Shuttle swapping

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you may recall that I decided to swap some decoupaged shuttles. I received my first swap package this week from A Happy Bluebird!


Not only did I receive a beautiful shuttle, I also received some napkins for experimentation!

I discovered that decoupaging with napkins requires a much lighter hand than with scrapbooking paper. This time I decided to use Sew Mate shuttles. I also decided that some "jewels" would add just the right touch of sparkle! I found that the napkin wrinkled more readily than the scrapbooking paper, but I'm pretty pleased with the results of my first experiment with napkins.


Now, maybe I should try some fabric...

Another snowflake

This one's in Heather's Summer Brights, size 40... much smaller than the DMC size 12 perle cotton!

I'm trying to get on a roll with snowflakes, but it's just not happening. Instead, I've started another Spinning Wheel glass mat... I just can't help myself!

Back to basics... again!

For the last few weeks, I just haven't been able to follow a pattern. There's been a lot of start, stop, snip, rip, mumble, grumble... and very little completed tatting! So, I went back to basics... basics for me any way. There's something about Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel glass mat that just soothes my tatting soul. I think I might be ready to try reading a pattern again!

Spinning Wheel glass mat from Tatting With Visual Patterns by Mary Konior
Lizbeth thread, size 40, color #128
Finished size - 4 3/4"

I hadn't planned on this!

I never expected that my decoupaged shuttles would be swapped so quickly! I'll make some more soon... promise!

Wanna swap?

I finally took some pictures that are decent enough to show off what Denise and I accomplished on Columbus Day... yea! Some have been given away, and we kept the ones we just couldn't part with. I guess you could call these our leftovers! Anyway, if you're interested in a shuttle swap, let me know which one you're interested in. The first to respond for each of these four shuttles will be the one I swap with.



Green floral - swap with H J Hess



Orange floral - swap with Happy Bluebird



Stripes - swap with Zarina



Pink floral - swap with Marty

October snowflake

After several false starts, I finally completed my October snowflake for the One Snowflake A Month challenge over at The Tatting Forums. I think I'll make my picots smaller the next time. It looks like I have little ladders for my chains! This pattern is from DMC Festive Tatting, Motif #11. I used DMC perle cotton, size 12, and it measures 3" across.

For some reason, I've been having a difficult time reading patterns for the past couple of weeks. I tried four or five different snowflake patterns before finally tatting one correctly! Maybe this will be my snowflake pattern for the year, and I'll tat the same pattern in different threads instead of tatting different patterns!

I received an email this morning about an article called "40 iPad Apps That Librarians Love." What a great article! I think some of these apps would be great for anyone. If there are any teachers reading my blog, you may want to check it out as well. Now I want to run out and buy an iPad! Unfortunately, it's not in the budge right now, but it sure is fun to dream about!

It's the little things that count!

Like an unexpected gift from a friend...


Thank you, Fox! I now have a beautiful new shuttle to add to my collection... and, no, I did not have one of these! I love the motif with clunies... inspiration is now close at hand. The buttons are adorable! I'm sure I'll find the perfect use for them!

Or indulging in luxuries!


Thank you for providing such wonderful, inspirational hand-dyed threads, Marilee!



Shirl, I love these up-cycled vinyl record shuttles, and now I'm the lucky owner of a matched pair!

And then, there's always that special eBay purchase!


I know I read about this book online, but I don't remember where or when. The price was right, so I bought it... just because it's blue, and because the little girl on the front reminds me of how little girls looked when I was that age. Today (and most days) I'm feeling like life is pretty good!

To flash, or not to flash...

that is the question! Some day, I'm going to read the manual that came with my camera, and figure out how to take a good picture. The true colors lie somewhere between these two photos!


In yesterday's mail, I received this beautiful thank-you card from Tatting Marie. I have card-making supplies, but somehow I've never gotten around to actually making a card. Thank you for the beautiful thank-you card, Marie!


I also received two of Heather's beautiful polymer clay shuttles... how does she do that? I'm loving the finer threads, and Heather's Summer Brights in size 40 called my name!

Yesterday I went shopping with my sister-in-law and two of her friends in beautiful Long Grove Village. We had a perfect day, and I did find some Christmas presents. However, I preferred Long Grove Village in the early '70s when most of the shops carried hand-crafted items. We did visit a wonderful little yarn shop, I'd Rather Be Knitting, which I had visited with daughter Alison several years ago. There's something about oodles of beautiful yarn that sets my fingers itching to knit!

Denise & Diane's Great Halloween Giveaway!

Denise and I are amazed at the number of people who commented on our little Halloween shuttles. Thank you all for participating! As you can see, the winners are:

#17 - Debbie
#26 - Sunela
#25 - Beedeebabee

Congratulations ladies! Please send me your mailing info so that I can get your shuttles out to you next week. You can contact me at DianeCademartori at gmail dot com.

By the way... my 500th blog post will be coming up sometime in the next few weeks. Keep your eyes open for a special giveaway to celebrate the occasion!

I like me...

a lot! At least it appears so with my recent shopping spree!


I ordered some size 80 Lizbeth thread from Handy Hands. It may be hard to tell, but they're all in my favorite color... blue! The shuttle is from Shirl at Shade Tree Art. It's made from upcycled vinyl records, and I think it's really cool! Hey, Shirl... do you remember what song was on the record? I'd love to be able to hum it while I tat! ; )


I had to order some of LadyShuttleMaker's new thread, Piccadilly. And, how could I order luscious new thread without ordering a new shuttle to go with it? I hope this is one of the musical ones!


Snowy has been working on the Oeillets doily from this book, and she was kind enough to send me the Amazon link. By looking at the cover, I was able to find it at Handy Hands. I've been using Google Translate to find out what's being said... not perfect, but I'm getting the idea of what needs to be done!

Bling! Bling! Bling!

Denise (Lace Rn) and I got together today to play with shuttles, decals, paper, "gemstones", and Mod Podge... what fun! One of the shuttles in the top row is the one I posted about before, but the others were all decorated today.

We each chose favorites to keep, and we decided that we'd like to share the fruits of our fun day together.

Presenting... the Great Denise and Diane Halloween Shuttle giveaway!


Leave a comment on this post, and you could be the lucky winner of one of these three shuttles that we decorated with Halloween decals and awesome "gemstones"! The drawing will be this Friday evening, Oct. 15. Too bad it won't be Friday the 13th!

Dipping into decoupage...

I've been reading a lot about blinged shuttles on blogs and over at InTatters, so I decided to give it a go. Having absolutely no experience, I decided to do a little research first. I found Amy Anderson's Mod Podge blog, and asked her for some advice. Amy very graciously answered my e-mail, and I followed her advice. First, I sealed the scrapbooking paper I chose with a sealer to help prevent wrinkling. I think I may choose a thinner paper next time... origami paper? I'd also like to try fabric to see how it works. I wasn't very careful as I was working. I just kind of slopped everything on and hoped for the best.


This morning, I used a craft knife to trim away the excess paper. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the result. I should have followed all of Amy's advice, though. I should have done one side at a time instead of trying to cover everything at once. Live and learn!


I've tatted quite a bit this week, but I didn't really finish anything! Yes, I did finish a couple of tiny motifs, but I was just trying to use up shuttle thread, so I don't think that counts! You can see two Stumpy motifs, but I'm only keeping the one on the right. The one on the left is too sloppy. After I finish a matching motif, I'll send these off the Chris Hinton to be shuttle-fied! I've been working on my Clover doily, but I haven't gotten very far. My Dragon Wing Doily is at a stand-still... I'll leave that story for a separate post!

Today is Dave's and my 30th wedding anniversary! We were married 10/10/80 at 10 a.m. Dave chose the date and time so that he could remember our anniversary... smart man! The other day I read that this weekend is special. Once every 823 years, we have an October with 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays. Imagine the universe arranging such a special weekend just for us! Oh, if it were only true! I checked it out, and this year's calendar is exactly the same as 1999. Still, it is kind of cool to have a month with 5 Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, especially since 5 is my favorite number! (My maiden name is Diane Carol Green... 5 - 5 - 5... Thanks for making my name so special Mom and Dad!) So, this morning at 10 a.m. on 10/10/10, we will officially celebrate 30 years of marital bliss. Hmmm... maybe I'd better check with Dave to see if he thinks it's been blissful! ; )

The say, "Every girl needs a Boye!"

But, did I really need 7 of them? No! However, when I saw them advertised in PieceWork, I just had to have them! How often do we see a matched set of shuttles, other than Clovers? I don't think these are for everyone. I really don't like tatting with Boye shuttles. Yes, they are larger than Clovers, but for me the point is totally useless... too big! It gets in the way, and it's terrible with fine threads. The Boye shuttles, at least the newer ones, tend to have rough edges that snag the thread. I know... get out an emery board and smooth them out! If you're like me and just have to have them as part of your shuttle collection, you can find them at Lacis.com.

I found my King Tut thread yesterday. I love the color, and as you can see, it tats up a little larger than the Sulky... 1 3/4" long. This particular one will not be shuttlefied... I shouldn't tat when I have a headache... I couldn't see that I didn't close the rings completely until it was too late! I will be making a matched set to send off to Chris Hinton at The Shuttle Shop... as soon as a good strong frost hits so that I'm not dealing with all this sinus nonsense!

Update: I just looked on the Lacis site, and I do not see the Boye plastic shuttles listed! Could they be sold out already?

Teeny Tiny Stumpy

My fascination with Sulky Blendables continues! Stumpy is only 1 1/2" long in this thread. I can see a couple of little loops where I didn't pay close attention to my double knots, but I can live with that. I really like tatting with this thread. Now I need to find where I stashed my King Tut so that I can compare the two!

Pattern: Stumpy by Kersti Anear
Thread: Sulky Blendables, 30 wt., color #4004
Finished size: 1 1/2" x 3/4"

I just looked at the picture closely... it's awful! I'll try to take a better one after school today.

Wave!

Here's my micro Wave! It's 3 1/2" long, not including the tassel. The thread is Sulky 30 wt. Blendables, color #4004. The pattern, by Sandy Scales, can be found in Tatted Bookmarks: Needle & Shuttle, edited by Barbara Foster at Handy Hands. The pattern was very easy to follow, but I had several false starts before being able to complete one. I wasn't following the directions very carefully, so I'd forget a chain or join a ring in the wrong place. Because the very fine thread is difficult for me to retro-tat, I cut off the offending pieces and started over again... four times! Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm sure I'll be able to tat this one again with ease.

Rainbows

Yesterday was a cloudy day with occasional showers and occasional spots of sunshine. When daughter Carol left the house in the morning, she called to tell us about a beautiful double rainbow. I didn't get my camera out in time to see the double rainbow, but I did get a shot of this one. From a different angle (which I didn't get), we could see the rainbow weave in and out of the clouds, and we saw both ends of the rainbow. I love rainbows. My favorite Bible story is the story of Noah. I truly believe that no matter how tough times may get, God is watching over us, and the rainbow is a reminder of God's love for humanity.


Another rainbow arrived in the mail on Thursday... a rainbow of thread! I don't know exactly how I arrived there, but I found a deal on Sulky Blendables 100% cotton thread at overstock.com. It was too good to pass up. Not only did I receive over 40 spools of thread (500 yards each), I also received the carrying case... what a great way to keep my thread organized! I had received a sample of Sulky from Georgia Seitz when I ordered a new set of picot gauges (I lost my first set). There's something about a sample that leaves me feeling free to experiment! I tatted a set of Stumpy motifs for Tatted Shuttles. I loved the thread, and couldn't wait to try more! Would you like a sample? Visit the Trading Post at The Tatting Forums and find out how you can receive a free sample!