It’s Never Too Early

For making snowflakes for Christmas anyway. In fact, I might not have gotten started early enough. And this year I’m doing – or at least starting with – something different. Or you could say the same… I make snowflakes to go into Christmas cards every year and usually try to come up with at least one new one every year. That may happen yet, but I’ve started this year with some old patterns but am adding beads to them.

I’m using clear glass beads, trying for a crystalline look, or at least a hint of it. This picture really doesn’t do the snowflake justice; it looks better in person.

I worked on these two Saturday while we drove (I did not tat and drive, I let my husband do the driving) to and from a family reunion a few hours away from our home. Beads and all! I usually don’t try to work with beads in the car due to the trouble of not loosing the beads, but thought I’d give it a shot this time. Amazingly, I only lost a few beads and had very little trouble.

I did a little TIPping (Tatting In Public) this week as well. On my way to my office a few days ago I stopped to talk to a friend of mine and show her my current project. As it was in process the shuttles were still attached. A person standing close by saw them and started asking some questions; then another person. So I demonstrated a split ring for them, as that was the next element of the piece. They were quite interested in it as they had never seen tatting before; had never even heard of it. It was a nice start to my day, sharing tatting with new people.

I didn’t have tea today for Tatting Tea Tuesday (I had coffee) but I did have chocolate and did get some tatting in – working on another snowflake. Christmas is only a bit over four months away you know. Lots to do and not much time to do it in.

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ” Buddha

Country Fair Results and…Aliens?

I entered two tatted items in the local county fair, my Antique Motif Doily and a Heart’s Honor bookmark. I was so excited about the results of the doily I completely forgot to take a picture of the bookmark! I was the only one that entered tatting but it’s in the crochet class, so that means I won grand champion over any crochet that was entered as well. I’m just a little happy about it *bouncing up and down*. My bookmark got a blue (1st place), so I’m pretty happy about that, too. Just because you are the only entry in a category it doesn’t mean they have to give you a ribbon if they don’t think an item is done well enough. It still would be nice to have more tatting there.

I also entered a picture in the photography class for the first time ever. There are a lot of people who enter their pictures so the competition is tougher, but this one turned out so well I thought “why not?” It is a picture of the grandsons, taken this July.

I was pleasantly surprised to get a third place on it.
I’ve been playing around with this little motif, trying several different things. I did a split chain on it and realized I haven’t used it hardly at all, so am not very proficient with it. I also tried adding some beads, which meant I had to change the stitch count, which in turn made it look different yet. I showed it to my husband, who commented that it looked like a spaceship.
Hmmm, I can see that…
I enjoyed a glass of sweet, iced Vanilla Rooibos tea this morning, though not while I was tatting. I did get a bit of that in, too, just a little later.
I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Tatting Tea Tuesday.
“Winning isn’t always finishing first. Sometimes winning is just finishing.”
Manuel Diotte

A hot Tatting Tea Tuesday

This morning I enjoyed a lovely glass if sweet iced tea, Black Cherry Berry flavored – very yummy! I hadn’t been sure I’d like it iced but I’m very sure I like it now! Yes, the picture shows a cup of tea not a glass but I wanted to show the pretty cup:-) The doily is one I made quite a few years ago, and sad to say I have only a vague idea where I got the pattern.
The little book “Get Well Tea” I picked up on my vacation in Branson, Missouri. I found it in the back room of an antique/flea market that my sister and I visited on our way out of town. The author is J.C. McCracken, the owner/innkeeper of the Inn at Fall Creek, Branson, Mo., at least as of 1996 when the book was published. This little book has a brief history of tea, a little about the hummingbird and a few recipes for “Get Well Tea..” I’m really going to have to try a few of these, they sound very yummy, though I’m not sure they would all taste good if your tummy wasn’t feeling to well. But being unwell doesn’t always involve the tummy, does it?

I’ve done some tatting this week, I just don’t have any I’m quite ready to share yet. I’ve also spent a lot of time on the computer (not surfing, though), working on diagramming patterns. I’ve noticed lately looking at the stats of my blog that a lot of people are looking at the pattern I posted for the Christmas bell ornament from this post, so I diagrammed it and have it in the right sidebar. I spent my day Saturday doing this instead of all the cleaning I should have been doing, isn’t that sad? And, yes, it took more hours than I planned; I have a ways to go before I’ll be quick at it.

As you might guess from the title of this post it’s been rather hot here in Kansas. It was mentioned on a local TV station that the average high temperature for this July was 103 deg. F (39 deg. C), which makes it a pretty hot month. The average temperature is 90 deg. F but we haven’t had a day under 93 deg all month. And August is usually pretty hot as well. Today is a good example of how hot it is here: at 7:00 PM CDT it was 110 deg. F (43 deg. C). There have been several records set for the heat this year – these are records I would prefer not have broken! I’m ready for cooler weather.

“Whether the weather be fine,

Whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold,

Whether the weather be hot,

We’ll weather the weather,

Whatever the whether,

Whether we like it or not.”

A Doll and New Thread

Isn’t this doll cute? This is called a “Wagon Train Doll”. It is made of strips of cloth (actually bias tape) in a couple of different lengths with knots tied in strategic places to form arms, body and skirt. You are supposed to trim the material ends evenly along the bottom and the ends of each arm but I didn’t do that (yet). The apron and cap are simply done with a few gathers and a little bit of elastic (to keep the cap on the head). You could buy dolls like this already made or in a kit that you could assemble yourself. This was a kit, which consists of the pre-cut material, the head already wrapped, the cap and apron, and directions to make it and future dolls if desired. I bought this in Silver Dollar City, Missouri for my granddaughter. Okay, she’s a little young for it yet (two months) but she might like to play with it in a year or two! I’m thinking it could be fun to make matching apron and caps for the doll and the granddaughter later on. Even with my poor sewing skills I think I could manage that.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I was able to tat for about an hour, with the only interruptions being questions of those that happened by. I went with my mother-in-law to her physical therapy today and tatted while she did her exercises and what-ever. Almost everyone that came in asked or commented about what I was doing. And I still got a lot done! No tea though.

This last week I ordered some thread from Handy Hands for an interesting project. A friend of mine is doing a quilt with a muslin top. She chose a white-ish muslin instead of the more usual ecru colored type. She says it’s not a crazy quilt but is supposed to have some embellishments on it and has asked if I would make some tatting for it. As it’s not white-white material the white thread I have is a little too bright, so I ordered some Lizbeth in Natural, #602. I ordered one ball each of size 80, size 20 and size 10, and two balls of size 40 so she could have a choice of sizes but all be the same color.

Well, that was the plan.

I don’t know how well this will show up on your screen – I had quite a time getting a picture of it – but in real-life there is a bit of a problem. This stack of thread has DMC white size 20 on the bottom, then Lizbeth Natural size 10, Lizbeth Natural size 20, Lizbeth Natural size 40 and Lizbeth Natural size 80 on top. The Lizbeth size 20 is a different color entirely. I know that different lot sizes can be different shades, I expected that. But the size 20 looks more ecru than anything else. I emailed Barb Foster at Handy Hands about my problem, but there’s nothing to be done. They’ve lightened the dye in all the other sizes but haven’t had to order more of the #602 in size 20 yet, so this darker color is it. That’s why the ball of DMC. It’s white but it’s not as white as the Lizbeth, so it looks a little closer to the Natural of the other balls. If multiple size thread is needed I doubt they will be side-by-side, so this will probably work.

Oh, well. It’s a little disappointing but not tragic. I think I can live with what I got – and the other colors of thread I bought while I was making the order:-)

“While only a rag doll with a few red yarn strands for hair, she has been loved for generations. Parents enjoy the positive memories of their childhood and sharing those stories with their children.” Marianne Szymanski

Teacup for Tatting Tea Tuesday

Isn’t this little teacup with the candle inside cute? I saw it and just had to get it for a Tatting Tea Tuesday post. It’s from a candle shop in Silver Dollar City, Missouri. They pour a lot of candles there, in the most marvelous scents! This one happens to be Bayberry. They make the candles right there in the shop; you can watch and talk to them about what they are doing. They also have a dipping station where you can dip your own candles. You actually buy white candles in any of several different sizes (4 inch, 6 inch, 8 inch) then you dip them in different colour waxes for any color combination your heart desires. I had a picture of the ones that I dipped but it seems to be lost in cyber space somewhere. It will have to be shared on a different post.

The lovely little doily the cup is sitting on was designed by the wonderful AnneB (Anne Bruvold), she who designed the Minor Norwegian Flying Dragons. I tatted it a while ago and thought I had shared it here on my blog but I haven’t found it, so I must be mistaken. I know it was done in size 30 thread but I don’t remember in what brand or color, and measures about four inches across. I’m sharing it now because a friend of mine asked if I would make her one. The pattern for it can be found here. If you are interested in more of Anne’s patterns, you can find them at Nuperelle.net (there be dragons!) Some are in English and some are in Norwegian.

This morning I got up and took the pictures of the teacup and doily, several of the dipped candles, then worked on adding the suggestions of the test tatters to Heart’s Honor bookmark. I didn’t get any tea drank or any tatting done during all that. I did tat a whole ring and chain at my in-laws’ house (not of this doily, another project) and then, well, a mess. I was being soooooo careful with my tube of size 10/0 seed beads when I spilled the entire tube of them all over the floor. So instead of tatting I picked up seed beads. The tube says it has 10g of beads and I must have spilled 9.99% of them – there were only about a dozen lonely beads left in the tube when I picked it up. Most have been recovered but quite a few went into my purse, which will be emptied and de-beaded at home.

I didn’t get the pattern for Heart’s Honor up yet – I had hoped it would be today – but it should be in a few days.

“Inanimate objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories: those that don’t work, those that break down and those that get lost.” Russell Baker

Branson Vacation

Yes, I was traveling again, this time to Branson, Missouri with my sister. My husband doesn’t have as many days of vacation as I do so he had to stay home, making this a girls only trip. We had so much fun! My sister had ordered tickets for several things ahead of time, which meant that on the Showboat we had front row seats and for the Scenic Railway we were some of the very first to board. The days we went to Silver Dollar City were very nice temperature wise – we went Friday and Saturday mornings, the next day was hot and muggy by 8:00 AM. We didn’t have time to do nearly everything we would have liked to do, but we did do almost all the things we talked of doing. The one thing we didn’t do was get a tin type photo. The one evening we had the best opportunity we were hot and sweaty and I didn’t feel like it at all. But we are talking of doing it again in a year or two, maybe making it a family trip with all the kids and grandkids, so maybe we’ll get our pictures then.

I made sure I did some tipping (tatting-in-public) while we were there – okay, I wanted some pictures, too: ) This picture is while we were on the Branson Scenic Railroad, taken while we waited for the train to load. I actually did quite a bit of tatting on the train on the way back to the station. I had some very interested people watching me, none of them having seen shuttle tatting done before. I was quite happy to talk to them about one of my most favorite subjects.

We also found a quiet spot to take this picture at Silver Dollar City, which is an attraction just outside of Branson. Though there are a lot of amusement rides there, my sister and I went for the handcraft demonstrations and items there. We were a bit disappointed how few artisans we actually found on-site. After talking to some of the shop people there we found that the only time there are a lot more crafters is during their National Harvest Festival. We’d like to try to go back for that, but it won’t be this year.
As I mentioned, I did get some tatting done. It’s about a six-hour drive from where I live to Branson, Mo. – that’s not counting any stops you might make. As we weren’t in a hurry we made a few stops at places that interested us, so it took us closer to seven hours. I started on a bookmark on the way down – I made it long enough to make a bracelet but I had taken out all the findings from my tatting bag – and finished shortly after we got home. I ran out of thread right at the end and couldn’t make both ends the same without adding some to the shuttles, which I didn’t want to do. So I played around with it, finally settling on a tail/tassel using macramé.

We had a great time the entire trip. There is a lot I’ll be sharing with you in the coming weeks. Today I downloaded all the pictures from my camera while sipping my iced tea, which was just green tea with little Mango Peach MIO. Sipping my tea and finishing my bookmark is the only tatting I’ll be getting done today for Tatting Tea Tuesday. I have a few more ideas that I would like to do, and maybe some of it will be done for next week.

“If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation”

A Wonderful 4th of July

Did everyone have a happy 4th of July? We celebrated with fireworks both Sunday night (the 3rd) and Monday night. We were visiting our daughter’s family and went with them on Sunday night to a neighbor’s to share the fun. There were several children my grandson’s age that had a blast watching the show. As the other adults there were mostly parents, the fireworks consisted of light shows – fountains, small ground lights and the type that explodes into lots of lights in the sky – and very few that made only noise – you know, firecrackers. I don’t particularly like the noisy ones myself, and my grandson runs and hides from the loud ones because they hurt his ears.

The evening of the 4th we only set off a few ourselves, but there were a lot going off all over town that we could see and enjoy. It was quite a show!

Monday during the day we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. It was a nice day for a zoo visit, a little hot but not bad, and not very crowded. My grandson had a lot of fun looking at the animals.

Here he’s looking at the rhinoceros sleeping. A little later we went by the on the train that goes around the zoo and saw then standing up. He thought they were pretty cool either way!

We finished off our visit with a walk through the rain forest exhibit, which is quite an experience. Our grandson really enjoyed having Papa show him some of the wildlife in there. He didn’t really enjoy the ‘caves’ and dark places, though.


I didn’t get much tatting done over the last week, first getting ready to go, and then being there – just too much to do! What little I got done was in the car while we were on our way there.
I’m wanting to add some tatting to a handbag I have and found some metal pieces that I thought had a nice potential for adding tatting to them. I had wanted to try using some beads with this, but I don’t do beads well when traveling. I’ve actually started on another piece with the same center but it’s not looking as good as I’d like, so it may have to be started over. I’m calling this #21 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.

I’m not sure how much tatting I’ll get done this next week, either, as I’ll be doing some traveling again. Probably something without beads again, if anything ; )

I missed Tatting Tea Tuesday this week due to a lack of Internet access, though I tatted and had tea 🙂 I guess today I’ll just have to join Cindy at A Happy Bluebird for Wine Wednesday. I’ll have a glass when I get home from work, though instead of tatting I’ll be cleaning out my tatting bag so it’s a little lighter – somehow it keeps aquiring things!

“There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens can not cure.” Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President

Tipping On Tuesday

This morning I started Tatting Tea Tuesday with a glass of iced Refresh tea then headed into town for a few errands and a doctor appointment. I happened to arrive a little early so pulled out a shuttle, starting a butterfly to empty it. A lady sitting in the waiting room started asking some questions about what I was doing. I was very happy☺to talk to her about tatting. She asked what the end result was so I showed her my Heart’s Honor bookmark that I had just finished. She was quite impressed with it. She also asked about how you knew how to make something, if there were patterns. So I showed her the pattern of the Flag Pin. That’s where she saw the name of my blog, which really tickled her. Then her mother came out from her appointment and the daughter wanted me to show her what I was doing. For a few minutes there I had two very interested people to share tatting with. It was a very good morning.

This is what I worked on this week, at least when I could tat. I worked on this for over a week as there was so many other things to do. Including working on the pattern for it. The pattern is coming along pretty well, but every time I start on it I see something else I should probably do with it, to make it better. But it is much closer to being done.

If I can remember how to do it I’ll be posting the pattern for the Flag Pin I shared on this post, so keep an eye on the patterns over on the right. This was designed in a hurry but I haven’t had time to re-visit it to make it easier. But as Independence Day is approaching I thought I would share what I have in case someone else would like to make it for the holiday.

“All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin” Lord Byron

Tipping = tatting in public

TIme out for a party

I don’t think I got any tatting done at all this week. We were go-hosts and planners for a 60th wedding anniversary, which took up a lot of time. My oldest daughter was such a huge help! She was great, putting together the flower arrangements and the slide show of 70+ years of the couples’ lives, before and after they were together (there weren’t many before years!) My sister-in-law planned the dinner and arranged for the cake. Then there were different family members that jumped in and helped where needed, from serving the cake and punch to changing the tables for the reception after the meal. It was a great day, full of lots of wonderful friends and family, and the most important part was the anniversary couple were happy about everything!

Then on Sunday, for Father’s Day, we were invited to our daughter’s house, where our son-in-law grilled dinner for us, our other daughter’s family, his folks and his brother’s family. It was hot but a lot of fun. And the food was delicious! We got to watch the grandsons play in the blowup pool and run around being boys. It was another great day.

By the time we got home Sunday night we were tired out! Then there was more running around on Monday. I gotta say, today I’m doing very little. The housework that got ignored for two weeks can just be ignored another day (or two).

Bookmarks made for my husband
With no tatting done I was commenting to my husband that I didn’t have anything for pictures today. Being the sweetie that he is, he got together several bookmarks I’ve made him and took pictures for me. He didn’t want me to stress or worry it, and likes to make me happy. I think he’s a keeper, don’t you?

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m drinking iced green tea again, but this time with a squirt of MIO Strawberry Watermelon. I was a little leery about trying this combination but it tastes pretty good! The actual tatting will come a little later, but there will be tatting!

“My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.”