Category: embroidery

The Week before New Years

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas? I hope you did. We did. We had family get-togethers, presents, a Christmas Eve program, and a wonderful Christmas day. Now we are in that week just before the calendar year changes from 2021 to 2022. Are you ready?

I finally finished the wings for my tree-topper angel, the day after Christmas. But that’s okay, I still have my tree up and the angel is now ready for next year.

Tree-top angel with wings on wandasknottythoughts
Tree-top angel got its wings

I made the wings in Lizbeth # 601 Snow White in size 10. I had wanted to make them in # 602 Natural but I didn’t have any in size 10. I thought the color would go better with the rest of the angel, but this looks okay. I modified my Angel Wings pattern to make the wings come out larger than I made them before. I even stiffened them so they would stand out nicely. I’m very happy with how the whole angel came out.

At Christmas, our families play a white elephant gift exchange game so we don’t have to spend so much on presents, but there are still a few gifts some of us give because we want to anyway. My sister embroiders and always makes something for the women and bakes goodies for each family (the guys and kids don’t complain!) She enjoys embroidering tea towels throughout the year so we all get them at Christmas. The women don’t complain, either. This year they all had gnomes on them.

Gnome tea towel on wandasknottythoughts
Gnome tea towel

I love my new tea towel, isn’t it cute? Unlike some, I am not afraid to use the embroidered tea towels my sister gives me. I have them out almost exclusively. She put all that work into them, I’m not leaving them in the drawer!

This year has been unseasonable warm here. We’ve been hearing of snow in some other parts of the country, but here in the middle of the USA we have had warm temperatures and haven’t had any moisture but a few sprinkles in over a month. The weather is supposed to change a bit on New Year’s Day.

Weather forecast for the week before New Years 2021 on wandasknottythoughts
Weather forecast for the week before New Year 2021

It’s too far out to know if we really will have any moisture or in what form it will take snow, rain, or ice, or a combination. I’ll take it in whatever form we can get it.

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I don’t, I just review what’s been going on, what I’ve been doing, and consider if I’m going in the direction I want to be going. I do sometimes make a list of tatted things I would like to make, but I usually lose it. As I’m retired now maybe I’ll post that list on the refrigerator and remember to make a few of the items on my wish list. Check back at the end of next year to see how well that goes, LOL!

New Years’ Day is this coming Saturday. Are you ready?

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. They merely determine where you start.” Nido Qubein

Seen at the fair

I thought I’d show you the other tatting that was entered into the fair. These all competed against each other (and me!) as there was only one tatting category.
The snowman won first and the larger snowflake won second. My doily (from last week’s post) won third. The Christmas-colored doily that hung below mine didn’t win anything, but it was make by the same person who made the snowman, and you can only win one ribbon per category.
I thought this was a lovely display. Isn’t this a great idea for showing off your tatting?
This was actually entered as Heirloom Embroidery, not tatting, but check out how she added joined the panels together. Wow!
This is a Bobbin Lace bookmark, made by a woman that also entered tatting. Isn’t it beautiful? The other one is machine embroidery, and looks great, too. I don’t know how the judges make their decisions!
This is a Halloween quilt that took second place in that category. I didn’t compete against these, but I thought they were wonderful. My pictures don’t do them justice.
This one took champion in the holiday quilt category. It certainly is spectacular.
Congratulations to all the people to enter their pieces at the fair. Keep up the great work.
And to all the people out there who tat – think about entering something next year! I know you’re out there. We’ve got to keep the category alive!
“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.”
Sven Goran Eriksson

Patriotic pins and Hobby display


This has been a very busy week.

I was inspired by Steph’s heart and Kathy’s version of Sue Hanson’s 5 point Celtic motif, all in red white and blue. With Flag Day June 14 and Independence Day July 4th there is a lot of time yet to be patriotic also. So I tried the 5 point Celtic motif, too. I did it two ways, one as the pattern shows and one with two rings instead of one large. I’m not a big fan of making large rings even if I like how they work in a pattern. I added a flag star wooden button in the center and put on a pin back on the two on the left. Both were made in DMC size 10. The one on the right is size 20 in a variegated red white and blue. It is so busy it’s very hard to see the actual pattern. The two pins are for my parents and the other was just to make. My sister saw these and said she would love to have several to decorate her side table at home when she sets it up for the 4th. Okay, they don’t take long, I will probably make one or two. I’m counting these as #18 & #19 of the 25 Motif Challenge.

This last Friday the home where my dad lives had a Hobby Day. They had seen my tatting on my dad’s hat (a hat band) and asked me if I would like to participate. So my sister and I dug up stuff we’ve made and set up together. The displays were of hobbies of both residents and staff and us. There were some wonderful quilts (hand quilted!), jewelry, a salt-&-pepper shaker collection, angel collection, wooden toys, a few other things and my sister’s embroidery and my tatting. It was a very fun afternoon. I demonstrated tatting to a lot of people and we showed off a lot of our pieces that we’ve actually kept instead of given away.

They started us out on one table but were so happy with what we had brought that they got us another table so we could put everything out. I even brought a few books along so people could see that patterns are available.

We intermixed our things kind of like we did the few times we did craft shows. And our work some times even compliments the other’s.

Some of these things were gifts to either our kids or each other. The green doll with the embroidered apron my sister made for one of my daughters. Until recently she was in the Air Force and her husband still is so they haven’t got a place they know they’ll be in for any length of time so I still (!!) have a lot of her things at home, including this doll. It came in handy today.

This baby tied blanket my sister made for her daughter. “The Three Little Kittens” was my niece’s favorite book as a child to the point they had to buy several copies of it as it wore out. My sister rarely keeps anything for herself but gives things like this away for birthdays and Christmas.


I used to make doilies quite frequently. I don’t so much anymore because of how much time one has to put into them.

The birdhouse towel in the lower part of the picture was a birthday present from my sister to me. We have to tell people it wasn’t done on a machine, sometimes even turn it over so they can see the back side.


These two pillowcase dolls my sister and I worked together. She made the doll bodies and clothes and embroidered the ladies bodies while I tatted the skirts.

My sister does a lot of pillowcases. They make wonderful wedding gifts, or for graduation or…

The one at the bottom is mine from another birthday.

The large tatted piece is my BIG UFO. It was supposed to be a table cloth for my brother-in-law. It was started many years ago and this is as big as it has gotten. We are all in agreement that I need to find a finishing round and call it good. It’s made in ecru with size 30 DMC so takes a long time to get very far. It has been fun, though.

The green book is my newest acquisition, bought just the day before.

And finally, this is my sister, Elaine, and myself.

We really enjoyed ourselves that afternoon. We weren’t trying to sell anything, just having a good time sharing our hobbies with anyone that would listen. I don’t know how many people came through, but it was pretty constant for the three hours they ran it. While we were setting it up we had people come by, too.

It was a lot of fun, and then I had to go to work. I guess the fun has to end sometime.

Thanks for sticking around through this very long entry. But I just had to share!