Happy Valentine's Day 2019

A tatted heart for Valentine’s Day

Old snowflake in new thread

I found a tatted snowflake in a drawer recently, made from a pattern that I came up with a few years ago, maybe from 2010 or 2011. This is one that I never wrote down (it is soooo much more fun tatting than to write down patterns!). I recently bought several of the Lizbeth Metallic threads and was looking for something to make with them. This snowflake was a perfect pattern to try out the thread. The first one had seven arms instead of six – oops! But it looks great in metallic thread! See it in my last post.

So I made another one, this time with six arms. I also gave it a name, Snowflake – Adie.

Snowflake – Adie

This one is made in Lizbeth #328 Antique Gold (I think! It might be #300 Gold) and #316 Raspberry Pink. I love how it turned out!

The next one I made I switched up some of the stitch count. The chains between the arms are 7-7 instead of 6-6 and the ring inside the arms don’t have two of the picots. The threads are the same as the other one but reversed.

Snowflake Adie in Raspberry Pink

I was asked about the pattern so thought it was time to write it out. I tatted the second one of these with it so I’m hoping I caught all (most?) of the mistakes. There are a couple of stitch count options mentioned on the pattern.

I was going to put it on My Patterns page but I found out that a lot of people are not able to download the patterns. This is because I’m getting too much traffic for the server where they are stored. For the moment, until I can figure out what to do about it, if you are interested in trying the pattern email me at the address in the ‘Contact Me’ tab and I’ll email it back to you.

I’ve been very pleased with the Lizbeth Metallics thread. My biggest problem has been threading a needle to sew the ends in. I found an embroidery threader which works wonderfully! I have several other colors of this thread that I’m looking forward to trying out, I just have to decide what to make with it. Maybe hearts?

“We are like a snowflake all different in our own beautiful way.” simplethoughtsquotes

December Tatting

I tatted during December but have been so busy, mostly with family, I haven’t posted much. I did discover Lizbeth Metallic thread and have been trying it out. I’ve seen other tatters have used it and finally decided to try it myself. Handy Hands are raising their prices a bit so I bought thread before the new year started.

Snowflake in Lizbeth metalic thread

This is an old snowflake pattern of mine that I tried it out on. It tats so much better than other metallic threads I’ve tried! This is silver #311 and Turquoise Green #321. I love how it turned out, even if it has seven arms instead of six so not quite a snowflake.

Angel in Turquoise Green metallic thread

I tried the same Turquoise Green as an angel. This is my pattern which I modified slightly. This came out beautifully!

I bought several balls of the metallic threads in various colors. The silver and turquoise threads are the only ones I’ve tatted with yet, but I look forward to tatting in the others as well.

I have not yet had time to write out the tree patterns that I posted about a couple of weeks ago. Look for them sometime this year, hopefully in the somewhat near future.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/henry_david_thoreau_153926?src=t_busy

Getting ready for Christmas

‘Tis the season to be very busy! If it’s not getting the house decorated and ready for guests it’s getting food or gifts ready. For those of us who craft our Christmas gifts, it’s also trying to get them finished! At least that’s me. How about you?

Back in October I started thinking of what I wanted for my yearly ornament that I give to family and close friends. I was early this year, not even waiting until December to come up with one. But I had so many different ideas about what I wanted to do I am still behind!

I have a whole box of old hymnals from our church that I thought I could utilize for ornaments. First, I made this folded paper angel, which came out very nicely. It doesn’t even take much time to make. 

Music paper angel with tatting

I used two pages out of a hymnal to make it. The tatting is done in Yarnart Camelia thread, very simple rings and chains. Without the thread hanger, this angel is six inches tall. I love it. But just how do you put this in a Christmas card? I needed to come up with something else.

Several of my other ideas I barely started before I realized that they wouldn’t work or would take too much time. Most of them were mixed media of some sort, on the order of the angel where I tried adding tatting to paper and other backgrounds. I will probably revisit the ideas later.

Even when  I thought I had an ornament that would work I couldn’t make up my mind.

Christmas tree ornaments for 2018

I decided to make trees. But I could not make up my mind just how I wanted to make them. I came up with a forest of trees, each one different from the rest. They are in at least three different threads – size 10 & 20, and two different shades of green. I sprayed them with Stiffy to help them keep their shape.  As they blend in a lot on most backgrounds  I sprinkled them with fine glitter.

Yes, I know, there are Christmas tree patterns out there, but I try to come up with something myself each year. I enjoy how they look all together here, though I’m not so sure of a few of them individually.  But it doesn’t matter, these are going out in the Christmas cards the way they are!

Charles N. Barnard
“The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect!”

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