Category: workbasket

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!

Colonial lady applique

I have been cleaning out drawers and cabinets lately and found a lot of tatting from years ago. Some of it I shake my head at, amazed at how far I’ve come, and some I look at with a laugh at the things I tried.

I found the lady in a drawer where I put her after she had hung on the wall for awhile. She’s “Colonial Lady Applique” from Aunt Ellen’s Tatting Handbook, originally from Workbasket Vol. 19, August 1954. It’s marked as “challenging”. I knew I could tat pretty well when I completed her! I don’t remember what thread I used but I do know I worked very hard on her because I entered her in the Kansas State Fair in 1990 or ’91 (terrible I don’t remember exactly!). I actually got top blue for her that year. The one and only time I’ve entered at the state fair.

And poor Aunt Ellen’s Handbook! I have made qute a few things out of it and it shows how much I used it. It’s falling apart and has notes in the margins of the items I made. It was given to me by my “other mother”, my mother-in-law, in 1989 – I know because I made a note in the front cover. I rarely even look in it now, but it is responsible for many gifts and happy hours of tatting.