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

No Wings Yet

Last week I showed you the tree-topper angel I have been working on. I didn’t think it was quite done but was looking good. I’ve worked on it a bit since, though it still has no wings.

Tree-topper angel without wings on wandasknottythoughts
Tree-topper angel without wings

I added the Jasper snowflake to the front of the skirt, which I think made it look much better. I had been thinking of something different for it, but I had a snowflake that needed a home due to an oopsy on my part.

Jasper snowflake with a problem on wandasknottythoughts
Jasper snowflake with a problem

Notice the one arm that is different than the others? That is the third arm I made and didn’t notice the mistake until I was done with the last arm. I went ahead and hid the ends and figured I’d hang it on my tree. And then the light came on with a solution to the problem. You can’t even see there is a problem with it once it was attached.

What I didn’t show in the previous post was how I made the head, which is a wine cork.

Tree topper angel cork head on wandasknottythoughts
Tree topper angel cork head

I had the body figured out easily but had been stuck about the head. What is something I had on hand that was the right dimension? I thought of buttons and beads but nothing I had looked right. Then I thought of a wine cork. I cut the back off, the part that fits in the bottleneck, cut a circle of felt, and added a bit of tatting. The tatting is stitched to the felt and the felt is attached to the cork with a thumbtack. That was all great, but I wasn’t sure how to attach that to the angel. My solution is a toothpick. The body is sturdy enough it works.

That looked good from the front, but a little bulky from the side. I did a bit of re-thinking and decided to make the head a bit thinner.

Tree-top angel with modified head on wandasknottythoughts
Tree-top angel with modified head

I’m much happier with this. It looks good on the tree.

2021 Christmas tree on wandasknottythoughts
Our Christmas tree

I did get enough Jasper snowflakes done to give to my family with the Christmas cards this year, but just barely. I keep getting distracted by other things, including trying to come up with wings for the tree-topper. I also made a scissors keeper for my sister. Which I forgot to take a picture of – she had to send me one.

Scissors keeper on wandasknottythoughts
Scissors keeper

I have made several keepers for myself and she liked the idea. This one is made in Lizbeth #122 ‘Caribbean’ in size 10. She embroiders a lot and likes that you can use the scissors without taking them off and without losing them. These scissors have a sheath that covers the points so you don’t get stabbed while wearing them.

We had our last-of-the-season family get-togethers at our house this last weekend. After cleaning up after that I can now relax and enjoy my clean, decorated house for the rest of the holidays. And remember the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas to all!

Joy to the World

Joy to The world! the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let ev’ry heart prepare him room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing

Joy to the world! the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonder wonders of His love

Getting Ready for Christmas

I had a plan, one that would have the house ready for guests and get my Christmas tatting done in time for cards and other gifts. I say ‘had’ as I’m not doing a good job of sticking with it.

We are having my side of the family over for Christmas, so some house cleaning is needed and some decorations put up. I’ve been doing a bit of both cleaning and decorating but I keep getting sidetracked, so some things are done, others not so much. But sometimes cleaning one area creates a mess in another area. It would be very helpful if I was better organized. I’ve gotten more of the outside decorations up than the inside. It helps that we’ve been having unseasonably warm weather the last several weeks, which makes it nice to be outside.

I’ve also been working on something for myself, not exactly what I need to be doing right now. Every year at Christmas I think how great it would be to tat an angel for a tree topper, and every year I haven’t done it. This year I’m doing one, but not how I expected to do it.

Tree topper angel on wandasknottythoughts
Tree topper angel

I’ve always envisioned one completely tatted, or maybe white, frilly material edged and decorated with lovely, dainty, white tatted lace. Instead, I’m working on a felt angel with red tatting in size 10 thread. Not exactly dainty or frilly.

I was playing with a piece of white felt the other day while watching TV, not really paying much attention, rolling it up and such. I found it in a cone shape and thought about how it would make a good body for an angel. Then I had to figure how to do the head and arms. I’m still trying to decide how to do the wings, and will probably do more on the skirt. I’m not sure if that will be this year or next. All of the tatting on it is in DMC #816 is size 10. It already looks good on top of the tree.

Felt angel on top of the tree on wandasknottythoughts
Felt angel on top of the tree

What I should have been doing instead of working on the angel is working on snowflakes to put in the Christmas cards. I’ve made a few but not enough, and not all of them have the ends sewn in. None of them are stiffened.

Jasper snowflake on wandasknottythoughts
Jasper snowflake

This is Jasper, a snowflake that takes less time than the Pinwheel snowflake. I am not sure, but I think I may have seen something like this elsewhere but I don’t know where. I was not looking at anything when I made this except whatever was on TV at the time. I have several finished, most in some shade of red in size 20, one in size 40, and one in size 10 threads. This last one will have to be mine as I didn’t notice a major mistake on one leg until I was on the last leg. It will look good on my tree. But I need more so they can look good in my Christmas cards! I really must get on them before it is too late.

There are less than 15 days until Christmas. Are you ready?

Christmas is coming. Keep calm and Tat on!

Goodies

It’s that time of year when I get really busy, cleaning, baking, and tatting all the things I’ve told myself I would do earlier in the year but didn’t. This year I supposedly have more time to do all this but still find I don’t, I’ve found more things to keep me busy. One thing I have taken more time to do is baking.

Having a gluten intolerance makes baking somewhat challenging. There are flours that say you can use them the same as you would wheat flour, but you don’t always get the same results as you get with wheat flour. This year, with the help of one of my granddaughters, I have already done a lot of baking, and the results have been very good!

Gluten free Pumpkin pie on wandasknottythoughts
Gluten-free Pumpkin pie

This is my first pumpkin pie with a GF flour pie crust. It looks good and it tasted wonderful! And that wasn’t just me saying it, the rest of my family liked it, too.

GF baking on wandasknottythoughts
GF baking

With help from my granddaughter, I made a pudding pie, cut out sugar cookies, and pecan cookies (this is a small sample of the cookies) as well as the pumpkin pie. I took these to a Thanksgiving dinner at my daughter’s house. I had fun baking with my granddaughter, and eating the results!

One of the problems with using GF flours is that it doesn’t have the elasticity(?)of wheat flour, as in, it doesn’t roll out as nicely as wheat flour. I was pleasantly surprised that both the pie crusts and the sugar cookies rolled out nicely, almost like regular flour!

A few days later I tried making cinnamon rolls. This recipe has you make the dough then shape it into a nine by eleven-inch form by pressing it out with your hands, not using a rolling pin. Then you add the butter, cinnamon, and sugar, and (try to) roll it up before cutting it as a normal roll and baking them. No yeast or rising time is needed with this recipe. I couldn’t get the dough to roll up for me, and they came out not looking so pretty.

GF cinnamon rolls on wandasknottythoughts
GF cinnamon rolls

I didn’t think to take a picture until after I sampled them. They just came out of the oven and smelled sooooo good! They tasted good, too. I got all of these recipes off of the Internet, and they all came out well.

One recipe I didn’t get from the Internet is for peppernuts. I used a recipe that my Mom always used but changed the flour to GF. My sister makes several batches every year but she halved it to make it easier. The original recipe called for four pounds of flour, so even a half recipe makes a lot of peppernuts. This is the first time I’ve tried them with GF flour, and I still have several ropes of the dough in the freezer yet to cut and bake. They did come out well.

Peppernuts on wandasknottythoughts
Peppernuts

When I was a kid, making peppernuts was the start of the Christmas holidays. When Mom made them it meant it was the start of baking goodies, gift shopping, and family get-togethers. When my sister and I were old enough we’d help roll the dough into the ropes and maybe get to cut them. Ours weren’t always the same thickness, so some would be a bit crunchier than others. It was fun for the first several pans, then we’d get tired and come back later as they came out of the oven to sample them. I wish I could do that now – it takes a lot of time to roll them out and cut them up. But at least I can eat some this year!

I did get tatting goodies this week too. I ordered several things from Tatting Corner from her 12 Days of Christmas sale.

Tatting goodies on wandasknottythoughts
Tatting goodies

These are my first Dreamlit shuttles, which I am eager to try. I love the way they come apart to fill the bobbin. I discovered quickly that I didn’t order enough thread when I had the chance. I only ordered a little thread and before they arrived I realized there were several other colors that I needed that I hadn’t ordered! I’ll just have to order again, won’t I?

I’ve got the autumn and Thanksgiving decorations put away now and have started putting out a few things for Christmas. I’ve got a lot of decorations but they are all in different bins and boxes that I only labeled “Christmas”, not actually what is in them. I’ll have to go through them and see if I can decide what I want to put out and what I’ll use another time.

What special things do you do for the Christmas season?

“Baking cookies is comforting, and cookies are the sweetest little bit of comfort food. They are very bite-sized and personal.” Sandra Lee

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2021 on wandasknottythoughts
Happy Thanksgiving!

It is Thanksgiving Day in the United States today. I wish all of you a wonderful day, filled with food and family.

I’m thankful for many, many things – the wonderful food that we have, all of my family, both near and far, and the multitude of physical things I have, like my house, car, and all of the threads and shuttles I have around my house.

I’m also thankful for all of you that read my blog and like my patterns. It makes me all warm and fuzzy feeling when I see all the visits to the blog and the interest that you have in my patterns. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4: 6-7

Pinwheel Snowflake Pattern

I have finished the Pinwheel Snowflake pattern! At least the first two rows. I’ll get to the third row later.

Pinwheel snowflake 2 rounds on wandasknottythoughts
Pinwheel snowflake 2 rounds

I’ve added the pattern to My Patterns page to the left. This will be easier to get now.

Thank you to everyone that has shown interest in it.

Pinwheel Snowflake

It’s that time of year again when our shuttles turn to snowflakes and other winter and Christmas things. Unless you’ve started already, which I should have. Every year I tell myself I’ll start early, maybe even in January, and every year I don’t. So I am behind and trying to hurry and get my Christmas tatting done. How do I do that? By designing another snowflake.

Pinwheel snowflake 1st version on wandasknottythoughts
Pinwheel snowflake 1st version

I started out with a ‘traditional’ center to make the finished version have six points. In the second round, I tried something a bit different. It took me a while to get from the curve with five rings to the straight chain. Several things I tried didn’t work out too well, but this solution worked pretty well.

Pinwheel snowflake version 2 on wandasknottythoughts
Pinwheel snowflake version 2

The second time I made the snowflake I thought having it in two colors would be nice. When I got to the straight chain I changed it up again, making it a spiral instead. I liked this but thought something could be done with the center. I wasn’t sure it looked finished like this, so I also added another round.

Pinwheel snowflake version 3 on wandasknottythoughts
Pinwheel snowflake version 3

On this try, I made the center slightly different but still just rings and chains. I think I made it a bit too frilly on the rings, though. The added third round gave it a whole other look. I wondered how this would look in two colors. FYI, the thread was still damp from blocking when I took this picture. The picots were dry but the tatting wasn’t.

Pinwheel snowflake version 4 on wandasknottythoughts
Pinwheel snowflake version 4

I like the center of this one with fewer picots on the rings and the different lengths of the picots on the chains. When making the spiral chains on the second round I made too many repeats, making the chains longer. I didn’t realize I’d done this until I was farther along and didn’t want to go back and fix it so I just made all of them the same. Not bad, but I like the shorter chains a bit better.

All of these snowflakes were made with Lizbeth size 20 thread. The first two are in Harvest Orange #694 (I think) with the center in Autumn Spice #136. The blue one is Country Turquoise Lt #660. The red and white are Christmas Red #671 and Snow White #601. The first two measure 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) across and the other two measure 4 3/4 inches (12 cm) across.

Looking at the pictures on the screen I’ve changed my mind, I think the first two snowflakes look finished without the last round. They look okay with the third round as well. What do you think?

“Be willing to accept help. Look at what the pinwheel can do with a little help from the wind.”

Done and Delivered

Way back in July I was working on a runner for my daughter’s birthday. It didn’t get done by her birthday, which was expected due to starting it too close to the date. And then I ran into the problem of the length of the table is longer than anticipated, which caused other issues. I have been working on it over the last few months, but part of the problem was deciding exactly was I was doing. I finally figured it out and finished it!

To make the runner longer I planned to put an insert in the center, but what that insert was going to look like I had trouble deciding. I had the edgings done for a normal rectangular runner back in July, though I never attached them because I didn’t know how I was going to end up cutting the material. I finally came up with an oval for the insert.

birthday edging pinned on wandasknottythoughts
Center edging pinned on

This picture shows the center with the edging pinned to the material, so it looks pretty wonky. You can see that it is pretty large. One of the issues of coming up with the shape was to somehow make a pattern of the size I wanted. I finally used a serving platter. Then I had to sew it, oh boy.

The center edging pattern isn’t exactly like the end pieces due to the curve. I also used size 10 for the blue (Wedgewood Dark, Lizbeth #656) in it where the end pieces I had used size 20, though the red (Terra Cotta, Lizbeth #673) and white (Natural, Lizbeth #602) were in size 10. Why I had to make all the edgings so complicated I don’t know! Simple rings and chains would have gone so much faster!

After I got the center this far I kind of stalled out. I was afraid of making a mistake with the truck material or coming up with something I couldn’t finish. My sewing skills are minimal, mostly just straight(ish) lines. The two sides were going to be attached to the curved center. What had I gotten myself into? I hemmed and hawed with this for weeks – ok, months – before just doing it. I did cut out a paper pattern first, to test out the look.

Truck runner center on wandasknottythoughts
Truck runner center

I finally sewed the two sides and figured a way to attach them to the center. I’m hoping the tatting and the cute material will distract everyone from looking too closely at the sewing, LOL!

Truck runner edgings sewn on wandasknottythoughts
Truck runner edgings sewn on

The ends were much easier! Why didn’t I keep the center edging more like this? I just have to keep changing things up!

Truck runner finished on wandasknottythoughts
Patriotic truck runner finished

This is the finished runner on my table. It turned out nice. Her table is a rectangle so the ends will hang just a little differently. This patriotic truck-themed runner birthday gift was supposed to be for July and Independence Day, now she’ll have it for next year. I had jokingly told her I might have it done for Veteran’s Day, November 11, which amazingly I did. I finished it yesterday and took it to her today so she could put it out for tomorrow.

My daughter loves it! She sent me pictures of it on her table and it looks good. I’m so happy she’s happy with it and that I was able to deliver it before Christmas. Or next July.

Tomorrow, November 11, is Veteran’s Day here in the USA. To all the veterans out there, thank you for your service.

A few facts about Veteran’s Day from History.com

Veterans Day occurs on November 11 every year in the United States in honor of the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918 that signaled the end of World War I, known as Armistice Day.

Veterans Day commemorates veterans of all wars

Great Britain, France, Australia and Canada also commemorate the veterans of World War I and World War II on or near November 11th: Canada has Remembrance Day, while Britain has Remembrance Sunday (the second Sunday of November).

Rings and Dragons

Fall has arrived here in the lower midwest, with cooler temperatures and leaves that are starting to change. I have made it through Halloween and am ready to decorate for autumn and Thanksgiving. I did have fun doing a bit of decorating for Halloween, including making a couple of costumes. There has also been tatting done, some in fall colors.

Tatted rings on wandasknottythoughts
Tatted rings

These two rings are made with the same pattern, one that I doodled. The ring with the button started as something else when I realized it wasn’t going to work, so I changed it up a bit and made a ring. Orange (this is Lizbeth #694 Harvest Orange Med) has never been one of my favorite colors to wear so I added the button. I had enough fun with it that I decided to make another ring, this time in Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice. The doily background was made a few years ago and surprised me with how well it looks with the fall colors of the rings and pumpkin. I’ve been working on a couple of other things, but that will be for another post.

The local county historical society put on a costume parade for kids and their pets the Saturday before Halloween. My granddaughter was very interested in going with their dog. Her costume for Halloween was a dragon so we decided to dress the dog as a dragon, too. My daughter suggested that we dress the dog as a sheep, which would have been much easier, but it was too late, my granddaughter wanted a dragon.

Two dragons on wandasknottythoughts
Two dragons

During the week before Halloween, my daughter and her kids went shopping with me for items to make the dog’s costume. We found pink felt and fairy wings at a second-hand store that was the basis of the costume. As we didn’t know exactly what we were going to need to make it at that time we ended up using some green felt that I already had to make part of it. My granddaughter helped me with ideas, cutting out the felt, and putting it together. Amazingly, once we put the costume on her, the dog didn’t have any issues with wearing it. I think she looked pretty cute in it.

My granddaughter’s costume had been ordered online, which consisted of a tail, wings, and a mask. The sweats that were ordered to wear with them didn’t come in, so others had to be worn. But it was a pretty bare-bones costume and the mask hurt my granddaughter’s face. These deficiencies weren’t known until way too late to do anything about it for the parade. But there was time to do a little something before going trick-or-treating the next night.

Costume changes on wandasknottythoughts
Costume changes

While we were still in town after the parade we stopped and picked up some gray felt. It took several hours but I came up with a different mask, some shoulder pieces, and even horns. The mask didn’t hurt her face like the purchased one and was not as heavy, either. The arm pieces broke up her profile without restricting her movements. She still wore the wings and tail that her mom bought, as well as a gray pullover jacket to keep warm. She seemed very happy with the end result and I think the costume was much improved. I had a lot of fun making both it and the dog’s costume.

Though I plan on putting out Thanksgiving and autumn decorations I need to get busy making things for Christmas. I’m not sure what I’ll be making for family and friends this year. I only have a few weeks left, I’d better get on it!

Have you got your Christmas tatting done yet?

“Halloween is not only about putting on a costume, but it’s about finding the imagination and costume within ourselves.” Elvis Duran

Tatting in the movies

This is my opinion. I am not compensated for anything mentioned in this post.

I was watching a Christmas movie yesterday (yes, I know it’s not Halloween yet!) and there was a dress with tatting on it!!

I was searching for something to watch so I could sit down and tat. I’m not into watching scary movies so those are out. I just wanted something kind of light-hearted, maybe with a little humor. There are a lot of Christmas movies streaming right now so I tried a couple and found them too silly so went on to another one. I found the 2015 movie “The Spirit of Christmas”. I’d never seen this one and it sounded interesting.

The movie is a little different than most Christmas movies as Christmas isn’t the center of everything. It is a romantic mystery set at Christmas time about a ghost. I was pleasantly surprised by it and my husband liked it, too. Parts of the movie take place in about 1921. And one of the characters wore a dress with tatting on it!

Tatting in "The Spirit of Christmas" movie on wandasknottythoughts
Tatting in “The Spirit of Christmas” movie

I think tatting was on the dress cuffs as well, but I’m not sure. But this is obvious! So cool!

If you are into this kind of show, I highly recommend it. Not just for the tatting.

“The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it’s as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues.”
― Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures