It must be Wine Wednesday

It seems I've missed Tatting Tea Tuesday so it must be Wine Wednesday.  I haven't had the wine yet, but the day is young.  I haven't gotten any tatting in today, either, but I plan to do that next.  I did get tatting in yesterday and I drank tea, I just missed posting.

Yesterday I was working on Angels. Not these - these have been sent off already, but one just like it.  Though  I tatted for several hours I didn't even get one little angel finished.  This is my design and I've been making them for years, but now I'm trying to revise the pattern to make it with only one end.  Unbelievable, I know, but all these years I've made them with multiple ends to hide. Why I've never thought of trying it other ways I don't know, but the lightbulb did finally come on. Now the problem is making it work. I worked on it all day and never got even one Angel completed. The problem are the wings - they just don't work starting from the top. I've tried different stitch counts, but nothing has really worked. Unless I plan on changing the wings entirely this may just have to have several ends whether I like it or not.

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas?  We did.  We were able to get together with both sides of the family and see both of our kids and their families. And then we were lucky enough to have both of the grandsons stay over Christmas night.  They kept us quite busy. I can sure tell I'm not used to having little children around that much anymore. By the time they left, I was tired. We did have fun while they were here though. We played games, strung beads and cut out paper snowflakes then they helped me on the placement of the snowflakes in the window.

I love Christmas. I love the season. I love the weather getting colder with maybe some snow. And I love the giving of gifts. Getting gifts is fun too, but I just love trying to come up with just the right things to to share with each of my family and friends.  It was a bit different this year. This year, when I went to the store I actually had a list of things I wanted to get - no impulse buying!  I made quite a few of the gifts this year, and not just tatting.  Actually, I didn't get much tatting done this year, not as much as usual anyway. I guess I'll have to start a lot earlier  for next year. I guess I'll have to start a lot earlier for next year :-)

Now we're getting to the new year. Do you have New Year's resolutions? I try not to make them, or at least any more than I would on any other day, because I have a terrible time keeping them. Today I'll leave you with a quote from Hal Borland.

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the 

wisdom that experience can instill in us"

Let it snow

I've been so busy doing, well, lot's of stuff, that I haven't had much time to tat.  Every year I try to tat snowflakes to put in Christmas cards.  This year only a lucky few will be getting them in their cards.  What you see is pretty much all I've gotten done this year snowflake-wise.  They are simple and quick and pretty small.  Three are made in Lizbeth white size 20, the other two are in Lizbeth Blue Ice size 40.

This doesn't mean I won't still be making snowflakes, it just means they won't get them this year in their Christmas cards :-)

I've tatted a few angels done as well, just didn't get pictures yet.  I've been working on the pattern for it, too, trying to work it up with fewer cuts and ties.  It's a lot harder to write it out than it is to tat it!  

That's it on the tatting front. I did get a cup of tea in today but no tatting on this Tatting Tea Tuesday.  Busy again.

My husband and I did take a night off from everything to go to a concert last week. We went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Wichita.  It was great! What a show - lights, lasers, electric guitars and a string orchestra.  We enjoyed ourselves tremendously!  If you like Christmas music done by a rock band you'll enjoy them, too. 

This is a song by them without all the lights and lasers, but I like it. Check out YouTube for more videos. 

Getting ready for Christmas

I've been busy trying to get things made for Christmas. I found coasters - at JoAnn's I think - that had Aida cloth and a cross-stitch pattern in them that I thought would look good with tatting instead. It came out well I think. The snowflake is one of mine, seen in this post from January 2009 and is made in size 40 Lizbeth Blue Ice #163. It was a gift but she has it already so it's okay to share.

I bought these little composition books at the Dollar Tree, three for a dollar. They are about three inches tall, one green, one black and one blue. I had a thought that they would be cute with scrapbooking paper on them - and I was right. The paper went on smoothly and they actually came out looking better than I expected, yea! I'm definitely going to have to do this again. They make a great little gift, along with a cute pen. Quick, easy, cute and inexpensive - can't hardly beat that.

I'm doing an Advent exchange with Tabatha at Crafting with Tabatha. We did this last year through Ravelry and had such fun we decided we do it again this year. She does a great job on decorating the packages and coming up with neat gifts! One of the things she sent me this year was some Fray Check which I've never used (I have used similar things) but am glad to have. And she made two of these cute crocheted tree ornaments. Up until this last Sunday they were the only Christmas decorations I had up.

Tabatha also sent me this wonderful case of interchangeable head crochet hooks. I've never seen anything like this before. Isn't it great? I won't have to search for just the right size hook when I change thread size and need help with joining (or whatever). As I said, she comes up with some great gifts :-).

I was able to visit with my daughter last week and do a little crafting. She had been given some exotic bird feathers and we played around with them: this is what we ended up with. We didn't know what we were doing when we started but had a lot of fun doing it. We are calling this an angel : )

Hoping you are all looking forward to a marvelous Christmas.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,

Born a child and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever,

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit,

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Words: Charles Wesley

Music: Roland H. Prichard

Museum Stop Part 2

Now, back to Roebke Memorial Museum in Holton, Kansas...

They certainly justified the theme of "A Lacy Christmas" - there was lace and textiles of many types throughout the house. One of the front rooms showcased the work of one woman, Evelyn DeGraw.

Isn't this display amazing? And this is only part of it!

These items were donated by the woman who lived across the street from the Roebke house The entire room was of Evelyn's work.

December 26, the day we stopped by, they had three demonstrators in: a spinner, a weaver and a quilter.

This is Marty Mavrovich, spinning llama fiber as sock yarn. She likes to use as much local fiber to spin with as she can. She didn't buy her spinning wheel new but thinks it's either German or Canadian made. She made this look easy, but somehow I think that's because she's been doing it awhile.

This is Barbara Beyer weaving on her 8 shaft table loom. It can be converted to a floor loom if she needs it to be. This loom is from New Zealand. She was working on a tunic/vest similar to the one in the magazine behind her (which I didn't take a picture of...).

Here is Donna Tudor hand-quilting a baby blanket. She likes to keep one or two on hand for new arrivals as they take a little while to finish. Her work is lovely. I hardly sew at all but I can appreciate the skill that it takes to do this.

These ladies were fun to talk to. It's not often I get to talk to people who enjoy their craft like this, even though each of us had a different one. But I'm such a bad reporter that I forgot to ask where they were from!

I even got to take out my shuttles and sat with them for awhile.

Somehow I don't think I'd pass as a Victorian lady, do you? I very much enjoyed my visit with these ladies and Margaret Utes.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but we were in the kitchen of the house. Miss Doris Roebke lived in the house after her parents so it was modernized as all lived-in house are sure to be. It was interesting to see some of the older furniture next to the older.

Upstairs the bedrooms were also decked out in Victorian style.

This room was done up as a child's room.

In the hall upstairs there was a display of embroidery. Lovely pillowcases here. On one of the beds there was an cover/quilt with a lot of embroidery, also.

These lovely creations were the graduation dresses of the three Roebke daughters. Can you imagine wearing one of these? Just wearing one of these would make you want to act like a lady.

I put a lot of pictures in today but there is so much more there to see. On another of our trips to or from Omaha we'll have to stop in again.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I tried Candy Cane Lane tea, made with peppermint. It is yummy! Didn't get much time to tat today, but it's not over yet.

Wishing all of you a wonderful Advent season.

"The advent of our God

Shall be our theme for prayer

Come let us meet him on the road

And place for him prepare"