as the mood dictates every time I make it.

A family member of my boss’s family died a few days ago and I thought I’d include a cross in the card for him and his family. Nice idea, I thought. But I had the most horrible time getting this one done! I was joining in the wrong places, twisting threads, tying knots – the wrong kind – left, right and sideways! There was once I tried to close a ring with the body of the cross inside! If I hadn’t needed to get it done today I would have put it aside for another day. I finally got it done, in about twice the time it should have taken me. (You’d think I’d had something stronger than tea!) I’m blaming my lack of concentration on my allergies as they have really started bothering me the last few days.

I really need to get on to some other projects, but these bookmarks have been such fun! I guess if I’m going to go to a craft show this fall I’ll need a lot, so I shouldn’t feel too guilty staying with them. And if I have trouble with them, they’re just small stuff, nothing tragic if I tangle the threads a bit – I’ll just start over!

Wishing all of you a wonderful week and Happy Tatting!