Category: hobbies

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!

Tatting demonstration

Yesterday my husband and I were cleaning before re-arranging the living room when I came across one of my daughter’s old school newspapers from 1993 with my picture in it. My youngest was in second grade that year. Her teacher, Mrs. Val Graber, had the students invite parents or other family members to come in to share their skills and hobbies. My daughter asked me to share tatting with her class. I remember trying to come up with a presentation for 7 & 8 year olds. I talked about the different names tatting goes by in different countries and had them help me try to pronounce them, then shared some of it’s history. We had them sit on the floor close by and I tatted a few rings and chains for them. Each child received a 3″ x 5″ note card with some little bit of tatting on it, a butterfly, a caterpillar, or flowers I had made, the backgrounds made with markers. They were very pleased to get them, as I was very pleased to do them.

This was the first time I had gotten up in front of people to demonstrate or talk about tatting. Since then I have given other demonstrations, most to people of a slightly more advanced age, but all built on the confidence I found in sharing my enthusiasm about tatting with second graders.