Not in the mood

It took me way too long to finish this Spinning Wheel. You see, I allowed myself to be distracted today.

I spent a good hour and a half fixing a paper jam on my printer. It shouldn't have taken so long, but I couldn't figure out how to get the back of the printer open. I finally turned the printer a different way, and I immediately saw how to open it. Unbelievable!

I also spent a long time researching piecing with equilateral triangles. There are some wonderful YouTube videos on cutting and piecing equilateral triangles. Did I really need to watch them all?

Dave turned on the t.v. after lunch and there was a Fixer Upper marathon. I watched all afternoon!

Usually when I'm watching t.v. I tat, but not today. No, I laid down on the couch and snoozed on and off for most of the afternoon.

I finally sat down to tat in the late afternoon, and I managed to finish my Spinning Wheel a short time ago. I do love the color of this one. It's in size 80 Majestic #849, and it measures about 3 1/2" across.

I'm pretty tired from all the inactivity of the day! I guess I'd better start setting some goals for myself so that I don't fritter away all of my days!

An unexpected conversation

My friend Peggy is housebound right now, so I volunteered to run an important error for her. It involved some wait time, so I got some shopping in. I love buying end-of-the-season items at a greatly reduced price!

When I returned to pick up Peggy's device, there was still some wait time, so I pulled out my tatting. After about 10 minutes, one of the girls came out in to the reception area and asked if I was tatting. When I replied yes, she told me that Maria tatted. About 10 minutes later, Maria came out and we talked about tatting for about 15 minutes. Maria has been tatting for about 30 years, and she has even made her own shuttles. Needless to say, I was impressed! She told me that other than the elderly lady who taught her to tat, she had never met another tatter.

I might have finished my Spinning Wheel today, but somehow I tangled up my thread and I didn't notice until I had closed the ring. Size 80 rings are not easy to open, and working with a dark thread makes the task much more difficult. In hindsight, I probably should have just cut out the ring and rejoined the thread, but I can be stubborn. I wasn't going to let a little ring defeat me. I bet it took me close to two hours to open that little stinker!

The good news is, I made a new tatting friend and I will probably finish this piece tomorrow!

Minimal progress

Today was filled with running errands, so once again very little tatting was accomplished.

Tomorrow will be busy as well. I wonder how I accomplished anything when I was working?

Face lift

Daughter Carol's classroom needed a face lift, so guess what we've been doing the past two days?

The school was built in the '70s when mustard yellow and metal shelving was very popular. It just looks old and nasty now.

Carol made turquoise curtains to cover the shelving and a black curtain to cover the mustard yellow section.

Carol teaches geography, current world issues, civics, and economics at the high school level. She always decorates the folding wall between her classroom and the one next door, but she added some new posters this year and changed up the look.

One thing that really bothers her is that she has mismatched pieces in her room, including this storage cabinet. The black was fine, but she didn't like the faux wood look on the doors. Her original plan was to paint the cabinet, but then I told her about Mod Podge!

Carol went shopping for Mod Podge and found a pack of scrapbook paper that had a variety of maps. Now she has a colorful new cabinet in her room! See the file cabinet to the left? This morning it was an ugly gray. It's amazing what a little spray paint can do!

The work table in her room has seen better days. It's used for group work, but it really needed some work done.

Mod Podge to the rescue! Her classroom is now brighter, more colorful, and definitely more cheerful!

Five hours at school both yesterday and today didn't leave much time for tatting, but I didn't mind a bit. After all, I don't have to go back to work in two weeks! ;-)

My newest Spinning Wheel is in the gorgeous blue Majestic thread that I started to use on Renulek's Napkin Marta. It's size 80 #849. I do love tatting with the finer thread!

It'll never work

 
I started round 6 of Renulek's Napkin Marta in size 80 Majestic #849. I love the color! However, the pattern is just not working for me in this round. I think I needed larger picots in round 5.

Even after some time with the steam iron, there was no way this was going to work. So, I snipped off the little bit I have done. I'm going to leave it as is for now. Since round 6 is the final round, I think I can easily play with stitch count to make the design work, but right now my brain is weary. I have made a note to be careful with picot sizes next time!

Wonderful weekend

Thursday morning I received an email from my uncle Jim. He and his brother Ed were heading to Chicago for the weekend and wanted to know if we would be around. Of course the answer was yes! Jim is a year older than me, and Ed is a year younger. They're my mom's youngest brothers. I hadn't seen either of them since my parent's 50th anniversary 15 years ago.

There were preparations to be made on Friday, and the "boys" arrived early Saturday afternoon. We had a wonderful visit and talked like you wouldn't believe! Sunday morning we headed up to my sister's and continued our visit. There really was no time of tatting!

Today was a different story. I worked on laundry and spent the time between changing loads working on round 5 of Renulek's Napkin Marta. It now measures about 5 1/2" across with only one round to go!

Round 5

Napkin Marta by Renulek

I got a good start on round 5 today, but I didn't have enough free time to finish it. We have relatives coming from out of town tomorrow, so I'm guessing I won't get much tatting done!

This round is in size 80 Majestic # 825. I really like this color!

Round 4

I finished round 4 of Renulek's Napkin Marta without any problems. I used size 80 Majestic #833, a very pretty shade of green.

Today was green bean day... canning and dehydrating. I know I will enjoy these veggies come winter, but did we have to have a bumper crop my first year of trying all these preserving techniques? ;-)

Much better!

I'm so glad I snipped off round 3 and tatted it again! I made the picots on the rings slightly larger, and it now it's nice and flat. One of my Facebook friends asked me to put a Clover tatting shuttle next to my tatting to give it a frame of reference. So, here you see the first three rounds of Renulek's Napkin Marta next to a small Clover shuttle. I love the delicate look of the size 80 thread!

Some new shuttles arrived in the mail today! These are my latest acquisitions from Shuttle by Design. Rita is going to be at Palmetto Tat Days, so I'll get to meet her! The excitement is building. I can't believe that I'm going to get to meet tatters whose work I have admired for years. I wish all of you could be there!

Round 2

Today I worked on round 2 of Renulek's Napkin Marta. This round is size 80 Majestic #830. It now measures a whopping 2 3/4"!

My beautiful shuttle is from Shuttle By Design. Thank you, Rita Richmond!

A new project

I spent time working on my Spinning Wheel glass mat in size 80 Lizbeth Pink Cocoa, but I also started a new project!

I'm really enjoying working with fine thread again, so I started Renulek's Napkin "Marta" in size 80 Majestic #823. Part of the reason I decided to use this thread is that the ball and shuttle fit into one of my new thread catchers!

I think I'm having too much fun!

Cleaning up

The end of the school year is fast approaching, and I have some catching up and cleaning up to do! All of the books are now in order in the elementary library, with 22 books still out. This week I need to focus on getting the middle school/high school library in order, and I think we have about the same number of books still out there. We'll be out June 5th, but I'm attending a school conference with my daughter June 6th, so in my mind I won't be free until June 7th... much later than usual!

With so much to finish up at school, I'm finding it very difficult to focus on tatting at the end of the day. However, I did take some time this week to finish up two projects.

First I finished another Spinning Wheel glass mat from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. In case you didn't know, this is my all-time-favorite pattern! ;-)

This one is in size 10 Teenybopper by Yarnplayer, and it measures about 7 1/4" across. I love the colors, and I'm sure one of my granddaughters will claim it for her own!

This is my variation of The Workbasket cross that I love so much. I started this one when I was on jury duty a couple of weeks ago. All I needed to do was cut, tie, and hide the ends. This is in size 80 Majestic, a very nice tatting thread.

Here it is next to the same pattern tatted with size 20 Lizbeth. As you can see, there's quite a difference in the size!

Yesterday I received a beautiful card in the mail from my friend Carol. She included a cross bookmark... yes, it is THE cross bookmark! Carol found it when she was out shopping with friends before she learned to tat. Isn't it amazing that someone in Indiana chose to tat the pattern that I adore? Thank you for your thoughtful gift, Carol!