Bonnie's Tatting Blog

#4 of The 2012 UIU Project

2012-02-11T11:28:00.000-05:00

This is Irene Woo's Butterfly Heart, the pattern can be found here using the wayback machine. It was made using Yarnplayer's Garden Afternoon, size 30 HDT.

I messed up the bottom and gave it an extra picot on the left, so I had to try it again. The blocking on this one isn't as good, but still it turned out nice.

One of them I sent to my sister, Nancy in Montana, the other I added to the front of a card to make a thank you note for my friend, Mary.

Lovely Pattern, Thank you, Irene.

#3 of the 2012 UIU Project

2012-02-05T08:02:00.006-05:00

Here is my #3 of the UIU (use it up) 2012 project.

Sorry for the bad picture, as usual I forgot to scan it before I left home, so had to take a picture with my cellphone.

The close up picture is better. I found the pattern on Jane's blog a few years ago, but recently was reminded of it by Michelle at Tela Magistrae. The original pattern is from Anna Burda magazine, May 1984, page L14, but Jane in South Africa converted it to use split rings. The pattern can be found at Jane in South Africa's bookmark.

In the spirit of my UTU project it was made using size 30 (which is my favorite thread size) HDT, Roses, dyed by yarnplayer.

I forgot to mention the tail, I took a close up picture of it, but it was to blurry to share. Wendy at UMI & TSURU sometimes makes her bookmark tails like that so I had to get some charms to try it also. I love the creative freedom it gives. (yes, I had to purchase the charms because I didn't have any but the thread I had, so this still counts for UIU, right?)

I'm still on track for my UIU project since it's been just about 2 weeks since my last post. So far so good :-)

See you in 2 weeks if not before.

Bonnie

#2 of the 2012 UIU project

2012-01-21T12:36:00.005-05:00

The pattern for #2 of my 2012 UIU project is coincidental Jon Yusoff's Two-by-Two Bookmark.

It is made using size 20 Lizbeth thread from Handy Hands, Spring Garden and Leaf Green Med.

Recently my sister, Nancy was here visiting from Montana. A little less than 2 years ago I was able to visit her and my brother in law at their home. At some point in her past, someone had helped her learn the flip of tatting, so when I was there we spend some time refreshing her tatting skills.

When she was here this time she asked again for some tatting time to refresh her skills. Because our tatting time was limited I wanted to have some samples ready for her to see, so I sent a few evenings doing Jon's pattern in pieces. First I did a small middle section, then I did another and added the beginning of the outside section to it (which is what you see here). I think it helped her to see what it was going to suppose look like.

When she left me she was not quite half way thru the outer section. But I believe she completed the piece when she returned home.

I would recommend this pattern for someone learning to tat. The only thing I would have done differently was to start her off with a different color in each of the shuttles used to make the middle section. That would have helped her to see where the thread from each shuttle ended up when the work was reversed.

Tat On!

Bonnie

#1 of the UIU Project

2012-01-16T12:59:00.008-05:00

This is the first post of the 2012 UIU project. (UIU - use it up)

Okay so there isn't anything like waiting to the last minute on my FIRST UIU project.

It is a pattern from Kersti and is her Floral bookmark which can be found here. The thread Lizbeth from Handy Hands. The first and third ones are done using Tropical Punch size 40 and the middle one is Sea Island Citrus again in size 40.

I've done this pattern before, but I wasn't pleased with the result. I am a member of In Tatters and someone there was talking about how the pattern is actually written from the bottom up. I thought that may help me, which for the most part it did, except the first section, I just couldn't figure it out, so I kind of gerry rigged it at the bottom here, which you can see.

It did work out okay because it reinforced the beginning where I added the tails to the bookmarks. Anyone who's able to figure out the beginning please let me know what I've done wrong.

Until the next time.

Bonnie

The 2012 UIU Project

2012-01-02T11:35:00.007-05:00

Recently I was visiting Jenny over at Crash Test Dummies. Specifically her Crafty New Year's Resolution for 2012... etc post. When I started to comment on it, it turned into a paragraph and I felt I needed to copy it here and expound on it alittle.

This is what I wrote in her comment section. Start:

Those are great crafting goals.

I'm alot like you in the way that I save my precious stuff for just the right project. My thought is what if I use it now and the "just the right project" comes along later? But recently I've started to think what if I'm not around for that "just the right project" (or what if this is just the right time and project and I let it slip away) and my family has to deal with all of my precious stuff. I doubt they would think in it's current state it is precious, but if they had things I'd made with it, they may think "my wife made this" or "my mother made this" or they'd give my creations away to people who thought "my friend made this".

For me the year 2012 is going to be known as the year of use it up.

:End

Lately I've been thinking of the burden my "precious stuff" would put on my family if something happened to me.

I think ....... what if I'm not around some day and my family has to deal with all of my precious stuff, it will be a burden on them for sure. I can hear my daughter say "Mom, thought all of this stuff was so great, but it's nothing if she's not here to create with it." In fact it wouldn't surprise me at all if my husband's thought was "now I have to make a couple of trips to the dump" (gasp!). But if I've created something with it that they can hold in their hands or pass on to others who cared about me, or maybe even pass onto my future grandchildren, then maybe just maybe all of my precious stuff will still be precious when I'm gone.

So my goal is to break out the special shuttles (those who once they enter my display case never get touched again) and all of my wonderful HDTs (most still setting in their original sad skein form) and start using them up.

My 2012 tatting goal is to show you something I've tatted at least every 2 weeks, using up the HDT threads I have while using the special shuttles I have accumlated. In 2011 I blogged 19 times, some of which didn't show any tatting at all, so every 2 weeks is 26 posts for 2012. That seems like a reasonable goal, right? Yeah that's what I thought too. I was going to add pressure to myself of a different HDT and different pattern each time, but that seems like setting myself up to fail, so if I do yeah, if not it's still okay.

2012 - the year of use it up - The 2012 UIU Project

Wish me luck, and to you and your family I wish a Happy, Healthy, Safe 2012.

Happy Tatting and God Bless!,

Bonnie

See you in no more than 2 weeks - by 1/16/2012 (in fact to stay on track I think I need to post today... I better get started)

Playing With Picots & Bouton

2011-12-27T05:35:00.001-05:00

Season's Greetings!

I haven't been tatting as much as I'd like to, but that's what happens when life gets busy, which is a good thing in it's own right.

I made a bookmark for my Christmas exchange person at work and as usual I forgot to take a picture, so had to take it out of the gift bag to take a picture with my cellphone. Needless to say it's not the best picture.

It is the Slalom Bookmark and is from Martha Ess' book Playing with Picots. I made some picot gages out of plastic, which worked great at keeping the picots uniform size, but really are a pain to keep track off in their current state. And since I'm sure to do more projects from this book I've got to come up with a better way to cart them around than just in a paper envelope.

Also I wanted to share with you about a cute little bear give away. His name is Bouton.

I have visited Ginger's bearbits blog before. She's a very talented artist. Even the picture at the top of her blog, the one with the 3 bears looking out the windshield, gives me a smile.

Have a good day!

Bonnie

David Reed Shuttle Giveaway

2011-09-23T06:17:00.003-04:00

TattedTreasures and David Reed are giving away one of his lovely shuttles, go check it out.

"Oh No You Didn't"

2011-09-18T06:56:00.001-04:00

... Oh yes I did........
There are 2 things I would like you to see here. Both are marked with a X. First the top X shows where I missed a join and the bottom X which shows where I cut the thread to finish it off, before I realized that I'd missed a whole section of tatting.

For some reason my friend, Peg - the one I am helping learn to tat - thought that it was really funny that I missed a join and had ALREADY cut the thread. She said something like it was good to see that I make mistakes too.

I was lucky enough to win this Patriotic HDT from Anika. (you can find her etsy shop here) And since I'd just made this pattern, Julie's Hearts and Flower Cross, for a friend I wanted to make it again for myself and this new HDT was itching to be used.

So in the end was there a lesson to be learned from this experience? Sure was, if - rather WHEN - I make a mistake again don't show Peg. LOL.

Tat On,

Bonnie

Tatted Hairpin Lace

2011-09-14T20:14:00.007-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Georgia asked for volunteers to tat something using Ruth Perry's Tatted Mock Hair Pin Lace. I was unable to find it online to show you, but it is where the Hairpin Lace is made by tatting large picots.

Georgia provided 4 or 5 patterns for us to pick from. Because my time was limited and she asked for it to be done in 2 weeks, I choose a - what I thought at the time would be- fairly simple pattern and made Saundra Hameed's Round Center Motif.

I'd never done Hairpin Lace, so I didn't really understand it, and in hindsight I did it wrong. I made it so both sets of picots were the same size. Stupidly after I made it was when I decided I should have researched HPLace. In doing so I learned that the middle set of picots should have been smaller than the outer ones. I think that's why the upper to middle right section is a bit ....... well, off I guess.

( I prepared this post a few days ago and since then LadyShuttleMaker did an excellent PDF of how to correctly make this pattern using Ruth Perry's Mock Hairpin Lace technique, it can be found here. )

Oh well, as Georgia said "every test brings us more knowledge", and with LadyShuttleMaker's great tutorial I may just give this one a try again.

Tat On!,
Bonnie

Rosy Ironbark

2011-09-12T04:21:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry to say that I tat many pieces that I don't take the time to blog about.

But not this time :-)

I was told by KBDesignOriginals that I was the first person to purchase the Rosy Ironbark pattern when she posted it in her etsy shop back in April. Since then I have made it a number of times, at least 4 or 5. Finally I am remembering to show you one of them before I gift it away.

Tat On!

Bonnie

9-11

2011-09-11T19:50:00.002-04:00

I have struggled all day with something to say about 9-11. Every time I've tried I can't bear to put my thoughts into words. So simply I'll say ...

I have not forgotten all of the people we lost that day, nor the people we have lost in the fight against terrorism since then. God Bless Them and Their Families.

And to all of our Service Men & Women who continue to serve the USA and keep us safe, Thank You and your families.

Jon's New Book Final Part #4

2011-07-16T08:10:00.001-04:00

My final opportunity to test for Jon's 2nd snowflake book was #17 Firus.

I was sad to see that this particular "tatting with a purpose" had come to an end. I enjoyed every minute of it and although I have thanked Jon many times for the chance to do this, I would like take this opportunity to do it publicly as well.

Jon, it has always been a pleasure to tat your patterns, so to be a small part of your new book has been a tatting honor for me. Thank you!

Jon now has her book, Elegant Tatting Gems available for purchase. You can find the information here.

Tat On! And if you haven't already please plan to get Jon's book, the patterns really are ***Elegant Tatting Gems** (smile).

Bonnie

Jon's New Book Part 3

2011-07-14T04:03:00.004-04:00

#14 Sahmura

I need to remind you this was a test tat, Jon may have tweaked it some before it ended up in her book.

Super fun!

Jon now has her book, Elegant Tatting Gems available for purchase, you can find it here. She also has a give away going until the 15th for a chance to win a copy of the book. Go check it out.

Tat On!
Bonnie

Jon's New Book Part 2

2011-07-12T04:42:00.006-04:00

When I test tatted for Jon, I felt like I was tatting with a purpose.

#11 Lazuarid

I was anxious to get the next one one to test, but while I waited I retatted Lazuarid in the reverse colors.

That picture isn't as clear because it was taken with my cellphone at work, rather than scanned like the original one, and the lower point wasn't flat.

Please remember these are test tats, Jon may have tweaked them some before they ended up in her book.

I am writing this on 7/10 to post on 7/12, as of today Jon doesn't have her new book available to purchase, but she told me I could start talking about the snowflakes so I know she plans to release it soon. You will be able to order it from her website.

**** UPDATE Jon's book, Elegant Tatting Gems is now available for purchase on her website. The information can be found here. To launch the book, she is having a giveaway, from 7/12 thru 7/15 you can enter for a chance to receive a copy of her book. Quick go here and check it out.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Jon's New Book

2011-07-10T10:07:00.006-04:00

....... is coming soon. I'm so excited!

I was lucky enough to get a peak at it when I test tatted for her earlier this year.

Since my posts are few and far between lately, I am going to post them over a few days rather than just all at once.

Please keep in mind the ones I will show you are from the test tat, Jon may have tweaked them before they ended up in her new book.

#4 Baiduri

I didn't do a very good job of blocking, I was to excited to go on to the next one. Stay tuned for that.

As of today, Jon's book isn't available, but she said I could start talking about the snowflakes, so I know it will be available soon. You will be able to find it on her website.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Is That Giraffes I See?

2011-06-21T05:52:00.002-04:00

In April I started helping my friend Peggy learn to tat. Maybe I should say I helpED my friend Peggy learn to tat. She's doing a fabulous job and I'm very proud of her.

I'm pretty sure she's caught the tatting bug, let me tell you why I think so.

She has more shuttles then she can use at any given time and carries the new ones around ever where she goes.... still in their packages.

Last Friday she placed a Handy Hands order and ordered MORE shuttles .... different kinds and colors .... a book and 10+ spools of Lizabeth threads.

She has already visited Etsy and scored some lovely HDTs, some she gifted to me!!

She has spent hours searching the internet for patterns and probably just as many hours looking thru the books I loaned her.

How would I know all of this? I know because she can no longer carry her "portable" craft in a little ziplock baggie or coin purse, she's graduated to a large bag with giraffes on it.

Last Thursday I noticed the giraffe bag, next I noticed the giraffe on her necklace. Humm giraffes, is there a pattern here? Then Friday I went to her office on a work related matter and I noticed there were giraffes every where. How did I miss this ? So giraffes it is then.

Tomorrow I am leaving home for a week, but rather then spend the weekend preparing to be away from home, I spent it tatting giraffes to make Peg a fabric postcard.

They are made with Tatskool's Antique Bronze HDT, using the pattern from my autographed copy (*smile*) of Martha Ess' More Critters on the Block.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Earrings

2011-06-20T06:21:00.003-04:00

I tatted some earrings for a swap I was in, using a pattern from Free Tatting Patterns.

Mary at Peachtree Cottage turned me onto that website and pattern. Thank you, Mary.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Fabric Postcard with Tatting

2011-06-13T06:21:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago a friend from work, Patricia, found some old tatting shuttles at a garage sale for me, to thank her I made this fabric postcard.

The dachshund was originally made here, I just never got around to finishing it into the postcard. I think it turned out pretty cute. Since Patricia, has a dachshund she will be very pleased I'm sure.

*Blogger still won't let me stay signed on to leave comments on any blog posts. I've cleaned out, cleared out, reset passwords, any and everything I can think of to do. Any one else have any ideas that may work?

Tat On!

Bonnie

Bookmarks

2011-06-04T06:06:00.007-04:00

Recently I was in 2 different bookmark exchanges, the first at The Tatting Forums and the second at InTatters.

I wanted to work on Rachael Mohler's Flower Bookmark, so this was a good opportunity for me to give it a try. The first attempt was pitiful, but the second try I got the hang of it. So I went to my HDT collection and picked out a very mild green and equally mild blue. They worked up beautifully together.

They are done in size 30 HDT, dyed by Crochet4u2Dye4.

Some of us on the forum had a time with how to make the twisted tassel, I know I sure did, so Rachael was kind enough to make a video on it which can be found here.

On a different note, I'm having a hard time with blogger. It lets me sign in but not leave a comment. It is my understanding that others are having this problem too, any idea how to fix it?

Tat On!

Bonnie

* Diane's suggestion didn't work for me, I tried to comment on my own post and after 8 times of signing in I got no where and came here to leave this instead.... grrr * Nothing new no updates to computer, internet explorer, nothing.

what was..

2011-02-26T11:52:00.008-05:00

This ...... Was similar to this...

...Until we got this...

A few weeks ago we "lost" one of our girls, Ruby. That's all I'm going to say about that. .................. Zoe, our Sheltie, didn't like being alone, nor did DH and I like how quiet the house was. In the past we've learned the only way for us to go onward is to put all that time we spend being sad into a new friend, so we got Maya. She is a Springer Spaniel (field breed) puppy.

Really what were we thinking LOL. Most certainly not that we were getting a tatting eater :-)

Both the original and the redo dachshund were tatted in size 20 Lizabeth thread using a pattern from Martha Ess' More Critters on the Block. I had originally made the dachshund to attach to a fabric postcard for our friends who recently got a new dachshund puppy. I also wanted to make a second one for Patricia, a friend from work. I still plan to make the postcard and tat another one of these fun creatures for my friend, but having a puppy has taken up alot of my time!

Plus, I am working on some secret projects. You may have seen some of our tatting friends talk about the secret projects they are working on, well I am a part of that too. That's all I can say about it though. :-)

Since Maya and the secret projects are taking up alot of my time, I don't have any other tatting that I can show you ............. right now :-)

Tat On!

Bonnie

Multi-Media

2011-01-15T12:29:00.002-05:00

I enjoy creating. I love tatting, but greatly enjoy working with paper, stamps & inks, fabric, yarn, you name it I enjoy it.

I participate in a swapping society called Swap-Bot and occasionally I find fun groups to be a part of, the latest one is call "Instant Books". Here is what I made

Notice the flower here. I used green paper to made a stem, then tatted a series of rings gradually adding more ds-s to make bigger petals, and form a flower.

I have learned that some people there don't understand or appreciate tatting. I was in a swap called "Surprise your partner with 1 of your crafts" Here was my rating "it met requirements I guess and is cute... however I don't think I'd enter a swap like this again... to broad of a spectrum and I am left feeling slightly deflated."

I myself was deflated with that rating. It's hard to put so much into a tatted piece and not have the receiver realize how much work it is.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Thread

2011-01-12T11:41:00.003-05:00

I know that most of you are enjoying your Lizabeth thread from Handy Hands. In fact some of the HDT artists are using it to dye the threads I so greatly enjoy.

I am not however having a good time with it. Previously I blogged about finding it at JoAnn's Fabrics and the problems I was having. Well it's not getting any better with the thread I purchased directly from HH. This what I found about a fourth of the way thru a ball of white.

It was found as I was winding the second shuttle for The Little Girls' Christmas Barrettes. Thank goodness *this time* it wasn't in the middle of a project.

I prefer 6 cord thread, and in solids I guess this is the best I can get here, so I will still use it.

I continue to "Tat On" dispite the disappointment.

Bonnie

I Am Not A Designer!

2011-01-10T10:51:00.004-05:00

I learned something, I am not a designer.

I wanted to tat something special for my 2 little nieces. They are to young to understand what tatting is, but not to young to know they enjoy bling. :-)

I wanted to make them something for them to wear in their hair. My first idea failed miserably, I don't even have it to show you. But I realized that I couldn't do hair bands, so I went to barrettes instead.

I had a hard time finding something that work with their thin hair and would showcase the tatting more than the barrette.

The one in the far top left is my first try. I felt the hole in the middle was to big. Then I decided, I could tat it a bit differently and cover the hole with something cute in the middle, which is on the top right. At that point I talked to my sister, and she'd had special Christmas shirts made for them in red and green, so I decided to go with those colors, which is lower left. However I didn't feel like it was very blingy. I took it to work and ask my friends, they agreed, so back to the original with the ribbon and rosette. So I had to figure out how to connect them to the barrette, so I made another one, the lower right, in blue so I could test how to put it on. It didn't turn out to good, because I didn't take into account how it closes as you can see in the next photo.

I finally got the hang of it, and was able to finish them in time for Christmas day.

According to my sister, most days they are what The Little Girls pick to wear in their hair. Hummm I wonder if I still have my final chicken scratch notes in order to make a couple more sets.

I started this post by saying, I am not a designer, however they did turn out pretty cute, so maybe what I should have said is ......... I am not a pattern writer.

To all Tatting Pattern Designers/Writers : Thank you for the work you do.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Blinged Shuttle Exchange with Wendy

2011-01-09T11:22:00.006-05:00

In mid-December I blogged about the shuttles I blinged out to exchange with Wendy at Umintsura. Even though the pink one's tip wasn't very useful I sent it anyway.

Earlier this week, Wendy blogged about the shuttles she received from me and showed what was on the back of the blue one......If you want to see you'll have to go to her site to check it out :-)

Well yesterday I received mine in the mail from her. Look at this lovely red envelope it was wrapped in. Some how I'm sure I can recycle that into something.

Thank you, Wendy.

As usual the pictures are taken with my cellphone camera.

I could get into this blinging and exchanging of shuttles. Anyone game?

Tat On!
Bonnie

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T06:29:00.005-05:00

From Our Home To Yours

Merry Christmas

Seeing Stars!

2010-12-24T05:18:00.000-05:00

Wonder what this is all about? More details to come .............

Tat On!

Bonnie

Angels in the Snow

2010-12-23T05:24:00.000-05:00

On Dec 13th, I told you about the gift exchange I received from my partner on The Tatting Forms.

On the form I see that the person I gifted to has received her package so I can show you what I tatted for her.

Your right, it's Miranda's "Angels in the Snow". How did you guess? Oh the title gave it away, yeah I would guess it would :-)

Tat On!

Bonnie

Bling!

2010-12-19T05:26:00.002-05:00

Wendy at Umi & Tsuru is sending me a blinged shuttle she dolled up. Part of that deal was I needed to bling one and send it to her.

The first two shuttles I enhanced went to Lace-lovin' Librarian Diane some time ago. I didn't think to take pictures of them, but so here they are using the picture off Diane's blog.

Since they were so pretty, I wanted to make another similar to that one for Wendy. Before I mailed it I decided to test tat with it ....... When I tat I use the pointed tip alot. Sadly I determined that the paper on this tip did not play nice, so it couldn't be mailed. (I think you maybe able to see it on the photo below.) Did the one I sent you do that, Diane?

Pretty but not practical.

Okay so onto a different idea. I couldn't find printed tissue paper in my small town, but I did find white. In a former crafting life I was a stamper, so I took a permanent black ink pad & markers, a small flower stamp and added it to the paper. I also stamped tissue paper for the back, but that will have to wait until Wendy gets it to be revealed. Then I decoupaged the stamped paper onto the shuttle. I wet sanded it, very gently (my first attempt sanded off the paper) to make it smooth. I could still see the brush strokes, which I wasn't happy about but didn't know how to change that.

So here's mine, Wendy, and it's on it's way to you.

As soon as all my Holiday projects are done, I'm going to have to make me a couple of these for my own use.

Sorry for the bad quality pictures, they were taken with my cellphone in low light.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Pattern Revisited

2010-12-17T06:30:00.000-05:00

As Christmas grows nearer my hands get busier, not only with tatting, but that's a different story.

Recently we exchanged Christmas gifts at work. I really dislike the stealing gift games, I like to know who my gift is going to. That way I can get/make something specificily with one person in mind. (In fact in past years I've refused to be a part of the gift exchange when "stealing" is involved. I greatly dislike it!)

Regardless, the past few years I've taken control of our Holiday luncheon/gift exchange because then I know we'll exchange names and I'll be a part of the celebration.

My person really enjoys reading. In fact many lunch periods I've seen her at her desk unwinding with a book. So it wasn't to hard for me to realize that I had to tat her a bookmark. But gosh there are so many good ones out there, which one to do.....

I have to admit I went with one I've made and showed you many times before. It's Julie Patterson's Hearts and Flowers Cross Bookmark.

It's made using Tatskool's ChocoRaspberry HDT. I'm not sure, but I think it's done in size 40.

Tat On!,

Bonnie

Sine Wave Star

2010-12-15T04:43:00.005-05:00

On November 11th, Lily at Tatterme.com did a blog post intitled "Who Am I and Who Do I Belong To?" . At the time I found it quite funny as I was working on the same project and was at about the same point in the pattern as she was.

A couple of days later Lily unveiled that it was Jeff at Bridge City Tatting's pattern Sine Wave Star.

Here is mine.

Not that it took me over a month to finish it, it just took me that long to show it to you. :-)

Tat On!

Bonnie

The Tatting Forums' Gift Exchange

2010-12-13T05:48:00.007-05:00

Erin at The Tatting Forums hosted a Christmas gift exchange.

My Gifter was Maria from Portugal.

I'm excited to show you all the loot I got.

I wouldn't allow myself to open the package until I'd mailed out the one to my partner, which I did early last week.

Look at it all! Am I the luckiest tatter around or what? The strawberry in the right lower corner opens into a shopping bag. It's super cool.

I feel like I've got to give you a close up view of the 2 tatted pieces.

It's an ornament with tatting inside!

And look at this tatted lovely.

Thank you, Spuriportugal -Maria, for the great package.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Thanks to LaceLovin'-Librarian ...

2010-10-11T05:30:00.006-04:00

........for turning me on to Kersti Aneari's Stumpy pattern. Back in September Diane, aka LaceLovin'-Librarian, posted some stumpys she made and it set me off in that direction. My tatting time is limited so I'm always on the lookout for patterns I can do up quickly.

All were made using HDT ..... from Left to Right, is Tatskool's ChocoRaspberry size 40, next is her DaffodilDell in size 20, next LadyShuttleMaker's Spring Poppies in size 20 (I ran out of thread so the tail is kind of bare), and lastly Tatskool's FlameLantana in size 20.

Kersti has other tatting patterns posted which I would encourage you to check out while you're there.

Tat On!,

Bonnie

Tatting Forum

2010-09-09T18:51:00.001-04:00

Have you heard about the newest Tatting Forum, brought to us by Chris and Erin from the Shuttle Shop? On Sept 1st there were 167 users, that's great. I recommend you check it out if you haven't already.

They are teasing me with a new shuttle called "the winder shuttle", can't wait until it's on the market for me to get my hands on! (Chris & Erin, let me know when your ready for my order.) Now Chris is talking about "suspending a tatted motif in epoxy" and making a shuttle from it.
Oh my, I'll start saving my pennies now. :-)

All teasing aside, I enjoy new tools and I hope the tatting community continues to come up with new products.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Part Three of Three

2010-09-07T18:39:00.004-04:00

Here it is Blooming Trellis by Eliz Davis.

Front

Back

It was made using Tatskool's HDT Apple Blossom and coordinating pink in size 50, it was the only colorway I had that I felt went together, since it was made to go together LOL.

Now that I wear glasses all of the time, I'm really not a size 50 or smaller tatter. I know that sounds backwards but it's just to small for me to work out any errors.

Regardless it was made over many weeks because sadly I just don't have a lot of tatting time. (To be fair, I should say I don't MAKE alot of time to tat. Sad!)

It was a gift for my mother for her birthday. I took it to her when Holly and I went to visit our family in ND a few weeks ago. Not sure why I didn't think to take a picture of her with it.

Thank you, Eliz aka Tatknot for sharing such a great pattern with us. (click on her name for her blog where she lists some of her other patterns.)

Tat On!

Bonnie

And Part Two of Three

2010-09-06T18:01:00.001-04:00

I'm sure you've got it now, if not here's a big hint.......

Tat On!

Bonnie

Really I Do Tat

2010-09-05T17:52:00.006-04:00

............ I just don't have enough time to tat often.

So I'm sending this project out in blog stages. This is the first of three.

Anyone want to take a guess as to what pattern name is? Some of you may recognize it right off.

None of these pictures will be very good they are all form my phone's camera.

(Shoot, I messed up post 3 and posted it instead of set it to post in the future. I deleted it, but some of you maybe able to see it anyway, sorry.)

Tat On !

Bonnie

Earring

2010-07-25T16:43:00.004-04:00

Finally some tatting to show.

From Yarnplayer's new book.

Tat On!

Bonnie

Fox's Travelling Book

2010-05-30T06:21:00.002-04:00

A couple of months ago, well on International Tatting Day April 1st to be exact, Fox got some of us tatters excited about a book that she's willing to share with us. I for one am excited to say that at some point I will be able to get my grubby little tatting hands on it. Three lucky tatters have gotten their chances with the book so far, and including Fox where it started, it has already traveled to 4 countries. Click on the icon above to learn how to get your hands on it.

I'm really looking forward to my turn!

Tat On!

Bonnie

"Tat On"

2010-05-29T07:21:00.000-04:00

On my last post, Isdihara's wrote that her word verification was TATON, it really tickled my fancy and has become my new phrase, like "rock on".

It's become my way of expressing when I think something is cool or neat, or when I show surprise like "oh my goodness", sometimes I even use it to say good bye.

When I hear "Tatting rules the world!!", I think of Jane. Maybe when people hear Tat On they will think of me, so with help from Isdihara I leave you with .....

Tat On!

Bonnie

Happy 60th Birthday, Friend!

2010-05-11T06:52:00.002-04:00

I would like to share with you what I tatted for a dear friend who is turning 60 this week.

It is Eliz Davis' Teddy Bear, the pattern can be found here. I was surprised to find that I had the rocking horse button that is in the photo on the pattern, so I was able to gage about how much space would be in the tummy area in order to add a button to that section. I wish I had picked a different one though, it seems to big, or maybe it's just to dark/drab of a color against a tan thread. I'm all about color so that maybe what it is. (That seems to translate into I need to make another one.)

It did give me some problems though. The first time I completed the head section and realized I needed to tat it tighter. The second time, I had to retro tat a couple of times, first I had problems with the nose section and then written directions missed a join, but over all it was another one that was fun to watch come to life.

Since I am writing this on Sunday, and post dating it until Tuesday which is my friend's bday, I still have it with me, so I will measure it. In size 20 Lizabeth thread, it is 3" arm to arm and just a bit over 3.5" from tip of ear to bottom of foot. I am not as good as Tatskool who kindly gives us thread amounts used (which I really appreciate), but I can tell you both of my clover shuttles were filled and I ended up with very little left on either of them.

I was pleased when I showed it to DD and she knew right away it was a teddy bear. I'll attach it to a blank card. (I wonder if I should make some balloons for it to be holding, that would add some color............ hummm.)

Happy Life,

Bonnie

Happy Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-09T10:31:00.009-04:00

I ran behind on getting my Mother's Day card mailed to my Mother,

so can I use that as my excuse for not having tatting to show you today.

(I gift away my work so quickly that most of the time it is given away,

and I don't think to scan it or take pictures before hand.

Although sometimes it's the same motif over and over for weeks or even months

and what good is that to share multiple times, that's a topic for another post)

Anyway............. Instead I will show you the beautiful flowers I received for Mother's day.

They arrived at work on Thursday, so I was able to enjoy them there for a few days before I brought them home for the weekend. They smell so lovely.

Note the single pink rose in the middle. When it first arrived it was a rose bud, and now it has opened up and is just beautiful. I believe it represents my only child, our Daughter.

I also say I recieved a lovely orchid, and some other gifts.

Auh it's good to be me. :-)

To All Mothers:

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope today you are surrounded by the love of your family.

No need to read, written as a form of self relief.

2010-05-09T08:02:00.007-04:00

DH = Husband, DD = Daughter, and The Girls = our 2 dogs

Our daughter lives in a town just over a hour away. Sometimes she comes to stay with us for a few days at a time. This weekend is one of those times. Just having her around is a great Mother's Day present. But that isn't the reason why I am telling you this......... the reason is I have to get it off my chest it is weighing to heavy on me and just being able to say it will help me.
Last night DH was at work and DD was out with friends. I sent her a text asking when she'd be home, she indicated it was shortly, so I decided to wait up for her.

She was home shortly before midnight. I heard her come in, the girls barked for a second recognized her so they stopped. I called to her from the tv room, and she greeted me back. I heard her dig thru her laundry basket then go down stairs to change. Moments later, no less than 3 minutes from the time she first got home, I heard the door open and the girls started to freak again, I assumed DD had forgotten something in her car, but the girls wouldn't stop barking. I called to DD, but I didn't expect a response because I'd heard the door open but I also thought I heard her go downstairs. She replied that she was downstairs changing, then I heard the door close. We both rushed to the kitchen but no one was there. (we live in the countryish, meaning we do not live in a town setting, we are rural but our neighbors are still close) There were no cars in our driveway and we didn't see anyone leaving. We turned on all of the light and locked all of the doors and windows. I called DH at work and on his way home to check on us, he was stopped by the police for speeding, so he explained and the officer called it in. DD and I went to watch tv together to get over the jitters, and heard a knock at the door, both of us basically freaked out more. But it was the police, at least 4 or 5 police cars, followed by DH.

The area was checked, but nothing was found. All 3 of us had to provide our full names, DOB, phone #s, etc, there will be a report. :-(

Both DD and I know someone at least opened the door to our home. Even though our girls were not happy the person remained for awhile, a minute or so, seemed like forever but maybe was less. DH's cellphone (he can't have it at work), his ipod, and our checkbook were right there on the counter, they were not taken.

I am so shaken up. In nearly 20 years of living here I've never felt violated, ever. I'm so thankful that DD was with me this weekend, not to mention was already home safe, and that between the girls putting up such a ruckus, as well as DD and I calling to each other, the intruder left.

Even though the girls were snuggled in tight with me and DD was sleeping dowstairs with the tv on, I hardly slept. I didn't know our house had so many night time noises.

When I was a young preteen I had issues, but it has not affected my life, I am not scared. I have a loving family and am very active in the community, I love life and am not afraid. I leave for work in the dark and DH works odd shifts, never have I felt afraid in my own home. I'm praying that GOD will help me to not let this change me.

Pharmd2009, please do not tell M&D about this. This post is for no one other than me, just to try to give myself a release, I do not want them to know.

Is it True.......

2010-04-21T09:27:00.005-04:00

....what "they" say about better late then never?

I wasn't able to post on International Tatting Day, so I'll catch up with it now.

A few weeks ago, Paula asked what we were going to tat for International Tatting Day, which was April 1st. I told her I hoped to tat Kersti's Sweet Heart Tatted Bookmark.

I didn't get much tatting in that day, however, I did eat some dark chocolate. I think you can see that I didn't even have 3 complete rings here, and already I had the candy open.

I didn't get very far that day, however since then I have made many of these bookmarks, probably a dozen or so. Here are just a few of them.

They are made using size 20 Lizabeth threads, in solid colors.

I hope Kersti doesn't mind, but I revamped the pattern a bit. I made it so that the tail is a seperate piece of work. For the final chain of the heart, I joined to the very first picot of the first chain, then chained 5 more ds-s, tied and hid the thread tails. I sewed the tail thread into that final picot join before I wound the shuttle, then tatted 2 ds and proceeded to finish of the tail.

Great pattern. Thank you, Kersti! I feel very comfortable with this pattern. I think I could do it in my sleep now. I have heard that some tatters make pieces to gift away to people who comment when they are tatting in public. This could be that piece for me. I like all of the picots on the chains and rings and I think it shows off the art of tatting very nicely. It would be a great way to share tatting with the world.

I do have a question about gifting bookmarks though. I am looking for plastic sleeves to put the bookmark in, something like this. Is there a better supplier out there. I have only been able to find that one size of sleeve. Also once I get them, how would I get it to lay nicely inside the sleeve? The only thing I can think of is to tack it to a piece of cardstock, which would give me a place to write a note, so that's not a bad idea.

Lady Shannan

2010-04-20T09:10:00.002-04:00

Like Martha and Steph I was given the opportunity to test tat one of Heather's Ladies from her new book "Tatted Ladies In My Life".

This was my first time being a test tatter and I really enjoyed it. I would gladly test tat again for anyone who thought I was capable. (I'm just throwing that out there, so you talented designers will keep me in mind for the future. LOL)

Now that Heather has her book ready for us, I can share Lady Shannan.

Lady Shannan is tatted in Lizabeth threads direct from Handy Hands. The varigated is SpringTime and the green is Spring Green. (Both are colors I got directly from Handy Hands, not the stuff I had problems with from JoAnn's.)

Christina

2010-04-10T08:48:00.006-04:00

Background:

Since I don't live close to any craft stores, when I get their coupons, and can get my husband to take me to the store, I hoard up on supplies.

Story:

Chapter 1

I had a bunch of coupons for JoAnn Fabrics, so off we went to Buffalo, about a hour and 15 minutes away. I rushed in, coupons in hand and ran straight for the Clover tatting shuttles. I went there first because my husband can only drink so much coffee at the shop next door, so I was in a rush to get in and out. And I justify more shuttles by thinking ...... when the tips of the shuttles seperate I toss them and start off fresh. ..........oh who am I kidding, I always have various stages of different patterns going, so I rarely have empty shuttles, therefor I need MORE, right? (Auh come on say I'm not the only one with a couple of dozen shuttles going at all times.)

Imagine my delight when on my way to the shuttles, I was awe struck by a section of Lizabeth thread. Not many colors, some I already had, but I HAD to use up ALL of the coupons and I don't get to the craft store very often, both reason I could used to explain to my hubby why I had to have more ............. (not that he cares, it just makes the story more "setting on the edge of your seat" interesting)

I was delight to use up all of my coupons, got an "I need color" fix, and walked out with my pockets a bit lighter but my smile alot bigger.

I'd purchased some Lizabeth thread from Handy Hands before and enjoyed working with it so I was delighted to have some more to add to my stash.

Chapter 2

My last post was made using some of the Lizabeth thread I purchased that day. I was very disappointed in the black. It was not the quality of thread I'd used before.

It will be added to my pile of not worth my time threads. (I can't possibly throw it away, but I'll never use it again .....what do I do with it?) This may have been part of my frustration with that pattern as well.

Chapter 3

I wanted to see if all of the threads I got that day were like that. So I started another project. This thread was not as bad, but still not up to the quality of the other few threads I'd gotten directly from HH. If I remember right, they had a problem with some of them when they first rolled out the line. Maybe that is what's selling in the stores.

Regardless I did finish the project. The pattern is Christina from the book Tatted Bookmarks -cross-shaped by Lene Bjorn. I did enjoy the pattern and I look forward to tatting more from this little book.

(Sorry for the quality of the picture, it was taken from my phone's camera and I didn't realize I'd taken it at such an angle.)

I'm still not good with judging the size of things, so I didn't realize how big this would be in a size 20 thread. I wish I'd have thought to measure the size, which obviously I didn't. If I had to guess I'd say it was about 5 1/2" long by 4 1/2" across. I'd like to try it in a smaller thread, dare I say a size 80?

Chapter 4

Christina Cross Bookmark is currently winging it's way via US Postal Service to my Great Aunt Myrtle.

The End

Tatting Zen, Oh Tatting Zen Where Are You?

2010-03-28T08:04:00.006-04:00

Fox at tat-ology gave me something to think about today, something that made me go hummm .... you know the old saying "things that make you go hummm", well that's me this morning.

She said something like she's enjoying the process of tatting, not being as focused on the end result.

Here's why this particular comment struck me ......... I get very frustrated with myself if my tatting isn't "perfect", if it doesn't look just like whatever the pattern picture is.

My tatting time is very limited, so I try to spend some of most days (even if it's just a half hour on my lunch break) tatting. Therefore when my piece isn't perfect, like I think it should be, it upsets me that I spent valuable time making something useless. Either I cut it off and start over or it just sets until I need more shuttles for a different project, then I trash it.

Last night when I was tatting, it took me 5 starts to get something going..........

And even though I finished the piece I'm not happy with it and won't show it to you. A complete waste of my precious tatting time. Tatting is a time consuming art form for me, I'm not a speed tatter, and to have spent so much time creating and have nothing to show for it leaves me sad and depressed.

Why can't tatting be about the process for me? Why can't I except it for what it is .... the process of creating; knowing that it's handmade by me, and since I'm not perfect my work won't be perfect either.

I'm jealous of Fox, Why can't I find my tatting Zen?

Heart's Desire

2010-02-28T07:46:00.004-05:00

When we were on vacation in January, I tatted Susan K. Fuller's Heart's Desire pattern.

It was made using Tatskool (store link) size 20 ChocoRasberry. I did tat this once before, but I definitely need to practice tension if I'm going to tat this pattern again. I'm a pretty tight tatter, and I was concerned about how it would turn out if I tatted it in the tension I usually use, but maybe that would have made it more uniform.

I know alot of you have tatted this lovely pattern, in fact I believe it is Tatskool's (blog link) favorite pattern in order to check on color flow when she dyes new threads ......... anyway, I would appreciate any tips or tricks to this lovely pattern from anyone who has made it.

Happy Tatting, Happy Life,

Bonnie

As with my last post, this also was written on Sunday 2/21, but set to upload in the future. See I really do tat, I just don't make the time to blog about it. :-(

Snork!

2010-02-24T08:49:00.006-05:00

Does anyone know the Tim Conway skit from the Carol Burnett Show, the one about the Siamese Elephants? Click on the link to view it on youtube, it was quite funny.

Well ......... two of the girls at work were talking about it one day at lunch and laughing and laughing. This started a "snork war" between them. One of the ladies, Linda, and I were talking about it and I said I wonder if I could tat an elephant. Then the conversation turned to I wonder if I could tat two elephants with their trunks stuck together. Well here are the results.

Elephant number 1 was my test elephant. It is Jane's elephant, made using the onion ring method, and is the way she intended it to be. It is made using the last of my size 20 Shades of Gray HDT made by LadyShuttleMaker. Even though I considered it a "test" it turned out very very cute. Notice how the ear flap sticks up, makes it 3-D and even cuter!

Now here is where the fun began. This is the first of the snorked elephants. I had to manipulate the trunks some to get them to connect. I wish I had raised them a bit higher.

This is elephant 2, which is the complete reverse of elephant 1's pattern. I am a front side back side tatter, so this was a bit more difficult for me to get my mind around.

Here are the Siamese Elephants, connected at the trunks.

And here they are completed. It was alot of work for a bit of fun, but I saw it make Linda smile and I'm sure when she gives it to Carol it will bring a smile to her face as well.

Oh yeah and the Snorked Elephants were made using Handy Hands size 20 Lizbeth Thread, Linen Medium # 693.

Happy Tatting, Happy Life.

Bonnie

Today is actually Sunday 2/21 but since I already posted once this morning I'm setting this one to upload during the week. That way your not in shock to hear from me twice in one day.

Crosses

2010-02-21T08:31:00.006-05:00

My Friend, Flo's Mother recently passed away, so right away I got out my cross patterns and went to work on a couple of them.

Both were made using Yarnplayer's size 50 Nicobar Pigeon HDT.

The first one is from Wendy's Crafty Hands. It is her Split Ring Cross. I don't mind making split rings, so it was quite enjoyable.

The second one is Elizabeth's Lace's Tatted Cross Pattern.

Sorry for the bad quality pictures. They were taken with my camera phone.

Happy Tatting, Happy Life.

Bonnie

One World One Heart Winner

2010-02-15T20:12:00.004-05:00

The winner is ........... Why can't I figure out the paste in blogger??

I'm going to have to type out what it says.

I used Random.org.

Random Interger Generator

Here are your random numbers:

161

timestamp: 2010-02-15 01:07:54 UTC

161 is L'Helene. Congratulations! Again I'm going to have to type out what she said "How Cute! I have a friend who's mad about geckos, and who's birthday is coming up, this would be perfect for her. Thanks for the chance to win!"

I'm so glad someone won him that will enjoy him, rather than someone who was at my blog for 10 seconds, just long enough to put in a copy and paste response and be on their way.

A special Thank You to Lisa for all of her work to make One World One Heart a success.

Bonnie

One World One Heart 2010

2010-02-06T05:36:00.007-05:00

One World One Heart 2010

The creator of this event is Lisa from A Whimsical Bohemian. She said "I created this event in 2007. The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way."

If you are new to my site, WELCOME. Please allow me a minute of your time to introduce myself. My name is Bonnie and I currently live in Western NY, but I was born in Minot, ND and lived there for many years before my husband of 26 years brought our family here. I am a crafter at heart, but this blog is mostly related to tatting. I learned this art form in late 2007and I am really enjoying it, as well as the wonderful online tatting community who opened their hearts to me.

For my GiFtaway, I offer up to you "Poppy" a Tatted Gecko. She was shuttle tatted by me especially for this event using an original pattern from Jane, at Tatting and NOT Alot Else!. The thread is LadyShuttleMaker's Spring Poppies size 20 HDT (hand dyed thread).

You don't have to be a blogger to participate in my OWOH GiFtaway, but you must leave a comment on this post and I need to have a way to contact you if you win. I will use a random number thingy to pick the winner on January 15th about 9 PM New York USA time.

Now that I have my giFtaway posted I feel like I can allow myself some time to check out more blogs of the other people who are participating. Sadly I will not be able to visit all of the blogs participating before the event is over, but I have already added a number of new sites to my google reader to follow. (As of this morning there are 1009 sites participating in this event!)

Thank you for stopping by and please visit me again.

Bonnie

And The Winner Is......

2010-01-20T11:22:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone who commented on my give away blog post!

There were 11 comments, so with help from the Random Integer Generator ........ ( I couldn't figure out how to take a snapshot of it, so I had to "cut and paste") here is the result......

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2010-01-20 16:21:22 UTC

The winner is..... Isdihara, Congratulations! Please email me your mailing address to mbhp12 at iwon.com

My Turn For A Give Away

2010-01-12T06:30:00.067-05:00

If I have done this correctly when you see this post I should be enjoying a life of luxury somewhere on a ship in the Carribean. So to celebrate I'm having a give away.

Want to see what the give away is .............. it's a fabric postcard, made by me. It shows some of my favorite things about Spring, the Sun to represent warmth & more daylight. Flowers, Grass, Butterflies, and a Dragonfly to represent the beauty of spring. And a Bee thrown in for good measure, but mostly because our daughter hates them, so it was fun to add.

To enter leave a comment on this post and when I return to the land of lake effect snow on January 19th I will use the random number thingy to determine who the winner will be. If you do not have a blog please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you in case you are the winner.

Stay warm, everyone, I know I will be when you see this. :-)

Bonnie

Vacation = No Worries, Right?!? or Gotta Love Vacation

2010-01-10T07:05:00.002-05:00

Which blog title fits this post best, you decide............

Other than a few times, I try not to blog about the non tatting parts of my life here. I think people who visit this blog are here to see tatting. However today this post will be used as an outlet for me. Here's my story.... after 2 days of travel we have arrived in Austin, TX. We left our home, the land of lake effect snow, on Friday at 3 PM and drove to Buffalo NY, it was snowing no big deal, it's western NY it's snows for months at a time there, the airport can handle this, no problem, right?! ......... went to check in at airline and the machine told us to see a representative, we did, no problem. Security checkpoint, no problem. Went to terminal, problem! It was about 5 PM at that point, our flight was scheduled for 6:25, the rep who checked us in didn't tell us that Atlanta Georgia was having freezing rain issues and the incoming aircraft, which was also our outgoing aircraft, couldn't leave there. These things happen, that's why we left home 2 days before the ship sails, it'll be okay, we waited,and waited,and waited, and left Buffalo after 9. Needless to say when we got to Atlanta we had missed our 9:55 connecting flight. We stayed the night in a hotel there, and after roughly 4 hours of sleep (rough being the key word), showered, put back on our dirty clothes, and headed back to the airport. Thankfully the flight was non eventful and we arrived safely in Austin at 10 AM on Saturday, on a plane that was less than half occupied ....... However, our new luggage did not arrive safely. But it will still be okay, right........ no not quite yet. I then made a missing luggage report. And it was located in Atlanta. Seems that the 8 hours it was there wasn't long enough for them to get it to our aircraft. Okay okay we can deal with this .............. Me "We need it for our cruise tomorrow morning." Airline Rep "Should be on the next flight, IF there is room after that flight's passenger's luggage gets on, they take priority." ........ the flight we were on should have had more than enough room for it originally since there was hardly no one on it. Okay so..... they will bring the luggage to the home after it arrives. I went thru all of that and then found out that it will come to the home within 12 hours of arriving in Austin, but they can't promise when it'll get to Ausint. It goes to an outside agency who takes it to a warehouse, sorts it into areas to be delivered to, then sends it out. No way, can't chance it, we'll come get it then. I stressed for hours because the flight it maybe on was 3 hours late in arriving to Austin. Then we were told we couldn't pick it up right away because it would take at least a hour for it to be located and delivered to the airline's office. After hours and hours of worrying, my husband went to pick up the luggage. Nice it was home, we have clothes for the cruise!, all is well, right? ........ I opened it only to find that some how (I expect tampering!), the security locks (TSA approved) on both pieces had been broken off (there is no note on or in the luggage saying that it was opened for inspection). Was it opened in the hours and hours it temporarily lived in Atlanta, or was it at the Austin airport while it was waiting outside their office to be picked up ........ we will never know. I didn't have the heart to go thru it all to see if anything is missing (there was nothing of any value to anyone else, just clothes and heath care items, everything else was in our carry ones). So now our new luggage, both pieces, are slightly damaged. Not beyond use of course, just sad that our new luggage is messed up after just one use. I couldn't deal with life at that point and went to bed. After a few hours of sleep I woke up at 3 AM and at 5 AM have now prepared for the day. I am enjoying my morning coffee and have come to the understanding that today, after traveling about 4 hours by car, we will get on a cruise ship and have the time of our lives with no worries for the next 7 days, our vacation will get better .... right?!?!

TIAS Day 2

2010-01-08T06:49:00.000-05:00

Tat It And See - Day 2

Because I leave today, Jane shared the link for day 3 & 4 with me, then a friend from work printed them and put them in sealed envelopes for me to do while I am gone, I won't have any way to post them until I return from the cruise though.

Today is the day we leave for my Texas to start the first phase of our trip with my Sister In Law and her husband, Susie & Mitchell. I didn't sleep well last night, to excited. Today I entered a 12 day worry free zone. My father in law is coming to live with "the girls", our dogs, while we are gone, so no worries on the home front. And tomorrow I start phase 2 of the no worry zone, for 10 days I will be not have to deal with snow! Life is Good :-)

I'll have a Rum Punch for you my friend, and you, and you, and you and.......... Boy will I be busy.

Happy TIAS! See you in a few weeks.

Bonnie

TIAS (Tat It And See) Day 1

2010-01-06T19:19:00.000-05:00

TIAS is where the creator of a pattern dishes it out to us tatting groupies in pieces over a period of days. Then we all tat it together and watch everyone's progress on the TIAS progress page.

Jane is hosting the first TIAS of 2010.

Here is my Day 1. I am using Tatskool's Coral Reef in size 40.

I will be out of the internet area for awhile, but Jane has kindly given me the links to the next few days. I am going to ask a friend to print them for me tomorrow, put them in individual envelopes and lable them for me so I can open them while I am away. I don't miss out on all of the fun and I don't want to get to far behind.

I will check with everyone when I return. Happy TIAS-ing everyone!

Bonnie

Answers to Comment Questions

2010-01-02T08:20:00.000-05:00

Krystle asked if my friend Mark used resin to make the Rosette paperweight, I believe he did, but I'm not sure. He told me he poured it in layers; when the first layer hardened he put the rosette in then put the next layer on so that the motif would be suspended in the paperweight. To anyone who is thinking of doing this I should tell you that the thread is more vibrant then when I gave it to him. I believe that is because it gets "wet and doesn't dry out". Of course not that it matters, in this case it complimented the motif, but just an fyi. (I wish I knew how to do this paperweight thing myself because I think it's a great way to display tatting.) Anyway I think Mark did a fabulous job, **note that he make sure the "right side" was facing up and that each little picot was flat. I think my friend Rose really liked it because she said "it's not staying at work, it's going home to be displayed". Thanks for asking, Krystle.

Also Tatskool asked what the name of the book I found the Daisy Heart pattern in. Sorry, why didn't I think to include that information in the original post?! It is called Aunt Ellen's Treasury - Tatting Patterns - By The Staff of The Workbasket Magazine. I didn't connect the pattern to the missing February '88 Workbasket but when I checked the name it maked sense, "the staff of the workbasket magazine", no wonder!

'08 & '09 Christmas Memories

2010-01-01T07:19:00.006-05:00

Do you remember last Christmas when I told you about my friend, Gary, and how I tatted him Jane's Hippopotamus, then used it to make him a special fabric Christmas card? (Jane has the pattern under animals, but I wonder if it should go under celebration patterns also LOL!) Gary and I had alot of fun with it and it became one of my favorite memories from Christmas '08. .............. However now the joke is on me because people get me hippo stuff whenever they see it, hippo plate, a hippo chip clip ........ well you get the idea, it goes on and on.

Now where is this story going you ask...........

For Christmas '09 one of my favorite memories is what my friend Rose and her husband Jim gifted to me. It's a ...... wait for it .......... auh you guessed it, it's an I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas ornament.

I've got to tell you that there is a button on Santa's gift bag and when EVERYONE presses it it plays I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas.

It'll stay out with my mini collection to be enjoyed all year round. (Does anyone know how long the battery in an ornament last ....... *sigh*)

Bonnie

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T07:08:00.003-05:00

Happy 2010! Has it really been 10 years since the Y2K scare?

Dare I say YES ....... Where have the last 1o years gone?!

As you are aware my Great Uncle Francis, the person who inspired me to tat, passed away this year. So when I sent Great Aunt Myrtle's Christmas card

I wanted to send her something extra special........

Marilee, Yarnplayer, shared her "Remembrance" pattern with us. The pun of the whole string around your finger made me laugh out loud when I first saw it. I HAD to make it for Aunt Myrtle. It is made using Sherry, LadyShuttleMaker's size 20 HDT ..... I'm pretty sure it's Peach Pandorea.

I also sent her this motif, called Daisy Heart.

It is made using YarnPlayer's size 30 HDT Roses and Leafy.

I'd seen this motif when I first started tatting, but had a hard time finding the pattern. According to what I'd written down it was in a Workbasket dated February 1988. I must have every Workbasket they made except for February 1988. However about a month ago I was looking thru my other pattern books and found the pattern!

VicTats asked about our favorite Christmas tatting patterns, although this isn't a Christmas item, it has become my favorite to tat over the last few weeks.

I fell on Monday and cut the palm and finger tip of my hand pretty good, I'm praying it will heal enough before we leave for the cruise next week so I can tat on the plane ..... and well I'm enjoying a life of leisure :-)

My goal for the year is to remember to take pictures of my tatting to show you before I give it away.

My New Year's wish to you is for a

Happy and Safe 2010!

Bonnie

Candy Cane Mouse

2009-12-21T16:24:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-20T11:59:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-13T12:32:00.004-05:00

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

2009-10-04T09:46:00.004-04:00

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

2009-09-10T08:42:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-07T15:48:00.009-04:00

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

2009-08-16T13:10:00.000-04:00

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

2009-07-25T12:27:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-15T05:36:00.000-04:00

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?

2009-06-06T07:17:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-10T09:03:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-14T08:51:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-04-11T14:26:00.001-04:00

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

2009-03-08T15:19:00.007-04:00

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

2009-02-15T08:10:00.006-05:00

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

2009-01-25T17:10:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-18T16:00:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-18T12:46:00.006-05:00

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

#20 of 25 Motif Challenge

2008-12-11T05:47:00.006-05:00

Early this year Jane did a TIAS ("tat it and see"... the pattern is dished out pieces at a time and you tat it as the pieces come out not knowing what it is until the end), which I started but life got busy so I didn't take the time to finish it. What it ended up being was a hippopotamus. I'm not sure who it was but someone in our tatting world had mentioned the hippo in relationship to the song "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, only a hippopotamus will do........" etc. I thought that was a hillarious idea.

I make my Christmas cards every year and last year I made them all as fabric postcards, each one being different. (I've been kicking myself ever since because I didn't take a photo of one of them!)

Earlier in the year, when I went on a business trip one of the ladies asked me if I was going to do fabric postcards this year for our Christmas card. I laughed and said no way, never again, it was WAY to much work. Then I told her about the hippopotamus and his Christmas song, but that it would be even more work to make 35 of them, so it was unrealistic. Gary, the only male in our group that trip, instantly started harrassing me about hippos and it's been an on going thing all year long. When we went on our trip in September I'd printed out the words and lovingly sang him the whole song ( he was in a confinded space and couldn't get away but still........ LOL ). Another trip he was pretty sick so I found a very small hippo to "cheer" him up with.

As you can see it's an ongoing joke for us.

Here's where the tatting comes in.

I've been working on tatting Jane's hippo for a week or so now. And I completed it on Tuesday. Last night I put the finishing touches on making it into a fabric post card. It is going to go out to my friend, Gary today. (I do hope that the Christmas Hippo song gets stuck in his head like the Disney World's "It's A Small World" song is.... insert evil laugh.)

I almost forgot he is tatted in Sherry's size 20 Coffee and Cream.

I did have a blast making him and I know that Gary is going to laugh for many days over this. So it was worth all the time it took. But honestly I had so much fun that I have to make another one and send it to our daughter, Holly, she will get a big kick out of it too.

Merry Christmas, Gary! :-)

#18 & #19 of 25 Motif Challenge

2008-12-09T05:39:00.004-05:00

In September and October Aileen blogged about one of her favorite bookmark patterns. It is Tabatha by Kersti Anear. Unfortunately this pattern isn't available on Kersti's new website so Aileen emailed me a copy of it. (Thank you, Aileen and Kersti.) I thought I'd give it a try as the 2nd bookmark for the Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange.

I did fine on the first half but part way thru the second half I realized I had been making mistakes since I started that half. With it being size 80 thread there were only 2 things I could do, leave it (never, it would have drove me crazy to send it out that way) or cut it out and restart that whole side, which I did. Thankfully I was able to do it without any disasters.

Here is Kersti's Tabatha bookmark in DMC size 80 red thread. It is going to my second round robin partner, Cathy. Because of the redo I am not going to meet the deadline of mailing it today, as I want to make one of the flower paperclips to send also.

Sorry I couldn't get a the bookmark to lay straighter, I tried twice and although it is my error of placement on the scanner, it is really resisting doing it's job any more. So this is what I am stuck with.

Thankfully the #3 bookmark for this challenge was the first one I completed, so it's done and ready to meet the mailing deadline.

When I made the error on the bookmark I had to give myself a break from size 80 thread for awhile, so I worked on Mike's snowflake. (Thank you, Mike!)

It is far from perfect but is was a fun pattern to do. I've only stiffened one tatted piece in the past, however I am going to try to do this one. I've got something called Aleene's Fabric Stiffener. It was the only thing I could find in my small town. Is anyone willing to give me suggestions on what works for you? And is there a good way to apply this? I assume put it on a paper towel and spray away.....?

quick update

2008-12-07T16:13:00.002-05:00

A quick update on our Friend's health. After many tests and 2 visits, she is doing well. Because of the lymp nodes that were taken out the remaining ones have had to reroute themselves. In the process one of them burst. That was what the intense pain was. Her dr said it was a rare thing to happen and the chance of it happening again are slim. There is nothing she can do to prevent it or to make the possibilities of it happening again greater. A fluke basically.

She looks great, way to thin in my unasked for opinion, but great, her beautiful self. She says she is feeling much better and in fact has returned to work.

Thank you to everyone who kept her, her family and us as her friends in your thoughts and prayers!

Oh Happy Day.

Now back to our Christmas cards.

Bonnie

None Tatting Just Blowing Off Steam

2008-11-29T19:49:00.005-05:00

Because I'm waiting for the phone to ring and I'm home alone I need a place to release some emotions ...... so here I am.

Ever looked forward to something so much then realized so much of it was a mistake.

Anniversary Cruise..... booked flights on our own because it was so much cheaper than thru the cruise line. US Airways. Booked way early, May. Now the price is $157 each cheaper and there is a $150 charge to change anything but they would gladly give us the $7 difference as a credit voucher towards future flights. Stupid! It is the EXACT same flight! Well not exact because they changed the times but they of course can do that. Stupid, thinking I could get us and our friends a better deal if I did it directly.

So I call our couple friends to tell them that I cost us an extra $157 a ticket because I bought them so early thinking with the price of gas they would go up. Only to find out that they have worse news than that.

The female half of our couple friends had a bad health scare a few months ago. Now it seems that the remaining lymp nodes are not working properly. She is in horrible pain (a 9 out of 10, worse then she's felt thru this whole process according to her husband) and can not get into the cancer specialist until Monday. The husband talked to the specialist's assistant today and was told that it may take radiation to correct this and can take from 1 day to 4 weeks to feel any relief. She is taking pain pills which just make her sick. I kid you not when I say she is a too thin already, actually she was before the surgeries, then lost weight that wasn't there to lose. I am very concerned about her VERY! I can't even see to type the tears are flowing so hard.

My call just came in, I am going to go there at 6:30 in the AM to help w/ their young kids while the father goes to work and stay until her mother comes later on in the morning.

She has remainded so upbeat and has used the cruise as something to look forward too. Now this. I won't want to go if she doesn't go! We've planned this as couples for over 2 years now.

I wonder what God is thinking..............

#17 of 25 Motif Challenge

2008-11-24T20:50:00.001-05:00

For my 1st Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange partner, Lynn, I made Kersti's Jessica Bookmark in yellow, which was her requested color, size 80 DMC thread.

I'm happy that I finished it in time to meet tomorrow's mailing deadline. I am including one of the flower paperclips that I like so much. I am also including the printed patterns for both.

Now I have successfully completed 2 size 80 projects, Yu Hoo! I hope I don't become addicted to size 80, I have very little HDT in that size, most of it is in size 20 and 30.

Happy Life and Happy Tatting everyone,

Bonnie

#16 of My 25 Motif Challenge

2008-11-22T19:17:00.004-05:00

With everything else going on in my life I decided to join the Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange. I know I know, I thought the same thing "What was I thinking!" I actually was hoping it would force me to make time to tat.

I started right away trying to get a jump start on the exchange. I took it with me when I went to Long Island, NY for a conference. People were very interested in what I was doing not only at the conference but people on the planes and at the airports. It was fun to hear people make comments such as - was I really tatting - they hadn't seen anyone do it in a number of years -they didn't think anyone did it any more, things like that. I was wishing I'd have brought some of the Flower Paperclips I like to make, it would have been fun to give them away to people.

Anyway, I was determined to bring home a completed piece. I tatting every spare minute I had the entire weekend and I did complete the piece, I was very excited. However to my surprise when I got home there was an email saying that since it's a bookmark it should be done in size 80 thread and be at least 6" in length. My Oh My, size 80?!?!? I hadn't successfully completed any of the size 80 projects I'd ever started...........but a deal is a deal. So I picked up my thread, wound my shuttles and off I went. The results are here and since both are the same pattern just one is bigger (to met the 6" length requirement for the size 80 thread) I am considering them both as #16 of my 25 Motif Challenge.

On July 20, 2008 Gina, Tatting Goddess, posted this Spiral Bookmark pattern. The purple is the original piece I did when I was at the conference. It is done in Lola and Lavender size 30 HDT-s, from Marilee, Yarnplayer.

I truly thought I was going to have a panic attack using size 80 thread but it turned out much better than I had hoped. I got the blue thread from the lady who taught me to tat, it is DMC thread.

The purple piece will go to my friend Shirley. She went to the conference with me and mentioned many times how she really likes purple and currently folds the corners of her books. (much to this book lover's horror!) The blue one will go to one of my exchange partners who favored blue. My first exchange partner, Lynn, favors yellow, so I have been working on a different pattern for a few days and should have it completed this weekend in order to meet the deadline of Tuesday, Nov 25th. I'll post it when I have it completed.

Happy Life and Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Miss Me? And Blogger Land

2008-10-18T06:51:00.004-04:00

There really is so many cool things out there in blogger land. Sadly my time is so limited right now that the time I should be tatting has been spent online. I'm still all about the HDT though. I continue to be consumed with it and must say that I doubt I'll ever be able to use up what I have, but I MUST have it. And I print out all of the patterns I can find. The majority of online time is spent reading blogs. I used to read just tatting blogs but there is so many good blogs that I have found my tastes spilling into many other areas. It's a great deal of fun. Time consuming but fun. With that I encourage you to check out Decore to Adore, she is celebrating her 100th post with a great blog give away.

Lastly Lace-lovin'Librarian, Diane inspired me to make a candle mat called Spinning Wheel. I started one and was very unhappy w/ the thread so started another in HDT. I started it weeks ago, really weeks. The only excuse I have for it not being completed is that I've just been that busy. I worked on it last night while we watched the Buffalo Sabres (Hockey YEAH!) kick butt last night, but I'm still am only about 2/3 done. It's a fun easy pattern though and that I really like it. However I'm itching to get it done so I can move onward!

I currently hold a full time Mon-Fri job. I've picked up 2 different Sat jobs and am currently on my 2nd Sat of a 4 Sat run. The 5th Sat I will be out of town and when I return it will start all over again. It is hard to only have 1 day off a week, but the extra $ is for our Anni cruise so it's worth it. I also hold a volunteer Secretary position for a very busy union office. So I kid you not when I say I am so busy that I don't have time for my crafts. Sad really........

.......... But don't forget me, I'll be back. I promise!!!

Off to get ready for work. I'm with the youth bureau kids today, and we'll be working outside all day, community service time. I really enjoy this job. I always pray that some of the things we talk about and the way we treat them will encourage them to be better kids. For the most part they are pretty good kids they just have some problems.

One simple post took me forever now I MUST run!

Happy Life and Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#14 and #15 of 25 Motif Challenge

2008-09-21T06:15:00.009-04:00

Okay here we go it's 6:25 AM the day I leave for Washington, DC my bags are packed (although still open if I decide to throw something in last minute) and basically I am ready to go. So before my ride comes to get me I'll spend a few minutes blogging about the items I am sending to GUF as a thank you for the lovely handmade shuttles he sent me.

I am sending the 2 Aladdin snowflakes I talked about here, and 2 more again using patterns from Jon's Snowflake Collection.

First for your viewing pleasure allow me to present Sweet Rose. It was made using Marilee, AKA Yarnplayer's, size 50 Snowflake HDT.

Next is Spring Blossom, also made using Marilee's HDT. The thread is size 30 and is made using 2 different threads, both from the same dye batch. The middle section and the outside section are Peace and the one in between is Peach.

Although I enjoy working with all of my HDT-s Peace was one of my favorite color combinations.

Another thing while I'm on a roll. Before I found the world of HDT-s I had purchased a few large spools of tatting thread size 30. Awhile ago my husband and I were making the same road trip every weekend for I think it was 5 weeks. So I started a fairly easy, but big for me, project using some of the original thread. Nightmare. About 3/4 of the way thru I found out that there was no opening those rings! I finally cut away the error and tried to connect new thread to it, but it was very frustrating. So it's gone into the UFO pile and I'm going to try to make using a HDT.

I have about a half hour until my ride arrives to take me to the airport and I just realized that I forgot to water plants yesterday so I guess my time is up.

Oh and before I forget it looks like you are all enjoying Sherry's TIAS. I don't have time to do it right now, but have had fun watching you work on it (and make guesses, because I'm sure I know what it is .... :-)

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Surprise!

2008-09-20T07:08:00.001-04:00

Where does my time go? I've found that over the last few weeks I've been so busy that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. It is the time of year when my volunteer work really heats up and I get so worried about it that it consumes my every thought. One night last week I woke up at 2 AM and worked on it until I had to prepare for work. Sad.

Before I talk about my surprise I want to take just a minute to talk about my sister's 2 foster children, BigE and BabE. They are brothers aged 2 and 6 months. I'm drawn to BigE and can't get enough of him. He and I have a great time. We pray constantly for their birth family but after just 6 weeks I can't help but pray they become ours permantly. BigE loves me, it's the best.

Okay back to the business at hand. A month or so ago I recieved a package from my Great Uncle Francis and Aunt Myrtle. When I opened it I cried, this is what was inside.......

I've also included a portion of GUF's handwritten note talking about making the shuttles. I hope it works and you can read it. He talks about making them some 8 years ago out of Mesquite Wood. I feel so honored that he would share them with me! (I hope you can click on it to enlarge it to read what he wrote.)

I must leave to get ready for work now. If I get a chance I'll try to blog later tonight to show you a couple of tatting pieces I've made to send GUF as a thank you for his lovely shuttle gifts. I leave for Washington, DC for a business trip tomorrow morning and will be gone for a week. I'm so sick right now that the thought of leaving home to work today is almost more than I can bear, so the idea of being gone from home for a week is overwhelming. It's just a cold but it's sure got me down. Enough of my woe is me........

Happy Tatting All.

Bonnie BTW don't hold your breath for another post today, but I'll try my best.

Blog Award

2008-09-20T06:22:00.001-04:00

Marilee awarded me the "I love your blog" award.

I am acknowledging the award but I am not going to participate in the nominating of other blogs. It is to stressful for me to pick as there are so many I enjoy reading. Secretly I think she nominated me as it's been so long since I blogged she was hoping it would entice me to get motivated again :-) Whatever the reason, Thank you, Marilee.

Another Motif Revisited

2008-09-03T22:44:00.002-04:00

I revisited #12 of my 25 Motif Challenge, so this doesn't count, but I'll show it to you anyway.

My Dear Friend, Nicole, is having a surgery done on Friday, which will put her out of commission for a few weeks. I loaded her up with books by one of my favorite authors, Judy Picoult. I haven't read all of her books yet, but the ones I have I've really enjoyed, especially My Sister's Keeper, which was the first one I read, and I would recommend to everyone. Anyway, I wanted to make Nicole a bookmark, but didn't have much time. Between work, the gym and all of my other commitments my time was limited, so I decided to revisit Julie Patterson's Hearts and Flower Cross Bookmark pattern.

I did put a tassel on this one. It is made using Marilee aka Yarnplayer's size 30 Lavender, from her "Lola" batch.

I so wanted to get this completed tonight but in doing so I am now almost 2 hours past my bedtime, I'll pay for this at work tomorrow and struggle to make myself go to the gym tomorrow evening (a promise to myself). Why oh why does work (and the stupid gym) have to interfere with the fun parts of my life LOL.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Aladdian Revisited

2008-08-22T05:26:00.006-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I some how bruised the back of my right hand between my thumb and my wrist. Although the bruise is gone the spot still remains very tender. I am constantly bumping it against something. That being said, as I am right handed it has been very painful to hold a shuttle and tat. A couple of days ago I decided to give it a try again. It's taken a few different tatting sessions to complete but here is my second attempt at Aladdian from Jon's Snowflake Collection.

I originally posted it here in Sherry's, aka LadyShuttleMaker's size 20 "Spring Poppy" HDT. It seemed to colorful to be a snowflake so I made it again using Marilee's, aka Yarnplayer, size 50 "Snowflake" HDT. In addition to the difference in size, the real difference is how it goes from "motif" like to being a "snowflake".

Off to get ready for work.

Happy Friday all!

Bonnie

#13s of 25 Motif Challenge

2008-08-10T19:17:00.011-04:00

So far I have made 3 snowflakes from Jon's Snowflake Collection.

They are in the order I made them and are as follows:

Sunburst, made from Marilee's, aka Yarnplayer, size 50 "Snowflake" HDT

The Twirly, made from Marilee's, aka Yarnplayer, size 30 "Peace" HDT

Aladdian, made from Sherry's, aka LadyShuttleMaker, size 20 "Spring Poppy" HDT

I would recommend Jon's book to anyone who is interested. They were alot of fun to make. Because my tatting time is so limited, they took me the better part of 2 weeks to make. But seriously each one takes no time at all to make. I am considering these as one Motif as they are all snowflakes.

**TEASER*** This week I will try to make the time to do a blog post showing you something very special that I recieved in the mail last week.

That's all for today.

Happy Tatting!

Bonnie

#12 of 25 Motif Challenge

2008-07-27T13:19:00.006-04:00

For my mother's birthday......

It is Julie Patterson's Hearts and Flower Cross Bookmark pattern.

I used Marilee, Yarnplayer 's, size 30 "Roses" HTD (hand dyed thread).

I'm undecided about putting a tassel on it. I think it would look nice, but there isn't a good place to join one to.

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY, Mommasetta! From my heart to yours, I love you!!

Help Needed

2008-07-26T10:01:00.004-04:00

Good Morning Everyone.

I'm looking for some help from all of you in tat-land. I hope I can describe my question correctly.

I am working on a pattern here is the start of it:

R 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 cl ( 7 tiny joining picots)
CH 4 - 8 - 4 + (join to nearest picot from centre ring closure)

Now my question. There is nothing about reverse work so I figured I had to join in to the most recent picot, so the tops of my ds - s will remain on the outside of my work. Here's the part that's giving me problems .......... which tread does it want me to use to join? It can't be the working thread because then it makes a little ...... I guess I'd call it divit in the flow of the work, although using the core thread doesn't seem right either. Which is it? I must be making this harder than it is, right??

The last time I had this come up during a project I used the core thread and it didn't seem right, this time I used the working thread. I guess this seems like the better way to do it, although it still seems off to me. Unless truly the tops of the ds are suppose to face towards the work already completed ...... I just see no other way around this ......

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you,

Bonnie

#11 of 25 Motif Challenge

2008-07-22T18:00:00.009-04:00

First off I believe I owe YOU a huge

"I'm "

I haven't blogged in over a month. I haven't done anything exciting, tatting wise, although I had some fun making fabric postcard. I have been very busy but sadly not with new tatting. I did finished some tatting UFOs, and have recreated some previous works, but nothing worth blogging about.

Here is the only exciting tatting I've done in weeks.

It is the Heart Frame from Tatting Hearts by Teri Dusenbury. I did find one error in the pattern and had to start the piece over, I didn't have enough of the original thread to cut out and redo, so I had to start the piece from the beginning, using a different thread. It is a repetitive pattern, so by the time I restarted it I had the pattern pretty much down pat. I made it using a dark red HDT, size 30, hand dyed by Yarnplayer (Marilee), "A solid from the "Roses" colorway."

Our daughter asked me to make her the Heart Catcher from the same book. I'm not sure how to do the "stacked butterfly" so I'm working on that first, wish me luck. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Speaking of wish me luck........... Lace Lovin' Librarian - Diane and I are doing the T.A.T. Program, apprentice level, together. We both decided there is no pressure to hurry thru it, but doing it with a friend we should be able to keep each other motivated thru out the process. We have finished the first piece and are working on descriptions to go with it. We have a goal of working on the second project by the end of August, maybe even have it finished. See what I mean, no hurry :-), there are to many other fun things we want to do also.

Hopefully it doesn't take a month for you to see my work again :-)

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Tagged!

2008-06-18T20:46:00.007-04:00

I was wondering when it would happen to me and I see my Friend Lace-lovin' Librarian, Diane finally did it. I've been tagged.

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 6 unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag 4 people at the end of your entry.

Six unimportant things about me...

1. I don't know how to cook. My husband is a wonderful cook and he feeds me. Yep that's right everyone feel free to be jealous of me :-)

2. I am originally from ND but have lived in NY almost as long as I did ND.

3. I may be more addicted to the "add ons" of my crafts then the craft itself. For instance I have numerous different rulers for my quilting and haven't used half of them. Also I have every color of tole paint known to the craft store. And those are only a couple of the crafts I'd done. 8 months into my tatting I can already see it happening with this craft too. :-)

4. I don't hate going to the gym, shhhh don't tell my husband! I do however greatly resent the time it takes out of my week.

5. It takes me hours to write up a couple paragraph blog post because I reread and scrutinize them to death, does that sound stupid? This also applies to comments I want to leave on other people's blogs. Most of the time I don't comment at all, because what I want to say has been said by others. I try to write my comment before I read what others have said, but I usually delete it and just write something like "beautiful" or I write nothing at all. Sad, really really SAD.

6. I have to read to fall asleep. I have so much racing thru my mind that I have to read until I am exhausted and my eyes can not focus on the words, then I can finally fall asleep. If I wake up during the night and have one conscious thought my mind starts racing again and I have to start the reading process over in order to fall back to sleep.

And a bonus #7 unimportant thing about me...... It took me almost 2 hours to write up this post because I reread it to death. LOL

I doubt I can find 4 people to tag who haven't already done this at least once before.

So how about my sister Meek, The Jerks and Me

And the three newest additions to our "The Tatted Ring of Bloggers"

Joy In Tatting

Steph's (tat) Stuff

Teresa's Crafting Stuff

If you've done this a dozen and one times before please don't feel you HAVE to do it again, Nothing bad will happen to you if you don't :-)

#10 of 25 Motif Challenge

2008-06-14T05:29:00.002-04:00

JAB is finally Done!

"Triangle Motif Doily"

After weeks of working on this (just because there hasn't been any time) I finally have it finished. It is from a Workbasket magazine that my neighbor shared with me, from the June '74 issue to be exact. She had quite a few that she let me look thru; I did get some really cool patterns. To bad there isn't a magazine like that any more. (There is no author listed to give credit to.)

This is done using Marilee, Yarnplayer's size 30 HTD, called "Blue Green Pastel". Because I had so many issues with it, I used a whole skein of thread. There is no way it should have taken that much thread! It is 4 1/2" across.

It truly was a painful process to create, but only because my mind has been on so many personal issues that I kept making mistakes. It really was such a super easy fun pattern to do. In fact yesterday my husband and I had to go on a road trip, so I took size 80 thread along and started it again. Wait until you guys see it in size 80, it is going to be georgous!!!

Off to get ready for work.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Just A Bit - JAB

2008-05-25T05:53:00.017-04:00

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

2008-05-18T07:01:00.004-04:00

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

2008-05-17T07:51:00.008-04:00

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

2008-05-16T07:34:00.012-04:00

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)

2008-05-11T11:00:00.001-04:00

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!