Thread Exchange presents

Oh, what a joy it was to get home tonight from work and discover such wonderful presents that came in the mail.

since I had not had a very great day at work,  there was a bad snow storm so they closed schools and we all rushed around trying to get out of work early and off the roads before dark, and I got stuck in a snow drift a mile from home.  it was really nice to find good things waiting for me.  I had to call "FarmGuy" to come get me unstuck from the snow drift partly because I hadn't put a good shovel in the car and partly because I was stuck enough to need help.  He got stuck again after getting the car out of the drift, so I didn't feel quite so bad, but I was cold and my jeans were frozen from the snow.

and here is what I found in the mail

From Lynn Demsky in Michigan, I received a very nice Tatting Christmas card with very pretty pastel variegated thread labeled Rubi Brilhante Cores Firmes 20. ( I did receive Lynn's thead about a week ago, but wanted to wait to post until all the threads came.)

 

From Roberta Lawson in Australia, I received  2 new threads I had never heard of  Cap putri Duying in Royale Purple and Cap Putri Duying Benang Sulam istmelia in Teal. She also sent a CD of Australia,  I have not yet had a chance to play it, so am looking forward to a few minutes of quiet time. 

Patsy Goodman in southern California, sent 2 threads as well,  Beyaz 1  Altin Basak size 50 in white/silver and Omega size 50 in Green that she bought in Mexico.  She also included a very nice 

letter and Linda Davies Christmas Tree earring pattern.

Sue Anna Scribner from Illinois surprised me with 2 of Marilee Rocklee's HDT  Parchment  Size 20 and Snowflake size 30 and both were wound on what I think are called EZ bobs.  I think I am going to have to take another look at these thread holders.  they look very handy.  She also sent a nice card with pictures of her tatted motifs and 2 snowflake patterns, Jon Yosoff's Double -Decker star and Flurry Snowflake by Jane Eborall

Jane Armstrong from North Carolina, sent a pretty variegated thread in pinks and blues and she included some beads that look just right with the thread.  she also sent a very pretty hand towel with a snowman on it holding a sign stating "Let it Snow",  can I blame her for the snow storm today? Tee Hee,    Jane wrote a note on the outside of the package stating that she had forgotten to include the card, so I don't know what type of thread she sent, so will have to wait to find out.

and last, but most definitely not least, from Lily Morales also out in California,  i received a big bunch of fun. 3 of the EZ Bobs, and they contained the following threads, a Christmas colors variegated Flora in size 50, and red and green Cebelia in size 10.  Along with these threads she sent a pretty Gold Christmas ornament, of the kind you can attach tatting on and a folding scissors with a very nice knotted fob that I am sure she made, as I have checked out her blog where she shows and talks about knots.

I have been doing some tatting, but haven't posted any, so will have to get at that sooner or later.

2010 Thanksgiving family picture

this is my husband and I and our children and grandchildren at this years Thanksgiving. 
We had a lot of good food and a lot of good fun and talk.  I thank God for all of us, we get along, granted there are occasional  times we raise our voices, but no one holds grudges, and we have great sons in law. 

no names to protect the innocent.

exciting!

just had a phone call~~~~~~

in June I will be come a grandmother for the 10th time!!

doing a happy dance tonight

cross bookmark

I made this bookmark for my best friends birthday. I haven't had a chance to talk to her, so hope she liked it.

it is a pattern titled Colossians 2:14 by Rebecca aka tatmom03

if anyone knows how to get a hold of her, I would appreciate it. I was looking for her cross pattern online which is where I found it, so I could point another tatter to the pattern, but can't seem to find it so if anyone knows of the link, that would be great.



thread is lizbeth size 40 color gold. It is very nice to work with.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for .

we shared a meal with the neighbors yesterday and will have another with our children and grandchildren on sunday.

I need more time, i have too much thyme

no pictures tonight.

yesterday morning it was drizzling, the temp was about 23 and it has been cold enough so the ground was below freezing as well, so the nice drizzle was freezing on everything. I had a good hold on the door knob as I left for church or I would have gone down the front steps on my fanny. As I pulled up to church, I watch a gentleman get out of his pickup, if he hadn't had a good grip on the steering wheel, he would have been on the ground as his feet flew out from under him.

today when my boss got to work, he got out of his car and fell. it is not good here and now today we had snow on top of the ice.

I needed groceries for thanksgiving but wasn't too fond of having to drive 30 miles to the grocery store in the dark after work.

I was able to get to the grocery store this afternoon. DH had to go to town for parts so picked me up at work.

I am making the stuffing and a dessert for Thanksgiving dinner at the neighbors.

I have a realllly good stuffing recipe handed down in the family. it is so good that sons-in-law have requested my stuffing. (I will put in the recipe below)

anyway, while at the store gathering ingredients, I stopped at the spice isle and decided that since I didn't know how much thyme I had in the cupboard, I would get some.

when I got home after work - stayed until 7:15 to make up for taking off the time in the middle of the day. I discovered that I had 1+ little jars of thyme. soooo I have too much thyme, but not enough time to get everything done.

Dressing/Stuffing
5 quarts of dry bread cubes (one 1.5 lb loaf of bread will make about 3 quarts of dry cubes
1 1/2 Cups melted butter
4 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 tsp seasoning salt (our family has always used Beaumonde, I think it is sold by Spice Islands)
1/4 tsp thyme (can use a bit more)
1 clove garlic finely chopped
grind all giblets (raw~can leave these out)
grind or shred 4 large carrots, 4 large celery ribs, 1 large onion
4 1/2 Cups of water or if not using giblets, chicken broth use more or less depending on how moist you want it.

place dry bread in large pan. sprinkle spices onto cubes and pour melted butter over all, mix well. Add ground meat and vegetables, mix well. pour over liquid and mix, but be careful not to stir the bread into mush.
bake in the over for 20 -30 per quart until interior temperature is 180 degrees. can be cooked in a crock pot for 1 hour on high then 4-6 hours on low, be sure to check temp in center is 180 degrees.

you might be interested in the dessert I am making.
it is an old recipe for

Tomato Chocolate Cake
butter & flour 2 9" cake pans

1 pound of tomatoes, peel and seed, puree and measure 1 1/4C

4 oz of sweet baking chocolate
1 Cup brown sugar
1/4 Cup milk
3 egg yolks divided
cook chocolate, br sugar, milk and 1 egg yolk in double boiler stirring occasionally over hot water until smooth and slightly thick.

2 Cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 tablespoons butter softened
1 Cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 egg whites
sift flour with baking soda and salt
cream butter & sugar until light.
add remaining 2 yolks beating each time until fluffy.
add tomato puree, vanilla and chocolate mixture beating thoroughly.
Stir in flour.
Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, fold into cake batter and pour into pans.
bake at 350 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes until almost done, do not over bake!
cool on wire rack, remove from pans and frost with tomato frosting

Tomato Frosting
1 medium tomato peeled and seeded, puree and measure 4 1/2 tablespoons puree

1/2 Cup butter softened
4 egg yolks - extra large
1 tablespoon cognac or brandy
3/4 Cup powdered sugar

beat butter until smooth, add egg yolks beating after each.
add tomato puree and liquid, then add powdered sugar.

frost bottom layer, then add top and frost top and sides.
keep cool, do not refrigerate

I ran across a different version of Tomato Frosting with cream cheese on the Internet last week which I think I may use instead of the one above calling for liquor since this will be served to children as well as adults.

I have a few other interested recipes as well,

chocolate potato cake
chocolate sauerkraut cake - you would never know - most people think it is coconut
and a World War II eggless, milkless butterless cake

if anyone is interested in the above recipes, let me know and I will post them.

my new shuttles

I wanted to show you my newest shuttles. These hand made shuttles are by "I'm in the garage" who is married to Sally from Tat's Heaven

I was able to buy the one on the left, made from Walnut back in September and the one on the right last week made out of Iroko wood.

I had to look up what Iroko wood is on the internet, I had never heard of it. It is also know as African Teak.

The shuttles are smooth and easy to use. I like them very much.

I was able to find extra bobbins at Handy Hands to fit the walnut one, and since the Iroko one also has the purple bobbins, I am assuming the bobbins from Handy Hands will fit as well. I was hoping to find more purple bobbins, but had to settle for black.

I like them as much as (and maybe a bit more) then the Silent Tatter shuttles that you can buy from Roseground.

I am tatting, but nothing to show, many fits and starts as I figure out the right stitch count to use as an ornament drape for presents. too many life interruptions, if I didn't have to go to work, or do the housekeeping, or help dh with what he needs here on the farm.

have a good night, see you tomorrow.

uploaded another pattern

in response to a request, I have uploaded to my pattern blog (or see link in the side bar) my Rosary Pattern.

if you have any questions, please ask.

Tatters and Volcanos

There are several tatting friends who have wonderful blogs that I enjoy very much who live in the area of the Merapi volcano who I hope are doing well and will continue to be safe.

I hope that all people who live near there will be safe and I hope that no more will be injured or killed.

Lattice Tatting

a Quicky post,
on the Here-Be-Tatters yahoo email group, there has been a discussion of Lattice Tatting.

I am posting here 4 scans of Lattice style tatting from Julia E Sanders book Tatting Patterns.
Collar page 16

Detail of Collar pg 17

Doily pg 19

detail of doily pg 18


~~later~~ I got to thinking that while I didn't have the lattice snowflake anymore, there might be another project in my UFO stash. so here is a project that I was working on many a year ago, put aside for some reason and never finished.


Looks like I will have to finish it this winter after I have gotten Christmas items and other sewing projects finished.

There is no pattern for this, if I remember correctly, it was a way to practice mignonette stitch and I liked the look of the Lattice; just something I was working on at the time. I used very tiny joining picots to make the Lattice here, but I have done it with alligator joins. I will have to put a 4th round of some kind on this as I didn't join the outer rings to each other. hhhmmm wonder what I should use....

2 pr christmas trees

Here are both pair of the Christmas Tree Earrings that have been requested by a gal in Texas.

and another bit of news.

I have started an Etsy.com shop so will be posting these there. It may not be a very busy shop, that will depend on what I can get done, but it will not be just tatting. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ladytatslace

I have a lot to learn about taking photos of my items. I have always used the scanner, but tried my camera for the picture above. Some of what I post for sale on etsy,will not be able to be scanned so will be learning how to take good pictures with good presentation.

I have a couple of bookmarks that I tatted over the summer that I have not yet posted so those will come in time. Right now I have them scanned, but I might try taking photos to learn just how to do it right.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

I have a Fujifilm FinePix A330 which is listed at 3.2 mega pixels. I have had it for 4 or maybe 5 yrs or maybe longer. It was one of the first things I bought on ebay. I know it was one of the better ones at the time I bought it.

Jeff's ghost

Jeff Hamilton of Bridge City tatting has designed a ghost he calls Ripley. the pattern is available on his blog

here is my version of Ripley,


one arm ended up straight but that is o.k. and it looks like I scanned it from the backside. I usually tat frontside/backside, in which case if I scanned it from the wrong side, I also tatted it backwards, but it still looks pretty good.

the thread is Aida in size 10? I very seldom use this thread so thought I would try it. I have a ball of red Aida that I do not like, it twists really badly but this one isn't quite as bad.

Thanks Jeff for the ghost pattern

pair of Christmas Trees

here is the first pair of Christmas tree earrings
Size 40 Lisbeth thread in Christmas green with red, silver and gold Delica beads and 1 gunmetal teardrop bead for a trunk.



still working on the 2nd pair

it is snowing and the wind has been blowing 40 - 50 mph all day today. I put the winter "we may be closed due to weather" message on the answering machine at work before I left today. a little early for my taste.

farmerguy did get the final 40 acres corn combined, in the rain yesterday so it was done before all this wind knocked the ears off. that at least is a relief.

first try at wire tatting

I have decided to branch out a bit and tried tatting with wire. I had some copper wire on hand and paired it with some beads and worked up this pair of earrings.

I then splurged and bought some more wire, silver and gold and brass colored as well as some ear wires and jump rings, so will have to see where this takes me.

~later~ I forgot to mention, this is 28gauge wire it is a spool that I picked up in the bead section at I think Hobby Lobby in Fargo ND. but the silver, gold and brass wires are both size 28 & 30 and I ordered them from Firemountaingems

beads on an earring

Yesterday Jane Eborall on her blog posted about beads and sizes.
Today Gina posted on her blog about bead sizes and gave us a nifty scan to show relative bead sizes.
Bree has posted a wonderful tutorial about beads
so I thought I would add a bit to the discussion.
I am working on 2 pair of these earrings. I am using Lisbeth size 40 thread in Christmas Green with delica beads. I can add the delica beads with a size 15 mini crochet hook.


I didn't block this yet, and since this is just the first trial to see if the person who commissioned these liked them, there will be a few corrections to the techniques I used for adding the beads.
I used 3 different techniques to add the beads,
1. the direct method, where you thread the beads when you are winding the shuttle,
2. adding beads to a joining picot between the rings and between rings and the chain below
3. adding beads to a long picot that you then join back to, I used this for the side beads on the 2 top rings.

I am grateful to all those who post instructions for new techniques on the web.

the pattern in one of Jane Eborall's, I don't think it is listed on her pattern website so you will need to contact her for the pattern if you want it.

~later~ I have heard from Jane and it looks like the pattern may be in the public domain.

what I did on this 90* Sunday

Well, long time no see.
didn't think it would take me so long to get back to posting.
I have done some tatting this summer and will post that as I go.

but I thought that I would share what I did today.
it was 92* today with 25+ mph winds. It didn't cool down all that much last night, so just didn't bother to close up the house. With the wind blowing it wasn't too bad, but warmer then I like.

but.....
here goes.

Here is the back story. Back with DH and I got married in 1973, we had less then a week for a honeymoon, so decided to go camping out to the Black Hills in SD. We bought a tent at the local variety store - Canvas of course as that was all that was available. And a metal Colman cooler (still use the cooler, those metal ones just keep standing up.

We used the tent for several camping trips as the years went by. I mended holes in the window and door mesh and replaced the zipper and patched a few holes in the canvas and the floor. The kids used it for campouts in the back pasture or when it was hot in the summer. As the years went by the family got larger and we needed a second tent. about 15+ yrs ago I found a 7 person nylon tent at a Discount store for 70% off. good deal. That got used a lot too.

Both tents have been stored for the past 5 yrs or so, all the kids left home and we haven't gone camping.

several weeks ago I loaned the nylon tent to our daughter. she didn't have one big enough anymore.

Then a week later 2 neighbor families and we decided to go camping. I got the old canvas tent out thinking I would make sure that it didn't need cleaning or minor repair. Well, a 40yr old tent has pretty much ended it's useful life. the floor needs complete replacement and a couple spots on the sides are simply starting to come apart. and the window and door mesh need total replacement and ....
so I got the nylon tent back from our daughter. She hadn't had a chance to get it out and put it up to check it, so I did that. well, guess what. one back corner was absolutely shredded and who ever had been using it tried to repair it with clear packing tape. I do not recall anyone ever mentioning it to me. Looked like something had used claws on it. Below is one of the sides of the corner to show you what it looked like.


I was able to find tent material and waterproofing online at Campmor I used to buy from them years ago.
I ended up having to travel for business so didn't get to go camping last weekend. DH was invited to stay in one of the other families camper. It rained heavily so maybe a good thing we didn't have the tent up.

Which brings me to this afternoon.
I got out my handy dandy 1948 American Star sewing machine and set it up outside. I don't use my fancy computerized machine to sew things like this, plus I can't take the new machine outside, it needs to be in a table, and I can't use my treadle machine, as I have to find a couple parts for it, but the treadle machine might be even better for this type of sewing.

I needed to sew outside because of the size of the tent and it was cooler because of the wind.

Have you ever tried to sew a flat felled seam in nylon tent material in a 25+mph wind. sheesh, there were a couple of times the whole tent lifted off the ground.

it took much longer to get it all patched then I thought it would. Below is a picture showing the 2 sides of the corner that had to be replaced. The new material is the very light grey. There were a couple of tiny holes near the top and just above the corner that needed to be mended as well.



Here is a front look at the tent. it is dark out by this time. I didn't finish until about 8:30 pm and had to get everything cleaned up before I could put the tent up. Want to see if my stitches will hold, so am going to leave it up tonight and tomorrow. I put it up under the maple tree in the front yard so it will be in shade most of the day tomorrow.

I still need to seal the seams and apply water proofing to the whole tent before it is completely finished, but I am pleased so far.


This is an American Camper tent. according to the research I did, it was produced and sold by JC Penneys.

so that is what I did today.