Tag: ornament

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.

September Angel on music on wandasknottythoughts
September Angel

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.

September Angel on glass ornament on wandasknottythoughts
September Angel on a glass ornament

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

Trees and Angels

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We did. Christmas Eve I finally got a few Christmas decorations put up and decorated a tree.

Christmas tree 2020 on wandasknottythoughts
My 2020 Christmas tree

This isn’t exactly a tree, it is several branches from some evergreens that we took out of the yard a couple of days ago wire-tied together. The shape is not quite right, but it brought the scent of a real tree indoors, didn’t cost anything, and, when decorated, looked festive. The only ornaments on it that I made this year are the music angel and the round paper ornament. All the others are ones I randomly found as I got my Christmas decorations out. I found quite a few more tatted ornaments and hung them around the house.

The little time I’ve had to tat I’ve been making the Small Angel. Which isn’t hard, but that left wing! Making it look like the right is a bit of a challenge. It’s all in the picot size and the chains. And maybe the join for that longest picot.

Small angels on wandasknottythoughts
Three small angels

As you can see, neither of the red angels have wings quite like the original gold one. And they don’t even look like each other! I think the wings on the red angels look more like leaves than wings, but they still look okay. I must be holding my mouth wrong as I tat to make them so different! I’d love to see how they turn out for anyone that makes them.

Usually, between Christmas and New Years’ things for us slow down a bit, but this year it’s not that way. There are several things that need to be done before the new year, so many that we don’t have much time to do as we’d like. I have tatting plans that will have to wait a little bit more.

What are your plans for the New Year?

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” Woody Allen https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/woody_allen_136686

Christmas 2020

Can you believe it is only three days to Christmas? The year has gone so fast and the last three weeks must faster (it seems to me!). I have been so busy I haven’t gotten as much tatting done as I would have liked, but, looking back, I’ve gotten more done than I thought.

Christmas 2020 tatting on wandasknottythoughts
Christmas tatting 2020

Looking back, there was more tatting done for Christmas than I thought. I’m not sure how many of the music ornaments I finished this year, but everyone I had planned to send cards to received one, so it was several lol! It’s amazing how much time can be spent on such small tatting!. The angel wings came out great, and the angels were well received by the few that got them. I didn’t give anyone the small angel, but that was designed and tatted as well. Not bad!

Speaking of the small angel, the pattern is done and available! Please email me a request.

Small angel Christmas tatting 2020 on wandasknottythoughts
Small angel Christmas tatting

Now I’m on to more Christmas things, namely getting the house cleaned up and decorated so it looks Christmas-y!

Merry Christmas to all of you.

“Christmas is the day that holds all time together.” Alexander Smith https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alexander_smith_379476?src=t_christmas

Getting ready for Christmas

‘Tis the season to be very busy! If it’s not getting the house decorated and ready for guests it’s getting food or gifts ready. For those of us who craft our Christmas gifts, it’s also trying to get them finished! At least that’s me. How about you?

Back in October I started thinking of what I wanted for my yearly ornament that I give to family and close friends. I was early this year, not even waiting until December to come up with one. But I had so many different ideas about what I wanted to do I am still behind!

I have a whole box of old hymnals from our church that I thought I could utilize for ornaments. First, I made this folded paper angel, which came out very nicely. It doesn’t even take much time to make. 

Music paper angel with tatting on wandasknottythoughts
Music paper angel with tatting

I used two pages out of a hymnal to make it. The tatting is done in Yarnart Camelia thread, very simple rings and chains. Without the thread hanger, this angel is six inches tall. I love it. But just how do you put this in a Christmas card? I needed to come up with something else.

Several of my other ideas I barely started before I realized that they wouldn’t work or would take too much time. Most of them were mixed media of some sort, on the order of the angel where I tried adding tatting to paper and other backgrounds. I will probably revisit the ideas later.

Even when  I thought I had an ornament that would work I couldn’t make up my mind.

Tatted Christmas trees on wandasknottythoughts
Christmas tree ornaments for 2018

I decided to make trees. But I could not make up my mind just how I wanted to make them. I came up with a forest of trees, each one different from the rest. They are in at least three different threads – size 10 & 20, and two different shades of green. I sprayed them with Stiffy to help them keep their shape.  As they blend in a lot on most backgrounds  I sprinkled them with fine glitter.

Yes, I know, there are Christmas tree patterns out there, but I try to come up with something myself each year. I enjoy how they look all together here, though I’m not so sure of a few of them individually.  But it doesn’t matter, these are going out in the Christmas cards the way they are!

Charles N. Barnard
“The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect!”

Of airplanes, ornaments, and snowmen

Several years ago I gave the white airplane on the right to a friend of mine for Christmas. He had it hung on his office wall at work and I noticed a few months ago that it was looking a bit wilted and yellow. It had been stiffened a bit but not enough it seems.  The smaller grey plane I meant to give him last year and didn’t (he got a tatted ornament just not the plane).  This year I wanted to make sure he got both his airplanes but in a way that would look good and last a bit better.

Tatted airplanes © Wanda Salmans pattern found on wandasknottythoughts.blogspot.com
Airplane  © Wanda Salmans 2014 Pattern found on My Patterns tab 

Trying to find a background that worked with both planes took a bit.  Craft paper was the best I could find from my stash of both paper and material.  No worries, my friend really liked his airplanes.
I’ve gotten quite a few responses since I posted about these small ornaments.

Christmas Ornaments 2015 found on wandasknottythoughts.blogspot.com
Button Christmas ornaments

They are very basic and simple patterns so I wasn’t going to write them up, but I decided to do a few to give people that would like to do something similar an start.  You can find the link on My Patterns tab as Christmas Ornaments 2015.
 The snowman that I made for myself and attached to a pin is missing in action.

Missing tatted snowman on wandasknottythoughts
Missing: Tatted Snowman. Last seen: on this pin on my shirt

I wore it Christmas day and forgot to take it off my shirt before I washed it.
I’m not sure where it ended up.  I used regular white craft glue to put it all together as it was never meant to go through the washer.  I’ll probably find bits and pieces of him in the clothes as we put them on, tucked up inside a sleeve of some shirt or other.  It’s too bad but not a tragedy to lose him as I have others but, man! I wish I hadn’t done that.
2015 is about to make its exit.  It’s been a thrilling year with the new experience of a cruise and visiting Alaska for the first time; a sad year where we have lost three family members and several close friends over the course of the year; and an exciting year as we’ve finally done some home improvements that had been put off for far too long.  It could be said it’s been a normal year with ups and downs, good times and bad.  As we enter 2016 I make no resolutions that I know I won’t keep but move forward with a positive outlook and hopes for a wonderful new year.
What are you looking for in the coming year?
“Every exit is an entrance to new experiences.”
Fortune cookie proverb

Christmas tree ornaments

Christmas tree with tatted ornaments on wandasknottythoughts
This is our Christmas tree this year, the same one I used at the craft show a few weeks ago.  It’s about 24 inches tall and is decorated entirely with tatted ornaments.  They can’t really be called snowflakes as most of them have have eight points, though a few have more.  I’ve wanted to have a tree decorated like this for years and this is the first time it’s happened.  It took a lot of these little decorations to dress this little tree – there are more than 30 on the front and sides.  I’m glad they were quick and easy.
Tatted Christmas tree ornaments on buttons on wandasknottythoughts
They may not be snowflakes but they do have at least one feature like them: no two are the same.  Even when the plan was to make a duplicate the stitch count usually changed or a ‘mistake’ changed the finished ornament.  That one with the blue button on the bottom left? The plan was to be the same as the one in the middle, but the stitch count should have been changed a bit because of the difference in button size – it wasn’t changed (enough) and it ended up being finished a bit different.
When these were first started the plan had been to use only red and green buttons.  Why?  It just sounded good at the time.  Then I got to thinking about Christmas tree lights and all the colors that were used.  So instead of being choosy it became much more random – reach into the button jar and use whatever came out.  I have several button jars, this one contains bright colored, modern buttons, which makes for a bright, happy tree.
Large tatted Christmas tree ornament on a button on wandasknottythoughts
This button is a bit larger than the others and it’s the only one this size that I made.  No, I didn’t plan for it to end up like this when I started but I think it came out well.  It’s a little too big to fit in with the other tatted ornaments but it’s on the tree anyway.
How have you decorated your tree? Do you have tatting on it?
“O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me when oft
at joyous Christmas-time
Your form inspires my song and rhyme.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me”
author unknown

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