Summer Doily

      

Many talented tatters around the world have or are tatting Renulek's Spring doily.  It is very pretty.

Now Renulek is posting her Summer Doily.

I am going to do this one.  I don't know how large this one will get, some of her doilies have been very large.

I had in mind the way I wanted this doily to look and needed some new thread colors.

I really enjoy the early spring violas, Johnny Jump Ups, wild violets and pretty Pansys.  So I thought that a doily that brought that out would look very nice.

So, I contacted a thread dyer with an etsy shop - NAGSTUDIOS that I have become familiar with on FaceBook - Monica Braxton.

This is what she was able to come up with for me.

I think this is going to look very good.


on another note, I have been absent from online sources for a while now, and that might continue sporadically.  my husband had cancer surgery last week, it turned out well, but was way more involved then originally hoped.  Now he needs to heal and that is going to be a very slow process.


A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
Please remind your male family and friends that a simply PSA blood test for Prostate cancer will make their lives much easier when it is caught early rather than late. 

more tatting

I have a dear friend who has moved away and just lately sent me a friendship present.  I am "retaliating" with a pair or earrings.

The thread is a LadyShuttleMaker HDT in size 50 Wildflowers.  The seed beads are unknown.  The drop beads and the findings (doodads) are from FireMountainGems. 

I have been working on the turquoise doily again today. Another row, is nearly finished.  I need to concentrate on that so it gets finished soon.

I have another project that I have started.  Many of you may have figured out that I am Catholic.  Many of you may remember way back yonder when the Catholic women wore a veil or hat to Mass.  I have been feeling called to wear a hat or veil for quite some time now, and resisted for a long time.  I occasionally wore a straw summer hat off and on over the years, but was never comfortable. About a year ago, I started to wear a small black hat I inherited from my Grandmother.

It felt right to wear something on my head in respect.  But I started feeling like I wanted to return to wearing a veil. So I started looking for one I could add Tatting to.
There are many websites online offering Chapel Veils, but they are basically allover lace, no plain net.  I finally found one on Etsy at LizzieLovesVintage  It was perfect.

about 40" along the wide end and about 20" deep to the point.  It is mostly a nice net with some lace along the edge.

perfect for adding tatting.  I am going to replace the edging over time, but for now am wearing it as is.  I will be appliqueing tatting to the net ground. 
The first item to be added is this cross.  It is the pattern Camilla by Lene Bjorn from her book of Cross shaped Bookmarks.

It is tatted in Jess's Grackle Mess size 80.  It is a bit hard to see how pretty the thread is in this picture, so I took a closer one.

If you click on it and make it bigger, you should be able see the different colors in the thread, purple, green indigo...

I will also be doing a bunch of VicTats's Roses are Red.  Her patterns are available on her blog along the right side.  or Click here to go directly to the Rose pattern on Keep and Share.

It rained about .7" by the time it was done today, so was able to spend most of the afternoon tatting. 

Have a great week everyone.

School colors

I have finished another Cross Bookmark for a high school graduate from our Church.

The threads are size 20.  The blue thread is Lizbeth Royal Blue and the white is DMC Cebelia.  The Cebelia is a slight bit larger then the Lizbeth but they worked out o.k.   I am positive I have a ball of  white Lizbeth in size 20, but do you think I can find it?  Oh, well, the ball of Cebelia has been in the drawer for a loooooonnnnnngggg time and really needs to get used up.



When I held the PIF several weeks ago, there was one gal who left me no way to get  in touch with her.  She finally contacted me just after holding the 2nd chance drawing.  I have decided to send her a set of earrings in her choice of thread. 

The thread is HDT size 40 RainForest, the beads and doodads are from FireMountainGems and the hooks are from eebeads

A neat trick I discovered tonight while trying to scan the earrings,  There is often a focus problem when scanning an item that includes beads, but there is no good light tonight, so inspiration struck and I dug out a piece of fake fur. It cushioned the scanner lid and filled in the spaces around the beads and I think it worked pretty well.  I will have to remember this.

The garden is all planted, Yeah, in between all the rain.  We have had a lot of rain the past 10 days or so.  And the crops are all in except a very wet spot or 2 where the tractor would have gotten stuck if farmguy had tried it.

Finally, the PIF!

It is the middle of April. Normally here in South East North Dakota, the grass is greening up, the ground is warming and drying enough that farmguy is busy working up the fields and planting wheat.  I'm planning the garden and starting the tomato, cabbage and other seeds in the basement. 

 This year for a birthday present, mother nature decided that we are not done with winter.  My birthday was Sunday the 14th. It was a snow storm.  This is what greeted me when I got up on the morning of the 15th.

Another 10" of snow, on top of the snow that hadn't melted yet.  Over night the wind went down so the snow clung to everything.  It was very heavy and wet.

This is Shep wading through the snow in the yard.  

Those with good long memories may remember that I won a pair of very pretty earrings from Umi & Tsuru about a year ago.
One of the rules for the giveaway is that you hold one too.

It took me the longest time to figure out what to give.  I changed my mind several times.  When I ran into these cute little tins

They are not empty, but I am not showing what is in them.  You will have to win to find out.

These are made with Yarnplayers Pansy in size 50 with doodads and beads from FireMountain Gems and the findings are from eebeads.com.

These look a bit lopsided for some reason, but they are not.

These are tatted with LadyshuttleMakers Rainforest in size 50.  The doodads are from FireMountainGems and the beads are some that I was give.  I was remiss in not writing the giver on the bag, while I am pretty sure who gave them to me, I am not totally sure so won't say.  The findings are from Gale Marshall of TatsAll in Canada.

And the 3rd pair are tatted from Ladyshuttlemakers Wildflowers in size 50.  The doodads are again from FireMountain, the beads are Mill Hill Seed beads and the findings from Gale Marshall.

So, here are the rules.  I will keep the give away open until the 23rd. That is 1 week. In your comment, Please let me know your chose of earring .,..  Pansy, Rainforest or Wildflowers.  At the end of the week, I will use a random number generator to chose the 3 winners.  If more then 1 choose the same color earring, I will use draw for who gets their choice, the other will receive the 3rd pair of earrings.

UPDATE: PIF means Pay It Forward. If you win, you need to hold a give away of your own at some point showcasing your craft. 

Catching Up

I haven't been very vocal on my blog lately,  but I have been doing some tatting and I have some things to show to you.

First up, Fox was so kind and asked me to test her Elizabeth motif. 

I didn't have bugle beads, and will need to get some at some point so I have them available.  I instead stacked several seed beads to mimic the Bugle beads, but I did not estimate correctly.  I used 3 beads, when I should have used 4.

I tatted the 10 sets of Victorian Sets hoping for a straight sided motif, but because I didn't have the beads long enough, there was more length then I should have had, so the side chains were longer then I was looking for.  I also left too much space at the end of the long beaded picots.  I used some knitting stitch safety pins

They are nice, have no loops at the end to catch thread like metal safety pins do, but because they are plastic, they are thicker.  There was enough space on the long picots to add the 4th bead, but I did not do so. 
Fox's pattern is perfect, my execution was not. 

The thread I used was a size 30 HDT picked up from ebay many years ago.  I do not have any artist info.  The name of the colorway is Sakura2.  It is a very pretty pale yellow and pink.  The beads are clear lined with pink, but most of them do not show any pink in the scan. 

I have several other projects in progress
1. This is a rework of an antique pattern requested by another tatter.
I have done the original pattern twice,

This yellow is my first pass through the pattern, it worked out pretty well. I was able to re-write the pattern in modern notation, I did not find any mistakes, so that was good.
I then worked it the second time like this

Silver beads on silver thread,  it is a start, but needs more thought to end up with what was requested.

2. I am also doing a test tat for another tatter

This one is fun and going quickly. 

3. Several other doilies that I have posted about previously are still waiting for their final repeat or a round or two.  I really need to get them done,

4.  another set of 6 snowflakes to fulfill a commission.  

5. I have some threads from Jess! on order, they have been shipped and I am looking forward to receiving them.  One of them in particular is destined for a large project that I have in mind, and I will detail that more once the thread has arrived.

We had another winter storm yesterday, and because it is March it was accompanied by rain/mist/drizzle.  There is ice on the roads and ground drifting, so there are snow drifts across the roads.  Made for a slow drive to Mass this morning. But Yeah!  the sun is out this afternoon, so maybe the roads will be cleared off before I have to leave for work tomorrow morning. 

I hope you have all had a fun weekend, with much tatting time.  If you don't tat, then I hope you have had time to do something fun.

This & That and my Lace Mat

I have had a very busy and somewhat difficult last few days, and as it has so often happened in the past for many of us, we receive a moral booster in the mail. 

Back on the 14th of Sept at Tat-ilicious I won a giveaway that Jess was having for her  Blogaversary.

I chose the option Jess gave me of a ball of  custom Messy Jess!-y colorway or 2 skeins of colors she already had.  I chose a ball of Messy Jess!-y

This is the picture that I sent to her

North Dakota Sunset

  I have always loved the sunsets that God has given us here in North Dakota so asked Jess if a thread colorway like this would be possible.  This is what she was able to do for me.

Isn't this pretty? It is a little brighter then the picture shows. It is size 40.  Thank you Jess!

She also sent along some beads... some meaning lots....

Here is a closeup of the Doodads in the bottom center because I want you to see the really pretty one.

Now back to my difficult days.
The past weekend was extremely warm (read hot) here in North Dakota, Saturday was 85 and Sunday got up into the mid 90's.  I am a chilly person, my normal body temp runs about 97, a good degree below normal of 98.6.  but I also don't do well when it gets hot, I have had either heat exhaustion or heat stroke several times.  I think I have mentioned before that the tomatoes out in the garden are not ripening, normally they would be dead plants by now, but there are just too many to pick green and let ripen in the house.  So we have been covering them on chilly nights, but that is a chore and the days are getting colder too so we chose to build a hoop house over the tomato patch.  15'X36'. 

This is what we accomplished. 
Farmguy, our son and a son-in-law were busy combining corn so Saturday I cut the re-bar and collected some of the wooden frame and a few other things and did some measuring in between the laundry and feeding the guys and running parts.
Sunday the guys were back at harvesting, but the neighbors who garden with us were able to come help in the afternoon for a couple hours. We were able to get the wooden base frame put together, the re-bar pounded into the ground and the hoops together and up. 

This evening we got the 2 end hoops up and the connecting pieces along the ridge.  Then covered it all with the blue tarp you see in the right hand side of the picture.
The plan is to use clear plastic like a green house in the next couple of days so the tomatoes will continue growing and ripening their fruit. 

The plans that I used are available online from several different sources.  I combined  ideas from several sources ~  LasPilitas greenhouse , Mother Earth News and some others.

I got over heated - not good.  and then when I was feeling a bit better later in the evening the cows got out.  They are supposed to be grazing in the harvested corn fields north of the house. The electric fences are working very well, but the river is so low, that when they go down for a drink, they simply walk across and then go around the fence and get out.  grrrrr.  The guys were still out combining so I went out to chase cows, fortunately, I could do most of it from the back of the 4-wheeler.



So no tatting was done over the weekend. 

I was able to get some of the 2nd round on my Lace Mat done tonight.

I decided to add a solid color for the chains in this row.  It is a used ball of thread with no label.  I had more of the repeat on the right side finished, but discovered that I had twisted the first round arm when I joined so had to un-tat and straighten it out.

Hope you all had a great monday, and you tuesday will be pleasant with lots of tatting and tea for Tatting Tea Tuesday.

It is time for bed.

My Beginning with Later Update

Tonight I was able to start my Tat-A-Long.

If you haven't caught any other posts about it around the blogosphere, Jon at Tat-a-Renda  was able to get permission to update some long ago patterns by Norma Benporath.  She has been tatting them from the original notations and then is going to post graphic versions.

She posted the first graphic called Lace Mat  and has continued to post some hints and tips in several more posts.

When she posted the graphic pattern, she suggested having a Tat-A-Long.  Many tatters have taken up the challenge.

I finally got caught up on promised items and have been able to start my version.

The thread is hand dyed by Zarina  in Anchor size 50 called Orchid Garden. This thread is so pretty.

I have a solid coordinating thread that I will be adding during some of the rounds. I don't know what the solid color thread is, the label is long gone, but I did the wrap test to check for size and it is close enough that it should work.

If you haven't thought about joining the Tat-A-Long, give it a thought, it isn't too late to start.

Happy Tatting everyone.

Later
This is what I wanted to finish tatting before I could start the above Tat-A-Long.
I was testing the Duchess pattern for Fox.   She has not yet released the pattern, so watch her blog for the release date.

The varigated thread is Lizbeth size 40 in Scottish Thistle # 175
The center is a tatted ring instead of a jewelry finding (doodad or tatament).  It is tatted in DMC Metallic Pearl Size 5 color silver.  I left the tails so I can use them as a hanger.  This may have 8 arms instead of a snowflakes normal 6, but I think it makes a very nice ornament.

Last weekend's tatting demo

This past Labor day weekend, from Friday through Monday, I attended the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag, MN.

it was my joy to be able to sit and tat for all 4 days
Here is a look at our booth, we shared it with a bobbin lacer

Pat, she has been the resident tatter for many years but is thinking of switching to bobbin lace

Lady learning to tat,               me,               Pam the bobbin lacer

The gal in the back had been trying to learn how to tat, we were able to get her flipping the stitch, and doing both rings, chains and joins before she left. We showed the flip to more then 3 doz or so of the people who walked past. I sold several starter kits of a boye shuttle and the Learn to Tat with Lacet booklet. 

another view of me in my prairie dress with pioneer bonnet

The bonnet that I am wearing was made by Karrieann
This year's featured farm equipment brand was International Harvester and the gals in the Ladies activities building were encouraged to wear something in red, or an apron made of fabric that featured that brand.

These are the projects that I worked on over the 4 days.

Easy Doily in FireFly size 40

 you can see the bare thread where I am working a split chain as I climb out to the last round. I have been using Krystle's version for the Lark's Head Picot Join because of the sharply contrasting colors, and am trying to figure out how to do one with the split chain, we will see how that works.

Star Attraction Doily in Peacock and DMC Cordonnet Special both size 40

The Easy doily pattern is available from http://free-tatting.com/?p=12http://free-tatting.com/?p=12
The Star Attraction doily is one of Linda Davies

I was not able to finish either doily as I need more of the FireFly and Peacock threads from Jess and she is attending TAT DAYs this weekend, so will have to wait for her to get back home. The FireFly doily only needs it's last round, and the Peacock I have to pick out the last repeat as there is an extra ring and join that doesn't need to be there, then finish this round and do the last.  It won't take me too much longer once I can get back to it.  Those who have kept track of my blog will recognize this doily as one that I started earlier in the summer.  It got set aside to do other things and I will get it finished one of these days.

I have many more pictures of all the different ladies crafts as well as some of the steam engines that I will share on other occasions.  it is now past midnight and I need to get to bed

Lest you think I bin a slackin'

I haven't posted for a bit, but I have been doing some tatting.  I will show you some progress pics as well as a test tat I did for someone. (wow, this turned out to be a long post)

I tested a pattern for a ZigZag Hair Slide by Sue Draney. The pattern will be available on her etsy store in the near future.  What is a Hair Slide you may ask?  it is a doily style tatted motif attached to hair combs to cover up a knot of hair similar to a snood.

This picture was taken before I attached it to the hair combs.  The thread is Lizbeth Vineyard Harvest size 20. The chains in the first 3 rows are lock chains ~ 1st half DS flipped 2nd half DS unflipped ~ which makes for pretty chains when using a varigated thread.  This pattern does require a tie and cut after the 2nd round.  I hate ends, and I know it is a bit arrogant, but I didn't follow the pattern exactly,  I did a lock stitch split chain so I could climb out to the 3rd round.

when you make a normal split chain, you leave a bit less then the length of the chain as it tends to stretch just a bit.  When doing a lock stitch split chain, you leave about 1/3 - 1/2 extra, because instead of simply encapsulating the bare thread, you will have to "pop" the half stitch to transfer it so it becomes a lock chain.

I have been sitting in the car a few times as farmguy did the driving and have been able to get more of my hanky edging tatted.  Here is an update

The thread is Krystle's Wisteria Lane in size 40.  I have completed 3 corners, and have 3 repeats left on the 3rd side, and then the 4th corner and another 13 repeats for the 4th side.  I will then have to attach it to the hanky.  The pattern is Mary Konior's Beauty Spot from Tatting with Visual Patterns.

Last month on my trip to Manitowoc WI, I started Linda Davies Star Attraction Doily using Jess's  Peacock and DMC green from my stash both in size 40. Here is the post from the end of my trip with the progress on the doily at that point.
This is as far as I have gotten now,  round 5 is finished.  The ends are still there, because I never trim them until the item is complete and has been dampened and dried at least once.

Going good so far.  I have broken a tatter's cardinal rule for joins with this doily.  I started out doing the normal up and down joins depending on if I was on the front or back side.  I tat fs/bs automatically.  but was not happy with the little color blip.  I know that several people have posted various ways to avoid the dreaded color blip, Jane Eborall's Blipless join and Lily Morales Larks Head Picot Join are just 2 but I have found the LHPJ method that Krystle has devised very easy and have switched to doing that style of join.  So if you enlarge the pic you will notice color blips for the first 3.5 rounds, after that I used Krystle's version to avoid the color blip. 

Can you stand more?

I have one more pic to post about.

Georgia Sietz has been asking for help with tatting for the Scholarship quilts for the Palmetto Tatter's Tat Days convention. Isdihara over at Ambitaterous has posted links to pattern and requests for tatting.  So I have started tatting a long row of Josephine Rings.  I have used up about 1/2 of a Aero Bobbin of size 40 Olympus in deep green and will finish the bobbin before sending it,  may get another bobbin done as well, as there is other tatting I want to do. We will see. 

 

and one more thing,  

I live not too far from Fargo, North Dakota, the daily newspaper there, The Forum, hosts an online community of bloggers from all walks of life.  They feature various blogs in the paper and online every now and then.  They put out a call for crafty people to blog about their art.  I contacted the person in charge to see what they were looking for as it occured to me it might be a good way to get more people introduced to tatting.  Their blogs are hosted on WordPress.  I would not want to run 2 blogs, and I was told that I would be able to migrate my past content from here on blogger.  It would mean an address change for my blog.  I would also have to learn a new format.  

I would appreciate any advice you can give if I should or should not pursue moving my blog. 

Any pros or cons to WordPress would be welcome. 

nearly midnight again, and I need to get to bed.  

See you all tomorrow.

Finished!!!

Yeah, I have finished my Tischband Challange sponsored by Umi & Tsuru.

It isn't all that hard, I just didn't have enough time in chunks to get it done. The flowers are easy, but the leaves took me about an hour each and I had to follow the pattern very carefully to be sure my stitch counts were correct and that I was in the right place.

The Blute 1(Flowers) are done in Marilee's Rhubarb Pie size 40.  Blatt 2 (Leaves) are Jess's Camo-licious in size 40

The scan looks like it sits flat, and maybe it will after wetting and blocking, but it still is a bit wonky.

I only tatted 5 rounds in the flowers as opposed to the 6 listed in the pattern, but the pictures that accompany the pattern only show 5.  I also watched the video made by Frivole, but still feel that my construction is squished a bit.  If I do this again, ( not likely) I would join into 2 of the flower picots that are closer together.  By joining into the middle picot in each set, they flowers are trying to push the leaves.  If I had joined to 2 picots in the same set, or at least 2 picots closer together, it would have positioned the flowers further into the corners, and would have allowed the leaves to sit in a more natural position.

If I use this as a "mug rug" I will need to back it for support.

have a good night all. and happy tatting tomorrow

Trip Tatting

It's late, but I promised tatting so here goes.

My friend B and I traveled about 9 hours from North Dakota to Manitowoc Wisconsin.  Manitowoc is on the east edge of WI, right on Lake Michigan.

We were going to visit B's mom A.  We took turns driving, and while B drove, I tatted.

1. 

Here is a Rosary I tatted on the trip.  It was for A who is 84, so I used size 10 thread.  It is a hand dyed thread I bought on ebay several years ago, and do not know the colorway or the base thread, but it is soft.

2. A's sister, D, also lives in the same complex.  She is 90 which shocked me, as I was sure she was still in her 70's.  She flower gardens along the outside her apartment, plants tomatoes in the designated vegetable areas, and because she had more plants started then room for, dug up another area down the slope from her patio near a wooded area.  She also volunteers at the local food pantry every friday morning, leads the Rosary every evening at 7, sews and mends for people, and in her spare time, sets puzzles and does plastic canvas needle craft.

The plant below is one she has had for some time, but she said it made her mad as it wouldn't bloom, and was going to throw it out, so I took it.  

In the pot along with the plant was one of those clear stakes that florist use to hold a card. So, to pay her for being such a sweet lady, I tatted Sherry Pences' Hope Butterfly and attached it to the stake. D was pleased.

This was tatted using the same thread as the Rosary. 

3. I finished my Tischband flowers

They are tatted in Marilee Rockley's Rhubarb Pie in size 40. The quarter is to show size. Now I have to decide on the leaf color and get them finished.

4. I had some down time and in my previous post showed some thread from Jess at Tat-ilicous.
Here is what I tatted with the Camo-licious

Her name is Huntress.  She is a Forest Guardian.  The thread is a size 40.  Here is a scan of both Huntress and Dawn Flyer, the dragon I tatted last fall.

Dawn Flyer is tatted in size 20.
I have almost finished the 4 book series titled Inheritance Cycle, by Christopher Paolini.  In those books there are 5 dragons,  Saphira who is blue, Thorn who is red, Glaedr who is golden, Shruikan who is black  and one dragon egg that has yet to hatch, so I don't know what color that one will be.  I have a yen to tat dragons in those colors.

5. Once I finished these I started a doily with the second colorway from Jess, Peacock in size 40.

I paired it a ball of DMC in size 40 color # 320 Pistachio Green - Med. The doily is Linda Davies Star Attraction.

And I will leave you with several other pictures I took on my trip.

Lake Michigan

one of the Submarines built in Manitowoc.  This one is now a museum.

Along the road in the middle of the state there is a resident with a sense of humor.  Do any of you remember the TV show Petty Coat Junction?

We actually turned around and went back a couple miles, just to get this picture.

I hope all of you who qualify had a great Mother's day, I was contacted by all my children so that made it a very good day for me. 

Have a great day tomorrow.
now it is time for bed.