a finished project (or 2)

I have finished 2 tatting projects in the past 2 days.
one is the test tat for Martha Ess, her new book will be ready in the not too distant future.

the other project in my traveling one,  I always have something to work on in my purse or car so I don't have to sit around twiddling my thumbs.  I am not exactly a patient person.

There is no pattern for this,  I started out trying to do a 1 round snowflake.  Since it was a traveling project, I wanted a very easy stitch count, so there are 5 ds between all picots on the rings and the chains.  I don't have the pattern written up, don't know if I will unless asked, as it looks similar to other motifs that are out there I think.
As you can see, it has 7 arms not 6, so it is not an actual snowflake.  I tried, but 6 just wouldn't lay flat, and I didn't want to have to block it .  The thread is Flora size 20 in color 239.

I am trying to get all the canning caught up.  We just put 500 lbs of beef in the freezer, so there is no more room there, so anything from the garden as to be canned.  I did 14 qrts of dill pickles tonight, and there is an 18 qrt roaster full of apples cooking in the kitchen right now.  there is at least another roaster full of apples still in the bag.  I will make apple butter with what is in cooking now, and apple sauce with the 2nd batch.  I can't leave it for this weekend, as I will be away (see previous post). 

I have been using the Tattler reusable canning lids, and so far so good.

labor day weekend

a week from tomorrow, I will be headed an hour + away to Rollag MN to help demonstrate tatting at the 4 day Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion .  I will be staying at my daughter's whose house is about 15min away, so that will be good, won't have to do all that driving every day. 
This is the first time I will be helping Demo there.

I am still doing some test tatting, should have had it finished by now, but the garden and an extended visit by a family member have gotten in the way.  I will be done by the end of the month however.

Sorry Martha that I am not done yet.

Tatting Poll Added

I have added a poll on the right side of my blog, it will be active until September 10th at midnight.
you may chose 1 or more answers.

Look what I won!

Clyde Page the MadTatter, had a giveaway on his blog
and I was one of the lucky ones.
I received the package in the mail and this was in it.

The top 2 threads are Middle Earth Silk size 60 by Lady Shuttlemaker
the small one on the left is a King Tut ~ I haven't used this before
the middle card says Tiger Eye in size 80
and the last one has no name on it.

Thanks Clyde,

I have 2 projects that I have been working on, and will show you little snippets since they are not yet completed.

this is a bit of my purse project, it is turning out bigger then I had planned, but in the end I think it will work out.

this is a test tat for someone else.

displaying my tatting

in answer to a question on Fox's Tatology blog,
here is what I use to display my tatting, well not all of it, but some of it,

several years ago, while at my local thrift shop, I came across a big old picture frame, the opening is about 20X25" and the frame is several inches wide.  there was no picture or glass in it, just the frame.  I got it for $3.00
I didn't take a picture of the back, but here is what I did.

I used a large piece of heavy denim, placed a layer of cotton batting from an old quilt over the top, then covered it with a remnant of black velvet left over from a daughter's prom dress. once I was satisfied with how it all looked, I turned it over and stapled the layers of fabric to the back of the frame. 

there is no glass covering it, and because of the layers of fabric and batting, I can place straight pins anywhere I want and they stay in place. I take this with me when I demonstrate, or hang it on the wall and change out the motifs when ever I feel like. 

please do not look too critically at the tatting on the frame in the picture, they aren't all pinned out correctly, I just stuck some of them on to keep them out of the way.



I do give away a lot, and many of my projects are spoken for before they are even started.  I have a list of "booked" projects I need to get at once I have finished testing a pattern for Martha Ess.  it is about 1/3 done right now.

I also have the hanky edging to finish, as that is about 1/4 done, and I have a travel project that goes in the car, that will be done with the circle is finished.  it is a made up pattern, very simple so I don't have to pay too much attention,  it started out as a star with 5 points, but may end up with 7 or 8 depending on how it lays.

the booked projects are: a set of earrings, a rosary, a 12" tall white christmas tree, 12 christmas ornaments for family, a set or 2 of tatted wire earrings, I would like a set of earrings for me too. 

looking at the list, I need to get my little fingers busy

next day update on lids

This morning the jars of peaches were cooled and I checked the seals.   of the new reusable lids, out of 18 lids 3 did not seal, but I do not consider that all bad, as it is a new product to me, and uses a bit of new technique, mainly backing off the ring 1/4" and then tightening the rings coming out of the canner.

So, I rinsed the lids, rubber rings, and screw bands put them back on the jars, set them in a new canner of barely water, turned on the burner and slowly brought the whole thing to a boil, let it boil for 30 min and then took the jars out, tightened the screw bands and let them set while I went to work.

this evening 2 of the jars were sealed, the 3rd went into the fridge to eat.

now, I used old miracle whip jars, not regular canning jars so that might have something to do with the # of non sealers. Also, after you first put the lids and bands on, you snug the band down, then hold the center of the lid with your index finger, and back the screw band off 1/4" .  I am pretty sure that there were some of the lids that I backed off more then 1/4".  so I am not too unhappy with the lids yet.

this morning I squeezed out the juice from the cooked peach skins that I had left draining overnight in cheesecloth and got about 4 C of juice. put that in the fridge until I got off work this afternoon.  Then I put the peach juice in a pot, added the less then 1 cup of syrup left from canning the peaches yesterday and also added 4 C of apple juice to make up for the missing peach juice and the recipe for Peach Honey in called for 8 C of juice.  brought the juices to a boil and added 4C of sugar.  continued to cook the mix down until the thermometer read 225 F  and ended up with 6 half pint jars of peach/apple honey.  I had thrown in a half of a cinnamon stick for about 15 min during the cooking to give a bit of added flavor but didn't want too much or it would overwhelm the light peach and apple flavors. 

tomorrow morning I will check the little jars to see if they sealed, as I used the reusable regular size lids on them.

Tattler Reusable Canning Lids

as I promised, I am posting about the Tattler Reusable Canning lids that I mentioned previously in this post. 

I used them for the first time tonight to can peaches.  I still have the last batch in the canner, but so far, so good. I didn't have any problems with putting them together, or attaching them to the jars.  The only problem I had was tightening them after taking them out of the canner so I didn't burn my fingers.

I have 17 quarts and 8 pints of peaches. I did some of the pints with the familiar metal lids as they are for our neighbor.  I will let you know tomorrow once the jars are cooled, if they all sealed. 

I stumbled across a recipe for Peach Honey at this website  so right now the peach skins are cooking, will be interested to see how this turns out. 

Testing another pattern for Martha Ess, so no tatting to show.

once more

here is our road again. 
this is August, the river should only be 4' deep or less, not 4' over flood stage.

 I have been tatting, doing some test tatting for Martha Ess, so have nothing to show you.
i am going camping starting tonight through saturday night, yeah!  last years camping trip, I ended up  having to travel for work, so didn't get to go. 
I am planning on having fun.