a small bit of tatting

I was able to get a bit more tatting done.
These bookmarks will be donated to the Boutique at Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag MN.  A 4 day celebration of steam engines, tractors, and all things big iron.

The last few years I have demo'd tatting there.  This year due to farmguy's health, I was not able to go.

But I did some of my part to help by tatting the bookmarks and sending them with another gal.

The cross bookmark is my own pattern that  I have used for years.  The vining bookmarks are based on an edging pattern that was posted on Facebook. 

The green is a Flora thread in size 20.  The varigated threads are Lizbeth.  The cross bookmark is done in an acrylic lace yarn that should be purple and green but for some reason the scan does not show true. 
This is what the thread looks like

I also did a quick run up to Rollag and picked up my refurbished Circular Sock Machine

Now to get practicing so I can get some socks knitted before the weather gets colder.

Farmguy has 2 surgeries scheduled for this week so we shall see how things go this time. Wednesday he is to have the Nephrostomy tubes in his back replaced ans apparently, good medical practice states they need to be replaced every 90 days. The one on Friday is to reverse the iliostomy.  Thanks be to God that there will be no complications this time around.

I hope you had a wonderful tatting labor day weekend.

A summer catchup post ~ this will be long

I have gotten some tatting done.
The first is Renulek's Summer Doily 

done through round 5.  The thread is size 40 hand dyed for me by Monica Braxton of NAGstudio on Etsy.  I think it is turning out like I was thinking of a field of wild violets. 

A friend of ours lost his mother last week, so I tatted bookmarks for the family.

The thread is size 20 and the pattern is one I do by memory, I do not know where I picked it up, I have done it so many times over the years.

I also purchased 3 new shuttles the last couple months.  Did I need them?  No, I did not, but I wanted them.  he he,  not really smart money management, but they fed the need.
They are all Elite Creations Slider shuttles.

Top side

Bottom side

from the side.

I really like the Teal and Rose Burl shuttles, they are short and I can go really fast with them.  The cross bookmarks each took my only an hour and a half to tat them. 
The India Ironwood is a bit longer and I poke myself occasionally when tatting at speed.

Now onto other subjects, so if you don't want to read any further, you don't have to.

I have been absent from blogging for a long time.  Some of you know that Farmguy was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer and underwent Prostate removal surgery on April 30.  It was to have been an overnight stay.  well, things didn't go so well, and he didn't get out of the hospital until Jun 28th.  I lived in his hospital room with him, it made his stay go so much better, he didn't have to wait for nurses to come help with much of what he needed. We did nearly lose him once during surgery.  7.5hrs on the table for surgery #2, and 5.5 hrs for surgery #3

During that time he underwent 2 more major abdominal surgeries.  Both caused by complications that developed during recovery, not due to additional cancer.

He is recovering slowly but still has a long way to go.  He came home with 5 drains,  and umpteen pills and shots.  He has been able to get rid of 1 drain, but still has 2 nephrostomy tubes draining his kidneys into bags strapped to his legs, and both and Illiostomy and a Colostomy glued to his abdomen.
During his stay in the hosp he lost 40 pounds,  he now weighs 153 on a 6' frame.  

Last fall he bought a new tractor and a new combine, will the tractor was brand new, but the combine is new to us,

he had a chance to drive the tractor doing some spring tillage and a bit of planting before he had to go to the hosp, but never got a chance to drive the combine.  Wheat harvest will be going full bore in a couple of days so since the tractor was easy riding this spring, he thought the combine might be too, well not so much.  His hopes of running the combine during harvest were shattered today.  He is not healed up enough.  So, he will have to sit on the sidelines at least for wheat and likely next month for soybeans, but is hoping he can help with Corn harvest in  late October/November. 

Because of his recovery, I have received permission to work from home so I can take care of him, and give him his meds, one of which is a shot that he gets 3x's a day.  So much fun to poke a needle in him. 

My garden this year got lost in the weeds while I was at the hosp so you don't get to see that this year.

Our old dog died last year, so this year I decided to get chickens again.  I ordered them before things got out of hand with Farmguy. 
This is what 75 baby chicks looked like on May 16th, when they were 2 days old.

Did you know they mail your baby chicks to you?
This is how they come

And here is what they look like in the box, you can't tell, but there are 25 Buff Orpingtons and 50 White Cross

And 3 months later, this is what they look like now

White Cross Rooster and Hen

Buff Orpington

The White Cross roosters and most of the hens will be headed for the freezer next month.  The Buff's and a few white hens will be a new layer flock. 

This is what my chicken house looks like.  it is very old, it was old when we moved here in 1976.  I think I need to give it a coat of white wash this summer so it will be brighter this fall and winter. 

It is only 12' X10' I am standing in the door and there are 2 windows on the same side as the door, and the one window you see is facing west.  The chickens spend most of their days outside in the pen, we can't let them run free range, there is a fox den out in the pasture not too far from the yard.  If they ran free the fox would eat them.  And there are eagles nesting near the river a mile north, they would eat good too, so they are confined to the house and the pen. 

Well, this is long enough, but gives you a bit of catch up on me for the past couple of months.
Happy Tatting.

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.

Finished Tatting and some more Catch up

I have some tatting to show that I just finished.  Last night in fact.

This is Jane MacTats edging turned into a Cross by Grace Tan.  Jane details the pattern on her blog.
The link to the pattern is on the right side of her blog.

The colors are Yellow and light Blue, the colors worn by the sports teams at a high school near here.  The organist for our Church is graduating this Sunday.  She attends this school.

The threads are Flora Size 20

I want to show you a neat item that I ran across a couple weeks ago.

 This is a collapsible light box.  It comes with 4 backgrounds, white, black, red and navy.  This one only has a front opening, but you can get them with both a front and a top opening. 

Here I have attached the removable front.  The slit is so you can insert your camera I think.

Here it is folded flat

Here twisted into a small circle

And finally in it's little pouch with the backgrounds.
I purchased mine from here http://www.obnphoto.com/light_tents.html  I got the 17" one.


Now for some Catch up

I promised to post the contents of the little tin boxes that I included in my PIF give away a few weeks ago.  The tins have all been received by their winners and so I can now show you what I had put in them.

Inside the tin was a new Aerlit Shuttle with extra bobbin, some doodads, 4 brass earring findings, but they have no way to attached earrings to them but they work really great as picot bead holders, or stitch markers. And 2 unused balls of antique size 70 or 80 Tatting Thread.  All the balls were brands that are no longer being made.  Also the earrings that I made.  I hope the recipients were pleased when they opened their boxes.

A friend lost a family member and I wanted to make something in rememberance.

 

These are the pieces that I made  And put together they are an Angel

 The thread is Lizbeth size 40 with a silver blending filament.  The halo is made from just the blending filament. The head is crocheted using the same white thread and a pattern I found online for an amigurami ball.  I had to take my glasses off to see what I was doing, but I think it turned quite well.

This is the back view.  The wings are made using the Hope Butterfly pattern from Lady Shuttle Maker.  You will find the pattern on the right side of her blog, way down toward the bottom of the page, along with other patterns she has for free.

Well, this is long enough.  I think I might be caught up on the tatting I can show.  I am still working on 3 projects.  2 I can't show you until they are finished.  The other one I can show progress, maybe this weekend. We will see.  Just realized that I am not caught up.  I have a dragon or 2 to show. 

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.