Candy Cane Mouse

If I manage to do this right, this post shouldn't show up until tomorrow 12/21.

I know it's odd for me posting twice in one day, and since I didn't want to put

anyone into a Bonnie overload I'm holding it off until tomorrow :-)

Dawn from Dawn's Stamping Studio showed how to make this Candy Cane Mouse.

I decided I had to make them for the ladies I work with.

Here's a closer look.

Aren't they the cutest thing.

Thank you for sharing, Dawn.

Happy Monday,

Bonnie

Update** I made another 18 for a total of 25, to gift away. Quite Fun.

Rosette Motif & Doily

When we were in Texas earlier this year I blogged about Jon's Rosette Motif & Doily. I showed it to my friend, Mark (different Mark then my husband) who was able to turn it into this awesome paperweight. I asked him to be sure it was made right side up when he made it, which he did.

The paperweight was made in layers so that the motif is suspended in the layers of hard plastic. He did an excellent job, Thank- you Mark.

This is a Christmas gift it to my friend, Rose. She will recognize the thread as Yarnplayer's HDT "Roses" because I have gifted something to her in the past using this awesome HDT.

I forgot to mention that I stuck a piece of white felt on the bottom of it so it's not abrasive to a desktop or any other surface.

Super neat, I think she's going to like it.

Happy Sunday, Everyone.

Bonnie

Jane's Butterfly

I haven't tatted in months, and should have spent the time finishing up our Christmas cards, but instead I spent part of the last two days making this....... Jane's Butterfly.



Sadly it really is so much prettier than it looks. Here it looks all misshappen, but it's still pretty good for my first piece in months.

Thank you, Jane, for another great pattern.

Happy Life, Everyone!

Bonnie

LadyShuttleMaker's Generosity

LadyShuttleMaker, a friend to the online tatting world, is having a give away. This is her 3rd week of generosity and sadly I missed getting in on the action for the last 2 weeks. Don't you miss out too. Click on her Monday Mondo banner to the left of this post to be taken directly to her blog.

Good Luck everyone.

LOL, I just signed up for this and found I've missed out on it for the 3rd week too, it ends on Saturdays. Okay better luck to me next time.

A Good Feeling

At home I am up daily between 5 and 5:30. This week on vacation I am getting up around the same time, although my family isn't getting up until much later. Because I do not want to turn on the lights in order to tat, I have been making coffee and setting here at the computer reading blogs. I am so happy to say that after falling hundreds of blog posts behind I am finally caught up... and with comments as well. Feels like a fresh start.

I am now trying to get caught up on In Tatters, but at 500+ posts that seems overwhelming. However, I hate the thought of missing out on anything :-)

Happy Thursday!

Austin, TX

Greetings from Austin, Texas. My husband and I are here visiting family. My husband's family actually but since I've been a part of this family for 25+ years they are my family too :-) We arrived yesterday evening, Sunday, and will return home on Friday.

My family is currently on a tubing river adventure. I asked to stay behind so I could try to nap away the headache I acquired yesterday. It did not help and my eyes are "fuzzy" too, so I think I'm dehydrated. Now I'm trying to drink a bunch of water to see if that takes care of the problem.

Regardless this is the perfect opportunity for me to do a blog post.

In September 2008, Jon gifted us with one of her patterns, Rosette Motif and Doily. I fell in love with the pattern and searched for just the right thread to complete the project in. I used Yarnplayer's Roses and Leafy size 30 HDTs. The first one I made is on the left. It is the way the pattern was intended, with 6 flower petals. The one on the right was made while we were outside enjoying an evening with some of my husband's local family members. I was chatting and tatting and found that in the end I only put 5 pedals on it.

See how small they are in comparison to the quarter. Well that got me to thinking that I'll have to make "a million" of them to make a decent size table runner, so I'd need more Roses HDT. Because I know that HDT is different from batch to batch, I decided I would start over using Lizabeth threads.

Currently I have 4 roses made, 1 of them is completed with leaves, and the rest are waiting for leaves so they can be connected to one another. I am unable to show you any progress right now for a number of reasons which you won't care about, but since they are funny I will share them anyway.

First off our new cruise camera found itself in a fishing boat's live well, ruined - not so funny at the time. Then a few weeks later my husband's fishing camera got wet, it was old and again was a freak accident, so deal with it. A couple of days later our printer/scanner combo died. None of these things are funny, but together they have to be considered as such because the only other option isn't worth it :-) (see it really is *kinda* funny)

So began a mad scamble to get a new camera before our Texas trip. We couldn't figure out what to get so ended up getting the same camera we had for our cruise. Right now the new camera is with my husband ... tubing ..... on the water ............. :-)

Happy Labor Day!!!

Bonnie

Before I share my eye candy with you, I need to share this with you.

I work a 40 hr a week job for my local county Department of Social Services. I work an entry level position. I do not have a college degree.

I have worked in my department for 9 years and this job for more than 3 years, although I backed up the previous individual for 4 years before I took over. I am good at my job ...... blah blah blah. Here is my situation. About 5 years ago our department got a new director........ for some reason she took an instant dislike to me .... not sure why, I have never had to deal with this before in my working life. I have been passed over 4 different times for promotions. So much more to that my work story. But really here is what I need to say.......

Just because I am a front line person, doesn't mean that I don't deserve respect. And "because I am the director" isn't always a good reason. More to that story as well, but it is the reason why I am so upset this time.

I would really have to call her a bully.

I respect her as the director, and I am a person who works hard, and I deserve respect as well.

Here is why I bring this up.......... I know that some of my readers are in position where they hold power over the people who work for them. Please treat them with respect. We are people too.

I dread the thought of working tomorrow. But thank you for listening and allowing me to get some of that out. By the way, I like my job and I am lucky to be appreciated by my piers.

No need to comment on any of that. I am not looking for anyone to feel sorry for me. I asked our daughter, who is a manager, to please be good to her front line staff. And I ask those of you who are in a position of power to do the same.

Enough of that............ as promised and the real reason you are here...........

Here are some of Ellen's April paperclips that I made for my friends at work. The dark brown baskets were made using the new Lizbeth thread from Handy Hands, the off brown colored one was made using white which I tea dyed to give it a brownish effect (I had to make one right way and couldn't wait for my order to come from H.H. LOL) The multi colored flowers are Tatskool's rainbow bright HDT.

I have made a couple of them in the past but as usual gave them away so quickly that I forgot to take pictures. I'm really sorry that I couldn't figure out how to turn the flash off when I took the picture, because it really does distract from how cute they are. The more I made of them I realized that the less flowers I put on it the better it looked.

Thank you, everyone!

Bonnie

Maple Leaf

It's been 2 months since I've had anything to show. I had to take a leave of absence from tatting to work on a volunteer project. When I was able to return, sadly I found it was difficult to get my tatting flow back.

I started with a project that was clearly beyond my level of knowledge, so after 3 failed attempts, I put it aside until I can research the techniques a bit more. Next came Ellen's paperclips. Her designs are always fun for me and they are fast and easy. Which means I can make alot of them in a bit of time here and there so I usually have something tatted to gave away. I give them away so quickly that I forget to blog about them.

From the paperclips I went to the maple leaf pattern which was a big hit in our tatting community a few weeks ago. After a failed attempt (I made an error at the beginning and noticed it towards the middle, so there was no point to finishing it, LOL), I started over. This is the result.

It is made using a size 30 thread, variegated, DMC I think. Previously I had decided that I was going to get into the habit of front side/back side tatting. I am happy that it is now second nature for me and I was able to do it on this leaf without thinking about it twice.

That's all I've got for now.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Great Uncle Francis

Back in March of '08 I introduced you to my Great Uncle Francis, better known here as GUF. I was saddened to learn of his passing on Thursday, July 11th, 2 days after his 96th Birthday.

Those who visit here know that I haven't tatted anything worth showing lately, I have just been to busy. But every other month or so I would send him and GAM (Great Aunt Myrtle) a piece of tatting or a picture of something I had made. Not to long ago, I was feeling sad that I had been to busy to tat lately and hadn't sent them a note in quite awhile. I quickly made up one of Ellen's Spring Baskets, paperclipless, and sewed it onto a notecard and mailed it to them. (I'm not sure when I mailed it to even know if it got to them before GUF became ill on Tuesday.)

My brother, Jack who lives in Ohio, recently went to OK to visit GUF & GAM. A few weeks later he was here to visit us. While he was here he shared with me some pictures that he'd taken of them. They both wore smiles and I could tell they were happy that he was there.

Until I started tatting I didn't communicate with them other than at Christmas, however we bonded over the last year or so because of tatting. You may remember that I showed you the 2 shuttles he made years ago and recently sent to me. I will forever hold them dear to me, as well as the hand written letters I received, that I'm sure were alot of work for him.

It has been more years than I could even begin to count to say when the last time I saw them in person was, probably some time before I got married, so more than 25 years. But the thing is if it wasn't for GUF and his work I wouldn't have known what tatting was. So ........

GUF, Thank You!

When I get to heaven I hope God allows me to remember some of my Earthly life, so I can spend time there with those who touched my life here on Earth.

As I wrote that it made me think of all of the HDT I have in my stash. When my time on Earth is done, it would mean nothing to my family laying there in it's beautiful skein form.
*** Note to self, what are you waiting for, Girl, life is short. :-)

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Blog Post Comments?

I have just spent 2 hours going thru my google reader posts (I actively read 141 blogs .... currently .... I enjoy adding new friends) and leaving comments. I still have 108 posts to go. But it brings up a question ........

I review your posts and comment when I can, but most I am unable to at the time, so I save the posts and do a marathon of comments. However, I usually can't come up with anything cleaver to say, especially that hasn't already been said, so it's something simple like "beautiful" or "nice work", etc. So my question is.... what are your feelings on comments? I for one enjoy knowing that you were here visiting so even if it's just a hello comment or something of that sort, I enjoy it. Do you?

Please comment with your thoughts on this ......... :-)

Mother's Day 2009

My Mother and Father are traveling home today from my sister, Nancy's, college graduation in Boise, ID. That is the only reason I won't get to talk to her today, but I will call her tomorrow evening when they return home.

This was our Mother's Day gift to her this year.

close up

It was tatted using DMC white Cordonnet thread, size 80. The pattern is from "Tatted Handkerchiefs".

Because I do not live close to my mother I need to rely on the US Postal Service to get my card to her. As I do every year I went to the card store early and searched until I found the perfect one. Some years I have to search different stores until I find just the right one. But this year I found the card at the first store I checked. It was perfect because it said my feelings just as if I'd written them myself, but when I cried right there in the store, then I knew for sure.

This time finding the card was the easy part. Making the gift not so easy. But really only because tatting in size 80 thread is a struggle for me, the patterns in this book are diagrammed very nicely. (no written directions)

I'm sure my mother will enjoy it and I know she will understand the hours of love that went into making it special ......... just for her.

To My Mother

Happy Mother's Day, Mommsetta!

I love you with all of my heart! ~ Bonnie

An extra special greeting ......

Happy Mother's Day, Anita!

I hope your day is filled with love and that you spend it making memories.

I know your boys love you.

To all Mothers everywhere

I wish you each a "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!"

Happy Tatting, Happy Life,

Bonnie

Another Spinning Wheel Glass Mat

When I posted my original Spinning Wheel Glass Mat here, Marge asked about the error. Now that I have made another error free one to show you, I feel comfortable showing the error. Note how in 1 of the set of squares there is only 2 picots, there should be 3 like in the rest of the motif.



So Sad. However here is a corrected one.

See all picots present and accounted for :-) It is done in Marilee's HDT - Vibrato, size 30. I started work on this right after the first Spinning Wheel Glass Mat fiasco and completed it a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the pattern alot more the second time around, but can't say that I'm eager to make as many as my Friend - Diane, Lace Lovin' Librarian.


Happy Tatting, World,


Bonnie

Happy Easter!

Easter Greetings, Everyone,

I would like to share the Easter "card" I made for our Daughter.


The pattern is Mark Myers, aka Tatman's Bunny. The pattern is located in the online class projects hosted by Georgia Seitz. My Bunny is tatted using Sherry, aka LadyShuttleMaker's, size 20 Coffee & Cream HDT. The rose is done using Marilee, aka Yarnplayer's, size 30 Roses HDT. (Note: click on their proper names to visit their blogs, and their akas for their Etsy shops.) Sherry's shop is closed while she attends Shuttlebirds and her family completes their exciting move.

I am *happy* for everyone who gets to attend Shuttlebirds. I hope that there is alot of blogging done about it. If I remember correctly it starts this week. Maybe I can go someday .......... LOL! Who am I kidding, I could have driven to Hector this year but was to nervous to go without someone I know going along, I'd never be able to attend Shuttlebirds alone.

On a side note I would like to thank everyone who comes back to visit my blog and doesn't give up on me because I don't blog very often. I actually tat (and sew) many things I give away, but I forget to take pictures of them first. I'd like to say I will blog more often, and I'm sure I've said that in the past, but now I realize that is just setting myself up to fail. So Thank You, yes YOU, for continuing to visit when I do post. I enjoy all of the comments that you give me, so please don't leave now without commenting.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#25 of 25 Motif Challenge

I am happy to report that with tatting shown in this post I will have completed the 25 Motif Challenge.

It is the Spinning Wheel Glass Mat from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior, available from Handy Hands. My tatting friend Diane, Lace-lovin' Librarian got me hooked on this pattern. It was made using size 20 HDT, dyed by Sherry, aka LadyShuttleMaker and named Royalty. I started it months ago, but didn't get it completed until this week. I decided that I must get some of my UFOs done to free up some shuttles.

Here is my version of the Spinning Wheel Glass Mat.

Can you see the mistake? YUGH. That'll teach me to tat and watch hockey at the same time. I couldn't find a background paper (or maybe it's just my scanner) that shows the beauty of this thread, but it really is a pretty HDT. I'm upset at the error so I can't gift this one, which means that I have to keep it for myself and make more :-)

Our daughter, Holly injured her knee Feb 1st, so I've been helping her when she needs me and when I can. She lives in about 1.5 hrs away in a "big city", where the rush hour traffic scares me, so I've been going up the night before her appointments, which has extended the time we've spent together. The reason I bring this up is because I haven't completed the Pay It Forward fabric postcard I blogged about here. But I will I promise.

Oh and since I haven't blogged in forever, I should tell you that I won't be attending the Hector Tatting Days. I was trying to convince myself to do, but was asked to work that weekend so will do that instead and not stress over do I go or don't I. ......... I know I know, but trust me no one is more disappointed in me then I am about this. I love the art of tatting, but can't make myself go, so working is enough of an excuse for me to say I'm not going. Sad really, since it's so close. There's always next year :-)

Happy Tatting.

#24 of 25 Motif Challenge

I can't begin to tell you how often I tat something to give away and forgot to take a picture or scan it. Well not this time.

These snowflakes are Jon's Quantiesque Snowflake. I tatted them using Pamela aka Tatskool's size 20 Rainbow Bright HDT. They are done with the 2nd round made from the solid yellow and the solid red HDTs from Pamela's Rainbow Bright HDT, this way the colors match perfectly. (I especially like when coordinating solids are offered with the HDT. I feel that in a pattern such as this it helps to show off the workmanship.)



These 4 were created in one quick weekend to give as Thank You gifts to the girls at work who covered for me while I was out for 3+ weeks in January.

Over the last couple of weeks I have done this pattern twice more and I have enjoyed every minute of working with it. I'm going to have to make at least one more of these ............ for me. :-)

Jon, Thank You for a great pattern!

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#23 of 25 Motif Challenge & Hector Tat Days

My #23 on of Jon's bookmarks. The pattern name is "Bookmark with Overlapping Chains". It was made using Pamela aka Tatskool's size 40 Rainbow Bright HDT. Another high quality HDT, it was a dream to work with. I started this ..... oh probably 2 or maybe even 3 months ago, but just now got around to finishing it up. It was a fun pattern to make and it was enhanced by working with such fun bright HDT.

Yesterday I was in contact with Gina regarding Hector Tat Days. It is about 180 miles from where I live in Western NY, so got me to thinking that I'd like to go. I knew she was there last year and for some reason I thought it was in her "backyard" so I assumed she'd be there again this year. She did inform me that sadly she won't be going.

Of course this would be a good opportunity to spend time with fellow tatters. That being said .......... I'm easily intimidated in a group of people where I don't have at least one person I know. Overall I think I do ok once other people start to talk to me, but I'm not good at being the one to start a conversation with someone that I don't know.

I would be coming by myself since, other than the person who I took lessons from, I don't know anyone else locally who tats. That makes this a very hard decision for me. I could ask my sister to come with me as a guest. Although she is a crocheter, I doubt it would be much fun for her, and would be more pressure for her to do something in her already busy life just to help me out. So again it would be just me. Hummmmm something I really have to consider, but do it quickly so as to get registered.

Kind of seems like a pipe dream for now, but a dream none the less :-)

Happy Tatting, everyone!

Bonnie

#22 of The 25 Motif Challenge

After the #21 of the 25 Motif Exchange post I did earlier today, I was anxious to get back to work on Connie's Bookmark for the Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange. I am so happy to say I finished it!!! Connie asked for no crosses and no pink so I used a pattern by Julie Patterson called Spring Flowers Bookmark and size 80 DMC thread in blue and a variegated green. I am very pleased at how this turned out.

This piece completes my commitment to the exchange. I am sorry to see it come to an end. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet 4 fellow tatters.

Thank you to Connie, Lynn, Cathy and Abby for being a part of the exchange with me. I hope you had as much fun as I did, both in making and receiving the bookmarks.

Thank you to Sharon for taking the time out of your very busy life to set up the exchanges for us, not only this bookmark one but all of the other ones you do too. And thank you to Connie for keep our bookmark exchange on track for the rest of us and Sharon.

And stupidly - thank you to me for joining the exchange. When I committed to this project I didn't realized it was to be done in size 80 thread, had I have known I doubt I'd have joined. In doing so it unknowingly pushed me to work in a thread size way outside of my comfort zone. (Until the first bookmark I made for this exchange the smallest thread I had successfully completed a project in was size 30 thread.)

As always, I wish you a Happy Life,

Bonnie

#21 of 25 Motif Challenge

Happy 2009 Everyone!

We are back from our cruise. We returned home a week ago today, Sunday 1-11.

(the next 2 paragraphs are blah blah feel free to skip over them)

During the cruise I started to have side effects from the motion sickness patch my doctor recommended. I tried to go one day without it but that didn't work either. The most annoying side effect was blurry vision. I ended up having to wear my glasses (only needed for computer work, reading and crafting) all of the time. Unfortunately I lost one of the screws and the lens fell out, the ship's service desk, nor any of the following ports, had a repair kit. It wasn't until the return trip and our layover in Charlotte NC that I found a kit and was able to fix them. It took a long time for the side effects of the medication to wear away and the stability of being back on solid ground to take over. I actually had to take some anti nausea medication before I started to feel better, that was on Wednesday. Thursday AM I was hit with the flu. Late Friday I started to feel better and today I feel much better. Thankfully I had taken an extra week of vacation from work to enjoy just being home, sadly it was wasted being sick.

I won't go into all of the details of the trip but for the most part we had a wonderful time being together. We went with 2 couple friends, both which were celebrating their 10th Anni, while we were celebrating our 25th (which was actually yesterday 1-17.) The last thing I'll bore you with about the cruise is we are glad we splurged and had a balcony suite. Every morning I woke up and went out to watch the sun come up........ beautiful!

As the frequent readers of my blog know I don't usually talk about myself in anyway unrelated to tatting, so the reason for the above is to explain why I still haven't completed my commitment to the Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange, which was due while I was away. Before I left I emailed Connie and explained that with Christmas and then the trip I wasn't able to get her bookmark completed. I worked on it on the plane on the way to San Juan, but without my glasses I wasn't able to work with the size 80 thread again after that. My goal is to have it finished for mailing early this week.

I'd hoped to type a post before we left, and although I completed this piece hours before we were picked up I wasn't able to get it posted. So here it is......... Ruth Perry's 2008 Celtic Snowflake, and my #21 of the 25 Motif Challenge. It was made using Yarnplayer, Marilee's Lola HDT, size 30. For some reason the tips on mine on rounded where her's are nice points.


In my Tuesday, December 9, 2008 post I asked about stiffening tatting. This morning I used Mike's advise and stiffened my Celtic Snowflake with Magic Sizing. Thanks, Mike it worked nicely. (I still want to {successfully} remake your snowflake, I feel like I mangled your beautiful pattern.)

I'm sure if I reread this post I'd delete most if not all of it, so here it is for the world to see.

Happy Life and Happy Tatting All!

Bonnie