Category: gifts

February Tatting

You know how life keeps happening? You go about your normal business and other things sidetrack you. Recently a young relative went through a sad event and I’m planning a sympathy package to send them as we are too far away to visit. We’ve also been invited to a wedding of some friends, which means a gift is needed. Emotional opposite ends of the happiness spectrum, right? It’s amazing how tatting can fit into both gifts.

I usually make cross bookmarks for sympathy gifts. My “Graduation Cross Bookmark” is simple and quick but still looks good. I started with that, then had an idea.

Green Graduation cross with edging on wandasknottythoughts
Green Graduation cross with edging

Lime Green (Lizbeth #679) isn’t usually a color I think of for a sympathy gift, but it was on my shuttles from a different project. Though the green was size 20 I didn’t have any size 20 handy that looked even close to good with it, so I used a size 10 in Ocean Teal Dark (Lizbeth #65). I played around with stitch counts and developed this edging around the cross. I liked it, so I made one in the colors I had wanted to make it in.

Blue Graduation cross with edging on wandasknottythoughts
Blue Graduation cross with edging

The center of this cross is Country Turquoise Lt (Lizbeth #660) (I think! – I lost the label) in size 20, and the outside is River Blue Dark (Lizbeth #709) in size 10. I finished the edging, cut and hid the ends, and THEN noticed I goofed on the last chain. I’m pretty confident I can fix it without much trouble, but, we’ll see. I think it looks good otherwise.

I had to think a bit to come up with a wedding gift. Then I remembered that a while ago the bride and I were looking at tatting online when she saw one of the doves from Frivolite con sabor and loved it, so I purchased the “Dove of Peace” pattern. I have completed one dove and plan to make another, then frame them to give as a wedding gift.

'Dove of Peace' by Frivolite con sabor on wandasknottythoughts
‘Dove of Peace’ by Frivolite con sabor

This is a lovely pattern, and not hard to do, I just had to pay attention! This will be a lovely gift! The pattern is on Frivolite con sabor’s Etsy shop.

At the beginning of February, it occurred to me that Valentine’s Day was coming up. I didn’t know what I wanted to do for Valentine’s Day, but I wanted to do something, so I started making several of my “January Heart”. I added them to a can for a touch of room decor, but what else to do? I thought it would be fun to have a pin to wear.

"January Heart" pin on wandasknottythoughts
“January Heart” pin

These hearts were tatted and then joined together with a bit of thread. You can see how fancy this pin ended up with that bare safety pin. LOL! It goes on and off of my shirt or jacket easily! I might make it a bit fancier for next year, but it worked for now.

Besides all this tatting, I’m staying on task writing out several patterns. I’m working on how to diagram a particular tatting technique. It’s quite challenging but also rewarding. I’m almost done with one, yay! 😊

“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” David Viscott

A Few Gifts

My mother has been going through her stuff, trying to thin them out. When she finds items she thinks I might like, she gifts them to me. I can’t keep everything she gives me, but I love that she thinks of me and gives me these little things. Recently she gave me a bag with sewing notions.

Sewing notions on wandasknottythoughts
Sewing notions

I’m not sure how old any of these are, but it is obvious they are not new.

Old wooden spools of thread on wandasknottythoughts
Old wooden spools of thread

Check out the cost of two of these spools of thread! The thread is old enough that I expect it would break when sewing with them. I wouldn’t try to use it unless I had to. All of the spools are wooden, which for some reason I just love.

Wooden needle cases on wandasknottythoughts
Wooden needle cases

All three of the wooden needle cases have needles in them. Each is labeled to have three needles inside, which they do, but two cases have five needles. And not all the same size. I do not know if these needles will work in my sewing machine, but I plan to check.

Mom doesn’t know where the needlebook came from, and there is no information on it except what you see. The back of the book looks just like the front.

Inside the needlebook on wandasknottythoughts
Inside the needlebook

Some of the needles have been used and a few are missing. I’m not seeing any needles here that will work for the thread I use in tatting, but I do sew buttons on once in a while, LOL!

My brother-in-law gave me a pretty cool gift recently. He knew it was something I wouldn’t use, but he thought it was funny.

Weaving shuttle on wandasknottythoughts
Weaving shuttle

According to Google, this is a wooden weaving shuttle. Check out how big it is! I have included the ruler and two tatting shuttles to show just how large it is. It does look like there is something broken on it. But it’s a cool gift. I think it will be a great decoration in my craft room.

I haven’t gotten much tatting done lately. Or much done on my patterns, either. I’m hoping to get back into both soon. I have gotten a bit of motivation from a couple of emails about preparation for Tatting Corning’s Tat Days in July. This is happening in three weeks! I need to start getting my tatting organized for the classes I’m taking.

“There is only one real deprivation… and that is not to be able to give one’s gifts to those one loves most.” May Sarton

Christmas Gifts

It’s almost Christmas, and boy, have I been busy!

I attended our church ladies’ Bible study group Christmas dinner and gift exchange a couple of weeks ago. Each of us was to bring a gift for a random gift exchange. I tatted a cross bookmark that I put in a book of devotions. And I forgot to take a picture of it! It was my August SR Cross, made in Lizbeth thread HH20-181 Cranberry Bush. It looked good, and the lady who received it was happy with it.

The dinner was good, the company was terrific, and the gifts were fun to see. We all were given three gifts: one from the gift exchange, and two from the hosts. The gift I got from the exchange was a beautiful quilted centerpiece. One of the gifts from the hosts was a cute Christmas tree ornament; the other was a machine-embroidered tea towel.

Gifts from the dinner on wandasknottythoughts
Gifts from the dinner

The Bible study group wasn’t the only gift exchange I’ve had this year. This last Sunday my side of the family had our Christmas dinner and gift exchange. We play a form of the White Elephant game, with all of us interacting and having a good time. A few of us also give gifts outside of the game, which isn’t required but is a lot of fun. My sister gave all of the ladies hand-embroidered tea towels.

Little red truck tea towel on wandasknottythoughts
Little red truck tea towel

Last year I started decorating with Christmas decorations in the little red truck theme. She knew this and did my tea towel with the theme. It is so cute!

My birthday is coming up so she also gave me another embroidered gift. Previously, she had given me the runner – which I am supposed to put an edging on – and now she gave me the pillowcases. One day I’ll get to the edging, maybe for both the pillowcases and the runner.

Matching runner and pillow cases on wandasknottythoughts
Matching runner and pillowcases

In the previous post, I shared my new pattern, September Angel. This is the 2022 ornament that I am giving to close friends and family. While I’ve been making them I’ve noticed that it wouldn’t take much to make a tree with the pattern. So I tried it.

Christmas Tree 2022 on wandasknottythought s
Christmas Tree 2022

While coming up with the stitch count for this little tree I could see how the angels and the trees might make cute earrings, so I made some of those, too.

Christmas Tree earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Christmas Tree earrings
September Angel earrings on wandasknottythoughts
September Angel earrings

I gave these earrings to my daughter. And, again, I was in such a hurry I forgot to take pictures of them. My daughter was very sweet and did a photo shoot with them. They were such cool pictures I had an awful time choosing between them for which ones to use. The earrings came out as well as I hoped they would.

I’ve posted the pattern on the My Patterns page. Unfortunately, when I did that I seem to have broken the links to all the other patterns. This pattern is the only one currently that works. I’m working on the others but won’t get them all fixed tonight. If you’re interested in another pattern but it won’t come up for you, please email me and I’ll get it for you, or try again a bit later.

Here in Kansas, we are expecting an Arctic cold front in a couple of days, along with some snow. How much snow depends are where you are located, anywhere from one to six inches. Listening to the weatherman, it sounds like we won’t have it as bad as a lot of the country. Here, mostly very cold with a few hours of blowing snow. We might even have a white Christmas! We don’t have that every year. I think for the next few days I’ll sit back, tat, and try to stay warm without going outside.

Snowman cup and tatting on wandasknottythoughts
I think I’ll stay in and keep warm while I tat

My husbands’ side of the family is not having the family Christmas until after the 25th. There are some family members that will be gone until after that. The day isn’t as important for gatherings as is the family that will be there. Having it after Christmas is okay by me, it gives me a bit more time to get ready for it.

What are you busy with?

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” — Burton Hills

Gifts

Paperclip bookmark gift on wandasknottythoughts
Paperclip bookmark gift

One of my aunts just had a birthday. She has enjoyed paperclip bookmarks I have previously given her and recently indicated she would like more.  What could be a better birthday gift?

She was quite happy with these. Unlike a couple of other paperclip bookmarks I have made before, the tatting on these will stay up-right on these most of the time.

My mother-in-law passed away several years ago. Recently my father-in-law started going through his possessions as he prepared to move out of the house. There were a lot of tatted items I had gifted her that he no longer had a place for. This collar is one of them.

Tatted collar in DMC ecru size 30 on wandasknottythoughts
Tatted collar

I’m not sure just how long ago I made this for her, maybe 15? 20 years ago? I know it is made in DMC Cebelia size 30 Ecru (I had a lot of this thread).  The pattern is in a book that I cannot locate at the moment so I can’t tell you exactly where it is. I have looked through the patterns listed on Craftree, where there are several that are very similar. The center edge does not match the patterns I located there.

She wore it several times I know.  I washed and pinned it out when I got it. I am trying to decide which shirt I should put this on. I definitely plan on wearing it.

I have been tatting a lot, just not posting. I have so many things I want to do I have a hard time staying with one project long enough to finish it. I am working on the ornament I put in Christmas cards. After much adjusting and tweaking, I have it figured out – I think!

Thanksgiving is this week – how time flies! My side of the family will be our get-together at our house. I have so much to do to get the house ready! I’d rather be tatting than cleaning house, but I don’t have a lot of choice on what I have to do.  I mean, we need the table to eat at.

Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” William Arther Ward  https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/william_arthur_ward_676240?src=t_thanksgiving

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!

2017 tat days goodies on wandasknottythoughts
A few of the 2017 Tat Days goodies

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.

My unfinished tatted spaceship on wandasknottythoughts
My unfinished spaceship

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.

Diane and I working on our tatted spaceships on wandasknottythoughts
Diane and I working on our 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
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williambut383082.html?src=t_friendship

Gifts

To me!
These wonderful items are from Tabatha that I received for our Advent exchange.  That container in the back has seven different colored seed beads.  Each bead color is in it’s own compartment so each can be opened without releasing loosing opening all the others – great!  The ball of thread is Lizbeth “Springtime” #115 in size 20.  I haven’t used it yet but it’s such a ‘spring-y’ color I’m thinking of using it for something for Easter.  The cute book is a journal, an encouragement to keep jotting down my patterns.  And the pens aren’t regular pens but crochet hook pens.  And they are soo pretty!  I’ve been keeping one in my purse so I always have one handy. 
All of these items are in such pretty colors they make me think “Spring!”  We’ve had such a mild winter here that it almost seems like spring already.  We actually had a thunderstorm yesterday with high wind and hail.  Very spring like, indeed.  Of course, it could come up and snow any day – it’s still only February.  But tatting with “Springtime” thread, using those pretty beads and crochet pens, and jotting down ideas in the journal (did you see the tea pot?) will make it feel like springtime anytime. 
I didn’t have any tea this morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday, I had coffee instead.  I was just too lazy to try and choose which tea to drink this morning 🙂  I’ve also been too busy this week to tat, so there’s no tatting to show.  I have a list of things I want/plan to tat, just not the time.  I’m hoping that this week is a little better on the tatting front.  
May you have a bit of tatting time this week, too. 
“Youth is not a time of life: it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it it a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.”
Samuel Ullman