Tag: Christmas

Happy on the edge

Yes, after taking a break and working on other things I’m happily back to working on edgings.  One day very soon I’m going to have to start attaching them to the material part of the runners, but I’m so much happier tatting them than sewing them down!
‘Finn’ © Wanda Salmans 2015
‘Finn’ was made with DMC #437 Tan LT in size 10 (it always looks more gold to me than tan).
The pattern is actually one I came up with a few years ago to edge a Christmas stocking I made for an Advent gift exchange. I changed it up only by adding another row to make it a deeper edging.
I posted about this here for a December 2010 Advent swap

The stocking edging was made in white size 20.  I liked it but never jotted it down anywhere because I was in a hurry getting things made for Christmas.  I thought of this pattern a week or so ago and decided to try it again.  Yes, I plan on writing out the pattern but, no, I haven’t yet.

I’m actually pretty happy with myself lately.  I’ve actually been using patterns I already have instead of starting from scratch on new designs every time.  Not that I haven’t made changes to about every one of them in some manner or another, but I’ve based them on patterns that already existed.  I say happy in that designing from scratch usually takes more time than using one that’s already been done, and I really need to put the time into the tatting instead of the designing.  Now if a pattern just comes to mind that’s great and I go with it, but right now I just need to get some edgings done.

But I really need to start sewing them down soon. Happiness is a finished table runner!

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
Jim Rohn
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Bedside tatting

A little before Christmas my MIL became pretty sick.  It put a bit of a damper on the whole holiday.  We spent some time sitting with her, to give a break to my FIL. I always have some tatting with me but I don’t always have a pattern or a project with me, which is what happened one evening.  I had green thread, red thread and even some red seed beads but no plan.  This is the result from that evening. 
Let’s face it, a simple round motif of rings and chains in green makes a simple wreath.  The beads I added after it was done because I forgot to add them as I tatted.  I braided strands of the red thread together to made the bow, and, ta da! A wreath!
I completed it while there and thought to leave if for my MIL, but I wanted a picture of it first.  It took a bit of doing to find a background that worked.  I tried several things before I noticed a Christmas stocking that turned out to be the best background.
I’m happy to say that my MIL is doing much better, though she gave us all quite a scare. In some ways the family meeting there, taking turns sitting at her bedside, made us much more aware of how blessed we are with family, even without the traditional Christmas gatherings.  I’m just hoping it’s a long time before we do this again!
“If today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?”
Steve Jobs
Update – pattern added to My Patterns tab 1/6/15

Decorated Ball Ornaments

Sometime just after Thanksgiving I found several ball ornaments with Styrofoam centers that are covered with red thread.  I had been thinking about trying to decorate balls like this for awhile so I purchased the ornaments to give it a try.

Wanda Salmans 2014
They turned out well but only one was finished by Christmas.
There were too many other things going on.
Wanda Salmans 2014
This one took the longest.  I completed the first two rounds then it languished, hanging from the lamp shade, half done.  I pinned it to the ball to entice me to finish it.
While watching football this Sunday I was finally able to finish it. 

Wanda Salmans 2014
For this one I cut a plastic card to make a thread gauge and didn’t notice that it wasn’t a straight cut until I went to finish it off.  I obviously used both ends of the gauge, which were not the same width.  It is much less even than I thought it was. 

The completed ornament still looked good on the tree.  The tree was a small one, too small, really, for this big of an ornament, but the grandchildren just knew it needed to be there.
Now I need to put them away, somewhere that I don’t loose them, so they can go on the Christmas tree next year.
“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wooden spools

I was at a thrift shop the other day and noticed in their notions area a handful of wooden spools with a variety of threads on them.  I love wooden spools – I like their look, they are fun to play with, and they remind me of time spent at my grandmothers house.  At 25 cents a spool, how could I not bring them home with me?
Usually when I do something like this the items end up in a drawer or box somewhere because, though I couldn’t leave them at the store, I don’t really have a use or place for them.  But not this time!  I had a sudden idea and ran with it.
I thought they would make cute Christmas tree decorations.  I added a bit of tatting that I already had, strung a string through the center and, presto! tree ornaments!
Yes, they are hanging on a Christmas tree.  No, I don’t have my Christmas decorations up yet. I’m going to have this tree at the craft show this next weekend, using it as a display for my tatted snowflakes.
I’ve been tatting a lot recently to get ready for this craft show.  I don’t feel like I have enough items for it, but I could be wrong. I’ve been getting everything together today so I can plan out the layout of the tables but ran into a snag when I found one of my tables was broken. My wonderful husband has done some repairs on it but I can’t use it until tomorrow.  Then I’ll find out just what I have and how I want it laid out for the show.  I’m hoping to have it pretty much together by tomorrow night.  Wouldn’t that be a surprise?
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
Thomas A. Edison
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A busy time of year

Busy with lots of things but very, very little tatting.  There have been family dinners, cleaning in preparation for those dinners, a Christmas play, unexpected events…. It’s just been very, very busy!
I didn’t get as many snowflakes done as I would have liked, but the important people each got one.  A couple of gifts I had wanted to make will have to wait for another occasion as I ran out of time this year.  A few projects I wanted to do will have to wait as I didn’t have as much time off from work as they said we would have.
But it was a wonderful Christmas!  We baked and decorated cookies with the grandchildren.  We played games that included everyone, from the great-grandparents to the youngest child.  We had a variety of foods that weren’t ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner fare but were easy to prepare so time could be spent doing other things.  We sat and talked, reconnecting with family we seem too busy to see much of the rest of the year. For all that there was a lot of time planning and preparing we didn’t let ourselves be too stressed about all that, for stress takes out a lot of the fun, doesn’t it?
We even had a white Christmas this year.  Here in Kansas there is only about an 11% chance of that happening, so it isn’t something you expect.  Of course, because we don’t expect it this early and it wasn’t just snow but ice as well,  not everyone could get out and about like we planned, either.  But it all came together anyway.
One of the few things beside snowflakes I did get done was this headband.
This was tatted on a white button then a sparkly jewel was added in the middle. I stitched it on the headband then added a bit of glue to give a little more hold. It was actually a birthday gift not a Christmas gift to a little girl who just loves purple.  It was a nice break from the snowflakes.
Now it’s on to other things.  Though maybe I should start on the snowflakes a little earlier this year – like, now?
I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!
“Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.”
Peg Bracken

Flurry in a hurry

Yes, time is running out for Christmas snowflakes so I had to hurry to get some done if I wanted them to arrive before the big day. Which meant a smaller, easy snowflake that didn’t take much time.
There are two here that have ‘mistakes’ or at least unintentional differences.  The top one, that’s not really a snowflake, was the first.  I miscounted the chains, making it too tight to go around the doodad without cupping.  No problem, I just modified part of it and made it more like a bell than a snowflake.  The other one has picots on the short chains instead of Josephine knots – I started it without the 2nd shuttle.  Instead of doing the shoe-lace trick I just made picots instead.  It changed the look a bit, but still okay.
All are made with size 20 Lizbeth white.  The finished size is less than the length of a clover shuttle (a little less than two inches point-to-point.)  I really had planned on sending the modified Christmas Snowflake 2010 that I posted about last week, but these were faster.

For some reason I’ve had a hard time getting into the spirit of Christmas this year.  I haven’t decorated at all, neither inside nor outside or even at work.  Except for the snowflakes I haven’t put out anything Christmas related (and they’re just layin’ around because I’m working on them).  I have been listening to Christmas music and enjoying it a lot, so it’s not that I’m feeling like a Scrooge or a Grinch, I just haven’t found the energy to decorate.  None of the family gatherings will be at our house this season so I’m guessing the decorations will stay in their boxes for another year.  

Decorations out or not I am very ready for Christmas to be here.

Another bag!

My sign at the craft show
The show was fun but disappointing in sales.  There also didn’t seem to be as many people as I was expecting.  We saw people making purchases but few walking around with many packages so I would say I wasn’t the only one that didn’t do well.  I do like how my sign turned out 🙂  One of the other venders came over at the end of the show just to check us out because she liked the sign.
I decorated another bag (are you tired of them yet?), this time with a snowman.  I like how the scarf came out. I realized after I had cut out the material for the snowman it was too busy to add face and buttons but it still came out rather cute.
I guess I’m farther along on Christmas gifts now than I thought I would be – as long as I give bags anyway. 
☺
“It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”
Erma Bombeck

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Christmas gifts

Merry Christmas! (a little late) and Happy New Year! (a little early)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  We did, and still are.  We had lots of family get-togethers over the last week and still have one more to go this weekend.  For all that I thought I was ready for all of them, there still seemed to be a few things I didn’t get to until the last minute.  How normal.
Every year I try to have one snowflake that is “the” snowflake of the year.  I posted about 2012’s snowflake here. I didn’t get as many of these done as I would have liked to, but that is how I feel every year.  I did get a few others done as well – mainly due to the fact that it’s hard for me to do the same thing over and over.
The red and two blue are motifs/’flakes that I came up with this year.  The green one is ‘Betsy Snowflake’ by Betsy Evans.  I saw it on A Happy Bluebird a week or so ago and just had to give it try.  I added silver seed beads to it and left out a couple of non-joining picots.  I really like how it came out.  All of them are made in Lizbeth size 20 thread.  These were also given away as gifts. 
I gave away a few tatted gifts that I had made previous to this year.  I found these while looking through a few things and they made excellent additions to what I was already giving without me having to hurry up and make anything else. 
My Sunday school class consists of three girls. One girl is very fond of purple (the butterfly), one girl loves shades of orange (the flower), and one girl loves horses, no matter the color.  The crosses went to the pastor and his wife.  All are made in Lizbeth size 20 threads, though I can’t name off the colors right now. The butterfly and flower are my patterns, the horse is a variation of Debbie Arnold’s Sea Horse and the two cross patterns can be found on my pattern page. 
I still have in mind a lot of things I wanted to make for Christmas that didn’t happen.  Maybe I’ll stay motivated and start them now so they’ll be ready for next Christmas.  It could happen. Maybe. 
“In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank.  People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!'”
Dave Barry

Are you ready

For Christmas? 
A farmer in his trusty tractor bringing home the Christmas tree
Nutcrackers guarding the door
 I am, mostly.  I still have a few things I want to tat (of course!) but I’m not going to stress if they don’t get done.  I’ve got some of the cards sent and hopefully I’ll finish them tomorrow.   That’s what I was doing today instead of posting here.  In fact, I forgot to take pictures of what I have been working on so I’m sharing a couple of pictures of some of the Christmas lights we saw a couple of weeks ago.
As I don’t have any tatting to share today I’ll share the poem I wrote instead.
A Christmas Poem
Twas the week before
Christmas, and all through the house
I decked the halls for
the season (with help from my spouse.)
Ornaments were hung on
the tree with great care
Even out on the lawn
decorations were there
With gift-giving in mind
and a list in my hand
We headed to town the
crowds to withstand
To buy just the right
present, for each person we knew
Just the right gift – I
hadn’t a clue!
As we walked down the
street, as we shopped in the mall
There were toys of all
sizes, for kids large and small.
Through every speaker
there was many a shout
“Be the first to
have this!” “You can’t live without!”
For every age, and for
every type
Were gadgets and widgets
and a whole lot of hype
To convince you to spend
every bit your dough
In this place and that
place and hard to say “No!’
After suffering the
crowds as we traversed the aisles
(Of which there many,
each one seeming like miles!)
We turned to each other
with strain on our faces
And agreed with a glance
to get out of these places!
We returned home from
the stores with sighs of relief.
But relief was
short-lived, reprieve very brief.
No gifts did we have and
time was now short.
What gifts could be given
as a last resort?
We glanced at our tree,
at the star there on top,
That symbol of the
season made us just stop.
It glittered there
brightly, shining down from above
Reminding us of the gift
that had been given with love.
One night long ago, in a
faraway place
A boy-child was born,
one filled with God’s grace.
He was born to save us,
a gift to us all
A gift we should share,
and it’s not found in a mall.
We realized that it
wasn’t how much that was spent
Or how new or how snazzy
or what the content.
To celebrate this birth
we give gifts to each other
A small token of the
gift once given by Another.
So, in this season of
gift-giving and fun
Remember that God gave
us His Son
To save us from sin and
make all things right.
Blessed Christmas to all
and to all a good night.
                                                          Wanda Salmans 2012