Just A Bit - JAB

I enjoy when fellow bloggers show me just a bit - jab- of what they are currently working on. So here is my jab.

It will be the most time consuming piece I've done to date, and I'll explain why ...... I mean it is by no means something huge, like Clyde's heriloom piece (check out his progress, I'm in awe) but it has taken up all of my "spare time" for about 2 weeks. Of course that's not saying much since the gym litterly takes up 2+ hours of my free time each time I go, but I figure if my dh wants me to waste my precious time going to the gym then let the house work pile up :-)

Anyway back to what this is really about, tatting and why this will be my most time consuming piece...........

So I decided I would test tat part of this in plain white thread before I trusted myself to use my good HDT. I found I was able to understand the pattern and the test portion came out perfectly. Okay good onto the fun thread. Well wouldn't you know after a couple days of tatting, I found I messed up the pattern ....... at the beginning! Now this wasn't a cut out and try to salvage days of work type of mess up, it was consistantly doing it wrong mess up. I was so mad at myself that I ended up just throwing the piece away. I tried to calm myself and started the piece over. A couple of days later I became concerned that I may not have enough of this particular HDT left and what if I ran out????, so I took it out of the grabage (thankfully it was in my craft room garbage and no food or anything like that goes in there) and reverse tatted (sounds better than untatted, right?) as much as I could in order to be able to reuse the thread. Now how stupid is that?!?!? I know I know it was a ton of work to reverse tat it all, but the thread is sooo beautiful I hated to waste it!!

Oh and did you see that Handy Hands Tatting is having 15% off any order placed now thru Monday May 28th, Memorial Day? The coupon code is 528. If you're one of their newsletter subscribers be sure to use the free shipping code also. I thought the shipping coupon could only be used once and of course I used it right away, so I'd trashed that info. However Barb was nice enough to send it to me again. Thank you, Barb! I won't include the free shipping code here because it's not fair, but by all means use that 15% off. I'm all about books for this order. I've got to get Tatting Patterns by Lyn Morton and Tatting With Visual Patterns By Mary Konior. I'm also thinking about getting Tatting The GR-8 Self Closing Mock Ring by The Shuttle Brothers. Is there any other ones that you recommend?

Okay enough babbling for now.

Happy Tatting!

Bonnie

#9 of 25 Motif Challenge

So much to blog about today.

Thank You to everyone who commented in my previous blog where I asked is the join the first half of the ds, how to hid new threads added during a project and hiding the tails. I want to make sure I am doing everything exactly right and sometimes I second guess myself. So again Thank You to everyone.

Yesterday my sister, Anita, showed me Google Reader. I have been checking people's blogs 2 or 3 times a day (I'm not a stalker I promise, :-), I'm just afraid of missing something!) What Google Reader does is it lets me know when a new post has been added to everyone's blogs. It is going to save me hours at the computer, :-) . Seriously if you aren't familiar with this or a program like it I highly recommend it.

Also yesterday I spent a large portion of the day making jam. It was a rainy day here in Western NY, so standing over the stove wasn't so bad. I got alot accomplished though, I made a batch each of Strawberry and Raspberry Rhubarb jams. Today I will finish up the jam for this year and make a batch of Cherry Rhubarb. We could NEVER eat that much jam, so I really make it all with the intentions of giving most of it away. Although it never fails that before next Rhubarb season I will have given so much away that we go quite a while with out any until I can make more.

Anyway, I didn't get a chance to start Jane's TIAS3 yesterday. But I will do it today.

Lastly here is #9 of my 25 Motif Challenge.


This pattern is called "Heart's Desire" by Susan K. Fuller. The pattern can be found here. I made this for my friend Rose's birthday and tacked it onto the front of a blank card to use as her birthday card. I thought it only fitting to use Yarnplayer's size 30 "Roses" HDT. I first saw this motif on TattingChic's blog.

I would like to continue to invite everyone to comment on my previous blog "Tatting Question". I am very interested to hear how YOU tat.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Tatting Question

Fellow Tatters, I have a question. Do you consider the join as the first half of your ds? Last night I started a rather large project and I do consider the join as the first half. Suddenly it occurred to me that maybe I was taught incorrectly and it shouldn't be. Will some one please let me know if I am doing it correctly?

I just went to see what I could find out on youtube and I came upon this very informative video provided by Tattyhead, Linda Davies. She explains how to put a bead on and how to make the last join without getting a twisted picot. Both of these techniques are sooo much easier than what I have been doing. I also believe she says that her join is considered as the first half of the ds, which would mean I have been doing it correctly all of this time.

To all of the youtube tatters, I would really enjoy seeing a video on how you join a new thread when you are in the middle of a project, as well as how you hide your tails. Last night when I was cutting off, tieing and hiding tails, I wondered if I was doing that right......... So I join the end to the beginning, cut, tie a knot (a knot should that be??) and weave back and front, back and front thru the work a couple of times with each tail individually, then cut off the extra thread.

As for joining thread in the middle of the project I had to do that last night too. Oh the horror of it all! I'm thinking I did it okay, probably not correctly. It was right before a ring, so I wove the thread under the short previous chain and once or twice thru the previous ring. I'm sure I'm not doing it correctly but can't grasp how else to do it. I've tried adding using the floss trick but I can't figure out how to tat over top of it.

I guess my one question turned into a couple here.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#8 of 25 Motif Challenge

Gina has revealed her May Mystery Motif so I can show my attempt at it.

It was good practice for me to not have a pattern which included a picture to work off of. I must admit that I had to start it a second time because I did not pay attention to the pattern and only put in 12 picots instead of 13. However after that I watched the pattern pretty good and didn't have a problem again.

I am considering this to be #8 of 25 Motif Challenge.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Happy Mother's Day (not Tatting related)

Happy Mother's Day!

To date, I have been a mother for 23 Mother's Days. By all means it has been the best thing I've ever done!!!! Thank you God for our Holly!

To Holly I'd like to say:

I am very proud of the beautiful, responsible adult you have become, Babes. Thank you for being the reason I celebrate Mother's Day as a Mom.

And to my mother:

I love you, Mommasetta!, Happy Mother's Day!

To the rest of you mothers I want to pass along a heart-felt "Happy Mother's Day" and a wish that you have a great day.

And to each and every one of you in blogger land I wish you a Happy Sunday!