Category: Tatting Tea Tuesday

Fall Housekeeping

So, I was trying to get a little more organized (don’t laugh, it could happen) and cleaning out my “tatting cabinet” – an old dresser that sits in our living room and holds most of my thread. As I was going through all the balls of thread I kept finding shuttles, all holding at least some thread of one sort or another.
The problem, of course, is I don’t know what the threads are. I’m sure I have most of the colors/sizes somewhere, but is it worth it to try to figure that out with the (usually) small amount of thread on them? I think I’ll be making a lot of butterflies and flowers to try to empty them out. I’ve got a lot of Christmas tatting to do and I could use a few empty shuttles:- )

Speaking of Christmas tatting, I did get a few snowflakes done while on the trip back from Washington, D.C. I figured I needed a lot of snowflakes for the Christmas cards, and if I only took one color of thread it would take up less space. And maybe I wouldn’t get too sidetracked and start something else!
The one on the top left was supposed to be like the one on the top right, but I knew before I started the outside round that my stitch count was off and it wasn’t going to work, so it was modified a little. The one in the middle and the one on the bottom left were supposed to be the same, and again, the stitch count changed just a little. But it will work. I made the small ones – they are about an inch across – for project I’m working on. It was fun trying to come up with very small six-pointed shapes. Okay, some have more points than that, but they’re snowflakes if anybody asks, and all are made with Lizbeth white in size 20.

For my trip I took my tatting in my new tatting tin. It’s an Altoid mint tin that I decoupaged (I keep finding things to cover!). It holds two shuttles, the short crochet hook, the scissors, the necklace they attach to and the needle book. It fit very nicely in my purse and looked great while doing it.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m sipping hot Cinnamon Apple Spice tea I found at the store the other day. It smells and tastes yummy! I’m not sure how much tatting I’ll get done today though – I’ve been neglecting the house since I’ve gotten back from D.C. I really need to get things done before it gets too out of hand.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week.

A Givin’ and Gettin’ Tatting Tea Tuesday

Today’s the day! Are you ready?

And the winner of my anniversary drawing is…

** drum roll**

Kathy Niklewicz!

Congratulations Kathy! Email me at the address in my profile with your address and I’ll send you your wonderful prize package!

Thank you to everyone that stopped by and entered the drawing. I have really had fun coming up with what to put in the prize package. The biggest problem – from my end – was when to stop adding stuff! I kept thinking “this would be cool to put in” or “that really fits the theme” and a few hundred other thoughts. I finally had to tell myself “enough already!” LOL! Kathy, I hope you enjoy the package as much as I have enjoyed putting it together and givin’ it out!

I’ve also been enjoying making my next bookmark. Last week I asked for a suggestion of a good one to make. Gina suggested using ‘Pumpkins on a Vine’ by Heidi Sunday for a fall themed one, and Isdihara gave me the link to the pattern, so I gave it a try.

I think I got a little carried away – it’s like “Pumpkins on a Tangled Vine” now. This is definitely a one-of-a-kind bookmark. The outsides are per the pattern except that I added the turns to come back down. Then I had to figure out how to connect the two sides together so I started adding the pumpkins down the middle. That made it look kind of like a pumpkin ladder so I started a little free-form tatting up and down the sides. Then I had to come up with a bottom that didn’t look like it had just been whacked off at random. Just look at the pumpkin patch that grew up out of all that! I’m very happy with this. It’s a bit three-dimensional because of the way the vines climb around, very textured. I stayed up late finishing this because I just had to see how it was going to end. Thank you, Heidi, for the wonderful pattern, and Gina and Isdihara for the inspiration and help finding the pattern. This was fun!

Oh, it’s made with Lizbeth size 20 in 694 (Harvest Orange Med) and 684 (Leaf Green Med). I’m counting this as #13 of my second 25 Motif Challenge. How appropriate for October, hey?

Now on to the gettin’!
About a week ago I was on the Handy Hands website admiring all the books – okay, drooling over some of the books – and I mentioned to my husband that I really would like this book. And he replied “Why don’t you get it? Birthday, Christmas – something’s coming up pretty soon.” So I did.

This is a wonderful book, full of enough pictures of gorgeous shuttles to make any shuttle-tatter drool. Pam has done a lot of work looking into the history of shuttles and shuttle making and put it together for the rest of us. Wow! If you are interested at all in the history of shuttle making, or would like to see a lot of ways people have added “bling” to their shuttles, and you get the chance, check out this book!

But the gettin’s not done! I also picked me up a few Clover shuttles – as I was making an order anyway, right? And then of course I had to personalize them a little bit. It seems everyone is dressing up their shuttles right now – and it’s such fun! Of course, the new book has a lot of inspiration in it, too!

This blue one was pretty easy – I just added a little fingernail bling*, then sealed it. Makes for a fancy-looking shuttle in a very quick time!

And then I touched up one with material. Cutting out the shape of the shuttle was a little bit of work – my scissors seems to have developed a dull spot, just where I cut the most! But I succeeded! I think it came out very well! These are pictures of both sides of the same shuttle.


Here I thought I wasn’t much of an orange fan – but I’ll take this shuttle anytime!

Over the next few weeks I suppose I’ll be working mostly on snowflakes and other Christmas goodies. Can you believe it’s almost November already? And I realize that I’m way behind on all those things I try to do for Christmas gifts. I have quite a list of things I want to do and my time is getting short. So I’ll sit here this Tuesday morning, sip a little hot tea (mint!), wind my pretty new shuttles and get started on more of that givin’ stuff.

May all of you have a fun and safe Halloween and find a little time for tatting!

*Fingernail bling – those little decals you can get to jazz up your fingernails.*

On Bookmarks and Following Directions

Welcome to fall! Here the leaves are starting to turn though the temperatures haven’t gotten all that cold; the nights make you think “fall” without being too cold. Getting into the season I made a bookmark for the Tatting Forums’ Bookmark a Month Challenge in Lizbeth Falling Leaves and black in size 20. Now I need to start one for November. What pattern should it be??

Fall is the harbinger of the winter to come, including the Christmas season. It reminds me that I should be getting all those snowflakes done that I usually include in my Christmas cards.

Okay, so only one of these is a snowflake. They are both out of DMC’s ‘Tatting for Today’ copyright 1980. The one on the left is motif #5 and the other is motif #22, and this is the one that is alluded to in the title. This is not what the tree looks like in the book because I just couldn’t read the pattern correctly. Fortunately I have enough skill to adapt as I go so I didn’t have to scrap it and start over. The rings around the edges are not per the pattern and the ‘trunk’ is too long, but overall the impression is the same as the pattern in the book.

I bought this book probably about 1990 when I had been tatting close to ten years. There was no Internet in those days to share information on books or other tatters. What patterns I was finding were in Workbasket magazines and how-to booklets, you know the ones – “How to knit, crochet and tat” types, with a few descriptions of how-to for each craft then a couple of patterns of each. I remember being pretty excited when I found ‘Tatting for Today’. It had good pictures of each pattern and the written pattern wasn’t the long wordy type from Workbasket. Looking at the patterns now I find they have something to be desired as they have all the directions in a paragraph making it hard to follow. I usually re-write them, having one element per line instead of everything in one paragraph. I think that’s why I had trouble with the tree motif, I didn’t write it out first. Still, it came out acceptable, just not per the pattern : )

This weekend I tried my hand at adding a little something extra to a shuttle – decoupage. I thought the napkin would really look cool on this Susan Bates shuttle, but it didn’t come out quite like I had envisioned. It’s okay, for a first try I guess. And it still tats okay, which is the important part, right?


I would like to thank everyone that’s stopped by to check out out my old-fashioned doily in last week’s post. You are all so very kind. A big “Thank-you!” to TattingChic for sharing it on her blog and sending people my way. I get such a kick out of sharing something that I’m so excited about. And tatterjil, I’d share with everyone what I was giving away in the drawing – except I don’t know just exactly what’s going to be in it. Okay, some of it’s planned already, but not everything! It will just have to be a surprise – for everyone. I’m having a lot of fun coming up with what’s going to be in it. Come back next week when I announce the winner.

This Tatting Tea Tuesday I slept in and haven’t accomplished much since I got up. I had a cup of green tea and thought about tatting. I didn’t get any done until I was on the way to work (don’t think I tat and drive – I was the passenger!). Just trying to get another snowflake done, as I have a lot of them to do.

Remember to stop back by next week when I announce the winner of my anniversary drawing. Until then take a little time for tea and tatting if you can, and have a great week!

Odds and Ends

During our trip to Colorado I did tat a little bit – I made another bookmark, a variation of the one I did a couple of weeks ago. This was done mostly while driving and with a few trials of different ways to achieve the same end. I don’t know if it’s just the color combination or the different things I tried, but the chains don’t quite look right. Of course I noticed that the most while I was blocking it, otherwise I like how it turned out. It’s made in Lizbeth Caribbean and black size 20.

State Fair
I did mention that I had a few more fair pictures.

This is the butter sculpture. There were so many people looking at it that it was hard to get close enough to see it let alone take a picture; I hope you can make them out. Amazing what someone can do with butter!

My grandson really enjoyed the goats. He kept trying to give them hugs and kisses.

There was a remote controlled robot named Oscar talking to people and keeping everyone laughing. I don’t know where the person was who controlled him, but Oscar commented on the people around him and moved around interacting with the crowd. My grandson thought Oscar was great until we got him up close, then it wasn’t fun any more.

I thought this was definitely the winner of the fair!

Surprise in the sky
We were on the way to work Friday and saw what at first we thought were some odd looking clouds. And then we realized they weren’t clouds.

The Thunderbirds were going to be at the air show at McConnell Air Force base open house on Saturday and Sunday and we were seeing their practice.

We kept an eye on the sky all the way from Newton to Wichita, about 25 miles, and saw quite the show, even from that distance. We weren’t going to be able to go to the show but we got to enjoy a bit of it anyway.

Tatting Tea Tuesday
I’m enjoying Tazo Refresh tea today. It is refreshing on this cool, fall morning. My tatting today is what it’s been for the last week, a project inspired by the bed and breakfast we stayed in while we were in Leadville. I’ve been so excited about it that I’ve spent almost all my time working on it. The house definitely looks like it, too – I really need to get up and take care of it. But I’d really rather be tatting!

May all of you have a wonderful week with a little tea and tatting in it!

A bookmark and the Kansas State Fair

I’ll start off with what I made when I got home from the state fair Saturday, a bookmark for the “Bookmark a Month Challenge” on The Tatting Forums. This is made with Manuela size 20 in color 021 (thanks AnneB for the translation!) I actually made one first in Lizbeth Jellybean but I made many of the picots too long. In fact, I dislike it so much that I almost didn’t finish it. But I forced myself to and then made this one. I didn’t use any pattern for this, though I think I’ve seen something similar somewhere.

The Kansas state fair was fun and it was a beautiful day for it. But there was very little tatting this year. I was very disappointed and angry at myself for not trying harder to get something entered. My sister and I have agreed that we both will enter at least one thing next year, and maybe more. With us encouraging each other I think it just might be a reality next September.

These pictures are of the only tatting I found there this year. They may be an item or two I missed because of the way they displayed them, but not more.

Nice display, isn’t it? A great idea for all those snowflakes I like to make.
Check out the multiple ribbons through the center – another nice idea.
Kind of disappointing that they left the ribbon in front of the doily. The earrings and snowflake didn’t show up well with the tag behind them, either. I didn’t do such a great job on taking these pictures, did I?
That white bar along the bottom is a reflection of the light fixture. This was not hanging in a place that I could get any closer to it.

In the Domestic Arts building where the tatting is displayed they have the textile arts such as quilts, embroidery, crochet, knitting and such as well as the foods. They give demonstrations of these types through-out each day which can be fun to watch. My sister and I watched a felting demonstration, which was very interesting, especially as neither one of us knew what it was before it started. It was given by a woman from ‘Yarn’, a yarn store in Hutchinson, which is home to the state fair.

She even let us try adding a few colorful touches to the piece that we watched her make after it was rinsed and ready to be decorated. This is me giving it a try. It was very interesting to watch but I have way too many things I want to do to really want to do this myself. There aren’t enough hours in a day for me to take up another hobby!

There were some wonderful quilts, too, lots and lots of them. This is only a very small fraction of what they had on display. I’m glad I’m not a judge – I don’t see how they can decide on which ones are the best.
This one looks to be a queen or king size quilt done entirely in crazy quilting. It was amazing! BTW, I didn’t pull back the plastic to look at it but I took advantage of it to take a picture. My picture does not do this quilt justice of how amazing it is and the colors aren’t quite right either. It is spectacular! The judges thought so, too, it got a Best of Show ribbon (but not grand champion or runner up).
There wasn’t a lot of knitting or crochet either, though a lot more than the tatting. I just thought this crocheted wedding dress was so beautiful. I didn’t see a ribbon on it, but it could have been tucked in behind somewhere.

These are the State Fair dolls. They are supposed to represent a favorite part of the fair. Didn’t they have some cute ideas for these?

There are so many things I wanted to take pictures of that I didn’t! Such as the Duct tape clothing (completely out of different colored Duct tape) and the most original hand bags (made from the same pattern but using unusual mediums) but my batteries in the camera were running low. And did I bring any more? NO. Could I find any place to buy any? NO. And my grandson was coming so I had to be stingy on picture taking until I could get a few (okay, a lot) of him enjoying his first fair. Those are pictures I’ll be sharing in another post.

My tea for today’s Tatting Tea Tuesday was a nod in the direction of the cabinet I keep it in. We had several errands to run and a multitude of things that had to get done around the house today and I just didn’t take the time to fix myself any. I did get some tatting done that I’m pretty excited about, but that, too, will have to wait for another post.

May all of you have a wonderful week. Try to get in a little tatting if you can!

New Techniques Learned

Have you ever not tried something new because you just KNEW that they were going to be difficult? That’s me. There are a lot of techniques I haven’t tried because I didn’t have the time to spend on learning them – or didn’t think I did. But this weekend the time came to give a couple of them a try. Can someone just kick me now for procrastinating on these???

Thanks to Toptattyhead, aka Linda S. Davies, and soluranne, aka AnneB, for their wonderful tutorials on YouTube. I have now successfully learned split chains (Linda) and single shuttle split rings (Anne) **happy dance** I have not even tried these before because I thought they would be difficult! Man, when I tried the SSSR I really could have kicked myself on how easy it is!!

The first ring above is a normal ring and the second one is my first try at the SSSR – it looked good until I pulled it closed. The third ring is my next try and I figured out what I hadn’t done on the previous ring – and wa-la! The whole time I’m making these I’m going “Is this all it is? Really?” If you haven’t tried this yet I encourage you to check out AnneB’s tutorial and give it a try.

Linda’s tutorial on the split chain is good. She takes it slow so you can understand what she’s doing. And of course, being a video, you can go back and see it again and again until you get it. The picture shows my first attempt. The piece is just for this practice, it’s not part of anything else. I’m not saying I don’t need to practice this a bit, but I’m not afraid to use it now.

Thanks, ladies!

Update on my doily: I’ve completed the fourth round and still have two rounds to go. This has not been blocked as there is more work to be done.

It’s late summer here in Kansas, obvious everywhere by blooming wild sunflowers. These are in our yard, but can be found in ditches and fence rows everywhere this time of year. I look forward to seeing them as they are hints of the end of hot weather and the start of fall.

Another indication of the end of summer is the Kansas State Fair which starts this Friday. My sister and I plan on going. I plan to take my camera with me, so next week be prepared for a picture heavy post. I didn’t enter anything this year but I’m going to check out what others have. I also want to see the quilts, the photography, the butter sculpture and the pig races and… There is so much to see and do at the fair I know one day won’t be enough time, but I’ll get in as much as I can : )

Today I had a cup of George’s Cherry Tree Tea with my tatting before getting ready for work. As yesterday was Labor Day, a national holiday here in the states, today is the start of the work week. I love short work weeks! May all of you have a great week and fit in a little tatting if you can : )

A Busy Week

Wow, it’s been a busy week! One daughter and her son visiting for a week and a different schedule at work makes for quite a change of pace. My visiting grandson is about 21 months old and full of energy. And we had several visits with our other daughter’s son at the same time. Talk about go,go,go! Add on top of that working a different shift for three days – it plumb wore me out!

As you can imagine, I didn’t get a lot of tatting done, just one small motif from the January 1960 Workbasket magazine. I was putting away the Workbasket I just bought and picked up this one to look through. This medallion is supposed to be joined with six others to make an edging for a pillowcase.
I didn’t quite make it per the directions: instead of making the center ring then doing a cut and tie, I made the center ring and climbed out on the last picot. And I’m not really sure that it would come out correctly if you followed all of the directions. I had to refer to the drawing a couple of times and I was still a little unsure (the drawing, aka “picture” isn’t accurate, either!). This is not a hard pattern, simple rings and chains, but before I made the second round I wrote out the directions in a more modern fashion just to be sure – a person can really get lost with all those words and paragraphs! Considering I did a lot of tatting from Workbasket magazines back when I was learning it’s amazing that anything was finished! And actually came out looking like they were supposed to!

I got something fun in the mail this week. I did a little exchange with Stephanie Grace at “Tat’s What She Said”, just for fun. I suggested the butterfly from Soyloquesoy on Intatters. This is the lovely card she sent, and a few extra goodies. Didn’t she do a great job on the card? Thank you, Stephanie Grace!

I haven’t quite decided what I am going to use the paper-fold inkwell with yet, but I’ve got a vague sort of idea. Now if I can only find the time!

Today’s tea was just plain decaffeinated tea. I didn’t really have time to savor a cup today and didn’t want to waste a special tea when I couldn’t take the time to really enjoy it. Maybe next Tatting Tea Tuesday won’t be quite so rushed.

Wishing all of you a wonderful week, with maybe a little tea and tatting!

Miscellaneous Stuff on Tatting Tea Tuesday

I actually got quite a bit of tatting done this week. I had to restart my doily again – it seems to have had the wrong number of repeats : ( – and then got the second round done as well. It’s not blocked as there is a lot of work yet to be done on it, but it’s looking pretty good. Some of this was done while waiting to pick my entries up from the fair.
I forgot to take a picture of my fair entries with their ribbons. My doily and the bookmark (same pattern as this one but in different colors.) each received blue ribbons and the earrings received a red (it was in the same class as the bookmark). I was pretty happy even though there was no other competition. If nothing else this should help keep the tatting classes for another year at least. I kept the fair book to keep in mind other places that I might be able to enter next year (maybe jewelry, note cards and stationary).

While I was at my mother’s house the other day she gave this piece of tatting. It was on a doll/baby dress that her mother gave her. Mom doesn’t know who tatted it, but she knew I would like it. I haven’t decided how I’m going to display or use this piece but I would like it to be seen instead of tucked away in a drawer somewhere. It is made with small thread, looks like size 70.
On InTatters there is a thread about Innocent Design Challenge which I thought sounded like fun. I started several times: had one that looked waaayy too big. It might have been okay, but I cut off some and tried again. I don’t have a bottle to try it on, just the dimensions Kersti gave. Obviously I need to have a sample to work with as this was the next result.

This is the top of a soft drink bottle, which I am very sure is much smaller than the top of the Innocent bottle, as the dimensions given are about 2 to 2.5 inches (5 – 7 cm) diameter at the bottom of the hat and about that tall. This is about 1 inch x 1 inch (2.5 x 2.5 cm). I guess I could make that third round a little longer so the shape doesn’t cup so much and put it on the top of an egg for Easter. Or maybe I can figure out a cute look for a Christmas decoration? ; )

I was planning on having a cup of Rooibos tea today to go with my tatting. As far as I know the cup of water is still sitting in the microwave…

Tatting Tea Tuesday and Motif #10

This morning I’m enjoying a glass of iced Vanilla Rooibos tea, which I have come to like very much. It is described as “a lush and indulgent blend of rooibos, Tahitian vanilla, cinnamon, apples and peaches” (Tazo box label). Mmmm. I’m drinking my tea with my feet up -ignoring the dirty house – glad that I’m inside instead of outside. We’re currently enjoying very hot weather, but that should be no surprise, it is August in Kansas.

There has actually been a lot of tatting done this week but there’s very little to show for it. Several things have gone directly into the trash after completion, or maybe a little earlier. I was trying for some earrings – there are so many beautiful creations on others’ blogs that I just had to give it a try – but my first try was pretty ugly. First, I don’t use beads very much, and second, some days things just don’t work!! It did get a little better on my second try.

This is the only picture I have of these, because I was lazy and didn’t snap a picture until I was on my way out the door. I was on my way to enter a few things in a local county fair, including these. I had this last minute thought that I should enter some tatting that wasn’t “old fashioned”, something to show that tatting could be modern and fun. These are a long way from being as pretty as, say, any that I’ve seen so far, but I will wear them. My sister liked them, too. These are made in Lizbeth #682 Country Grape, Dk, size 20. I’m going to consider them motif #10 in my second 25 Motif Challenge.

I also made another cross bookmark in the same color based on the motif from the November 1953 Workbasket. I don’t know how I made such a mess of hiding the ends when I was done, but it is terrible! : (
Oh, well, I guess I need bookmarks, too.

Wishing you all a little time for tea and tatting.

Tatting Tea Tuesday with Tea and Tatting!

Greetings and Salutations! This has been a good week! A girl’s day out on Thursday with my sister was a load of fun. We got our nails done, went to a wonderful scrapbook store in Derby called ‘Scrappin’ Time’ (you may recall I just got back from vacation), had a relaxed lunch, visited with my daughter and her family, then went to JoAnne’s and spent lots of money! What could be more fun than that?

Then Saturday I had the evening to myself so I spent it going shopping again! Okay, didn’t spend nearly as much, and it wasn’t quite as much fun because I was by myself, but still! Went into a quilt store to drool over the material and found out they are going to be having a beginners quilt class at times I can even attend – amazing! A friend of mine had mentioned she was going to be going to this, but I hadn’t realized what the times. So we’re both signed up for it now.

Then it was on to the Salvation Army store to see if there were any good bargains to be had. And look what I found!

I’m almost positive I’ve already got a copy of this, but at $0.49 I couldn’t leave it there. It had a doily pattern and a motif pattern in it. I went home and made one of the motifs. Then I made another one. A simple pattern but nice look. These haven’t been blocked yet, but except for the clovers at the ends of the arms it lays pretty nice. I say that though the centers bowed up a little, then found out if you make the picots of the little rings longer that problem goes away.

I know this because I tried it on the third motif. When I was almost done with this one I thought “just extend one leg a little bit and it will be a cross” and it was.

The two-toned blue cross is made out of Manuela size 20 in color 019 (dark blue) and a DMC blue that I don’t have labeled. The variegated, unfinished cross is made from an unknown brand, size 30 thread that my mother gave me. I just added four more of the small rings to each side of the forth leg of the motif, and wa -la! a beautiful cross.

The second cross is for my mother as well as being made from thread she gave me. That was another thing that made it a good week: she picked up a bag of crochet thread from the senior center to give to me. I didn’t take it all because most if it was white and ecru! There were several new balls of thread, but I can’t see me ever using that much of regular crochet thread. I’ve gotten spoiled with Lizbeth and and few other types of thread that are much smoother and easier to tat with. But it was so nice of her I thought I’d make her a little something in the thread she liked the most.

I had more trouble with that thread than I’ve had in a long time! It was fuzzier than what I’m used to as well as being somewhat old – it kept breaking on me. Well, at least three times, and that’s only because I started being v-e-r-y careful when I closed rings. And then at the end I got in a hurry and cut off the threads a chain and ring early 🙁 Adding thread again for the last ring was a pain, but I was able to squeeze in the last chain with the little tail of the chain thread. Then I ran out of time. If I wanted a picture of it for this post I didn’t have time to sew in the ends. You can see what I chose to do about it.

I’m calling the original motif as #8 in my second 25 Motif Challenge, and the cross as #9.

The title says there will be tea and there was. My daughter gave me a box of Tazo vanilla tea, which I can’t remember the actual name of it. It has vanilla, of course, and a little peach and is very good. I had it on ice today. Though I was inside I saw that the outside temp was already 102 degrees (F). It made me hot just thinking about it.

Until next week, may you all have a little time for yourselves with a little tea and tatting.