Reaching out

Back in June, my good friend Marilee Rockley aka YarnPlayer emailed me to see if I'd be interested in writing a blog post for Craftsy. I was intrigued, so I gave her permission to share my information with the people at Craftsy. They contacted me in July, and I agreed to write some articles for them, starting with one on shuttles.

After a great deal of procrastination, I finally wrote a piece about tatting shuttles. If you're interested, you can find the blog post here. I know Marilee has had a great number of people sign up for her shuttle tatting class, and it seems from the replies to my post that there are people interested in learning more about tatting and the materials we use. Maybe I should write a piece about finding other tatters online! ;-)

I'm not sure what my problem is lately... age, weather, distractions... but I sure am having trouble focusing on projects! My sewing room is still a disaster, and I can't find what I want when I want it. I haven't been blogging much, because I haven't had anything to blog about!

I did finish another Spinning Wheel before heading off to school this morning. This one is in Perfect Quilter Sun-n-Surf #086. It's only about 3 1/2". I'm so glad Fox introduced this thread to Blogland. I love it! This little beauty already has a home in my curio cabinet.

Now, what to do next?

Guardian Angel

Where does the time go? I can't believe it's been over a week since I attended my first online tatting class with Georgia Seitz. I wasn't able to stay on for very long, but it was nice to see familiar names in the forum.

The pattern for the class was Guardian Angel by Kathy Hodge. What a fun tat this was!

There were two options for the angel's skirt, and I chose option #1. She was supposed to have beads in her hair, but my beads are put away someplace very, very safe... I'm not quite sure where! ;-)

I used size 20 Lizbeth #171, Green Coral Sea. Wouldn't it be fun to see a Christmas tree filled with angels in lots of beautiful colors? 

Delima

I love Blue Ice! I think it's a fabulous color for snowflakes. The touch of blue looks wonderful to me... a touch of chill!

The pattern is Delima from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. 

Keeping up with the kids...

Have you heard of the Rainbow Loom?

It's very popular with the kids at our school, both boys and girls. I can't remember how I heard of it, but I investigated right away and then headed off to Michaels to buy two... one for my granddaughter Lily's birthday present, and one to keep at my house for when the grandchildren visit.

2nd grader Grace encouraged me to start with the fishtail pattern, so I did with very pleasing results. She wants me to start the starburst pattern next. We'll see. I'd sure hate to use up all my rubber bands before my grandchildren get a chance to try it out! Oh, wait... I can buy more. ;-)

I worked on my scarf some more during the Viking/Bears game today. I can't believe I've been working on this for two months. I used to be able to finish a scarf in a week, but that was before tatting took over my life!

I did start another snowflake in size 20 Lizbeth Blue Ice. Sigh... so many things to try out, so little time.

Kencana

I finally finished Kencana from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. The pattern wasn't difficult at all. My problem was technology!

My printer stopped working at the beginning of the week. Not completely, it just wouldn't print black, and of course, Dave needed some information printed out for work. So, instead of tatting every night, I worked with my printer. I tried everything I could think of, and then I tried everything I could find on the Internet. Nothing worked.

Luckily, I still had my old printer. There was nothing wrong with it. We just wanted a new one so that Dave could print directly from his iPad, and the old printer didn't have that capability. So, I decided to dust off the old printer this morning. Simple, right? Wrong! Because of updates to my computer operating system, a simple installation didn't work. It took almost three hours to get the old printer working, but it is working!

So, to reward myself for a job well done, I took the time to finish tatting Kencana. Now it's time to fix dinner!

Nope...

absolutely no tatting today. :-(

I've spent the past 2 1/2 hours catching up on reading blog posts! It's been great fun, but there's no time left for tatting tonight.

Please don't be offended if I didn't leave a comment on your blog. There were several blogs that would not bring up a comment box for me to type in, and there were a few where I couldn't get the comment to go through.

Bad Internet connection? Operator error? Blogger error? Who knows. I do know that I had a wonderful time catching up on what everyone else is doing!

Perfect Quilter Sun-n-Surf

Yes, I have another Spinning Wheel in progress! I am enjoying using Perfect Quilter. It's so smooth, and when I make a mistake, I haven't had any trouble picking it out.

Let's see, I have 17 colors of Perfect Quilter, so I can anticipate at least 17 Spinning Wheels in my future. Superior Threads also makes King Tut, which I absolutely love, so I suppose I should have a Spinning Wheel out of each of those colors. But wait... I don't have all the colors of King Tut. Could it be that it's time to go shopping again? ;-)

Practicing picots without a gauge

After seeing Tatting Marie's gorgeous tatting at our last Tollway Tatters meeting, I decided to try tatting without a picot gauge just as she does. My picots are not consistent, but I guess that just like everything else, it takes practice!

Another thing I need to practice is reading patterns! I goofed on the very last ring. Yes, I checked and double-checked before closing the ring, but I didn't see my mistake until I was sewing in the ends. Sigh! I guess I'll have to try this one again.

The pattern is Maria from Tatted Bookmarks - cross-shaped by Lene Bjorn. I'm still working with the size 80 Lizbeth. I do love Peacock Blues!

Saturday only?

I hope not! Now that Open House is over, I hope to settle into a routine so that I can tat and blog on a more regular basis. For some reason, it just hasn't happened so far.

This week I worked on "Christina" from Tatted Bookmarks - cross-shaped by Lene Bjorn. I love this pattern, and I have tatted so many it feels like an old friend. I used size 80 Lizbeth #149, Peacock Blues. It's a present for a very special little girl (not one of my granddaughters) who loves blue. I guess we're kindred spirits!

I was pleasantly surprised to receive Martha Ess's new book, Flights of Fantasy, in the mail yesterday. I really wasn't expecting it to ship until after Tat Days. I am not disappointed. This is a fabulous book, especially if you love dragons, unicorns, and Pegasus!

Thanks for publishing another fantastic book, Martha! Now I just need to choose my threads, load my shuttles, and tat... or should I finish up the projects I've already started? Decisions. Decisions.

Nilam

Well, I never did get around to putting all my toys away today, but I did manage to finish Nilam from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. The thread is size 20 Lizbeth, #163, Blue Ice. This is one of my favorite colors of Lizbeth. It's so smooth, and I love tatting with it!

I did manage to finish one other thing today, a book my grandson lent to me at the beginning of the summer. Aidan loves dragons, and his dad bought him the Wings of Fire series. I am not into dragons, but the first book, The Dragonet Prophecy, is very well written. It was so good, I started the second book, The Lost Heir. I think I'll do a little more reading before heading off to bed.

Good night, all!

Confession

I like to play. When it comes to my patterns, shuttles, needles, threads, yarns... I like to play. I'm like a little kid. I pull out anything that interests me, and leave my toys scattered about.

As a result, I accomplish very little! This weekend I worked on my scarf. Mom has probably finished three in the time I've knit about a half a scarf. I started another snowflake. I started a cross in size 80.
I worked on a Spinning Wheel in Perfect Quilter (it's hidden in the little blue snap pouch). I browsed through pattern books, knitting and tatting.

I wound off thread samples, and I sipped coffee. Yes, I sipped. I like my coffee hot, and I didn't have very much hot coffee this weekend. I was too distracted to drink it while it was hot.

I wish I had taken a picture on Friday. Everything was neat and tidy. Sigh... I guess I should straighten up before I start the day. Or should I tat? I could work on my snowflake, or my cross, or my Spinning Wheel. Maybe I should spend some time with the scarf. It would be nice to spend the day reading.

Oh, drat! Here I go again!