Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Tuesday

The 2014 TIAS continues

The most often guessed is a sail boat but I'm not sure, Jane can be pretty sneaky! (in a good way!)  Whatever it is we are more than halfway through.

I have been tatting but don't have pictures of what I've spent the most time on.  I do have this little piece made with Coats Cotton Machine Quilting thread.  I don't really have a plan for this piece but I had the thread with me (why? I found it in a drawer and stuck it in my box...) so thought I'd try working with it.

And it was very trying.  I usually tat with size 20 thread and I've got a project going in size 10, so working with this was quite a chore.  I would get about three rings and a chain done then break the thread on the next ring.  Today I very consciously made my stitches and pulled the rings closed very carefully. Success! The thread didn't break! 

Last week Tuesday I didn't have to go to work due to snow and bad roads.  We got somewhere between eight and ten inches by the time it was done.  And it hasn't melted yet!  Which is very unusual around here.  Then Sunday night we got another two inches.  But the sun is shining today and they say we'll get above freezing maybe tomorrow.  By Sunday it should be in the 60's (ºF) and the snow mostly gone.

I haven't been doing Tatting Tea Tuesdays much lately, not because I haven't thought about it but I've been drinking a lot of coffee instead of tea.  Including today.  But I did get some tatting done and I've found a blog that's all about tea cups!  If you also like tea and tea cups check out Artful Affirmations.  

                                                                              image from Pinterest

Some levi-tea

TIAS and ATC

TIAS - Tat It And See - Jane Eborall's annual fun-fest of teasing those of us in tat-land that choose to join with small snippets of a pattern every few days.  There have been some pretty fun guesses made by participants but is anyone right?  Only Jane knows!

TIAS Day 9

My TIAS through Day 11

What is it?

It started snowing here last night about midnight.  They are predicting that we could get upwards of 9 inches of snow today with blowing snow and frigid weather tonight and tomorrow. I didn't even open the door to take this picture.

 The view from my front door about 12:00 PM

Just got news that work has been cancelled for today - yeah!!

 ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards.  These are supposed to be no larger than 3½ inches by 2 ½ inches (the size of most any trading card, like baseball, hockey, etc, as well as most playing cards) and can be made of and with almost anything you want.  It's a small piece of art to be traded or given away, not sold, to other artists. Originally this was done at face-to-face events but a lot of people now organize swaps on the Internet and through the mail.  They are also sometimes used by artists to try a technique or idea on a small scale, kept instead of traded.

I have been admiring Singtatter's ATCs for sometime, but never tried any.  She and her friends do all sorts of different media and I haven't seen myself being that ambitious.  But I got to thinking the other day that I've enjoyed decorating the photo album covers and I had a lot of fun decorating the little bags.   And I have quite a lot of flowers, butterflies and birdies and such from emptying shuttles.  Hmm, it could be fun to decorate something small like ATCs.

So I attempted a few.

Tatting and colored pencils

Paper, thread and heart button - oops, no tatting!

Tatting, paper and ribbon
Dove pattern by JoAnn Stearns, 'Joy's Heart' pattern by Wanda Salmans

Originally I wasn't going to put that butterfly on this last one, I was going to write a few words.  And I messed up the few words.  So I had to cover them up.  Oh, well, this is just for me anyway, and I had fun doing it, so all is good.

These are very simple ATCs compared to many I've seen on the Internet, but now I have a lot more ideas to try.  What's funny is for some of these ideas I will have to do some tatting made special for them *hehehe*.  I suppose as fun is the main reason to do these that's not a bad thing.

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."
Pablo Picasso
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TIAS days 7 & 8

We are up to day 8 of the 2014 TIAS by Jane E.  

And I still don't have any idea what it may be.  Several other participants have suggested sails for a boat, which could be - the boat itself may be last.  But with the TIAS in pieces and no way to know which way is up or how they fit together it's very hard to see what may be coming.

Day 7

Lizbeth #130 Island Breeze size 20

Day 8

Reading through all the entries on Jane's TIAS blog it's interesting to see how everyone is coming along and all their guesses.  Most are using variegated thread (Jane suggested to) which gives each person's venture quite different looks due to the thread color combinations.  When I take pictures of mine I keep thinking it's not laying flat when it is, it's just the color of the thread giving that impression. 

I don't know what we're making yet, Jane, but it is a lot of fun!

I haven't been getting a lot of tatting done this week - I keep getting sidetracked.  I see something that needs doing (the 'h' word) or something I've thought about doing (crafty things) or anyone of a number of things that catch my attention and off I go on a tangent. I finally sat down the other night with a piece of tatting I started some time ago and didn't finish.  

Garden 10 Nazli Gelin size 10 white

I found the center of this long-picoted motif inside a bag of other tatting.  I don't remember what I was going to do with those long picots but the motif was obviously unfinished.  For whatever reason it intrigued me enough to work on it a bit.  I put an outside around it, playing with the stitch count until I thought it was right - and found I probably should have used a couple more stitches than I did.  Now I have to decide what comes next.  Maybe it was to go on a ball Christmas ornament?  I need to see if that center will fit over one.  Hmmm.

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."

Augusta Rodin

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