Home alone

Dave and I are home alone again. Joanne and family headed home early this morning and arrived by mid-afternoon. I sure do miss them already!

I did take advantage of nap time and bedtime to get some tatting done. Sophia chose my tatting shuttles for me. She loves the blinged ones!

She was fascinated with this shuttle, because I used a different fabric on the front and the back.

I admit, this is one of my favorites.

Who am I kidding? I love all my shuttles!

Too tired to post

Yup, I was too tired to post last night. Maybe that's because I've been busy!

The kids at school were asking for new shuttles, so I spent some time blinging shuttles starting on Friday.

Since I decorated both sides and took a quick trip to Minnesota, they weren't finished drying until this morning. As expected, the kids loved them!

Rita asked me to crochet some more button flowers for her, and I really didn't think I'd have time for a couple of weeks. However, since I keep the supplies right by my chair, it's easy to work on them whenever I have a phone call, which seems to be a lot lately!

I finished crocheting the shawl last night. I washed and blocked it after school today, but pictures of the blocked shawl will have to wait. It's stretched out on a white background, so the one photo I took doesn't show up well.

All of my headbands and hair clips are at ReChic Unique Boutique in Demotte, Indiana. Wouldn't you know, I have little girls at school asking for headbands and hair clips.

I promised them I'd have some ready next week.

My personal stash is growing, so I think I'll be able to give the girls a variety of goodies. I have an idea for a stretchy bracelet. We'll see if that works out.

I spent a lot of time on the phone after school today, so more button flowers for Rita are ready to go!

Tomorrow, I'm taking time to tat!

An afternoon with Jan

...Stawasz, that is!

Dave and I were supposed to attend granddaughter Eva's concert with the Elgin Children's Chorus this afternoon, but Dave forgot to change the clock at work and he got home too late for us to attend. So, while we missed the concert, I had some unplanned down time that I could use for tatting.

I'm amazed that I'm now 3/4 of the way around!

Early this morning, I finished the back side of the shuttles for the kids. I think they turned out really cute. I think I have about a dozen dedicated tatters this year, mostly third graders, although I do have a few second graders who just won't wait for third grade!

The headbands just keep multiplying! 

I meant to tat...

but somehow I never got around to it.

I started the day by making these two headbands for my nephew's daughter. I love the colors! Then I was off to run errands, which took all morning.

I really needed to go grocery shopping after lunch, and by the time I was finished with all my errands it was 3:30. How does time go so quickly?

The kids at school have been asking for more decorated shuttles, so I got to work. The front side is finished. Tomorrow I'll finish the back side.

In between coats of Mod Podge, I managed to finish some more headbands. So, even though I didn't do any tatting, I feel like I accomplished a lot. Besides, as Scarlet O'Hara would say, tomorrow is another day!

Spreading the love

Last week I took my napkin collection in to school and let the kids who wanted to try blinging their shuttles choose some. 

Today, one of my third grade girls, Alejandra, showed off her initial efforts. Didn't she do a great job?

We had meetings after school today, and then I had to pick Dave up from work, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to tat. Still, I managed to get in a couple of pattern repeats in, and that makes me happy!

Keeping busy

I finished round 4 of Renulek's Spring Doily. I was surprised at how long it took me to complete this round. I thought I could finish it this morning, but it took me most of the day. I don't think I'll take the picture on my ironing board again. The color looks terrible!

I blinged some more shuttles today. One of the teachers in our building brought snacks last month, and I took one of her pretty decorative napkins so that I could do a little decorating.

One small napkin was enough to cover both sides of seven shuttles... pretty good!

I finished some more alligator clips today.

These are so cute! Now I just need to find some little girls who would like to wear them in their hair! 

Custom shuttles

One of my second grade students came to me on Friday and asked me if I could decorate her tatting shuttles using a napkin from her birthday party. How could I refuse?

Luckily, the pictures on the napkin were strategically placed for tatting shuttles.

Jaden had three shuttles, and there are five band members... one face for each side and the I ❤ 1D.

She knew the whole head would not be showing, but she trusted me to do the best I could. I think they turned out great. I hope Jaden likes them!

I tend to spend all day when I decorate tatting shuttles, probably because I get distracted with my tatting and forget to get back to the decoupaging. Since I've had some special requests for my crocheted button flowers, I decided to work on one button between each layer of Mod Podge.

I finished quite a few, and I sewed some on to some more headbands. Even though I didn't get any tatting done, I did have a very productive day!

Round 3 finished!

Dave and I worked on taking down Christmas decorations today. We didn't finish, but that's to be expected. After all, it took us three weeks to put it all up!

I did find time to finish round 3 of the Jan Stawasz doily. It's no 7" in size 20 thread. Yes, indeed... this will be a monster doily!

The shuttles for the kids are finished. They just need to dry for 24 hours. I won't be taking them to school tomorrow, because I put the last coat of gloss acrylic on about 3 this afternoon. If I don't let them dry for a full 24 hours, they'll stick together in the can. I really don't expect anyone to be asking me about shuttles tomorrow, but if they do, I can tell them that they're almost ready!

No tatting today

Before Christmas break, the kids at school were asking me for decorated tatting shuttles. Of course I didn't have time to decorate shuttles because of all the Christmas presents I chose to make, but I did promise them that I'd work on shuttles over the break.

As always, time flies when I'm having fun, and I realized yesterday that I hadn't started the shuttles. While I was meeting with the Tollway Tatters, Dave sanded the shuttles for me. So today was shuttle day!

The first step was preparing my work space. Trust me, it didn't stay this neat!

I painted both sides of the shuttles with white acrylic paint.

Next, I used ModPodge to adhere paper napkins to the shuttles.

Trimming the excess paper took quite a while.

I've put one coat of glitter ModPodge on each side of the shuttles. Tomorrow I'll put two coats of  matte ModPodge on each side, and then I'll seal each side with spray on acrylic. I think the kids will like them!

A few of my favorite things...

It's been a long time since my last blog post. I've had lots of fun doing all the things I love, and I just didn't feel like taking time to sit down at my computer.

Yes, I've accomplished a lot since my last post, including finishing setting up for the start of school on Monday. Here's just a little of what I've been doing...

I'm sad to say that I've only finished one piece of tatting since my last post, another motif from Tatting by Myra Piper. However, I did start another Spinning Wheel glass mat! I'll post a picture when it's finished.

With school starting next week, I figured I needed a new supply of blinged shuttles. Here's one side,

and here's the other. I love the way they turned out! I'll have to work on some more this weekend, because I gave a few away.

Tollway Tatters met on Tuesday. Sue Anna told us all about her trip to Alaska. She brought back some really cool beads that she's planning to use for earrings.

We celebrated Marilee's birthday... 29 again!

Carol and Barbara took the lead in picture taking. I always bring a camera along, but I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures!

I've finished two more bags. They're so much prettier in person. I keep saying that I'm going to learn to take better pictures, but I guess it's just not at the top of my priority list!

I think this might be my prettiest bag so far! It's too bad the colors look so faded. It's really shimmery, with pretty sequins sparkling here and there.

I've also been watching a Craftsy class on spinning, and I've been practicing with my drop spindle. Can you tell I'm getting ready for retirement? ;-)

Two sides

While I don't care for Boye shuttles as they come out of the package, I do like them once I've altered and blinged them!

Summer tatting classes begin June 18, and I promised the kids I would decorate more shuttles. With Dave's help, I started this weekend. I snipped. He sanded. I blinged. We work well together!

I used the same napkin or tissue paper for both sides of each shuttle, but as you can see...

the two sides are different. I love the way these turned out! I think the kids will like them too!

I'm making slow progress on Renulek's Letnia, but I am making progress!

We have meetings today, and the last day with students tomorrow. After that, let the summer fun begin!