Tag: motif

Decisions, decisions

Have you ever had that problem of trying to figure out what to do next?
Have you ever tried to do this with limited resources?
I did this last weekend when I went to visit my daughter’s family.  I took my tatting things with me (of course!) and a very small variety of thread. What I didn’t take with me was a plan! I hadn’t gone there with a decision of what I was going to be doing!
Most of the time when I go visit this isn’t much of a problem as I spend most of my time with the grandchildren or doing family things so don’t have a lot of time to tat anyway (even though I always take it with me!). This time however I knew that there would be some waiting time where my tatting would be welcome.  I also had with me the bag I had added tatting to last week, as well as the thread I had used.  It did look a little bare, like it could use a bit more tatting on it, so that’s what I ended up working on. 

As the bag had squares on it I thought that should be the shape of a motif to go on the front in the middle.  That worked until the third ring when I was distracted and headed down a different path.  Instead of untatting it I just changed direction and went with the flow. 
I used the same size 10 turquoise thread I used for the edging but no beads.


This didn’t turn out too bad.  I see several things I want to do differently when/if I do this motif again.   I made it in one pass, climbing out with a split ring but it doesn’t quite look right.  I also missed a chain in the center because of the split ring.   And I can really tell I’m not used to using this large of thread!

I had a hot cup of green and peach tea this morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday.  I’m getting more adventuresome with my tea drinking than I used to be, willing to mix flavors where once it was the same tea all the time.  Thanks, IsDihara, for giving me the incentive to try new things – at least in regards to tea!

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.  We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad”
C.S. Lewis
brainyquotes.com

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

Travel Time Tatting

Travel Time Tatting Motifs
Coming back from the wedding last weekend I was kind of at a loss.  I had been so concerned about getting the wedding gift done on the way there that I didn’t even think about what I would work on during the trip back.  I had plenty of thread, though not really in my favored color schemes, so that wasn’t the problem.  But what to actually make??  These two motifs!
The first thing I did was empty the shuttles as there wasn’t much thread left on any of them.  You may notice that there are no doodles in the dark green – emptying that shuttle was the signal to end the tatting for the wedding gift.  I now have a variety of butterflies, birds, fish and flowers to add to cards or whatever.  While I did this I had time to give some thought as to what to do next. 
http://www.freewebs.com/heathersdesigns/littlebuggies.htm
http://lelia-stitchesoflife.blogspot.com/2011/06/dove.html
http://www.godtland.com/tatting/Fish.pdf

I had a couple of little metal do-dads in my tatting bag and this turned out to be a good opportunity to play with them.  I made the orange and green motif first, simple and easy, in Bright Orange #695 and Lime Green #679 (Lizbeth thread, size 20).  
Then I started the green one in Lime Green #679 and Leaf Green Dark #676 (Lizbeth thread, size 20), incorporating a few beads as well as the do-dad.  This isn’t really a complicated piece but I kept getting distracted and had some issues remembering which direction I needed to make some of those chains. With all the distractions and then the light fading as the day ended this one was not finished on the trip.  It took until Friday to finally complete it.  I notice that my tension on some of the chains have something to be desired, but on the whole I think these motifs turned out pretty well.  These two motifs together are #3 in my current 25 Motif Challenge.
I mentioned last week the wedding we went to was in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, which is pretty close to Wyoming.  If any of you have traveled in this area, you know that most of Nebraska is pretty flat, and so is eastern Wyoming. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few interesting things to see.  This is a picture taken not too far from town at Scotts Bluff National Monument.  As you can see, it’s not all flat here.  In fact, it’s rather scenic. Three historic trails followed the North Platte River through this area – the Oregon, Mormon, and California trails. This would have been quite a sight after all the flat-lands they had come through.  (By the way, the oxen in the picture aren’t real). We didn’t have a lot of time to see the Bluffs and we’d like to come back someday.
Another point of interest is Chimney Rock National Historical Site.  We stopped here on our way back – well, in the visitor’s center.  We didn’t get much closer than this.  Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff were mentioned frequently in the journals of pioneers in days past, and by more recent visitors, too.

                                      

The time spent at the visitor’s center was well worth the $3 (US) a piece we paid (the grandkids were free).  For one, it was nice and cool inside 😉 We took pictures of the Chimney from the patio, making sure to stay on the pavement.  There are a lot of signs out warning of rattlesnakes.  The good news for us it only one has been sighted so far this year at the center.  This was an interesting place to see. I’m glad we were able to stop.

It was a long drive out there but well worth the trip.  I enjoyed a glass of iced tea today while looking through the pictures instead of tatting on this Tatting Tea Tuesday. Ah, well, maybe tomorrow 🙂


“And after many days on the close-fed plain and bluffs of earth back we came to an interesting change.  We saw a whole day’s march ahead on the plain what looked a big castle, or small mountain.  But on nearing it, we saw that it was a big tower of sand-stone far detached like an island, from the bluffs back, which had now all become of that kind of rock, high and perpendicular and strangely worn into many fantastic shapes.  The detached mass first seen is called the Chimney Rock a striking, landmark in this prairie sea. The upper, perhaps 100 feet of naked rock and the lower 50 a spreading pedestal, well grassed over.”
From The Autobiography of John Ball
Across the Plains to Oregon, 1832