Silk!

Karen's Halo from LadyShuttleMaker arrived Saturday! I was a little too busy to do any more than open the package on Saturday, and yesterday we were helping daughter Carol move. So last night I sat down with this beautiful silky-smooth skein, wound it onto a floss bobbin (found when cleaning the sewing room), and started tatting. I must have been tired... I had to retro-tat two rings and one chain (not all at the same time). I've never tatted with silk thread before... it's a dream! I will have to take care of that hangnail today, though. And Sherry was right... you have to be very careful when retro-tatting. The scan shows the color much darker than it is. If you click on the picture, you'll see the lighter color, but still not the true color. This is fabulous thread!

Mom, you'll have three silk crosses for the next stole! Ooops! Did I spill the beans? Mom is weaving two more liturgical stoles (sigh! I'm being "forced" to tat crosses), plus she's weaving for our next "secret" collaborative project... think green, purple, pink, flowers, butterflies...

Busy day!

My Saturday morning started out fairly normal. I did sleep in until 6:15. I know that's not sleeping in for many people, but it is for me! I had coffee with Dave before he went to work, and I had my Saturday morning phone call from Mom. Smooth sailing so far! But, as I was talking with Mom I realized how unhappy I was with the ring bearer's pillow I made for Tiffany. So, at 7:20 I started a new one. I was inspired by Melissa's post to do sort of a crazy patch with a rose pattern in the middle. By 9:00 I had a pillow top I liked... except the rose was kind of lost. It needed beading. The center of the rose was beaded by 11:00, but the outer petals of the rose didn't show up. I knew I didn't have time to bead them, but I did have time to embroider an outline stitch... no time to look up how to make a decent outline stitch, so I just started doing my own thing. Luckily, the bride doesn't embroider, so she doesn't know how poor my embroidery is! Embroidery finished by 12:00. Time to finish the pillow! I really should have done something more with the corners, but I didn't finish until 12:20 and I was still in my nightgown, hadn't eaten, and I needed to leave by 1:15! All's well that ends well! I arrived at the shower just in time, and Tiffany loved her gifts!




After the bridal shower, I hurried home, and Carol and I headed to my sister-in-law's house about 50 minutes away. Dave was helping with yard work... Karen has beautiful gardens! ...and we were invited for a cook-out. We laughed, and talked, sang oldies and jingles we remembered, ate delicious food, and got home about 11:00... way past my bedtime! I slept in again this morning... didn't get up until 6:00! ; )

Special mail!

I just went out to get the mail, and look at the wonderful surprise I found... a fabric postcard from Bonnie! I've never seen a fabric postcard before! Can you tell I'm excited? Bonnie also sent me a kit so that I can try making one! What a wonderful surprise! Thank you, Bonnie!

Shower gifts

Tiffany's shower is tomorrow, and I finally finished her gifts! (Tiffany was a kindergarten teacher at our school for the past two years, and I was her mentor.) The beaded crocheted bag is one of my favorite gifts for brides. It's from Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet, published by Leisure Arts. I made the bag before I broke my arm, so that was the first thing done, except for the drawstring, which I finished today. I made the hanky with tatted edging after my cast came off. The pillow didn't turn out the way I wanted, but that's what I get for waiting 'til the last minute!

Purple Punch Small Rosette

My Purple Punch thread from Marilee arrived today, and I couldn't wait to try it out! The pattern is Small Rosette from Easy Tatting by Rozella F. Linden. I love this color!

It looks a little funky, so I guess I'd better block it. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll see a truer color.

Mosquito magnet!

That's right... I'm a mosquito magnet. When I walk out the door, the mosquitoes think the dinner bell rang. I wanted to take lots of pictures of my garden, but I couldn't take the little creatures swarming around me!

Yesterday, Pat, Brenda, and I went on a garden walk in Crete, a beautiful little town about 15 minutes north of us. We attended a vendor fair, had a scrumptious lunch, and saw six beautiful gardens.


My sister Janet has had her garden as part of a garden walk before. Some day I'll post some pictures of her yard. Dave creates beautiful gardens, but he has to wait until his busy season is over before he can tend to our gardens. This year has been very busy for him, so gardening has taken a back seat. He has started decorating our porch. He planted two beautiful pots for me this spring. This one is in front of my sewing room. The other one is by the front door.


Our friend Connie was one of the vendors. She does amazing things with glass. I'm not sure if this little piece will stay here, but it's too pretty to just sit around waiting for a home!


The colors of this rose bush just don't show up on the camera. It's an orange and red climber called Joseph's Coat. I had to have it, because Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is my favorite musical! I first saw it in Dublin, Ireland, the summer of 1974 when I was part of a summer study program at Trinity College. I've also seen it performed in Chicago starring Donnie Osmond, at the Kankakee Valley Theater, and at Governors State University starring Patrick Cassidy. I have three versions of the CD, and the movie. My daughters and I can sing the whole score... well, Carol and Joanne can... I mess up on the words a lot!


I also found this pretty little finial. I asked Dave to put it near my tatting fern as a marker. No, I'm not so lazy or so weak that I can't place a finial in the garden... it's those blasted mosquitoes! As you can see, Dave has just started working on this bed.


I love this copper-colored twirly thing... I don't know what you call them, but I can become mesmerized by things twirling in the breeze! I'll have to find a new home for this if I want it to twirl... it's too high to catch the breeze.

On the road again!

Just can't wait to get on the road again! I love that Willy Nelson song! And we were on the road again this weekend. We drove to Minnesota to visit daughters Andrea and Joanne. It was a mini family reunion. Daughter Alison and her family drove up Thursday. Daughter Carol was unable to be there because she was in a wedding... what an excuse! It was great fun to see the changes Andrea and Jake have made in their home since we were up last July... a deck and patio off the back of the house, a guest room, and an almost finished guest bathroom and family room. We got to see the apartment that Joanne and Jan are moving to... much closer to work, and a little bigger than the place they're in now. I know. I know. I should have pictures, and I did take my camera, but when I'm around family I tend to forget about taking pictures and just enjoy the company!

Dave and I were very sneaky... we sent the girls and their significant others out for dinner and a movie Saturday night, and we babysat the grandchildren! The squealing, the giggles, the hugs were unbelievably fun!

One of the reasons I like road trips is that I spend the time knitting new dish cloths for myself... and sometimes I knit them for friends and family. When I was cleaning my sewing room, I found that I have an abundance of cotton for dish cloths... and the ones in the drawer are pretty dingy looking! I did try to tat in the car, but the bumps in the road were just a little too much for me to handle, so I only tatted one bookmark... most of that was done at Andrea's while everyone else was sleeping. I tend to wake up very early in the morning, so it was the perfect pastime for me!

When I checked my e-mail and blogs this morning, I was very pleased and honored to see that I have been given the Arte Y Pico Award from Dave and Jo at Grizzly Mountain Arts. I am embarrassed to admit that I found out last week that I was also given this award in April by Sarah at A Gardener's Gazette. The message from Sarah was in my spam folder, which I never thought to check. So, my thanks to Dave, Jo, and Sarah for honoring me with this award!

There are 5 rules attached to this and they are:
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://arteypico.blogspot.com/
5) To show these rules.

There are so many blogs I love to read, and I know that the people I believe deserve this award already have it, but I'll list their blogs so that you can visit them and see why I love them so much!

LadyShuttleMaker
Grizzly Mountain Arts
Threads of a Tatting Goddess
Yarnplayer Arts
A Gardener's Gazette

Now, all I have to do is figure out how to post the picture of the award! When you see it, you'll know that someone helped me figure it out!