And the winner is...

It's the moment you've all been waiting for,

the announcement of the winner of my blogaversary.

Using a random number generator

the winner is.....

Margaret of Margarets Designer Cards!

Congratulations, Margaret!

Margaret, please email at wandasknottythoughts [at] gmail dot com with your mailing address so we can arrange for sending the package.

Thank you very much to all who entered. I enjoyed reading your comments and I really appreciate all of you who entered. It has been a fun three years. I've met some wonderful people through this blog, most on-line but a few even in person. Thank you all for letting me share a little of my life with you.

"It is not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts."

Addison Walker

Doily Finished! And my giveaway

My Yes-U-Can doily is finished.

This has been a fun challenge, though I rushed through it. Looking over it now that it is complete I see several things I would need to do differently when/if I do this doily again. In the center ring I'd make the joining picots smaller, as well as the joining picots in the second round (open thread round). If those picots were smaller the third round of individual motifs would still need a little adjustment to keep them from being so stretched looking, but probably not as much as they need the way it is. I'm thinking another couple of stitches in the chains would help. The last round, even with the adjustments in the previous rounds, wouldn't need to be tweaked much if any. Of course, it would be nice if I kept the picot count the same in each repeat on this round. I didn't notice until I was blocking it that some of the chains have seven picots instead of the five they are supposed to have. I knew I had caught myself doing this but hadn't realized I had missed fixing some - and so many! But I'm not changing it now. I have too many other things to do. I'll just take some notes along with stitch counts and try to do better the next time.

Even though it has a lot of issues this doily was certainly a challenge, so I'm calling it #23 of my 25 motif challenge. #23? Oh, my, I didn't realize I was so close to 25.

As I've been saying for the last several weeks, my blogaversary is next week. If you comment on this post you will be entered into the drawing. I do have several things picked out for the package but it's not complete yet (I'm not telling, it's a surprise!). I'll announce the winner on my Tatting Tea Tuesday post October 25th, so comments need to be made before 8:00 AM CST (USA) the 25th to be included.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I'm having a cup of hot apple cider, mmmm. We've had very fall-like weather here in Kansas the last several days, and what's more fall-like than apple cider? I had bought the jug for a dinner this last weekend then forgot to take it with me, so I'll have to drink the whole thing by myself (my husband doesn't like it). Such a hardship! *grin*

"Don't be afraid to fail. Don't waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It's okay to fail. If you're not failing, you're not growing."

While on vacation in Buena Vista, Colorado, I stopped into a shop called Bev's Stitchery. It has a lot of quilting things in it, but also threads and patterns and such for crochet, knitting and tatting (even a couple of colors of Lizbeth thread). She didn't have a lot of tatting books, but she had this one, which I didn't have (but do now) by Karen Lindsay. What really caught my eye was the witch. I'm not going to have time to try it this year, but Halloween comes every year so I'll have another chance later. I don't have any of her other books and haven't tried any of these patterns yet. She has them diagrammed and written out. There are several cute patterns in here beside the witch that I would like to try and their seasons are coming. This find, as well as the shop I found it in, was a nice surprise.

Over at InTatters they have a challenge going on with the "Yes-U

-Can" doily. The challenge is to tat the doily that is stamped on a can lid with nothing else to go by. A nice challenge, and I'm sure that there will be as many different patterns tatted as their are people who try it, each person with their own vision of it. I decided to try - though I really don't have time. Mine is done in brown #692 and gold #611 Lizbeth thread, size 20. I've made several miscalculations that I didn't go back and fix, and it's not as neat as I would like *blushes in embarrassment*. But I'm doing this instead of several other things that have a time limit (the challenge doesn't) so it will be what it is. I can go back and do it again the right way another time.

This is day 7 (I think) and the first picture I've taken

of it. Once I got started it was kind of hard to put it down. This was blocked a little after the fourth round of individual motifs and then stuck in my bag as I took it with me everywhere. I think the count is close but after the final blocking I'll look it over and evaluate it for that type of thing for when I want to make it again.

(I'm taking a page out of Diane's book, using my computer as a background. I didn't have anything else handy that showed it off very well.)

I'm drinking a cup of Refresh mint tea for this morning's Tatting Tea Tuesday. As soon as I get a few minutes I'll be back at the doily - though my mind will be working on some of my other projects:)

I'll be having a giveaway for my blogaversary this month. If your interested check back next week to find out more about it.

"Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction." Will Rogers

Feel like giving

While on vacation I did do just a little more tatting than mentioned before: I made a bookmark for one of the friends that we went with. She likes pink (a lot) and I happened to have some pink and teal thread with me, so made up a quick bookmark for her.

A very quick bookmark as most of it won't be seen. Yes, I made it for her Nook. Every book should have a bookmark, shouldn't it? (Her husband didn't get it at all). It fits behind the Nook in the case and stays quite nicely. She and I are happy with it no matter how silly it may seem.

I only took a few stitches while we were here - above 12,000 feet it was windy and quite chilly. This is the divide at Tincup pass. You have to take at least a four-wheel drive vehicle (motorcycles can make it, too, and ATVs) to get there. We made it up there on Friday, by way of St. Elmo. We had attempted to get to this pass on Thursday by way of the town of Tincup and Mirror Lake, but we got late a start. We didn't want to try to get there - or down - in the dark!

This is the road to Tincup pass as it goes around Mirror Lake. You can see my husband concentrating in the rear view mirror. We were told that the road to the pass from here was like this or worse all the way. We aren't that experienced with four-wheeling, so turned back while it was still daylight. (Note: we were told by an experienced person we met there that by Jeep it was 90 minutes to the pass from the lake, 30 minutes by ATV and 20 minutes by motorcycle.) Going up the other side from St. Elmo had some stretches that looked like this (or worse) but not as much of it. If we make it that way again we're going to try to rent ATVs instead of a Jeep.

This Sunday at Church was LWML Sunday (Lutheran Women's Missionary League). On this Sunday the women of the congregation do most of the jobs the men usually do, such as pass out bulletins, light the candles, do the collection. The ladies also sang the closing hymn as a choir. This is done once a year, as a way to let the rest of the congregation see what all the League has been doing. They collect sewing kits and school kits to be delivered to other countries, donate to the food bank, serve at fundraising dinners in the community, that type of thing. They also meet at least twice a month to work on quilts.

The quilts are tied quilts and not real fancy, but a lot of love goes into these (and they are very pleasing to the eye). They are displayed on the pews on LWML Sunday and then boxed up to be taken to Lutheran World Relief and Orphan Grain Train. Unfortunately, I don't make it to the quilting days very often, though I would like to. We have a small church and there are only a few women that do this regularly. As you can see, even though they are few they do a lot of work. There is something like 40 quilts they've made to donate this year.

Seeing all those wonderful quilts to be given away, and also seeing the post over at Umi & Tsuru, I've gotten into a giving mood. So I'm going to pay it forward as well. The first three people to comment on this post will each receive a handmade gift from me. [I don't promise how soon I'll get it out :) ]

As I sip my Wild Berry Zinger tea this morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday, I realize that it's October again, which means my blogaversary is coming up. I think I'll have a drawing for that in a week or so - after I think up what I'm going to do for it :)

"The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation" Corrie Ten Boom