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.

A set of earrings in Harvest Orange on wandasknottythoughts
A set of earrings in Harvest Orange

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.

Autumn decoration in process on wandasknottythoughts
Autumn decoration in process
Autumn decoration finished on wandasknottythoughts
Autumn decoration finished

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.

Sunflower decorated bottle on wandasknottythoughts
Sunflower decorated bottle

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.

Sunflower on lighted bottle on wandasknottythoughts
Sunflower on a lighted bottle

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

The birds and the – teacups

I so enjoyed decorating the small bag the other day that I have decided to do a few more.

Originally my idea was to have a shape in material as a background then decorate it with small bits of tatting and maybe a few buttons.  The idea with these was that they would be quick and easy to do.   
Sure.

I have the general idea for them, I just can’t make up my mind for the particulars!

I thought this was a cute idea, but some of the ‘snowflakes’ look more like flowers.
I’m not sure they look ‘finished’ yet.  I think I still have a little work to do. 
Autumn has finally arrived here.

Looking out my backdoor.  I love the different shades of color in the trees.

This was just over a week ago when the trees were still almost completely dark green then. You can see how dark even through the snow.

Maybe I should decorate a bag with a snowbird…
“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.”
Aesop
brainyquotes.com

Autumn tatting

Isn’t fall wonderful?  With cooler weather and spectacular colors it is one of my favorite times of year.
It would be nice if that were true here, but I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer.  We’ve finally had some days that were cooler but we’re still looking at 80ยบ F and the trees have not yet begun to change. 
So I’ve been working a little bit with fall colors to give me a better sense of the season.
Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice in size 20
added 10/9/13 Motif by Wanda Salmans 2013
I really like the colors in Autumn Spice, lovely colors and very nice color changes. 
And how about my new shuttle?  I know the Aerlit has been out a little while but I hadn’t bought one yet.  But during our stay in Buena Vista last month I stopped in a shop that carried them and just had to pick one up. I usually use Clovers with picks though I have a few Aeros and am familiar with this type of shuttle.  So far this one works well, though it made my thumb a bit sore when I started as I’m not used to adjusting the thread in and out with a bobbin.  But it didn’t take long to get it working well. 

The shop I got it in is called “Serendipity”.  It is a really nice shop that sells items for knitting, crochet, tatting and spinning.  They have some items already made up as well as hand-dyed threads and yarns, besides the more normal yarns and threads (including Lizbeth).  It carries gift items as well (it would have been easy to spend a lot of money here!)  The owner has classes for the different fiber arts, including tatting; a tatting class  was planned to start the first week of October.  She does both shuttle and needle tatting but prefers using needles.  I’m glad we were able to stop in. 
A still-living tree growing sideways on the trail up Mt. Princeton
One of the trips we took while in Colorado was up Mt. Princeton.  The road is very narrow all the way up, with very few wide spots to let on-coming traffic pass.  We were fortunate that we met very few people driving while going either up or down.  We did not try hiking to the top so we didn’t become 14ers, we just drove as high as possible and looked around from there.   That is still about 12,100 feet.  It has a fantastic view of Buena Vista.
As you can see by the trees in this picture there was very little color change yet.  There were some aspens that had changed on the trail but we hadn’t yet reached them. We were somewhat disappointed that we didn’t see everything in their fall colors as we had hoped, but the trees were so green it was only a small disappointment. 
There is autumn yet to be enjoyed at home.
14 Fabulous Fall Quotes: Wonderful Words for Autumn!