Happy New Year 2023
Ornaments and Runners
Every year I make a unique ornament for close family and friends. Sometimes it is tatting only, some years other media is incorporated. This year I decorated glass ornaments with sheet music and tatted angels. I shared the idea of it a few weeks ago. Not much changed other than tatting the angels out of size 20 thread instead of size 10.
The hardest part was deciding what to do at the top of the ornament. I worked with greenery and raffia, but doing that took me a long time with each one before I was happy with them. Then I found a spool of gold metallic ribbon. This looked good and was much, much faster! I didn’t redo any of the ones with greenery. When we had our Christmas dinner at our house, I let everyone choose.
Before everyone got here I put them in a fabric-lined bowl for a more finished look. They went over very well, each going to a happy home.
Our dinner was the chance to give my daughter her table runner. While making a runner for a lady I know, I ended up making edgings that looked good but had a lot of stitch differences as I figured out what I actually wanted. I thought my oldest daughter might like it, even knowing it wasn’t perfect. She did want it, but finding time to get it to her was an issue. We decided the date of the dinner would be okay, as it is a winter runner, not a Christmas runner.
These edgings don’t have the outside row of tatting on them, and I think I like this better. For all that they are not shaped like snowflakes, they look good with the snowman and snowflake material. She sent me a picture of where she put it.
Can you tell that she collects snowmen?
Years ago I gave my mother-in-law a Christmas runner. She had it out all year. My father-in-law gave it back to me after she died and he moved out of the house.
This year I found some fabric that will look wonderful with that green edging. I’m planning to transfer it to the new runner. It makes me happy that she had so much use out of it, but I think it’s time to repurpose the edging.
We, along with most of the US, had a dose of Arctic air this last week. For us here in Kansas, it only lasted about five days, and we only received about an inch of snow. I have seen how hard other areas were hit by this, and feel blessed to have had it so mild. We had another little bit of cold weather Christmas night, along with ice. So glad we didn’t have to go anywhere! It is only the beginning of winter, so I anticipate more of the cold weather is coming, but we will have nice weather through to New Year’s Day (at least, that’s what the weatherman is forecasting, LOL!)
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas season! Stay safe and well!
“I happen to love creating handmade ornaments even when I mess up I still have fun.” Hilary Farr
Christmas Gifts
It’s almost Christmas, and boy, have I been busy!
I attended our church ladies’ Bible study group Christmas dinner and gift exchange a couple of weeks ago. Each of us was to bring a gift for a random gift exchange. I tatted a cross bookmark that I put in a book of devotions. And I forgot to take a picture of it! It was my August SR Cross, made in Lizbeth thread HH20-181 Cranberry Bush. It looked good, and the lady who received it was happy with it.
The dinner was good, the company was terrific, and the gifts were fun to see. We all were given three gifts: one from the gift exchange, and two from the hosts. The gift I got from the exchange was a beautiful quilted centerpiece. One of the gifts from the hosts was a cute Christmas tree ornament; the other was a machine-embroidered tea towel.
The Bible study group wasn’t the only gift exchange I’ve had this year. This last Sunday my side of the family had our Christmas dinner and gift exchange. We play a form of the White Elephant game, with all of us interacting and having a good time. A few of us also give gifts outside of the game, which isn’t required but is a lot of fun. My sister gave all of the ladies hand-embroidered tea towels.
Last year I started decorating with Christmas decorations in the little red truck theme. She knew this and did my tea towel with the theme. It is so cute!
My birthday is coming up so she also gave me another embroidered gift. Previously, she had given me the runner – which I am supposed to put an edging on – and now she gave me the pillowcases. One day I’ll get to the edging, maybe for both the pillowcases and the runner.
In the previous post, I shared my new pattern, September Angel. This is the 2022 ornament that I am giving to close friends and family. While I’ve been making them I’ve noticed that it wouldn’t take much to make a tree with the pattern. So I tried it.
While coming up with the stitch count for this little tree I could see how the angels and the trees might make cute earrings, so I made some of those, too.
I gave these earrings to my daughter. And, again, I was in such a hurry I forgot to take pictures of them. My daughter was very sweet and did a photo shoot with them. They were such cool pictures I had an awful time choosing between them for which ones to use. The earrings came out as well as I hoped they would.
I’ve posted the pattern on the My Patterns page. Unfortunately, when I did that I seem to have broken the links to all the other patterns. This pattern is the only one currently that works. I’m working on the others but won’t get them all fixed tonight. If you’re interested in another pattern but it won’t come up for you, please email me and I’ll get it for you, or try again a bit later.
Here in Kansas, we are expecting an Arctic cold front in a couple of days, along with some snow. How much snow depends are where you are located, anywhere from one to six inches. Listening to the weatherman, it sounds like we won’t have it as bad as a lot of the country. Here, mostly very cold with a few hours of blowing snow. We might even have a white Christmas! We don’t have that every year. I think for the next few days I’ll sit back, tat, and try to stay warm without going outside.
My husbands’ side of the family is not having the family Christmas until after the 25th. There are some family members that will be gone until after that. The day isn’t as important for gatherings as is the family that will be there. Having it after Christmas is okay by me, it gives me a bit more time to get ready for it.
What are you busy with?
“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” — Burton Hills
Angels and Ornaments
The pattern for the September Angel is finished! Thank you to my test tatters, Wally and Ada for checking the pattern out for oopsies. And thank you to all those who volunteered to test tat. I appreciate the offer.
This angel was done in size 20 Lizbeth thread, making it not very big. It looks good in size 10, but that’s not much bigger. I think a pair of these would make cute earrings, both in size 20 and in a smaller thread.
The pattern has been added to the My Patterns page. Funny story, while trying to put it on the page we lost power. Everything was off for about 15 minutes before coming back on. I was concerned about it going off again, so I delayed turning my computer back on until this morning. I suspect the high winds caused the outage, but I wasn’t sure.
I’ve been contacted by several people who have trouble reading the patterns from their location on Google Docs on their phones. It has something to do with the size of the page that Google Docs doesn’t like. I have not yet gotten it straight, though no one has had trouble seeing them on their computers. If you have trouble, please contact me and I’ll send you the pattern instead of what is on the Docs page.
I’ve been thinking of what my yearly Christmas ornament will be this year. I like the September Angel, but it’s small. I’ve come up with an idea, but it’s not yet ready. What I have tried so far is looking promising.
I have these clear glass ornaments I picked up at Micheal’s a few weeks ago. I cut strips of music, curled them, and put them inside. The greenery at the top could maybe have a bit more, but I like the idea. The angel is in size 10 thread, which looks a bit big to me. I’m going to try it with an angel in size 20, and see if that looks better.
I have a list of things I would like to tat before any of our Christmas get-togethers – one of which is before the 25th – but time is getting tight. If I don’t get them done by then, I might have to hand deliver them when they are.
How are your plans for Christmas coming?
“Every gift which is given, even though it be small, is in reality great, if it is given with affection.” Pindar
Thanksgiving
Can you believe Thanksgiving day has passed? It came and went so fast! We still have one Thanksgiving family gathering today, but I’ve put away my fall decorations and started on my Christmas decorating.
This year we had a bit of rescheduling for some of the family get-togethers, so for Thanksgiving day we only had our daughters and their families and my mother over for lunch. We finalized the menu through texts a week ago. The meal was terrific, with minimal issues, as nothing burned and there was space for everyone at the table. We did add an extra table to the one in the picture so we could seat everyone, but no one was cramped. The weather in the afternoon was cool but sunny, so we ended up outside. Then we played a game before they all had to go home. There were a bunch of pictures taken!
I have been working on the edging for a Christmas table runner that I had been asked to do last year (!). She didn’t need it until this year, so I had plenty of time to get it done. Or so you’d think. I couldn’t make up my mind about the edging! I thought about it and tried several different things over the last several months, trying to come up with something I was happy about. I like the look of the edging I came up with, but I need to tweak it a bit more before I’ll be happy with the pattern.
The lady that requested the runner showed me another Christmas runner she had and her tree skirt so I had an idea of what type of fabric to use, and I still had a hard time choosing it. There were so many beautiful fabrics to choose from at Jo-Ann’s! And I needed to buy more than I usually do as she wanted a longer runner than I ordinarily make. The tatted edging also needed to be a bit wider than I have made in the past, another challenge.
In so many ways the tatting is the easy part. I rarely sew, which means it takes longer than I expect it to. And then I have to stitch the edging to the runner – on both ends! But the final result is worth it.
Now I’ll be working on perfecting that edging, as well as working on Christmas ornaments. I’ve had a hard time the last month or so not getting sidetracked from the edging by all the ideas I’ve had for other Christmas things. Now if I can just remember all those ideas!
About the September Angel pattern I have spoken about, there has been another delay. I had the whole thing written out but needed to make a correction. I printed it out to test tat it and noted the corrections that needed to be done. For an unknown reason, my computer shut down. When I went back to the pattern half of it was gone! Not sure what the glitch was, but thank goodness I have the printed version. Now I just need to re-write the parts that disappeared.
“The memories we make with our family is everything.” – Candace Cameron Bure.
Finally Fall
The calendar shows that it is fall and now it feels like fall – mostly. We’ve had a few nights where there was a freeze and some days of cool weather and then there is today. When I got up this morning it was still 66° F with enough humidity that all the sidewalks were so damp it looked like it had rained. It’s currently cloudy and windy with an expected high of 77°. The average temperature for this time of year is around 60°. Friday they are projecting a high of 49° and staying around that for over a week. Fall in Kansas, don’t you love it?
I actually have some fall decorations out already. I’m usually terrible about decorating early enough to enjoy them before the season is over, except maybe Christmas. For some reason, I’ve gotten into the fall season early (for me!)
I’ve been working on an edging that I need to have done ASAP, which is for a Christmas runner. It’s not far enough along to share yet, but I’m finally excited about it. Unfortunately, it is in white while I want to tat in more fall colors.
When I have the chance I plan on writing out the pattern for the October Snowflake that I spoke about in my previous post. I’m sure it will look great in other colors.
In early October I shared a picture on my Facebook page of a new angel I’ve designed but never shared here.
I’ve been working on the pattern and thought it was almost ready to share, but looking at these I realize I’ve made a mistake. It’s a minor mistake but means it will delay sharing the pattern. Very soon, I hope.
While scrolling through Facebook the other day (a dangerous rabbit hole to go down!) I saw a cute way to make Christmas trees using toilet paper rolls. The site is coleykuyerart.com if you want to check it out. It is so easy I thought I’d try it. I even had just emptied a roll of toilet paper, perfect timing. I didn’t decorate it but can think of so many easy ways to do so.
I did this quickly just to see if I liked it. I will be making more of these but cutting them a little more carefully. I have a granddaughter I believe would have fun helping me do this.
This post would have been out sooner as I was almost finished with it yesterday. I know I saved it several times but this morning there was no trace of it. I had to start all over. Bummer.
Now I must get back to the runner edging. What are you working on?
“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” Charles Dudley Warner
Happy Halloween 2022!
Are you ready to be visited by ghosts and goblins?
The local Historical Society was going to have a “Mutts and Monsters Parade” like they had last year but had to cancel due to staffing issues. My granddaughter and I were disappointed as we had been planning dog costumes for a couple of months already. Due to being busy with other things I hadn’t put much time or effort into the costumes before hearing of the cancelation. But I still thought it would be cute to dress up our dog. I found this little ladybug costume at Dollar Tree for a couple of bucks. It is a kid’s costume, not a dog’s, but it works for pictures. She sat very nicely – okay, I was lucky enough to catch her sitting still for about a half second.
Our church youth group put on a Fall Festival last night, serving chili and cinnamon rolls. Then they had games outside, like kickball, bocce ball, and corn hole. They also had pumpkins to decorate (with paint pens) and a bonfire to make s’mores. There were also hayrack rides. The weather was perfect, crisp and cool! There was a nice turnout for it, too. It was a wonderful night! I played corn hole, decorated a pumpkin, took a ride on the hayrack, and roasted marshmallows.
You can see by this poor gourd that I don’t have much imagination when it comes to pumpkin decorating. Some of the other pumpkins were so much better! But it was fun to do it.
My tatting lately has been working on an edging. Okay, it was supposed to be an edging. I wasn’t getting anywhere with the edging before it morphed into a snowflake.
I did the original in all white and finished it with another round of tatting. When that was done the legs were not visible at all. I tried it again in Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice in size 20 with Mocha Brown Dark #692 as the chains. I am happy with how this turned out.
And now I’m back to working on the edging that should have already been done. And snowflakes. And Christmas ornaments. What are you working on?
Halloween is an opportunity to be really creative. Judy Gold
Autumn Earrings
While working with all the threads in autumn shades, I thought it would be great to make some earrings. I have some really cute owl beads I wanted to use, so I tried a few different things in an attempt at earrings I like. Most didn’t work out as I envisioned but what I ended with looks okay.
The split rings have a tendency to twist, but that’s the nature of split rings. They are fun to wear.
When you think of fall, Halloween, or Thanksgiving, pumpkins come to mind. I came up with these earrings.
I think I’ve seen patterns for pumpkins similar to these, but this is my take on them. I gave them to one of my daughters, who was thrilled to get them. She has a sweater that they look great with. Sometimes I get things right!
I’ve been working on several other tatted things, but I’m not quite ready to share them yet. So I’ll share a few pictures of our most recent vacation.
We spent the last week of September in Colorado with another couple. We rented a house together in Grand Lake, an area we’ve been to several times, but the first time in town. It was a terrific house with beautiful views.
This is the view south from the deck of the house, overlooking Shadow Mountain Lake. The colors were wonderful! I took pictures from this vantage every day so I can look back and see the changes in the trees. We loved the time we spent on the deck.
We had several magpies that came around the house daily and entertained us with their antics. Between the cost of gas and eating out, we spent a lot of time at the house instead of traveling around the area as we usually do. This was not a hardship. We took turns cooking which somehow is not so much of a burden when shared with friends. We also enjoy playing cards together, something we do every year on vacation with them. This year we just played a lot more.
I didn’t get much chance to tat while we were at the house but I took advantage of the chances I did have.
I sat by the big picture window to tat so I could enjoy the view and the light. It did rain a few times while we were there as you can see by the drops on the window.
One of the reasons we like the area around Grand Lake is how close it is to Rocky Mountain National Park. This gives us a chance to go into the park to see the wildlife, mostly the elk. We go in the fall so we can hear the elk bugle during the rut. It is exciting to hear!
On our way home from Grand Lake, we caught sight of a herd of bighorn sheep. Amazingly, they were on the outskirts of the Colorado town of Empire. They were obviously used to traffic, just keeping an eye on us but not running away.
FYI, we do not approach too close to wildlife. We keep a safe distance from the animals to take pictures, usually staying in the vehicle. These sheep were very close, but we never got out of the truck.
We’ve had a hot and dry summer here, and most of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought. This morning we awoke to rain! It was not heavy and not much of it, but the right kind. If it had been much heavier it would have just run off instead of sinking into the ground. We’re hoping for more, but we will take what we can get. Sunday we had high winds with a lot of blowing dust and temperatures in the upper 80’s. Today the highs are supposed to be about 55° F with much less wind. Maybe autumn is finally here!
“Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.” Anthony J. D’Angelo
Tatting in Autumn Colors
Since the craft show, I’ve continued making sunflowers, because they are fun to make. I have also wanted to tat in oranges and browns — you know, fall colors. These aren’t usually colors I tat in except for around Halloween, but I’ve been inspired by the (finally) cooler weather and the sunflowers. Not that I have anything particular to tat in these colors…
I finally just loaded a shuttle with Lizbeth #694 Harvest Orange Med and tatted around a button. I even added beads! This made a lovely earring, so I made another one for pair of earrings. This color works with one shirt that I have, so I wore the shirt and earrings to church this last Sunday. I did grab the wrong size button for the second earring so I had to make a third medallion to get the set.
I usually tat while watching TV, which I did Sunday afternoon watching the football game. I have several things I need to work on but they need my full attention, so I started – something – with Lizbeth #136, Autumn Spice. I like where this is going, but with the button center, it’s not really a good doily. But it could be hung up as a decoration.
The finished piece is more true to the actual thread color. It came out nice, don’t you think?
Do you ever wonder what to do with the pieces you finish? I do sometimes. While decorating the house for the season I had this idea for a sunflower.
This is a beer bottle with a string of lights in it. The sunflower is on a string around the bottleneck so it can be removed if I want. The green bottle makes a nice back drop for the sunflower.
The sunflower looks good on the bottle even with the lights on. The light string is pretty cool, the battery is in the cork. I’m thinking of doing a few more bottles like this. It will give the house quite a lovely ambiance, don’t you think?
“Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.” William Allingham
Craft Show
My sister and I had a booth at the craft show in Rose Hill, Kansas the 8th of October during their Fall Festival. She does embroidery by hand, which complements my tatting. She has been working on her stuff for months and months. I’ve not been so dedicated to the show items, getting sidetracked a lot. But it was a good show for both of us.
The craft show started later than we usually see, but we found out that was due to the big parade they had. There were some shoppers the first couple of hours but not a lot, we were somewhat concerned that the day would be slow. About noon one of the organizers went around announcing the parade was over, and the people familiar with the event understood things would get busier soon. Which it did. There was a steady flow of shoppers for most of the event after that. We spoke to a lot of people about our items during the course of the show.
There were a lot of people that looked at the tatting, a lot even knew what it was. There were a lot of “oh, my (insert older relative) did that but I never learned.” Some showed an interest in learning – I suggested to them if they would get a few people together I would be willing to come down to teach. One woman came by that actually did know how to tat! We had a lovely conversation about tatting and patterns. Unfortunately, I didn’t get her name. But it was enjoyable to speak to her.
One item that sold the best this weekend was my Hymnal Angel. I made them a bit smaller this year, cutting the paper three inches instead of five inches. And I used wooden beads for the heads.
Something else that drew a lot of attention was my button sunflowers.
These sunflowers are fun and easy to make. I mostly used 9/16-inch buttons with a few 13/16-inch. I love how the buttons look in the center. I found a package of brown buttons in different diameters made out of coconut shells that look great, much better than plastic.
I put together a quick pattern for the sunflowers. They are very easy. If you are interested in it you can find it on the My Patterns page.
Here are a few of the things that got me sidetracked prior to the craft show.
My granddaughter loves these. I put a magnet on the back as well as the hanger. I let her have the ones she wanted.
I was on vacation a week before the craft show, which is how I got so many of the angel wings and sunflowers made. I’ll be sharing a few of the pictures I took next post.
“Yellow is my favorite summer color – it makes me feel like a sunflower.” Bria Vinaite