Birthday gift

I made this cross bookmark for one of my Sunday School students who’s birthday was this week.  I had planned on making it several weeks ago but that was while I was getting ready for the craft show, so it got put off.  Then there was the week before Thanksgiving trying to get some neglected cleaning done before our daughter’s family arrived for the weekend.  Then there was Thanksgiving and all the get-togethers and dinners.  Sunday morning arrived and it wasn’t done yet!
Luckily I woke early, even before the grandchildren, and was able to get started on it.  I kept making mistakes on stitch counts and joins, and then the kids got up.  Just a few more distractions while I hurried to finish it before church.  Amazingly, I did it.
This is made with Lizbeth size 20 in #641 Lilac Dark for the rings and #633 Dark Purple for the chains.  The pictures, at least on my computer, come out looking like shades of blue, but trust me, they’re purple! I’m pretty sure she’ll like it as purple is her favorite color.  
I say pretty sure because after all that hurrying to get it done, her family was out of town for the holidays so she hasn’t seen it yet. Oh, well, it’s done.  Much better to have it done and her not there that the other way around!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with several dinners and lots of family. We don’t see much of some of the families that much anymore, which is sad.  Fortunately we still try to get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas and most are able to make one or the other, and if we are lucky, both.  Hopefully some that couldn’t make it for Thanksgiving will be able to come for Christmas.
Now things have settled down a bit, at least for a few days, and I can think what I still need to make and do for Christmas.  Unlike Diane I haven’t been getting any snowflakes made.  She has made some beautiful ones this year.  I need to get motivated and make some myself.
“A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! May we all take a few minutes out of our day of family, food and football to remember what we are thankful for.

“Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.”

E.P. Powell

A little ingenuity

The craft show was last Saturday.  We didn’t do too bad, though not as good as we’d hoped.  but all in all it was a fun day.
I did run into a few issues.  I’ve done craft shows before but I wasn’t selling jewelry or anything attached to a card like I was this year.  There it was, Friday night, we’ve set up the tables and other displays in the show hall but not our sale items – we planned to put those out Saturday morning – when I realized I hadn’t planned on how to display the earrings and wine glass charms.  I had spent time attaching them to cards but hadn’t given a thought to what I was going to do with them after they were attached!
I start wandering around the house trying to think of what I had to hang them on, my mind a blank.  It was getting late and I was tired and getting a little frustrated.  I thought of putting several strands of wire in a picture frame but I would still have to prop or hold up the frame and that was the problem.  I figured I could lay out a few on the tables here and there but that wouldn’t do for all of them.  
Then I had an idea.  Do you see it?  Can you guess what it is? (I know, the picture is pretty blurry)
Does this help you see my wire cooling rack?  And an ankle weight.
I found a wire display stand, like you would use to display a book or plate on a table top, but putting anything on it tall enough to display the earrings made it topple over.  So an ankle weight around the legs and covered with a piece of cloth, then the rack wired to the front legs of the stand.  A little garland around the top, and I had an earring display stand. 
Then I had another idea. 
There on the left back – it’s a spool tree, to hold spools of thread.  I only used two sides but it did lift a few earrings up so they could be seen. 
My sister and I are talking about trying another show, maybe in the spring.  If/when we do, I’ll have taken the time to come up with a little better display idea.  But they worked for this time.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein

Variations on a charm

I have continued making charms for the craft show coming up this weekend, but I’ve also been making a few earrings.  These earrings are just a little more elaborate than the wine glass charms, but still just chains around a doodad.  With beads.  

The colors are not showing up true to life.  The four on the left are Christmas Red, Lizbeth # 671, the center two are Navy Blue, Lizbeth # 654 and the four on the right are Burgundy, Lizbeth # 672.  They are all in size 20. 
As most people seem to like silver jewelry instead of gold right now I’ve been doing most of the charms and  earrings in silver.  I have made a few things with gold centers and beads because they just look so good in them.
I’ve not been checking out too many blogs the last week or so.  I just get sucked in and go from one to another and totally loose track of time.  And I’m a bit short on time right now!  I’ve tatted a lot of the charms, now I need to put the rings on them.  And do some more earrings.  And a few other things I’m wanting to get done for the show.  Then there are a few things I can’t not do, like cook once in a while, do a little laundry, that type of thing.  The good news is I’ve taken this week off from work to get some crafting done.  I’m not sure just how much I’ll actually get done, but certainly more than if I was having to go to work. 
After the craft show is over I’ll be concentrating on getting things done for Christmas.  And  cleaning my house, which has been very much neglected.  I have thread, beads and other miscellaneous crafty things all over the place – imagine that!
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” C.S. Lewis

Charmed

At least my wine glasses are.
I’ve been doing a lot of tatting lately but not everything has come out like I’d like.  The wine glass charms are one thing that I think has come out well.   I showed them to my sister the other day when her son, who was there as well, said he thought they were pretty cool.  This surprised both his mother and I as he doesn’t usually notice such things.  
He asked if he could take a picture of them to send to his girlfriend.  Hmmm, like I had to think very hard about that one. 
I’ve made sets of them in jewel tones and autumn colors, four colors in a set.  I’m thinking these will work very well for Christmas gifts this year.  A lot of the nieces and nephews are in college, or at least that age now, and wine glasses with wine glass charms would work well as gifts, don’t you think?
They also make cute, easy earrings.  I still had some thread on my shuttle from the blue ones so made two more and put them on earring wires instead of the rings.  When I wore them to work the other day one lady said she definitely would like a pair.  I asked her what color she wanted.  

I made two sets using two different centers and let her choose.  
My sister and I are going to do a local craft show in a few weeks where I hope to sell some of these, too, both wine glass charm sets and earrings.  We thought business cards would be a good idea, in case there were any special orders.  We used to do several craft shows a year but haven’t for quite a while now.  Lately we’ve been talking about trying to do a couple of local shows, just for fun.  We can’t use the same name as we had before because we had a third person with us which fit the name, but it doesn’t now.  Do you know how hard it can be to come up with a name we both like, fits what we do/may do and isn’t already taken??
I have to thank Sharon and her Design-Tat class for the designs on our business cards.  We plan to print our own as we don’t expect to need a lot, but they needed some graphics to be more than just words.  I looked online for free graphics that would fit our name/theme and couldn’t find any I liked.  There are a lot of sewing ones out there, and a few tatting ones, but, but – not quite right.   So I made the graphics myself utilising the knowledge I learned in the Design Tat class as well as the software program that I now use for my tatting patterns   I think they came out pretty well if I do say so myself. 
One bad thing about making these are that they are very quick to tat.  How can that be a problem?   It means I’m hiding a lot of ends frequently.  I’ve taken to making the charms/earrings in batches then sewing in all the ends.  My fingers have gotten a little sore.  I’ve taken to using my little jewelry pliers to pull the needle through – very carefully.  I’ve already broken one needle. The good news is my fingers are not as sore!
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”  Oscar Wilde

Angel revisited

 Remember my angel from a couple of weeks ago?  I liked how it came out and thought I’d try making another, but hopefully learning from my experience.   It did come out slightly different than the original.

Second angel
Can you see the differences?
First angel
I hadn’t really measured the material when I made the first angel.  When I made the second angel I thought I had made it the same size, but it obviously wasn’t quite.  It made the body/gown a bit narrower.  I didn’t find that a bad thing, so I continued. 
The wings are the same, the halo the same, I used the same size beads.  I did make a few changes, though, other than the gown.  For the hem I used graduating picots to give it a more – frilly? – effect.  The neck rings have different stitch counts and the front is longer with a larger ring at the bottom. This time when I made the neck/front I attached it to the wings before attaching to the body (the front wasn’t an afterthought this time!). It worked much better and I didn’t have a twisted picot, either. 
I look at each one and like them both, sometimes one more than the other, then change my mind.  I plan on making several more but I’m not sure just which way to go on them.  Which one do you like better?  And why?  
I am working on the pattern for the angel, starting with the wings – which have stayed the same – but haven’t got it done yet.  If you’re interested. 
Speaking of angels…
My granddaughter is going to be an angel for Halloween this year.  She had to show off her costume to Grandma and Grandpa while we visited this weekend. I can’t make one that is as cute and sweet as she is! 🙂
“These things I warmly wish for you:
Someone to love, some work to do,
A bit o’ sun, a bit o’ cheer,
And a guardian angel always near.”
– Irish blessing

What to do with a bucket

A mini bucket, that is.
There is a restaurant in Wichita called “Logan’s Roadhouse” (it’s a chain restaurant) that has some of it’s desserts served in mini buckets.  I’ve collected a few but never done anything with them.  Then the other day my boss brought in a couple.  His wife didn’t think they should keep them but he thought something could be done with them.  He ended up giving them to me. 
That’s when I remembered that Boss’s Day was October 16 and I’d missed it.  So guess what I did?

Yep, I gave one of the buckets back to him.  It looked a little different than when I got it, though. 
These little buckets have the restaurant logo on them, which I had to take off.  It used to be a sticker but they paint it on now.  I took some sandpaper to it but didn’t get the whole logo off so I ended up painting over it.  I used what paint I had on hand and it needed to co-ordinate with the thread I was going to use.  Originally I had planned to use a red button in the center so I chose green paint instead of red.  After I had painted it I changed my mind.  Oh, well, it still came out looking okay. 
I used Lizbeth #638, Christmas Green in size 20.  There are two layers of tatting, the bottom/outside having silver beads.  I glued a flat-backed diamond gem in the center to brighten it up a bit.  The top looked kind of bare so I put a stand of silver ribbon around it.  I couldn’t get a bow to look good so I tatted a ring with lots of beads on it then glued it down with another, smaller, flat-backed gem in the center. 
I also added some candy to it.  It looked pretty cute and the boss liked it, so I would say it was a success. 
I have a couple other of these buckets I think I’ll do similarly.  I’m going to try to get the logo off better and use a more contrasting paint for whatever thread I use.  This didn’t take me very long to do so will make excellent small gifts with a little candy in the center.  
I met some alpacas at the store the other day….
Yes, alpacas in the store.  Odd Balls, a yarn shop in Newton, Kansas, had an event weekend and brought some alpaca into the store.  
 

Alpaca fiber is used to make yarn and is similar to wool.   They had a display set up showing some of the uses of the fiber. 
It was interesting to see the different natural colors the fiber comes in. 
I didn’t have time to stay long as I heard about it just before leaving for work.  The store does this every year, so I guess I’ll have a chance to go again next year.  I’ve done a bit of web surfing since then to learn move about them.  Here’s a link to ten fun facts about alpacas if you’d like to know more, too. 
Sounds Like a Spitting Good Time!

The trouble with Angels

I’ve been thinking for a while now about making a material angel with tatted wings.  I finally sat myself down and did it. 
I started with the wings, which would determine the size of the rest of the angel. I had two shuttles already wound with Lizbeth white size 20 thread so I could just get started with my idea for wings.  They were turning out pretty much as imagined when I noticed something a little odd.  They already looked a little dirty.
No, I had clean hands, just two colors of thread.  What I had thought were two shuttles with color #601 white, in reality were one of #601 and the other of #602 Natural.  Things were going so well and I was so far along that I decided I wouldn’t stop but keep going, so finished the wings.  
Then it was on to the body, which I made of denim from a pair of jeans.  I spent a lot of time cutting down the material to the right size and getting it shaped into the body.  For as small as this is, the denim was hard to work with.  Instead of sewing the back together I used fabric glue.  Then I had to get the neck just right so it looked good with the head bead.  Again, if I had used a lighter weight material it would have been easier.
The front tatted piece is a circle, attached to the wings in the back, which are glued to the body.  I left a twisted picot back there – I’ll have to work on that. The simple rings and chains at the bottom of the skirt are glued on, which also helps to keep the denim from fraying without a hem. The halo is a tatted ring with an outside round of chains with beads, which makes it pointed. This halo is not the first one I tried, but about the third or fourth.
The finished size of this angel is about four inches tall.  The body is stiff enough that it can stand by itself, but then the head falls off because it’s on the thread but not held tight to the body.  I think I need to find another way to keep it there, whether a knot or a touch of glue.  The wings aren’t stiffened but they might need to be.  I’ll be watching to see if they start drooping. 
Yes, I’m lazy and used glue instead of sewing the tatting on.  This is a prototype and I just wanted to get it done. I learned a lot doing this one, things to do differently next time and things to do the same.  If it was for someone besides myself I might – maybe – sew on the tatting.  Time will tell. Overall I’m happy with my angel. I’m just hoping the next one – when, if – doesn’t take so long!
I’m call this #8 of this round of the 25 Motif Challenge.  It was quite the challenge to finish.

edited 10/16/12 to mention wings were not stiffened.
“But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.” Francis Bacon

Doodads in the middle

Just a couple of motifs with a doodad in the middle
I was inspired to buy more doodads (‘links’ in the catalog) and see what I could come up with using them.  It took quite a while to look through all that is available at Fire Mountain Gems – wow, there are a lot of things you can get to make jewelry!
I’m actually thinking of making snowflakes with doodads in the center, and maybe beads, for Christmas this year.  Not sure I’d call either of these a snowflake but I think they came out okay.
This motif has a gold link in the center and gold beads I already had.  I put a ring at the top but I’m not sure if it should be for a necklace or another zipper pull. The thread is Lizbeth #652  Royal Blue in size 20. 
#6 in my 25 Motif Challenge

#7 of the 25 Motif Challenge
This one is also in Royal Blue – it was on the shuttles already – but the center link was part of a chain bought at Walmart.  I used gun-metal seed beads instead of silver.  I’m sure I like them that much but that’s what I used so I’ll have to live with it. I changed my mind mid-stream while working on this so one side is a little wonky.  I have no idea what I will do with this. 
Choosing to use beads and other jewelry findings is a bit of a challenge for me, taking me out of my comfort zone.  It’s good for me 🙂
“As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.”
Buddy Hackett
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Getting the kinks out

 of my zipper pulls. Miranda suggested leaving a space, or small false picot, between the rings.  I gave that a try and they seem to be hanging without kinks in them now, though they still twist a bit.  

I really like how this one came out.  It’s made with gold plated 6 or  8 mm beads and a dragonfly charm;
 the thread is Lizbeth # 652 Royal Blue in size 20. Without the lanyard hook at the top it measures about 2.25 inches.  The only lanyard hooks I have are silver so that’s what I used.
This one is also made with the Royal Blue thread as that’s what I had on my shuttles.  I used gun metal seed beads and a silver butterfly bead at the end. I like this one except for the ring I put around that butterfly bead: I think I should have just threaded it like a bead and tied the ends off.   This zipper pull is about 4 inches long. 
Thanks, Miranda, for the suggestion!
I have several projects going on right now – I can’t seem to concentrate on one or another.   My mantra going forward needs to be “Focus, focus, focus!”
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”
Abraham Lincoln