I'm a winner!

Linda, over at "A Swap For All Seasons" had a drawing the other day and I won!

I have recently started following Linda's blog of decorated cards and tags to be inspired and get ideas for more uses of tatting. I have not actually made any cards or tags yet, but I hope to.  When she had her drawing I thought it couldn't hurt to enter and I got lucky!

Look at all the goodies she sent!

There is the 'fly' card and 'Dad' tag she made recently, dimensional stickers, washi tape, string, ribbon, lace, buttons, blank tags, background paper, a stamp and material, all in shades of black and grey.  Even the tissue paper they were all wrapped in! This is so cool!  Thank you, Linda!

We were on a family vacation when the package arrived though I had been told I'd won and knew it was coming.  It was nice to have such wonderful mail waiting for me when I got home!  

Now I'm imagining how I can incorporate some tatting into decorating one of those tags she sent!

"You can't do it unless you can imagine it."

George Lucas

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A pretty teacup

This was supposed to be posted yesterday for Tatting Tea Tuesday but I have lost my photo editor on my computer. I tried re-installing it but I can't find the disk.  So instead of several pictures I have one.

I was in a local antique store/flea market a couple of weeks ago and saw this pretty teacup.  It has no markings on the bottom to indicate maker or anything else but I thought it was pretty and so elegant looking.  So I brought it home.  I think I should dress up and wear a hat to drink tea out of this, don't you?

Lizbeth size 20 in #617 Magenta Med and #644 Boysenberry Dk

I was inspired to make a doily to go along with the teacup.  I think I chose the colors at night with bad lighting as they don't match the cup like I thought they did.  Oops.

The first seven rounds of this doily went pretty smoothly but the last two took forever!  I just couldn't get it to do what I wanted it to. I kept changing my mind on those last two rounds, which probably took as long to tat as all the others put together. And I think I should have reduced the stitch count on the last round.  The doily ended up being just over seven inches across when finally finished.  It had to be blocked a lot before it would stay flat, due, I'm sure, to those last two rounds of (mostly) chains.  I'm thinking of doing it again in different colors and changing the stitch count in a couple of places. And maybe the dark thread at the center.

The shuttle is made of horn.  I haven't tatted much with it as it's pretty slick, I keep dropping it.  It is marred on both sides though I'm not sure how that happened.  It is still a pretty shuttle.  

There hasn't been much tatting in the last week and I'm not sure there will be much in the next week.  There are a lot of family things going on and it's hard to tat with a lap full of children.  I'm not complaining.  I'll just smile and sip my tea.

"When in doubt drink tea"

Computer trouble

I'm having trouble with my computer.  During some updating/repair my photo program was disabled or deleted or something.  The pictures are there but I can't edit them. I'm working on the problem but it's still a work in progress.  Hopefully I'll be able to get something going soon.

Mother's Day Tatting

Did everyone have a nice Mother's Day?

I did. We visited with my mother, my husband's mother and a couple of special aunts. They were very nice visits.  We gave my MIL and aunts flowers but my mother got a hat pin.

This is made with a large button, Lizbeth #670 Victorian Red thread size 20, and gold beads.  It measures almost three inches across. 

For all this is just simple chains I had quite the time with it, making mistakes in counts, cutting a picot, getting the shuttle threads tangled.  You can see at the bottom where things just didn't go quite right.  But overall it didn't turn out too bad.  In person, stepping back a bit, the boo boo isn't all that noticeable.  I also had such trouble with it I didn't want to chance trying to fix it :-p.  I thought about trying to put a ribbon or flower or something over it to hide it but decided it was just going to have to be good enough. 

Mom liked it, so all is good.

After all the visits we went home and I spent most the afternoon and evening tatting *smile*. 

I had recently come across the bookmark I had made when I was in Branson, Missouri a few years ago and was inspired to tat it again. 

This is made with Lizbeth Twirlz #404 Mermaid Lagoon size 20.

This is the first time I've tried the Twirlz thread.  It tatted up very nicely and held up well when I was retro tatting.  I hadn't been sure I was going to like it, and I might not like it for every pattern, but I do like it for this. 

I've added this pattern to My Patterns tab as Branson Bookmark.

The weatherman predicted there would be severe weather Sunday night and there was, but it missed us by a few miles.  We spent a lot of the evening keeping an eye on the weather and worrying about family and people we know in areas that were getting it worse than we did. We did get over an inch of rain out the storms, so it wasn't all bad.

It was a good day, imperfections and all.

"Yes, Mother.  I can see you are flawed.  You have not hidden it.  That is your greatest gift to me."

Alice Walker

http://www.brainyquote.com

Ramblings on Tatting Tea Tuesday

Believe it or not, I've actually finished the cross bookmark pattern.  For once everything went smoothly while I diagrammed it, and it was even finished a few days ago.  I've added the pattern to My Patterns page. Look for "April's Cross Bookmark".  

I've started a couple of new projects this week but neither are to a point I want to share them yet.  This is becoming a very busy month with several birthdays, Mother's Day, and graduations to find gifts for.  I actually found the cross bookmarks I had lost - I'd put them in a safer place, where I could find them. Sure.  But they are found so I don't have to rush so much for the graduations.  The birthdays are something else.  Not sure how those are going to go. 

This morning while I drank my tea (Twinnings of London's Pure Peppermint Herbal Tea) I was sitting in the front yard enjoying the day before it gets really hot and watching the barn swallows try to get me to leave.  They have a nest on the side of the house and were trying to distract me from it. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them but they fly and dart around pretty fast.  Also sharing my front yard today was a rather large turtle.  He was going through the tall grass (we need to mow) and I almost didn't see him.  He was at least 12 inches long - around here, that's a pretty big turtle.  What he was doing so close to the house I don't know. I went back a little later and he had moseyed on to where ever he was going. Hopefully out of the yard, as my husband is supposed to mow tonight.

As I don't have much tatting done this week I thought I'd share with you an edging I did a long time ago from thread my got from my grandmother.  She had some crocheting left on the ball, which will remain forever unfinished.  But I made a tatted edging for a napkin with it, which will always make me think of her.  She gave me the teapot when I was a little girl.  It presided over many tea parties over the years.  One day I hope to use it at a tea party with my granddaughter.

Tea parties with grandmother - happy memories in a teapot.