On Vacation

 My husband and I took a short vacation to Colorado to visit our daughter and her family over Easter. While we were gone, I did very little tatting. We started out late in the day so some of the trip was in the dark, not ideal conditions to tat (though I do have a light I could have used). My daughter's house does not have lights in convenient places, making it difficult to tat while there. We also were busy visiting and doing things with the family. On the way home, I was just lazy. Overall, not much tatting was done, except for a few stitches while sitting in Estes Park. 

We watched our grandson's jazz band play at a jazz festival, and our granddaughter at a track meet. The entire family went walking in a park with our dogs and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We saw a lot of people out doing the same thing. It's amazing how fast a few days go by when you are busy.

On our last day the kids were back in school and our daughter and son-in-law back at work, so Jack and I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was still not open across the divide, but there is still a lot to see on the west side. 

Still snow on the peaks in RMNP

We almost missed this moose resting in the grass. It was a distance from the road, resting beside a fence that was put up by the forest service to protect a stand of willows. If they don't protect them, deer and elk eat them beyond recovery.  Moose drop their antlers after rut and regrowth doesn't start again until sometime in April, so we don't know if this was a bull or cow.

Moose at RMNP

We drove up to Bear Lake but didn't hike to it as they don't want dogs on the trail. Which was fine by us, as we aren't in the kind of shape to do much strenuous hiking. We are not usually up there this early in the year and we saw things we haven't before, like frozen streams.

Still cold at Bear Lake, RMNP

We have been up to Rocky Mountain National Park many times, but have never been in the right place at the right time to see bighorn sheep, and we saw these right beside the road. They weren't even in RMNP, they were in Roosevelt National Forest as we headed east to Loveland on highway 34.

Bighorn sheep east of Estes Park

I need to get back to tatting now that we're home again, but I find myself busy doing other things. I'm sure I'll take the time again to tat soon as I still have a list of things I want to make. Soon.

"The ant is knowing and wise, but he doesn't know enough to take a vacation."

                                                                Clarence Day

June Earrings

 I have several projects in mind, none of which I've started yet. For each project, I envision using a specific color of thread or color of beads, but I am missing at least one item for each project. Still wanting to tat, I made a pair of earrings that are not on my list.

While cleaning up a bit of tatting from some earlier time, I found an earring. But only one. I looked at the clothes for a shirt that I would like to match earrings to, located thread that would work, dug out beads that would look good with it, and started on a new pair.

I am not enamored of this pattern, which I knew when I finished the first one. It looked a bit different in the darker thread that was used in my find. It might also be I didn't follow the stitch count, which would lead to it being less pleasing to my eyes. Whatever the case, I made the matching earring so I had a pair. I might not be that pleased with it, but it looks okay. I will probably base another earring on this idea, making a few tweaks when I do.

I have been looking over the pictures I took on our family vacation a few weeks ago. I take a lot of pictures!  Of course, not all are good pictures, so I need to go through them and delete the bad ones. I am so glad they are digital! I can see them as I take them, as well as on the computer when I view them later. I don't have to wait days or weeks to get them developed and then find out they are out of focus, of the floor, or some other mistake. I can also take several shots at a time, and not worry about how many are good or bad. This makes for a lot of pictures to go through when I get home. 

I also get a lot of pleasure in finding the good shots, and remembering where and when it was taken. 

This is a view of the Colorado River close to the town of Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado. There is an easy hike here, which we took before we went to soak in the hot springs at the near-by spa. 

My husband, Jack, snapped this picture of the crew that went on the hike.

At least most of us looks like we're having fun!

They must have enjoyed the vacation, because before we all headed home they were talking of wanting to do this again. Joy!

"Time and memory are true artists; they remold reality nearer to the heart's desire." John Dewey

 

Family Vacation

 We just got back from a wonderful family vacation. I had meant to post a little something while we were gone, but I forgot to ensure I had the password to get into my blog. Oops! I didn't get much tatting done, anyway.

We started our vacation with a visit to an aunt and uncle, at their cabin west of Pueblo, Colorado. It was restful and so quiet! Mostly we just visited on their front porch and watched the critters pass by. They have several hummingbird feeders, which are well used. We also saw deer, squirrels, rabbits, and a lot of birds from the porch. Antelope were around, but only when we drove out to the valley. 

 This is the only tatting I can say I finished while we were gone. I took plenty of thread and shuttles, but time and energy for tatting was in short supply. Time was spent with family, not always doing but a lot of being together. Energy was in short supply after we did get around to doing things.

After a few days in the mountains by Pueblo we headed to Grandby, Colorado, to spend time with our daughters and their families. We arrived a day earlier than they did, so we drove around the area seeing it in June. We've been there a handful of times, but always in the fall. It is so different and green! There is also more water in the rivers and lakes, and snow on the mountains!

This is the view from Hoosier pass. It was getting late by the time we went through but we had to stop for the view and the obligatory picture by the sign.

In Grandby the family had a great time together in a beautiful setting. We played games, went out on the lake in a pontoon to fish, did some easy hiking, and just hung out together. It was fabulous.

One evening we enjoyed s'mores on the patio and a marvelous view. Good times!

Now we are back home in sweltering heat. The temperatures are in the 90's(F), with a lot of humidity. We're not even in the south! And it has rained every day, sometimes for hours, sometimes for just a few minutes. Since last night we got 1.75" of rain, with more expected over the next week. We've been in a drought for three years, but I'm ready for a break from the rain!

I have several tatting projects in mind now we are home for a while. With the temperatures so hot, I am happy to have things to do in the house.

How is your summer? 

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." Desmond Tutu

Thanksgiving

Can you believe Thanksgiving day has passed? It came and went so fast! We still have one Thanksgiving family gathering today, but I’ve put away my fall decorations and started on my Christmas decorating.

Table ready for the family on Thanksgiving

This year we had a bit of rescheduling for some of the family get-togethers, so for Thanksgiving day we only had our daughters and their families and my mother over for lunch. We finalized the menu through texts a week ago. The meal was terrific, with minimal issues, as nothing burned and there was space for everyone at the table. We did add an extra table to the one in the picture so we could seat everyone, but no one was cramped. The weather in the afternoon was cool but sunny, so we ended up outside. Then we played a game before they all had to go home. There were a bunch of pictures taken!

I have been working on the edging for a Christmas table runner that I had been asked to do last year (!). She didn’t need it until this year, so I had plenty of time to get it done. Or so you’d think. I couldn’t make up my mind about the edging! I thought about it and tried several different things over the last several months, trying to come up with something I was happy about. I like the look of the edging I came up with, but I need to tweak it a bit more before I’ll be happy with the pattern.

Candy cane Christmas runner

The lady that requested the runner showed me another Christmas runner she had and her tree skirt so I had an idea of what type of fabric to use, and I still had a hard time choosing it. There were so many beautiful fabrics to choose from at Jo-Ann’s! And I needed to buy more than I usually do as she wanted a longer runner than I ordinarily make. The tatted edging also needed to be a bit wider than I have made in the past, another challenge.

In so many ways the tatting is the easy part. I rarely sew, which means it takes longer than I expect it to. And then I have to stitch the edging to the runner – on both ends! But the final result is worth it.

Now I’ll be working on perfecting that edging, as well as working on Christmas ornaments. I’ve had a hard time the last month or so not getting sidetracked from the edging by all the ideas I’ve had for other Christmas things. Now if I can just remember all those ideas!

About the September Angel pattern I have spoken about, there has been another delay. I had the whole thing written out but needed to make a correction. I printed it out to test tat it and noted the corrections that needed to be done. For an unknown reason, my computer shut down. When I went back to the pattern half of it was gone! Not sure what the glitch was, but thank goodness I have the printed version. Now I just need to re-write the parts that disappeared.

“The memories we make with our family is everything.” – Candace Cameron Bure.

Split rings and beads

One of my daughters had a birthday recently. We took her and her family as well as our other daughter and her family out to lunch to celebrate. The day before her birthday I thought about tatting her something (I always leave it to the last minute.) Earrings can be quick and easy – relatively speaking – so I decided to make her a pair.

Split ring dragonfly earrings

The dragonfly wing beads I bought last year from JoAnn’s, the same time I bought the beads for these earrings. I used Lizbeth metallic thread #311 for the finished earrings, but, I didn’t start with that thread. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to make them so I practiced with cotton thread first.

Trial and error for the dragonfly earrings

My first try was with cotton thread and single shuttle split rings. I was not happy with them at all. They might be good after a bit more refresher practice, but there was a time limit for getting them made. I like the look of the split rings in the middle one, but they looked a bit too big. So I made the split rings a bit smaller, which resulted in a happy tatter and a pretty set of earrings.

I used a few other beads bought at the same time for my Christmas gift ornaments this last year. They were made almost the same way as the earrings but with different stitch counts.

Beaded split ring Christmas ornaments

The biggest issue I had with these ornaments was I couldn’t put them in my Christmas cards to send them! Which in a way was good, as I didn’t have enough beads to make as many ornaments as I usually do. But those that received them were thrilled with them.

I don’t tat with beads often, usually because I make messes with them. I tat a lot in the car, so beads end up on the floor, between the seats, or lost. Okay, I’m also impatient with how much slower I tat with beads than tatting without. But once in a while beads are fun to work with, and usually turn out pretty good.

“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” Denis Waitley

Little trees

I am working on the ornaments that I put in Christmas cards to close family and friends. I also get side-tracked a lot.

I found a cute little tatted tree in a box I was looking through the other day and then saw another one in the Facebook group Tatters of Lace that was almost the same thing. While trying to empty a few shuttles I found one with green thread on it and thought that little tree would fit the bill to empty the shuttle. But of course, I couldn’t find where I had put the tree I had previously found OR the pattern on FB. So I did what I usually do and made one up myself. It is not quite the tree on FB, and I’m not sure just how close it is to the one I found and lost.

Little tatted trees

As I was cleaning and preparing the house for our Thanksgiving guests I had a thought about the tree pattern. Wouldn’t it be cute in fall colors as earrings?

Little tatted tree earrings

I thought they came out well. I could have tried matching up the variegations a bit to make the match a bit better, but I was in a hurry to get them done.

Fall tatted tree earrings

And I didn’t get them done in time to wear. Not for our Thursday dinner, nor for the other dinner we had Saturday. I did get them done by the end of the weekend and wore them Sunday around the house.

I wore them around the house on Sunday because we didn’t go anywhere at all. We had planned on taking our daughter and grandkids home that day but we had blizzard-like conditions, with several inches of snow blowing sideways, cold temperatures, and extremely bad driving conditions.

We were able to take the family back home on Monday with minimal road issues. We did have to take another day of vacation, but it was a better choice than trying to go through the weather on Sunday.  On the way out the roads were still ice covered in areas, making driving a bit problematic still. The roads were much better coming home later in the day.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Now it’s time to get ready for Christmas.

Are you ready yet?

“Holidays – any holiday – are such a great opportunity to focus on bringing the family together.” Lidia Bastianich                                                                                         https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lidia_bastianich

 

Memorial Day 2017

Memorial Day, an Amerian national holiday that is celebrated the last Monday of the month of May.  On this day we honor those who have given their lives in defense of our country.  Over the years it has come to be a day that all graves are decorated and those who served in the military are marked with flags.

Decorated graves on Memorial Day

Sunday we visited local family graves, ones that don’t take hours to get to  It was a beautiful day for a drive. There was almost no wind, which in Kansas is very rare.  The sky had puffy white clouds that cleared off in the evening.  The sunset was amazing.

Park Memorial

On Monday morning, all over the country, there are ceremonies conducted at cemeteries and other locations to honor fallen veterans.  I planned on going to a local observance but misunderstood what time it was.  I did make it to another one just as they got started.  Patriotic songs were sung, prayers were said, an uplifting message was given, and a roll call of veterans that died in the last year was read.  Local Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts assisted with the ceremony, helping to raise the flag (to half-staff) and set flowers for each name on the roll-call.  The VFW Auxillary  (Veterans of Foreign Wars) helped with the honor guard along with local members of the military.  It was incredibly moving.

Later in the afternoon, we had family and friends over for supper.  It was a great end to a lovely weekend.

“Memorial Day isn’t just about honoring veterans, it’s honoring those who lost their lives.  Veterans had the fortune of coming home.  for us, that’s a reminder of when we come home we still have a responsibility to serve.  It’s a continuation of service that honors our country and those who fell defending it.”  Pete Hegseth     www.brainyquote.com/quotes

Time well spent

Last month I spent a weekend with my daughter’s family.  One day my grandson had a fundraiser he had to work and wanted me to go, too.  I tagged along but forgot to bring a chair to sit on.  We did happen to bring a cooler, so I was able to sit down somewhat comfortably.  I did not have a particular tatting project to work on but I did have several shuttles I was going to empty making small butterflies and such.

Ashley, the mother of one of the other boys, came over to see what I was doing.  I demonstrated a bit using two shuttles to show the flip better.  As we were both going to be there a while, and she showed interest, I let her try.  She picked it up fast!  In a little over an hour she was able to chain and even do a couple of rings.

New tatter Ashley

I was impressed with Ashley, she did such a great job!  What I thought would be a long two hours went by in a flash.  We both enjoyed ourselves sitting on the sidewalk outside of a Wal-mart. Best fundraiser I ever went to.

Between the wonderful time I spent with my daughter’s family and the time I spent with Ashley, it was a great weekend.

 

“Time is free, but it’s priceless.
You can’t own it, but you can use it.
You can’t keep it, but you can spend it.
Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”

Cruising

My husband and I tried something new last week - we went on a cruise to Alaska.

This trip was taken with several of my husband's family, making us a group of eleven.  My sister-in-law and her husband are the only ones to have been on cruises before in the Gulf of Mexico, and none of us have ever been to Alaska.  It was a week of new experiences all around.

My husband and I flew out to Seattle a day early so we could see some of the city before we sailed.  We spent Saturday doing a lot of walking, trying to see as much as possible in the time we had.  That was fun! We spent some time in Pike's Place at the fish market and the shops down there.  We took a picture of the original Starbucks from outside for our daughter (there were so many people we couldn't go inside) and stopped at a couple more for coffee.  They really are everywhere up there!  They make great places to stop and rest for awhile. 

Everyone else arrived Saturday evening. We all stayed at the same hotel so we could all go together to the ship on Sunday.  It is quite a challenge to organize even that many people to be ready to go at the same time.

I'm very glad that tatting is so portable.

You notice how dressed up I am?  My husband and I figured we were going to Alaska so we would dress comfortably and fit right in :-)

I couldn't think of any patterns I wanted to work on during the trip so I just made sure I had a some thread and several shuttles.  I didn't tat a whole lot for the first few days - there were so many things to do on the ship!  But I had it with me all the time.

To start with I decorated a few buttons and did an short edging to put on the card holder on my lanyard.  I wore this all the time on the ship.  It had my room key, tatting, crochet hook and scissors, the schedule of events on board for the day, receipts, a pen and cash for when we went ashore.  You see that it was the last day of the cruise before I realized I didn't have a picture of it.

I gave this button away to one of our servers who had been very interested in what I was doing.  The server was very happy with it.  I hadn't realized that the schedule I used as the background was from day six instead of seven until later.  

Be fore-warned: there will be a lot of pictures from our vacation in the coming weeks. It was a great week with many, many beautiful things to see.  I haven't even gone through all the pictures yet , but I'm looking forward to enjoying our vacation all over again as I do.

"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us."
Anonymous 

Bedside tatting

A little before Christmas my MIL became pretty sick.  It put a bit of a damper on the whole holiday.  We spent some time sitting with her, to give a break to my FIL. I always have some tatting with me but I don't always have a pattern or a project with me, which is what happened one evening.  I had green thread, red thread and even some red seed beads but no plan.  This is the result from that evening. 

Let's face it, a simple round motif of rings and chains in green makes a simple wreath.  The beads I added after it was done because I forgot to add them as I tatted.  I braided strands of the red thread together to made the bow, and, ta da! A wreath!

I completed it while there and thought to leave if for my MIL, but I wanted a picture of it first.  It took a bit of doing to find a background that worked.  I tried several things before I noticed a Christmas stocking that turned out to be the best background.

I'm happy to say that my MIL is doing much better, though she gave us all quite a scare. In some ways the family meeting there, taking turns sitting at her bedside, made us much more aware of how blessed we are with family, even without the traditional Christmas gatherings.  I'm just hoping it's a long time before we do this again!

"If today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?"

Steve Jobs

Update - pattern added to My Patterns tab 1/6/15

A busy time of year

Busy with lots of things but very, very little tatting.  There have been family dinners, cleaning in preparation for those dinners, a Christmas play, unexpected events.... It's just been very, very busy!

I didn't get as many snowflakes done as I would have liked, but the important people each got one.  A couple of gifts I had wanted to make will have to wait for another occasion as I ran out of time this year.  A few projects I wanted to do will have to wait as I didn't have as much time off from work as they said we would have.

But it was a wonderful Christmas!  We baked and decorated cookies with the grandchildren.  We played games that included everyone, from the great-grandparents to the youngest child.  We had a variety of foods that weren't 'traditional' Christmas dinner fare but were easy to prepare so time could be spent doing other things.  We sat and talked, reconnecting with family we seem too busy to see much of the rest of the year. For all that there was a lot of time planning and preparing we didn't let ourselves be too stressed about all that, for stress takes out a lot of the fun, doesn't it?

We even had a white Christmas this year.  Here in Kansas there is only about an 11% chance of that happening, so it isn't something you expect.  Of course, because we don't expect it this early and it wasn't just snow but ice as well,  not everyone could get out and about like we planned, either.  But it all came together anyway.

One of the few things beside snowflakes I did get done was this headband.

This was tatted on a white button then a sparkly jewel was added in the middle. I stitched it on the headband then added a bit of glue to give a little more hold. It was actually a birthday gift not a Christmas gift to a little girl who just loves purple.  It was a nice break from the snowflakes.

Now it's on to other things.  Though maybe I should start on the snowflakes a little earlier this year - like, now?

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!

"Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas."

Peg Bracken

http://www.quotegarden.com/christmas.html

Snowflakes and Pictures

I made my 'Crowned Wheel' (found on my Patterns tab) in white for the first time.  It's actually the first time I've made it in a solid color instead of a variegated thread.  It looks pretty good as a snowflake.

The small snowflakes are just my doodling around to make small 'flakes for the bags I've been decorating, but I'm pretty sure that some version of these (and more!) are in Patti Duff's 'Minitats' (which is currently sold out) and probably other places as well.  

I haven't gotten much tatting done in the last week due to having family doings for Thanksgiving.  We had three different dinners in three days.  I didn't have to cook for all three - one was catered and not at our house; one was at our house but made by my Son-In-Law; the other at our house where I did almost everything but the turkey which was smoked outside.  We're dining on leftovers still, and will be for several more days.  This is not a bad thing at all - little cooking but a variety of good food :-)

Have you ever had family get-togethers where you want to take pictures but not everyone is all that enthused about it?  As I take a lot of pictures my family knows it's coming and they will just have to suffer through it.  This year I tried to make it fun.  The weather was very mild so we took the set pictures outside.  I had purchased some holiday accessories - Christmas tree head bands, gnome/elf hats, funny glasses - and had everyone wear them for pictures.  I didn't hear nearly as much complaining as I usually do - everyone was laughing too hard. The kids thought it was great and even the guys had fun with it.

Our daughters framing us for the holidays.

It was great to have such a mild holiday weekend where we could spend a lot of time outside and didn't have to bundle up.  I heard that the weather on the east coast was pretty nasty with a lot of travel delays.  Our turn could be coming.  The temp here today was about 65º F, tomorrow the high is supposed to be about 23º.  

And "breezy" - meaning winds 10 to 25 mph.

And maybe snow.

Lovely.

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."

Desmond Tutu

brainyquotes.com

More mice

I had to make more mice this weekend due to a few requests.  From the grandkids, so how could I refuse?

We went on a vacation with our daughters and their families this holiday weekend. There were four children ages two to six with us.  I was sitting on the porch of the cabin with my tatting when they came by to see what I was doing.  They saw the two mice I had in my case and immediately started deciding between them who would get them and wasn't I going to make more?  As I didn't expect to get much tatting done during the weekend I didn't bring a large choice of thread. In fact I only brought two balls of thread, Lizbeth #644 Boysenberry Dark and # 662 Turquoise Light, both in size 20.  I also didn't bring the black beads I use for eyes and nose.   

That didn't stop me.  I had a partially loaded shuttle of another color thread that had clear beads strung on it so the mice would have light colored eyes and noses.  I did, fortunately, have enough findings with me to make the required number of mice.  With the blue mouse I had already made (in Lizbeth #652) that was specially requested by one of the grandsons I just needed to make three mice.  I made two in the Boysenberry Dark and and one in the Turquoise Light.  

On Sunday, after lunch but before we went our separate ways, I let the kids choose which mouse they wanted.  One of the grandsons wasn't very happy with the color choices - none of them were red.  So I promised him I make him one in red and send it to him. 

Here's the red mouse I made for him (Lizbeth #671, size 20).  Of course at home I had the black beads so it has the dark eyes and nose.  I'll be sending it off in the mail today or tomorrow. 

This snail is Nancy Tracy's pattern made in Lizbeth #601 snow white in size 20. I have made this before but I thought I would make it again for the Shuttlebirds Tatting Challenge.  This was tatted on the drive to the cabin.  It's in white as I had a little bit of this thread still on a shuttle.  

Every morning this weekend (Friday, Saturday & Sunday) I was the first one out of bed, which gave me a quiet time to tat while enjoying the beautiful view from one of the porches.  I got a surprising amount of tatting done this way.  These motifs are what I had planned on making if I had time, which dictated the choice of colors I had brought.  They are to go on a denim purse I want to add tatting to.  They are made in the Turquoise Light with 6-point findings.  The shape and pattern is pretty much the same as for the mouse with a reduced stitch count for the rings, 3+3 and 2-2-2-2 for the chains.  I'm planning on gluing them to my purse (I'm lazy and don't want to try stitching them on).

We spent this vacation at a small retreat in southeast Nebraska called Dana Farms at Mayberry.  The entire family had a wonderful time.  Not once did I hear any of the kids (adult kids or grandkids) say they wanted to go home.  The pond (Lake Suzanne) was stocked so every time we went fishing fish were caught, which really helped the grandkids have a good time.  The owners were great and the cabin was absolutely wonderful.  If anyone needs a nice, quiet place to get away and you're in that area I highly recommend Dana Farms.  You can find out more about it at http://cabins4fun.com/

(This is my own endorsement made without compensation. We just had a great time there!!)  

We all hated to see the end of the vacation.  It was very hard to go back to work on Monday, too. 

"There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind."

Washington Irving

Tatting in the center

I went to a nephew's wedding this weekend in North Platte, Nebraska.  When planning the trip I decided I didn't have to drive interstate all the way, there are other roads to get to where I needed to go.  Some of the highways I took were two lane (instead of four) but well surfaced, and had a lot less traffic.  Okay, I had to slow down for combines a few times but mostly the roads had few cars or other traffic.  The weather was mild for this time of year making the trip both ways very enjoyable. 

On the way back I took a short side trip to see the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states. 

This is the roadside historical marker that is on US highway 36.

I had seen this on my way to the wedding but stopped on the way home as the timing was better. 

 There's not much there.  This has a plaque with the longitude and latitude on it.

There is a tiny, tiny chapel and a covered area with picnic tables and a couple of trash cans.  That's about it.

 The road to get there (looking east from the site). There is a house at the end of that driveway, otherwise just pastures and fields all around.  This road ends at the site though two dirt roads go off north and south. 

Yes, I was tatting in the center - of the United States.

The wedding gift

I had asked the bride what their wedding colors were, she said 'green, black and white'.  Black and white were easy but there are a lot of shades of green.  Instead of asking what shade I took a wild guess and chose Lizbeth #684 Leaf Green Med and of course white #601 to make the hearts.  There are a few flowers  on there in #613 Golden Yellow Med and #696 Autumn Orange Med, thrown in for contrast.  The leaves are in #138 Leafy Greens. The hearts are Joy's Heart (on my pattern tab), and the butterfly is Monica Mancenido's pattern (aka soyloquesoy on Intatters).  All are made in size 20.

My daughter and granddaughter also came to the wedding., her husband and son having a "guys" weekend at home (my husband had to work). We roomed together in North Platte for two nights, which was great. I had even finished the present two days earlier (amazing!) so I wasn't even rushing to get that done but could relax and enjoy the time with the family.  It was a great weekend.

"Everywhere's been where it is ever since it was first put there.  It's called geography."
Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

Birthday gift

I made this cross bookmark for one of my Sunday School students who's birthday was this week.  I had planned on making it several weeks ago but that was while I was getting ready for the craft show, so it got put off.  Then there was the week before Thanksgiving trying to get some neglected cleaning done before our daughter's family arrived for the weekend.  Then there was Thanksgiving and all the get-togethers and dinners.  Sunday morning arrived and it wasn't done yet!

Luckily I woke early, even before the grandchildren, and was able to get started on it.  I kept making mistakes on stitch counts and joins, and then the kids got up.  Just a few more distractions while I hurried to finish it before church.  Amazingly, I did it.

This is made with Lizbeth size 20 in #641 Lilac Dark for the rings and #633 Dark Purple for the chains.  The pictures, at least on my computer, come out looking like shades of blue, but trust me, they're purple! I'm pretty sure she'll like it as purple is her favorite color.  

I say pretty sure because after all that hurrying to get it done, her family was out of town for the holidays so she hasn't seen it yet. Oh, well, it's done.  Much better to have it done and her not there that the other way around!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with several dinners and lots of family. We don't see much of some of the families that much anymore, which is sad.  Fortunately we still try to get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas and most are able to make one or the other, and if we are lucky, both.  Hopefully some that couldn't make it for Thanksgiving will be able to come for Christmas.

Now things have settled down a bit, at least for a few days, and I can think what I still need to make and do for Christmas.  Unlike Diane I haven't been getting any snowflakes made.  She has made some beautiful ones this year.  I need to get motivated and make some myself.

"A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer."

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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Charmed

At least my wine glasses are.

I've been doing a lot of tatting lately but not everything has come out like I'd like.  The wine glass charms are one thing that I think has come out well.   I showed them to my sister the other day when her son, who was there as well, said he thought they were pretty cool.  This surprised both his mother and I as he doesn't usually notice such things.  

He asked if he could take a picture of them to send to his girlfriend.  Hmmm, like I had to think very hard about that one. 

I've made sets of them in jewel tones and autumn colors, four colors in a set.  I'm thinking these will work very well for Christmas gifts this year.  A lot of the nieces and nephews are in college, or at least that age now, and wine glasses with wine glass charms would work well as gifts, don't you think?

They also make cute, easy earrings.  I still had some thread on my shuttle from the blue ones so made two more and put them on earring wires instead of the rings.  When I wore them to work the other day one lady said she definitely would like a pair.  I asked her what color she wanted.  

I made two sets using two different centers and let her choose.  

My sister and I are going to do a local craft show in a few weeks where I hope to sell some of these, too, both wine glass charm sets and earrings.  We thought business cards would be a good idea, in case there were any special orders.  We used to do several craft shows a year but haven't for quite a while now.  Lately we've been talking about trying to do a couple of local shows, just for fun.  We can't use the same name as we had before because we had a third person with us which fit the name, but it doesn't now.  Do you know how hard it can be to come up with a name we both like, fits what we do/may do and isn't already taken??

I have to thank Sharon and her Design-Tat class for the designs on our business cards.  We plan to print our own as we don't expect to need a lot, but they needed some graphics to be more than just words.  I looked online for free graphics that would fit our name/theme and couldn't find any I liked.  There are a lot of sewing ones out there, and a few tatting ones, but, but - not quite right.   So I made the graphics myself utilising the knowledge I learned in the Design Tat class as well as the software program that I now use for my tatting patterns   I think they came out pretty well if I do say so myself. 

One bad thing about making these are that they are very quick to tat.  How can that be a problem?   It means I'm hiding a lot of ends frequently.  I've taken to making the charms/earrings in batches then sewing in all the ends.  My fingers have gotten a little sore.  I've taken to using my little jewelry pliers to pull the needle through - very carefully.  I've already broken one needle. The good news is my fingers are not as sore!

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."  Oscar Wilde

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Reflections on things I've learned

I was at my mother's house the other day and noticed a gift I had given her years ago.  It's been sitting out for all these years but I just happened to 'see' it again. It's a picture of my children and my sister's children when they were much younger in a decorated frame with a little tatting.  

The frame is an inexpensive one without glass and the wooden hearts were painted to coordinate with the material I used to cover the backing.  Where the ribbon is tied around the flowers the tatting is gathered up, giving the impression they are wrapped in the lace.

For whatever reason, this day I also noticed all the imperfections of this gift.  The backing I'm sure is cardboard, not a bad thing but probably, no, certainly, not acid free.  I noticed the hole I cut for the picture is not quite square and whatever I used to glue the tatting down stained the material.  For all that the material, ribbon and flowers are about the same color, one or another should probably have been a contrasting color to show off the others better.

Back when I did this I didn't know anything about using acid free paper/cardboard.  With the surge of interest in scrap-booking now almost anyone can know about acid free paper just by reading the packaging of scrap booking paper at the store.  There are now a lot of templates easily available for different shapes to make a finished project look, well, finished. There were probably other glues I could have used that would have worked better than whatever it is I used, but I was pretty ignorant of such things back then. 

I remember this piece of tatting - made entirely of plain rings and chains it was supposed to be a round motif that I put too many stitches/too many repeats in, making it ruffle a lot. By gathering it up around the flowers it allowed the rest of it to lay flat.  It was a good way to use what might have been a mistake.  This wasn't my first attempt at designing my own patterns but everything I knew about tatting had been gleaned just by the experience of doing it.  The only person I knew that even knew what tatting was, was my grandmother and she didn't do much at all.  There was no Internet to see other people's tatting, so my exposure to patterns were in whatever books and magazines I could lay my hands on.  The library didn't have many books on it and magazines with tatting were few and far between.  Yes, Workbasket was out there with a pattern or two a month, but that's almost nothing compared to what we have available now.  I had taken to coming up with my own patterns a lot of the time, simple though they were. I was following unknowingly in the footsteps of designers everywhere - trial and error: keep what you like, throw away what you don't, but most importantly, keep trying!

As I look at the gift now I see all of it's flaws, but also what went into it: the effort, the imagination, the skill, the courage to do something out of my comfort zone.  And mostly the desire to give my mother something special that she would like and, hopefully, treasure. I must have succeeded as it still sits out in her living room, visible to all who enter her house.



"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!"
Dr. Seuss

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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"