No pictures today – too busy. My daughter from Omaha is here with the grandson! Woo-hoo!
Haven’t seen them since May and he has changed soooo much! He’s crawling and has two teeth.
They’re going to be here for a week, so I doubt I’ll get much tatting done. If I do accomplish anything with thread and shuttle I’ll try and post it. Maybe at breaks at work I can do a little…
Okay, he’s doing more cute stuff, gotta stop and watch. Everyone have a good week!
It’s amazing how the varied color combinations make them each look so different, don’t you think?
I was going to set my cup of tea on one for a visual of their use, but it didn’t work out. I ran out of time.
For anyone that’s interested, here’s the pattern. WARNING: there may be mistakes lurking. Tat at your own risk.
Shay’s Birthday Coasters
Round 1 2 shuttles Make all picots small, for joining only
Sht1 R 6-6. R 6-6. RW Ch 9 DNRW Sht2 R 6-6 DNRW Sht1 Ch 9 RW
*Sht1 6+6 to p of prev R. R 6-6. RW Ch 9 DNRW Sht2 R 6-6. DNRW Sht1 Ch 9 RW*
Repeat between * 8 times, last time join last R to first R. Cut, finish ends as desired.
Round 2 Shuttle and ball. Joining picots indicated as j, others longer as desired.
R 6+6 to any Sht2 R of prev round. RW. Ch 10 RW. R 2-2-2-2j-8 RW
Ch 6-2–2-2+ to 4th p of prev R Ch10 RW.
Repeat from beginning of round 2 all the way around, join to base of first R. Cut, finish ends as desired.
On the 4th of July my husband and I went on a little day trip, just the two of us. We left all the housework and home projects behind and headed off to have a day of fun.
First we visited Coronado Heights. This is a hill named after Francisco Vasquez de Coronado for his visit to Kansas in 1541 looking for gold. This is the castle at the top. It was built in the 30’s along with a freestanding fireplace and picnic tables around the summit.
And then, in a store across the street I actually found two shuttles. One of the owners mentioned that shuttles are usually snapped up almost as soon as they put them out. So I got lucky!
All around it was a great day. We had fun hiking around two wonderful sites on a beautiful day and then found some treasures to take home with us. We finished off the day at home with our feet up, sipping on root beer floats.
Obviously they haven’t had the ends clipped – in fact one still has to have the end connected to the beginning.
I finished the sixth one after I took the picture. Can you guess which one of these needs it’s opposite?
I’ll have to have them done before next week or else they’ll be late. I’ll post a picture of the finished coasters when they’re done. I think she’ll like them.
As I mentioned earlier, I was in a butterfly exchange through InTatters. This is the beautiful butterflies I got from my exchange partner, CindyK from Minnesota.
The large one is “Green Butterfly” designed by Martha Ess, found in the Intatters patterns. She made it with Lizbeth thread size 20 in “Jewels” and DMC Cebelia size 20 white. And she sent the little one to keep it company. Aren’t they wonderful?
CindyK considers herself a beginner as she’s only been tatting a few years. She just finished Phase one of the T.A.T. program. If you get the chance stop on over to congratulate her on a job well done! I think she did a great job on these butterflies. Now I just need to decide where I’m going to display them…
This butterfly is the one I sent to CindyK. This was a lot of fun making. I tried Lizbeth thread for the first time with it. I have seen that a lot of people are trying it and liking it so I bought some. And I really really like the Caribbean!
So I just had to do this butterfly in it. This is the Southwest Butterfly by Tatting Goddess made with Lizbeth size 20 thread, Dark Purple #633, Caribbean #122 & Black #604. (www.esnips.com/web/TattingGoddessPatterns). I’m calling this #20 of my 25 Motif Challenge.
I’ve been working on my daughter’s birthday coasters, which I’ll post another day. I think I’ve come up with a solution as to what color to make them.
Yesterday my husband and I went for a day trip, just the two of us. In the afternoon we stopped by a couple of antique stores and spent a few hours browsing through all of the neat – and not so neat- things in them. I have serveral things to share after I have the pictures uploaded. I’m pretty excited about all of my finds.
But that is for another day. We’ve been very busy this weekend – we had three days off from work! – with family and friends and just spending time together. I feel so much more relaxed than I have for weeks.
That’s all for today. My shuttles are calling to me. I better do something with them before they tie themselves in knots.
I think the pattern will work. If I leave it like this it will be about 4 inches (about 10cm) across. I’m planning on making four to six of them – it will depend on how many I get done by her birthday!
Now, if I can just make up my mind how I want to do the colors….
I call it Arches Over Arches. This is made with DMC ecru (of course!) in size 30. I came up with this from a center I found in my old stuff that was made with size 10, which was much bigger. I think this was supposed to be an edging that went wrong. But it made a nice center for a doily.
The other two rounds I came up with this time around. I have several ideas for the next time I make it – and I do have plans to make it – and my husband has a couple of really neat suggestions, also.
There’s nothing here to compare it to so you can’t tell the size. It’s pretty small, only about 4 inches across. So maybe it’s too small to be considered a doily, but I would use it under a vase for a single rose or some such, so I call it a doily.
I’ve also had another idea in mind that I worked on last night. After seeing all the neat ideas of using a large paperclip as a bookmark, I thought a large paperclip with a horse head would be neat. Now, I make my own bookmarks and doilies and such, but coming up with something like this has not turned out well. I’m not showing my attempts, just say they met a quick end. But the Internet is our friend and makes finding the many wonderful people with great ideas easy to find if you go looking.
If you go to ds9designs you will find that Debbie Arnold has a very cute seahorse pattern. I saw it and thought “if you start here and leave that off, it would make a really nice horse head pattern.” So last night I tried it with thread I already had on a shuttle. (The colors would have made a wonderful seahorse!)
.
This is made with Lizbeth Caribbean size 20. I think I need to make the base a little wider and the neck maybe not quite so long. Then I need to try putting it on a paperclip. Maybe in a horse-y color. And then again, maybe not. To be continued…
Most of this last week was spent finishing the butterfly for the Intatters butterfly exchange. I got it done in time (just barely!) and sent it off to Cindy in Minnesota. After I know she has it I will post a picture of it. I thought it came out well and I’m looking forward to sharing it.
This morning I brewed a cup of herb tea – mint, mmmm!- and sat down to work on my exchange butterfly and what do I see but a BIG mistake! I missed a join and a chain, and it wasn’t the last thing I did, either. Grumble, grumble, *sigh*
Instead of finishing the butterfly I retro tatted. And it’s dark thread so it took me awhile (the eyesight is one of the first things to go, obviously!) to get back to where I started last night. I knew I was tired last night, but I didn’t know I was that tired! If I had just not picked it up after work I would have been done with the wings by now!
And then I had trouble reading the pattern for the middle! I turned it this way, and that way, and turned it over…. I finally figured it out (I think) but again, didn’t get as far as I thought I would.
So instead of showing at least a part of the butterfly – as a hint until the recipient gets it – I have nothing to show for my tatting time today. I spent all my time either retro tatting or tatting and had no time left for pictures.
But the tea was delicious!
thread in blues #008 and #019. Now I have a gift ready for the next time I need a little something to send in a card!
No, I didn’t tat any buffalo, I just took their picture. These are American Bison, raised by a man across the section from us. My husband and I happened to drive by last week and see them so I took a picture. I don’t know if you can make them out or not, but the lighter colored ones are the babies. I know these look small, but they are very impressive up close. The bulls get to about six feet at the hump and are very massive.
I was planning on posting yesterday, but we actually had a day off from work(!!). And being Father’s Day we actually went to see our fathers and then went to our daughter’s for supper. Itwas a very full day, but a lot of fun!
And now I am off to finish (I hope!) my butterfly for the InTatters butterfly exchange.
