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)
www.branyquote.com

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

Photo albums

Our stay at a cabin over the Independence Day weekend inspired me to tat Jane’s Norman Rooster pattern.   Why is that, you ask?   The cabin’s designation is the “Rooster”. 
Norman was Jane’s TIAS for 2010, which I started but didn’t finish (I don’t remember why now).  I’d always planned to complete Norman and now I have.  I thought he would make a cute photo album cover of pictures from our holiday. So today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m putting the finishing touches on it while drinking an iced glass of Crystal Light Raspberry Green Tea .
Jane Eborall’s Norman Rooster pattern
Tatted by Wanda Salmans
Other than Christmas Red for the comb and beard I can’t remember right now the colors I used to make him though they are all Lizbeth in size 20.  I know that I wasn’t too happy with the color I chose for the tail while I was making it but finished it anyway.  I’m glad I did, it looks okay.  I thought he looked a little lonely on the cover so I added a butterfly and some flowers made while finishing off thread from a couple of shuttles.  
I had a terrible time finding paper to put him on.  I don’t have a huge selection of scrapbook paper but I have some – and it is never what I want (they all looked great at the store, though).  So I had to doctor up what I had to make it work.  I don’t know that it’s great but it works. 
Morgan Mouse on a 6-point finding
Designed and tatted by Wanda Salmans
While I was at it I went ahead and did one with a pink Morgan Mouse. All threads used are Lizbeth size 20 in various colors – again emptying shuttles. (I have a bunch of butterflies and flowers from doing this. They come in handy sometimes.)
Speaking of mice…
Last night when I got home from work I took off my shoes and sat down in my chair to watch a little TV.  Our cat was under my chair and kept reaching a paw under my feet (they were kind of tented together, not flat on the floor) and tickling me.  Of course I told her to quit and she moved around to the other side of the footstool and kept looking at my feet.  I finally noticed there was something under my feet, moved them to see what it was
and
a 
mouse ran out.
Yes, a real, live, grey mouse.
It wasn’t moving too fast and stopped on the other side of the footstool – I don’t know if I squished it a bit or whether it was just stunned by the smell of my stocking feet.  The cat watched it intently but didn’t jump on it as it was just kind of laying there and not running.  My brave, thoughtful husband picked it up by the tail and took it outside to dispose of in some manner – far away from the house I assume.  The cat was somewhat disappointed.
We live in the country right beside a wheat field – excuse me, the wheat is cut and they have planted soybeans now – so we are not unfamiliar with mice, but this is not a normal experience. 
I would have preferred Morgan Mouse under my feet.
In any color.
“Never play cat and mouse games if you’re the mouse.”
Don Addis quotes

More mice

I had to make more mice this weekend due to a few requests.  From the grandkids, so how could I refuse?
We went on a vacation with our daughters and their families this holiday weekend. There were four children ages two to six with us.  I was sitting on the porch of the cabin with my tatting when they came by to see what I was doing.  They saw the two mice I had in my case and immediately started deciding between them who would get them and wasn’t I going to make more?  As I didn’t expect to get much tatting done during the weekend I didn’t bring a large choice of thread. In fact I only brought two balls of thread, Lizbeth #644 Boysenberry Dark and # 662 Turquoise Light, both in size 20.  I also didn’t bring the black beads I use for eyes and nose.   
That didn’t stop me.  I had a partially loaded shuttle of another color thread that had clear beads strung on it so the mice would have light colored eyes and noses.  I did, fortunately, have enough findings with me to make the required number of mice.  With the blue mouse I had already made (in Lizbeth #652) that was specially requested by one of the grandsons I just needed to make three mice.  I made two in the Boysenberry Dark and and one in the Turquoise Light.  
On Sunday, after lunch but before we went our separate ways, I let the kids choose which mouse they wanted.  One of the grandsons wasn’t very happy with the color choices – none of them were red.  So I promised him I make him one in red and send it to him. 

Here’s the red mouse I made for him (Lizbeth #671, size 20).  Of course at home I had the black beads so it has the dark eyes and nose.  I’ll be sending it off in the mail today or tomorrow. 
This snail is Nancy Tracy’s pattern made in Lizbeth #601 snow white in size 20. I have made this before but I thought I would make it again for the Shuttlebirds Tatting Challenge.  This was tatted on the drive to the cabin.  It’s in white as I had a little bit of this thread still on a shuttle.  
Every morning this weekend (Friday, Saturday & Sunday) I was the first one out of bed, which gave me a quiet time to tat while enjoying the beautiful view from one of the porches.  I got a surprising amount of tatting done this way.  These motifs are what I had planned on making if I had time, which dictated the choice of colors I had brought.  They are to go on a denim purse I want to add tatting to.  They are made in the Turquoise Light with 6-point findings.  The shape and pattern is pretty much the same as for the mouse with a reduced stitch count for the rings, 3+3 and 2-2-2-2 for the chains.  I’m planning on gluing them to my purse (I’m lazy and don’t want to try stitching them on).

We spent this vacation at a small retreat in southeast Nebraska called Dana Farms at Mayberry.  The entire family had a wonderful time.  Not once did I hear any of the kids (adult kids or grandkids) say they wanted to go home.  The pond (Lake Suzanne) was stocked so every time we went fishing fish were caught, which really helped the grandkids have a good time.  The owners were great and the cabin was absolutely wonderful.  If anyone needs a nice, quiet place to get away and you’re in that area I highly recommend Dana Farms.  You can find out more about it at http://cabins4fun.com/
(This is my own endorsement made without compensation. We just had a great time there!!)  

We all hated to see the end of the vacation.  It was very hard to go back to work on Monday, too. 
“There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.”
Washington Irving

Happy 4th of July!

It’s Independence Day!
My mother had a few patriotic things out for decoration but I couldn’t make up my mind which to use today so I put them all out!
The pin on the hat I made for my dad a couple of years ago.  The bookmark is new.

Made in Lizbeth size 20 in 
Red, White and Blue!
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming;
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
O say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On that shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam–
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream;
‘Tis the Star-Spangled Banner; O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

The Star Spangled Banner
by Francis Scott Key

Tatting in the center

I went to a nephew’s wedding this weekend in North Platte, Nebraska.  When planning the trip I decided I didn’t have to drive interstate all the way, there are other roads to get to where I needed to go.  Some of the highways I took were two lane (instead of four) but well surfaced, and had a lot less traffic.  Okay, I had to slow down for combines a few times but mostly the roads had few cars or other traffic.  The weather was mild for this time of year making the trip both ways very enjoyable. 
On the way back I took a short side trip to see the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states. 

This is the roadside historical marker that is on US highway 36.
I had seen this on my way to the wedding but stopped on the way home as the timing was better. 
 There’s not much there.  This has a plaque with the longitude and latitude on it.
There is a tiny, tiny chapel and a covered area with picnic tables and a couple of trash cans.  That’s about it.
 The road to get there (looking east from the site). There is a house at the end of that driveway, otherwise just pastures and fields all around.  This road ends at the site though two dirt roads go off north and south. 
Yes, I was tatting in the center – of the United States.
The wedding gift
I had asked the bride what their wedding colors were, she said ‘green, black and white’.  Black and white were easy but there are a lot of shades of green.  Instead of asking what shade I took a wild guess and chose Lizbeth #684 Leaf Green Med and of course white #601 to make the hearts.  There are a few flowers  on there in #613 Golden Yellow Med and #696 Autumn Orange Med, thrown in for contrast.  The leaves are in #138 Leafy Greens. The hearts are Joy’s Heart (on my pattern tab), and the butterfly is Monica Mancenido’s pattern (aka soyloquesoy on Intatters).  All are made in size 20.

My daughter and granddaughter also came to the wedding., her husband and son having a “guys” weekend at home (my husband had to work). We roomed together in North Platte for two nights, which was great. I had even finished the present two days earlier (amazing!) so I wasn’t even rushing to get that done but could relax and enjoy the time with the family.  It was a great weekend.

“Everywhere’s been where it is ever since it was first put there.  It’s called geography.”
Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

A mouse and the moon

A few weeks ago when I posted about a new bookmark I had made the moderator at the 25 Motif Challenge made a comment about the abbreviated version of it, “Does anyone else see a mouse here?”

Another look at the picture I had taken and, sure enough, it looked like a mouse.  I hadn’t even noticed that when I took it.  Then I thought “some eyes, some whiskers, maybe a little nose – it wouldn’t take much to make a mouse.”

After a little tweeking and a few beads, it did.

Introducing Morgan Mouse!

Morgan Mouse © Wanda Salmans 2013

Morgan is made in Lizbeth #131 Vineyard Harvest and #644 Boysenberry Dk, size 20, with three 11/0 black glass beads.  The center is an 8-point finding (doodad) that is about .5 inches (1.27 cm) across.  A flat-backed “diamond” is glued to the center of the doodad.  For anyone that might be interested in the pattern it has been posted to the Pattern tab.

Any of you check out the full moon this weekend?  Did you know it was a “supermoon”?  This weekend the moon passed as close to the earth as it will ever be this year, making the moon look bigger and brighter.  It was very beautiful!

Supermoon Rises Over Chesapeake Bay Beach

People have taken some great pictures of it (not me).  Check out a few of them at http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/24/world/ireport-supermoon-creative-photos
It was so bright that, along with dry conditions, a lot of people worked into the early morning hours harvesting wheat, at least they did around here.  We saw one crew still out at midnight in a field cutting.   We just enjoyed how beautiful the night was ☺
Hickory Dickory Dock
Two mice ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The other escaped with minor injuries.
Check out more verses and alternates here