Tag: horse

Tatted Horse Picture

Tatted horse picture on wandasknottythoughts.com

 I finished the horse picture, yay!

After much thought and trial I finally decided on Kraft paper as the background.  It was very hard to come up with a background that showed off the silver horse and the brown saddle without making one or the other disappear.  This choice looked the best of all the colors that were tried.
Then, of course, what to put with the horse?  Flowers, yes, but how many and what colors?  How about grass? Yes, but long strips? short strips? Critters?  And then how should they be put together?
A lot of time was spent debating and trying out different ideas.  Some worked, some didn’t.  I finally took a break from it all and just worked on my vest.  Which really helped, as when I went back to the horse things came together a lot faster.
This picture was taken before the glass went on and I debated about leaving it this way.  But putting the glass on would keep the dust off the tatting, so on it went.
I’m very happy with the results.
Now I just have to give it to the planned recipient.
About two months late.
Horse (Foal) by Inga Madsen from “Tatted Animals” in Lizbeth  Silver #605 and Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20
Lady Bug by Sue Hanson in #671 Christmas Red, size 20
Bunny doodle* Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20
Dandelion and collage ideas from “Tatting Collage” by Lindsay Rogers
*can’t remember where I saw this. If anyone knows, please let me know!
“The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip”
Henny Youngman
www.brainyquote.com

Not much done

I haven’t gotten much done on either the triangle doily or the horse picture.  I’ve thought about them a bit, more the horse than the triangles, but no progress on either.  The doily still taunts me from the blocking board where I’ve been ignoring it.  The horse has been teasing me from several possible backgrounds to give it a pasture to run in.  I’ve played around with tatted flowers and birds, bunnies and grass, background colors and frame sizes, and still haven’t made up my mind.
We’ve finally been making progress on a house project that’s been put off for a long time, which is now taking up some (okay, a lot) of my time.  I think most of my creative thoughts have been funneled into this instead of my tatting.  Instead of trying to come up with ideas for the doily or the horse I worked on my vest Sunday night.  I’m at a place in it where I’m just repeating the same thing over and over for a while so I didn’t have to think much.  It was very relaxing.
This is a doily I gave to my mother several years ago.  I noticed that as it aged it looked like it was stained.  I brought it back home and washed it.  It now looks good as new.
A cup of tea
A ball of thread
A shuttle close to hand
A little time
A plan in mind
A tatter’s wonderland

Tatted horse

Horse (Foal) © Inga Madsen
From Inga Madsen’s book “Tatted Animals”
Made with Lizbeth Silver #605 and Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20
I tatted this horse over a month ago for a niece’s graduation present – and I still have it!  I want to make this a tatted scene, with flowers and  – stuff.  The horse itself wasn’t hard, though I did do a little unintentional change in the saddle right at the start.  I also took off the last chain of the pattern because I didn’t like the look.  In the book all the animals are done in one color and look great, but when done in two colors that last chain just didn’t look right. 
So why is it still at my house instead of the graduate’s?  I’m having a hard time making the decisions about the flowers and birds and such.  I have been going through Lindsay Rogers’ book “Tatting Collage” to get ideas.  And now I have a lot of them.  I have so many ideas now I have to choose how elaborate or simple it will be. Do I put it in an 8″ x 10″ frame?  A 5? x 7″?  I’m afraid the one is too big but the other would be too crowded.  Decisions, decisions!
I’m still trying to make decisions on the triangle doily as well.  It is right there beside my chair so I can see it, taunting me to finish it.  But again I can’t make up my mind exactly how to do that. I will eventually, probably sooner than later, but…  Decisions, decisions!
Maybe I should ask the horse.
“A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.
Go right to the source and ask the horse
He’ll give you the answer that you’ll endorse.
He’s always on a steady course.
Talk to Mr. Ed.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And this one’ll talk ’til his voice is hoarse.
You never heard of a talking horse?

Well listen to this.

I am Mr. Ed.”

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/mredlyrics.html

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