Kansas Day

 January 29, 1861 is the day that Kansas became the 34th state of the United States. It's mostly celebrated in schools as children learn about the history of our state. I don't think about it much, either, but it came to mind a couple of days ago. 

I enjoy living in Kansas, I've lived here all my life. We've done a lot of traveling through the state and there is still a lot we haven't seen. A lot of people don't think about it as being a place to visit or vacation in, though it does have some interesting places to see.  Something it does have are wonderful sunrises and sunsets. 

This is a sunrise from from my front yard. Every day the view is the same, but it's like seeing a new painting every day. 

There is a tree row to the west of our yard, as well as power lines, so the view isn't as inspiring as the view to the east. That being true, you don't have to go far to catch a beautiful sunset.

This was taken about a mile from our place. That is a working windmill for a farm pond, so I was excited that it was angled so well for this picture. After making sure no-one was behind me, I stopped the car on the road to get this picture. If I had finished this post yesterday as I had wanted to, I would not have had this to share.

It has been cold and snowy here off and on for a week. We had snow instead of ice, which we are grateful for! It was no record streak of cold but five days below freezing is quite long enough for me. After a couple of days about freezing, we get a few more below. At least we had a few days of sunshine! 

I haven't gotten much tatting done for all that we've been inside due to the weather. My husband has been trying to get rid of a cold for about a month, and then he was generous and gave it to me. Instead of tatting I've been snoozing and watching TV whenever I sit down. I just couldn't get up the enthusiasm to tat much. Not that I didn't do a little bit. 

I tatted these up to wear when we play pool tournaments in our senior pool league. We play 8 ball, where that is the last ball of 15 to be pocketed to win the game. The 8 ball is black with a small circle of white where the the number is.  The 8s in my earrings are small wooden beads that I painted white and wrote '8' on. The beads spin quite a bit and I'm never quite sure if the 8 is showing or not. I've tried gluing them in place, but have not yet succeeded in getting it right. I still wear them. I've got some ideas of making a couple of other pairs with other ball colors, but haven't done them yet. 

I have several other things I would like to tat. Now I just need to do them! Maybe as I sit and watch the sunrise.

"There's never one sunrise the same or one sunset the same."  Carlos Santana

Runner Finally Finished

In 2015 and 2016 I was making a lot of edgings and runners. A few days ago I found one of those edgings pinned to a runner hiding in a drawer. I remember this runner and the edgings, I just didn't remember that I hadn't finished it. I thought now was a good time to do that.

The first side went smooth, fitting the edge the way it should, the way it had been pinned to the material for more than 10 years. 

Then I started on the second edge. I found a mistake that might be the reason I didn't finish this.

The edging is obviously missing something, like the last clover. I must have been in a hurry to finish, or maybe just tired. It wasn't that hard to fix, just untat that last chain and open the last ring and add more thread. Then redo the ring and chain and finish with the clover. 

Ta-da! The end looks much better now!

It was then the next issue was discovered. Not noticing the mistake back in the day, I had pinned it out as if it should go all the way across the end of the material even though it was one clover short, stretching it to make it fit. A good guess this was what kept me from finishing sewing the edging on. With the clover added the edging was now a bit too long, as the thread had been stretched out. 

Have you ever had this problem? I had to think about it a bit to come up with a way to make it fit. My solution was to soak it in very hot water then dry it with a hot hair dryer to shrink it. It helped. I still had to sew it down carefully, but it doesn't stick over the edge!

As I worked with this, I remembered the reason I was never in a hurry to finish it. You can probably tell that the edges aren't exactly straight. I liked the material but found when I went to cut it out that the pattern on the material wasn't straight with the thread of the material. I had to play with the layout to get it cut and have it look right. Then I had issues with sewing straight lines for the edges. I decided this edging would be mine, whenever it was completed. 

Now, after 10 years, it is done. It will look good on my table. And I will probably be the only one to notice that there are issues with it. If anyone does notice, I'll bet they won't say anything, LOL.

The pattern for Emma is on My Patterns page. There is a note on it, under the picture, that the stitch count in a couple of places was changed but I didn't get a new picture with the change. 

It took me 10 years to complete this UFO. Not quite the longest I've ever had, but close. How long has it taken you to complete a UFO?

"Normal people...believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet."  

Scott Adams

January Tatting

 Tatting has been done! Not big projects or complicated patterns, but shuttles have been used.

A friend of mine celebrated her birthday a few days ago. She works at the local Senior Center and is well known. The Center arranged a party for her, which was attended by many in the community. Mostly people's presence was their gift to her, but there were a lot of cards also. We gave her a card, but how could I not add a little something? I thought a paperclip bookmark would be a thoughtful gift. 

This bookmark is a simple paperclip with a line of split-rings attached. The dragonfly charm is connected at both top and bottom to stabilize it. The bottom is strands of thread strung through the bottom picot of the last ring, then braided. I originally tied a knot at the bottom, as it was when I took this picture. I didn't like the look so took out the knot and left the bottom without, then used fabric glue to keep them from coming undone. It looked good.

The other tatting done is a remake of an earring I made a couple of years ago. The earring wasn't all that great, but I liked the idea of it. I modified it quite a bit to come up with this version. Not sure if I'll make the other earring to this or not.

Unusually for me, I used a few beads. I keep looking at this, trying to think of what else I could do with it besides as an earring. I'll keep looking. 

I'm hoping to take more time to tat this year. I am no long the chair of a board of our church so I don't have those responsibilities, which should give me more time to tat. More importantly, I'll have more energy to imagine more things. What a concept!

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."

Carl Sagan 

Happy New Year!

 Can you believe it is 2026? It hardly seems possible that we have reached another year. I need to start making a list of what I should work on!

I didn't get as many Christmas pickles done as I had hoped, but I did enough. 

These were given to only about half of the family at our family Christmas. I didn't get the notes attached to the pickles, but I explained what they were. They were a big hit. 

Last year we celebrated with my husband's family before Christmas, in a place I didn't have a chance to give out my ornaments, so they missed out. This year I gave those family members wine cork angels and a few of the hymnal angels instead of the pickles. They were well received. 

Wine Cork Angel from 2024

Hymnal Angel from 2020

This year we had an amazing day with family a few days after Christmas, with some extended family members we rarely see. We rented a place with lots of room for visiting and eating. It was so well received that many left talking about doing it again, maybe this summer. What a present!

Less than a week later I spent half the day in a hospital waiting room. My mother had a procedure done while my sister and I spent time visiting and tatting. My tatting was a medallion I started a few weeks ago when I hadn't yet figured out what to do for my Christmas ornament and had only limited thread. I wasn't sure where I was going with it until I got there. 

I did have a few false starts, where I went a little way, decided that wasn't working, cut it off and tried again. But I like how this came out. Not bad for not having any idea where this would go. What do you think?

I have a lot of ideas for things to make this next year. I do have a list. I'm just hoping I can keep up the enthusiasm about all of them. Or at least some of them!

What do you have planned for 2026?

"Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress." 

Charles Kettering

Merry Christmas 2025

 

I hope that all of you had a marvelous Christmas!