Old UFO found

While looking for something else (I can’t remember what) I found some tatting I started several years ago. Okay, it looks like I started and pretty much finished, too, except for tying off the last ends and clipping all the tails I left. They’re obviously edgings and at least five years old – I have no idea what I made them for. They are not very long, about 9 inches when blocked like this, and 3 1/4 inches wide. I’m sure it’s DMC size 30 ecru as I used to do a lot of tatting in it and is one of my patterns. I used to make a lot of cloth runners with tatting at the ends but they were usually at least 12 inches wide but I suppose they could be for that. Maybe for two small wall hangings?
I’m not sure what they were for originally but I’m sure I can figure out something to do with them. A UFO (UnFinished Object) that is actually finished – how cool is that?
While surfing the web the other day I found a darling little purse idea. Over at MeiJo’s Joy she has a tutorial for making the cutest little pop-open purse. It really caught my eye because of the shape of the pieces the purse is made of – they’re shuttle-shaped! And she did such a cute job of decorating it. I keep thinking it would be so cute to hold shuttles.
Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I enjoyed a cup (or two) of Apple Spice tea, very yummy. And I actually got a little tatting in!
‘Be who you are and say what you feel…
Because those that matter… don’t mind…
And those that mind… don’t matter.’

Glad I don’t live in Oklahoma

You’ve probably heard by now that Oklahoma had a 5.6 earthquake Saturday night. Did you know they had a 4.7 Saturday morning? And a 4.0 Sunday morning? Then they had another 4.7 last night. They’ve also had about 25 smaller ones, probably aftershocks, in between. I didn’t feel the first ones, but last night at work I heard the last one. It made the metal stairs beside my office rock and knock against my (inside) window. I thought someone was trying to be funny and scare me as the stairs are behind me right outside my office (inside the factory). I didn’t see anyone and just thought “funny, ha ha” until a few minutes later I was being asked if I felt the earthquake.
I wasn’t thinking of earthquakes at the time but stormy weather. We were having heavy rain and thunder but Oklahoma was having it worse, including tornadoes, hail and flooding.
Yep, that’s right. They were having tornadoes and earthquakes the same night.
I’m glad I don’t live in Oklahoma right now! I haven’t heard of people being hurt in all this so I hope everyone in Oklahoma is okay.
This morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m having a cup of
coffee 🙂 This time change is a pain. Okay, so we fall back and gain an hour. Someone tell my internal clock that it’s now 7:00 AM instead of 8:00 AM!
Today I’m sharing this handkerchief that my mother gave me. It is from her aunt, though I don’t know that my great-aunt tatted it. The hen and chicks edging was made first then sewn on, easily seen as several picots have come loose from the edge. The outside picots were curled a bit, as usually happens, so I pinned them out, though I didn’t take the time to iron the hanky itself.
I’m thinking of how best to display this and several other tatted pieces I have from other family members. Maybe a shadow box?

“There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control. ” Leo F. Buscaglia

Autumn is here

We had a hard frost this week. One morning we went outside and the yards and sidewalks were covered in leaves that had fallen, a golden blanket instead of shadows under the trees. I wish I could have captured it all: the bright blue sky, the crispness in the air, the colors all around. What a treasure this would be, to take out and enjoy during the cold days of winter or the hot days of summer. But, alas, this it not something you can bottle, or even capture completely in a picture. Like love and butterflies it is best enjoyed in the moment, without expectation, savoring whatever time it shares with you.

We didn’t expect to have pretty tree colors this fall due to the extremely hot and dry weather we experienced this summer, but I have been pleasantly surprised by as much color as we’ve had. Many trees are past the pretty stage by now, and sadly I haven’t taken the time to capture much with my camera. Some days I hardly notice what’s going on outside until we step out to go to work, which doesn’t leave much time to enjoy it.
I have gotten enough into enjoying the season to tat a few of theses leaves in autumn colors. They are Maple Leaf Motif from the February 1975 Workbasket magazine, with changes by Tammy Rodgers. One is made with Lizbeth #169 Autumn Apple Pie and #670 Victorian Red, both in size 40; the other is in Victorian Red only, still in size 40. I’m planning on making one more in Autumn Apple Pie only, too. I think they will make a nice set.
On the way home from work the other day I was able to watch the sunset, which doesn’t happen that often as I usually work second shift. The sky was amazing. I finally stopped and took this picture with my phone, though I really, really wished I had my camera. The temperatures and winds way up high must have been perfect for making contrails, they were all over, going every which way and staying visible for quite some time. I can’t ever remember seeing to many at one time. The sunset was awesome. By the time I got home is was getting too dark and I would have had to drive a bit to get a good view. But it was great while it lasted.
“Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf’s a flower”
Albert Camus

And the winner is…


It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for,
the announcement of the winner of my blogaversary.
Using a random number generator

the winner is…..
Margaret of Margarets Designer Cards!
Congratulations, Margaret!
Margaret, please email at wandasknottythoughts [at] gmail dot com with your mailing address so we can arrange for sending the package.
Thank you very much to all who entered. I enjoyed reading your comments and I really appreciate all of you who entered. It has been a fun three years. I’ve met some wonderful people through this blog, most on-line but a few even in person. Thank you all for letting me share a little of my life with you.

“It is not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.”
Addison Walker

Doily Finished! And my giveaway

My Yes-U-Can doily is finished.
This has been a fun challenge, though I rushed through it. Looking over it now that it is complete I see several things I would need to do differently when/if I do this doily again. In the center ring I’d make the joining picots smaller, as well as the joining picots in the second round (open thread round). If those picots were smaller the third round of individual motifs would still need a little adjustment to keep them from being so stretched looking, but probably not as much as they need the way it is. I’m thinking another couple of stitches in the chains would help. The last round, even with the adjustments in the previous rounds, wouldn’t need to be tweaked much if any. Of course, it would be nice if I kept the picot count the same in each repeat on this round. I didn’t notice until I was blocking it that some of the chains have seven picots instead of the five they are supposed to have. I knew I had caught myself doing this but hadn’t realized I had missed fixing some – and so many! But I’m not changing it now. I have too many other things to do. I’ll just take some notes along with stitch counts and try to do better the next time.
Even though it has a lot of issues this doily was certainly a challenge, so I’m calling it #23 of my 25 motif challenge. #23? Oh, my, I didn’t realize I was so close to 25.
As I’ve been saying for the last several weeks, my blogaversary is next week. If you comment on this post you will be entered into the drawing. I do have several things picked out for the package but it’s not complete yet (I’m not telling, it’s a surprise!). I’ll announce the winner on my Tatting Tea Tuesday post October 25th, so comments need to be made before 8:00 AM CST (USA) the 25th to be included.
Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m having a cup of hot apple cider, mmmm. We’ve had very fall-like weather here in Kansas the last several days, and what’s more fall-like than apple cider? I had bought the jug for a dinner this last weekend then forgot to take it with me, so I’ll have to drink the whole thing by myself (my husband doesn’t like it). Such a hardship! *grin*
“Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s okay to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.”

While on vacation in Buena Vista, Colorado, I stopped into a shop called Bev’s Stitchery. It has a lot of quilting things in it, but also threads and patterns and such for crochet, knitting and tatting (even a couple of colors of Lizbeth thread). She didn’t have a lot of tatting books, but she had this one, which I didn’t have (but do now) by Karen Lindsay. What really caught my eye was the witch. I’m not going to have time to try it this year, but Halloween comes every year so I’ll have another chance later. I don’t have any of her other books and haven’t tried any of these patterns yet. She has them diagrammed and written out. There are several cute patterns in here beside the witch that I would like to try and their seasons are coming. This find, as well as the shop I found it in, was a nice surprise.
Over at InTatters they have a challenge going on with the “Yes-U
-Can” doily. The challenge is to tat the doily that is stamped on a can lid with nothing else to go by. A nice challenge, and I’m sure that there will be as many different patterns tatted as their are people who try it, each person with their own vision of it. I decided to try – though I really don’t have time. Mine is done in brown #692 and gold #611 Lizbeth thread, size 20. I’ve made several miscalculations that I didn’t go back and fix, and it’s not as neat as I would like *blushes in embarrassment*. But I’m doing this instead of several other things that have a time limit (the challenge doesn’t) so it will be what it is. I can go back and do it again the right way another time.
This is day 7 (I think) and the first picture I’ve taken

of it. Once I got started it was kind of hard to put it down. This was blocked a little after the fourth round of individual motifs and then stuck in my bag as I took it with me everywhere. I think the count is close but after the final blocking I’ll look it over and evaluate it for that type of thing for when I want to make it again.
(I’m taking a page out of Diane’s book, using my computer as a background. I didn’t have anything else handy that showed it off very well.)
I’m drinking a cup of Refresh mint tea for this morning’s Tatting Tea Tuesday. As soon as I get a few minutes I’ll be back at the doily – though my mind will be working on some of my other projects:)
I’ll be having a giveaway for my blogaversary this month. If your interested check back next week to find out more about it.
“Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.” Will Rogers

Feel like giving


While on vacation I did do just a little more tatting than mentioned before: I made a bookmark for one of the friends that we went with. She likes pink (a lot) and I happened to have some pink and teal thread with me, so made up a quick bookmark for her.

A very quick bookmark as most of it won’t be seen. Yes, I made it for her Nook. Every book should have a bookmark, shouldn’t it? (Her husband didn’t get it at all). It fits behind the Nook in the case and stays quite nicely. She and I are happy with it no matter how silly it may seem.

I only took a few stitches while we were here – above 12,000 feet it was windy and quite chilly. This is the divide at Tincup pass. You have to take at least a four-wheel drive vehicle (motorcycles can make it, too, and ATVs) to get there. We made it up there on Friday, by way of St. Elmo. We had attempted to get to this pass on Thursday by way of the town of Tincup and Mirror Lake, but we got late a start. We didn’t want to try to get there – or down – in the dark!

This is the road to Tincup pass as it goes around Mirror Lake. You can see my husband concentrating in the rear view mirror. We were told that the road to the pass from here was like this or worse all the way. We aren’t that experienced with four-wheeling, so turned back while it was still daylight. (Note: we were told by an experienced person we met there that by Jeep it was 90 minutes to the pass from the lake, 30 minutes by ATV and 20 minutes by motorcycle.) Going up the other side from St. Elmo had some stretches that looked like this (or worse) but not as much of it. If we make it that way again we’re going to try to rent ATVs instead of a Jeep.
This Sunday at Church was LWML Sunday (Lutheran Women’s Missionary League). On this Sunday the women of the congregation do most of the jobs the men usually do, such as pass out bulletins, light the candles, do the collection. The ladies also sang the closing hymn as a choir. This is done once a year, as a way to let the rest of the congregation see what all the League has been doing. They collect sewing kits and school kits to be delivered to other countries, donate to the food bank, serve at fundraising dinners in the community, that type of thing. They also meet at least twice a month to work on quilts.
The quilts are tied quilts and not real fancy, but a lot of love goes into these (and they are very pleasing to the eye). They are displayed on the pews on LWML Sunday and then boxed up to be taken to Lutheran World Relief and Orphan Grain Train. Unfortunately, I don’t make it to the quilting days very often, though I would like to. We have a small church and there are only a few women that do this regularly. As you can see, even though they are few they do a lot of work. There is something like 40 quilts they’ve made to donate this year.
Seeing all those wonderful quilts to be given away, and also seeing the post over at Umi & Tsuru, I’ve gotten into a giving mood. So I’m going to pay it forward as well. The first three people to comment on this post will each receive a handmade gift from me. [I don’t promise how soon I’ll get it out 🙂 ]
As I sip my Wild Berry Zinger tea this morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday, I realize that it’s October again, which means my blogaversary is coming up. I think I’ll have a drawing for that in a week or so – after I think up what I’m going to do for it 🙂
“The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation” Corrie Ten Boom

Vacation tatting

We had a little change in scenery last week – a whole week in the Colorado mountains. I took advantage of the beautiful weather to tat outside last Tatting Tea Tuesday. Here I’m enjoying a glass of grape/peach juice while tatting on the porch of the cabin we lived in for a week at Rainbow Lake Resort, a few miles west of Buena Vista, Colorado, on the road to Cottonwood Pass. The cabins over look a lake surrounded by mountains covered in pine and aspen. The trees were turning while we were there, every day bringing new fall color to our temporary home.
I was pretty busy enjoying the novelty of being in the mountains but still managed to tat a bit. The white piece was actually made while my husband drove us out here. It’s made with Lizbeth size 10 in 602 Natural (almost white) with red glass beads. It was just to be tatting as I was too busy thinking about where we were going to have much thought of what I was tatting. The other piece is Lizbeth size 20 in 122 Caribbean and 658 Ocean Turquoise Light with red glass beads. I was practicing looped tatted rings through the beads, which I think I have the hang of, at least for now.
But most of the time we were busy enjoying the change of scenery. This is my husband and I enjoying the view on our way up to Saint Elmo.
This is an easy part of Lost Canyon Road. We rented a Jeep to go up this road, which got a bit rougher higher up.
These beautiful trees are a short walk up the creek from our cabin. I took this about 7:00 AM on my morning walk while everyone else in the cabin was still sleeping.
Looking west over Rainbow Lake at sunset. We had a whole week of this.
Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m enjoying a cup of Country Peach tea and looking over pictures from last week, trying to decide which pictures to share – there are so many! It was very hard to come home! The weather was great, and the company was better. We shared a cabin with some old friends of ours and had the most wonderful time. We’re all looking forward to another vacation together.
“If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation.”

Seen at the fair

I thought I’d show you the other tatting that was entered into the fair. These all competed against each other (and me!) as there was only one tatting category.
The snowman won first and the larger snowflake won second. My doily (from last week’s post) won third. The Christmas-colored doily that hung below mine didn’t win anything, but it was make by the same person who made the snowman, and you can only win one ribbon per category.
I thought this was a lovely display. Isn’t this a great idea for showing off your tatting?
This was actually entered as Heirloom Embroidery, not tatting, but check out how she added joined the panels together. Wow!
This is a Bobbin Lace bookmark, made by a woman that also entered tatting. Isn’t it beautiful? The other one is machine embroidery, and looks great, too. I don’t know how the judges make their decisions!
This is a Halloween quilt that took second place in that category. I didn’t compete against these, but I thought they were wonderful. My pictures don’t do them justice.
This one took champion in the holiday quilt category. It certainly is spectacular.
Congratulations to all the people to enter their pieces at the fair. Keep up the great work.
And to all the people out there who tat – think about entering something next year! I know you’re out there. We’ve got to keep the category alive!
“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.”
Sven Goran Eriksson

Fair Results

I made it to the fair yesterday, but by the time I got home I was just too tired to do much but go to bed. So the pictures had to wait until today.
This is what I came up with for a Christmas decoration. I didn’t expect it to win anything and it didn’t. I wanted to enter as much tatting as possible, and that I had time to make. It’s not quite what I planned to do, but it’s what got done. You can see the picture that won champion in the same class, Christmas decoration.
As you can see, my doily took third place. When it was shown at the Harvey County fair it was laying down, so the way I mounted it was fine. At the state fair they hung it on the wall and the center sagged a bit. I’ve learned a lesson for next year! Below my doily is a red, white and green doily. It’s hard to tell with it mounted that way, but it looked pretty good to me.
These are the entries that competed with my spider and web. This was Holiday decoration, and you could enter one per holiday. It looks like all holidays compete against each other, not each holiday by itself.
And, yes, it got a blue ribbon! I was pleasantly surprised. I knew it would be competing against a variety of media, and didn’t know if the judges would like the tatting or not.
Next week I’ll show some of the other tatting that was entered.
“If you wait to do everything until you’re sure it’s right, you’ll probably never do much of anything.”
Win Borden