A gift in the mail

I won a drawing on Jon's blog, and my prize arrived today! Isn't that a lovely shade of green? I'm really looking forward to getting started with all these wonderful goodies. Thank you, Jon!

I haven't had much time for blogging or tatting for the past week. My youngest daughter's father-in-law is visiting from Slovakia, and Joanne and Jan are driving down from Minnesota with Jan Sr. for a visit this Thursday. Dave and I have been busy getting the house in order. That has involved finishing window frames in the bedrooms upstairs, cleaning up the mess, and getting the rest of the house clean. Believe it or not, I even worked on my sewing room! I still have quite a way to go, but at least I can move around and work in there.

I am making slow but steady progress on my Yes-U-Can doily. I had wanted to finish it last weekend, but I guess I'll have to shoot for the upcoming weekend. : )

Yes-U-Can Doily Challenge - Tatting Progress Day 11

I haven't made much progress, only two pattern repeats. I've been so sleepy this week that I find it difficult to keep my eyes open once I sit down in my chair!

If you take a really close look, you'll see that this last round does not have consistent stitch counts in each pattern repeat. I decided to make minor stitch adjustments to see what I like best. So, there are no mistakes in this round... it's a sampler round to see what I like best! ; )

Yes-U-Can Doily Challenge - Tatting Progress Day 10

I didn't get much tatting done yesterday, only two more pattern repeats...

but I did finish cutting squares for a new quilt!

Yes-U-Can Doily Challenge - Tatting Progress Day 8

The floral motif round is completed! Now for the real challenge... the final round!

Yes-U-Can Doily Challenge - Tatting Progress Day 2

I wasn't going to blog today, because I didn't feel like I made any progress. However, I truly believe there is so much to learn from our mistakes, and I made several last night!

At first, I attempted to tat this next round with bare thread between the rings. I'm not a fan of bare threads in tatting. To me, the tatting looks weak. I tried three different lengths of thread between the rings, and two different stitch counts on the larger ring. I didn't like any of them, so... snip! Snip!

What you see is my last attempt before heading off to bed. I like the look, but I can see that this round isn't going to ease into the curve. It's too straight. After looking at the picture more closely, I think I need to add one more picot and two double stitches to each larger ring. I think the solution to creating better ease might be to add stitches to the chains between the four segments and use longer joining picots between the outer rings.

If you have any ideas that you care to share with me, I'll be glad to try them out... that is, if you can understand my ramblings! I probably won't have a chance to try out my ideas today, but I'll keep you posted on my progress!