Quilting threads

I finally had a little time to try out some of the quilting thread I have recently acquired.  
The cross on the left is made with Perfect Quilter thread #085 Sunrays; the cross on the right is made with King Tut thread #922 Harem.  The crosses are similar but not quite the same – the Sunrays cross has slightly longer arms.  But the King Tut is definitely a bit smaller than the Perfect Quilter.  Both tatted very nicely but I like the Perfect Quilter better.  I made a mistake in both crosses and had to open a couple of rings in each.  The King Tut thread broke while trying to open the rings but I was able to open the rings of the Perfect Quilter without breaking it.  I also had to work with both threads while there was plenty of light because of the size of the threads.  Not surprising but it does limit when I can work with them. And probably what patterns I would try with them.  
I’m happy enough with both brands that I do plan on finding places to use them. I still have several colors that I haven’t worked with yet but still want to try out.
This has been a great experiment.

A couple of weeks ago I showed an edging I was working on.  I actually made two edgings to go on a garter for my niece who was married last Saturday.  (I got it done in time!)  If I had found Gina’s garter pattern before I started I would have used it instead, but I found it only after I’d started and had a plan.  I did use part of her idea for joining the top and bottom, but not quite like she did.  The reason the top and the bottom are not the same is because I ran out of time and had to come up with something a bit simpler.  I think it came out pretty well anyway.  The bride liked it 🙂
“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.”
Charles Eames
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I changed my mind

Back in July I made several motifs that I planned to put on my denim purse.

I changed my mind. 

I decided to put them on a heart instead.

Lizbeth #662 Turquoise Light size 20
This wooden heart is about 3 inches across.  I have a frame I want to put it in but I haven’t found just the right background to put it on. I’m calling this #11 of this round of my 25 Motif Challenge (I finally remembered to count it!)
So why did I change my mind?
Because I could 🙂
I’m playing with my new threads now, but I don’t have anything to show just yet.  So far I’m enjoying them a lot, which kind of surprises me as I’ve never really liked tatting with this small of thread.  Thanks Fox and IsDihara for introducing me to them!
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
Winston Churchill
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Tat and chat


Back in June I taught the basics in a tatting class to a couple of ladies from Wichita.  I’m very pleased that both have kept up with it and are enjoying it a lot.  We’ve communicated by email several times and thought it would be fun to get together again.  The timing finally worked and we met at Cheryl’s house last week.
Me, Cheryl and Erica

Cheryl has made several lovely bookmarks and is working on another; Erica is working on a gift for a friend.   I’m impressed with their tatting, they are both doing a great job!  We talked patterns, threads, techniques, and shuttles.  They each had a list of questions to ask, which I hope I was able to answer satisfactorily for them.  It was a fun visit which I’m hoping we’ll be able to do again sometime.

I hate to say it but the above photo is the only one I took (!).  I was going to take one of some of their work but got side-tracked by the conversation.  Time seemed to go by much to quickly!

Can you believe it?  I still haven’t touched any more of my new thread yet. I have yet another project with a deadline that I am hurrying to meet.  If I hadn’t gotten sick last weekend, and had a different schedule all week, I would have been able to proceed in a more relaxed manner.  But now I’m in a rush again.  And of course I couldn’t just choose an existing pattern, mine or someone else’s – no, I had to go and try something new. Again!  You’d think I’d learn, especially when there’s a deadline, but I do this to myself time and time again.  I guess I like taking the chance that it will all work out.  And in time!

Lizbeth #149 Peacock Blues size 20.

Thank you to all who wished me health this last week.  I do feel a lot better, though now it seems to have morphed into really bad allergies with just a reminder now and then that colds hang on awhile.

“I fear the boredom that comes with not learning and not taking chances.”
Robert Fulghum
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This weekend I drank tea

 Do you remember a couple of weeks ago I mentioned I had bought several colors of Perfect Quilter thread?
Isdihara mentioned that she had some King Tut quilting thread and wondered if I would be interested in a thread exchange.  I thought it was a great idea!
Just a couple of days later I got her King Tut thread in the mail, in time for the Labor Day weekend.  A three day weekend and seven new threads to try – wow!  Thank you, Isdihara!
Would you like to see everything I got done?
This is a little piece I made with the “Baja” Perfect Quilter thread, just to see how it worked up.  It was easy to work with and amazingly I didn’t have trouble with it tangling or knotting.  It tatted great!
And then…..
Yes, that was it.
I had a lot of time to tat this weekend but instead I sat around feeling miserable!  I had body aches, sore throat, and a terrible stuffy head. I had no motivation to do anything but sit around and drink hot green tea with honey.  Two days of a nasty cold.
I had such plans for the weekend – several tatting projects, some cleaning (I know, but sometimes it has to be done!) and maybe have dinner with our neighbors.  But none of that came to pass.  In fact, I haven’t been able to try out any more of the threads yet!

It is September and the sunflowers are in full bloom.  These sunflowers – between seven and eight foot tall – are in my backyard. For all that they can be a pain when they are done blooming I love to see them every year.

They are so bright and, well, sunny!  

They didn’t raise my spirits this weekend but now that I’m feeling a bit better they are.

“Tea! The panacea for everything from weariness to a cold to a murder
Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea”
Henry Fielding

Wedding gift

I got the wedding gift done, and wrapped, before I left for the wedding.
I was so proud of myself 🙂

For this gift I decorated a photo frame again, but a little differently than the one for the last wedding.  This time it’s only an edging instead of hearts and flowers.  The frame itself is one of those unfinished ones from Michael’s that I painted black. The opening is 5″x 7″.  The edging is made with Lizbeth #646 Purple Iris Lt size 20, with silver beads.  The hard part was getting it to lay nice around the opening while it was glued.  You can see it’s not quite even around the edge, but still not too bad. 
The bride’s colors were lavender and silver.  Originally the edging was going to be the #646 and #605 Silver, but I thought the silver came out just looking grey.  The silver beads added a nice touch of silver even though you can’t see them well in the picture.  The Purple Iris Lt was almost a perfect match for the bride’s choice of lavender.  
The wedding was on the beach at The Lodge of Four Seasons, an Ozark resort in Missouri.  It had been a hot day and we were a bit worried how hot it would be during the wedding, but the sun was behind the trees and the breeze was off the lake, making it quite pleasant.

My daughter and I stayed at The Lodge, too.  This is the waterfall that was in the main building.  It started on the fourth floor and exited out on the first floor.  One thing that threw us off a bit was the how they numbered the floors.  The main entrance was on the fifth floor and you went down to access the other floors.  We were on the second floor and every time we got in the elevator we had to remember to go down to our room and up to go out. 

This is the view from our balcony.  I think this resort had four swimming pools.  The water in the distance is the Lake of the Ozarks. 
It was a nice weekend though I wish my husband could have come with me.  He doesn’t have near the vacation time as I do so had to stay home and work.  He had also been sick during the week so it was kind of iffy he would have come even if he had vacation. 
I think I finally have time to try out my Perfect Quilter thread.  At least if I hurry I do. I have a least one more wedding coming up in September.  Not sure what I’m doing for that one.
“To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.”
Ogden Nash
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I’ve been tatting – but it’s not done yet!

I have been tatting – a gift for a niece’s wedding.
That’s this coming weekend.
And it’s not done yet!
Okay, that’s not really a big surprise.  I always seem to wait to start something and then the date I need it done is suddenly upon us.  You’d think I’d learn but I haven’t yet.
The good news is it really is almost done.  Sunday I did almost nothing else and made a lot of progress.  The bad news is I don’t foresee a lot of tatting time open this week.  I guess if I want it done I’ll find time somewhere!
How many of you read Fox’s post about her excitement with Perfect Quilter thread?
And how many of you jumped right over there where her link took you and bought some?
I did.

I haven’t been tatting in small thread lately so I only bought four colors and I haven’t had time to even try any of them out yet!  But I have these by my chair to entice and encourage me to get this gift done.
Set goals.

A little repair work

A little over two years ago I made Jane E’s stork for my daughter’s baby shower gift, putting it on a photo album. My daughter was kind of mad at her husband soon after because he took the album to work to show off the pictures of his new daughter and got the cover dirty. 
Sometime after that her son got hold of it and did some modifications. I don’t think he was being malicious but scissors and string were too much for a two year-old to resist, especially when Momma was with the new sister.
She finally gave it back to me and I finally got around to doing some repairs.
As damage goes, this wasn’t that bad.  The sling and baby are done separately from the stork itself so the repair wasn’t too intensive. 
Pretty much as good as new!  Still has a few fingerprints on it, but that shows it was passed around a bit, right?
Didn’t get much tatting done this week as we did some house cleaning and then had family over for the weekend.  That, of course(!), was much more fun.
My two superheroes! 
No, I didn’t ask them to pose like that, that was all their idea. They had each got new PJ’s that came with capes and had to show us their hero stance.
Yes, that’s the little girl the baby shower was for two years ago and that’s the big brother. Oh, how time flies!
“I mean, first of all, let me say whichever superhero first came up with the idea of wearing a cape, he wasn’t really onto anything good.  The number of times I’m treading on that damn thing or I throw a punch and it ends up covering my whole head. It’s really not practical.”
Christian Bale
(Batman)
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Shuttlebirds’ challenges

I finally got the heart right for the Shuttlebird’s Weekly Challenge #12.
Nancy Tracy’s ‘Clover Drop Heart’ pattern. 
I still had the shuttles wound with Lizbeth #117 Country Side size 20 so I went ahead and made it with this – again.  This time I got the chains right!
It’s a very pretty heart. 

I had never tried making him before and I very much enjoyed the experience.  He’s quick and easy to make and looks so darn cute!  He also doesn’t take a lot of thread so I believe I’ll be making quite a few more as I need to empty shuttles.  This flight of Microdragons are made in Lizbeth #679 Lime Green, #614 Lemon Light and #695 Bright Orange, all in size 20. 
Oh, yeah, I’m adding these Microdragons to my 25 Motif challenge.  I think this is #10 in this go-round.
Water, water every where…
There has been more rain here and more is expected.  We’ve had water standing in our yard for several days now because of it. We also have to be very careful when we leave or come home due to water over the roads.  It is hard to believe it’s August. Everything is sooo green! Usually this time of year things are pretty brown and dry.  As we don’t water our lawn we usually only have to mow every couple of weeks this time of year.  This year the grass (and weeds!) have kept growing, begging for us to mow much more frequently.  The problem is the water standing in the yard.
At least the lakes, ponds and aquifers are filling back up.
“Weather is a great metaphor for life – sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and there’s nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella.”
Terri Guilemets

Little things

Adding tatting to buttons for brooches has really caught my imagination lately.  I pull out different threads to compare which ones look the best with the different buttons and dream about what I’m going to do with each one. 
I guess there are worse things to think about. 
This is the latest button.  On which I used another button as well as some tatting in Lizbeth Mocha Brown Dark #692 and Harvest Orange Med #694, both size 20.  It does have a pin back on it as well. Now I just need the right color blouse or dress to wear it on.  Or maybe a hat, or my purse…
I saw a neat idea over at Sew Many Ways awhile back that came to mind the other day.  I had a few of these clips handy and thought I’d give it a try.

They came out kinda cute, don’t you think?  I suppose they could be used for paper like they are intended as well.
A Soggy Tatting Tea Tuesday
It rained yesterday.  
One of the barn swallows that has made a house on the side of our house was out enjoying it.  It was raining pretty heavy and he was out taking a bath.  The post on our (decorative) hand pump is a favorite perch for the swallows all the time, even in the rain.

It rained yesterday.
This was later in the evening.

Did I mention it rained yesterday?
This is a picture the neighbor sent us looking out his front door to our back door.  Those lighter stripes there are his driveway.
No, we don’t live in the flood plain of a creek or pond or lake.  We actually live on somewhat high ground – for the neighborhood.  
We were very nervous about the water getting into the house but it didn’t. It came up to the thresh holds of the doors but didn’t come in. 
The roads flooded as well.  We had to take a detour to get home after work because of water over the roads.  We thought we might have to wait awhile for the water to go down but the road we detoured to had only about an inch running over it, so we chanced it (after walking it to verify depth and speed) and made it home okay.  This morning instead of tatting or blogging we drove around to see how much the water had gone down and if the roads were passable. They were.
We are still in a flood watch until Thursday morning though.  It rained so hard farther north that the creeks and rivers close to us could still come up in the next few days. 
Did I mention that it rained yesterday?

Gifting ideas

I liked how the photo albums from last week came out so well that I did another one.  This time using ‘Joy’s Heart’ in Lizbeth #159 Easter Eggs size 20. With flowers and butterfly in random colors.

I think these albums are great gift ideas – inexpensive to buy the album and quick to decorate to match the person you are gifting or just to have on hand for “emergency” gifting. The hardest part was actually finding the background paper to match the thread colors. This one has a white background with dabs of green ink.

Remember the buttons I decorated a while back? These are something else that would make nice gifts, for certain people anyway. When Odd Balls Yarn Shop was closing they had quite the sale and I picked up a bunch of buttons before they were gone.  For some reason I really like the idea of adding tatting and pin backs to these.  Some of the buttons are in kind of odd colors, making them a bit harder to match threads to.  This one is black so not that hard. I don’t know if you can see the texture marks on the button in the photo or not.

The dragonfly is in Lizbeth #131 Vineyard Harvest size 20.  One of the photo albums that I used had a drawing of flowers and a dragonfly on it originally which inspired me to make a small dragonfly. I just looked at the picture and came up with the pattern but I’m sure I’ve seen it out there, or something very close.

Has anyone out there been doing any of the Shuttlebirds’ Weekly Challenges?  I’ve done a couple, including #11 which was “Morgan Mouse”.  #12 is Nancy Tracy’s “Clover Drop Heart” which is a cute little pattern and not very complicated.  I thought it would look good on a photo album.

And I goofed it.

I made one chain a little too short.
This is what happens when you don’t pay attention.
It’s done in Lizbeth #117 Country Side size 20.
I guess I’ll try it again – hopefully paying a little bit more attention the next time.

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson