Blue Heart - 2012 UIU Project

On Wednesday my friend, Rose retired.  I wanted to tat her something special to go inside her Congratulations card. 

The pattern is Romantic Heart - with Directions by Beelizabeth.  I recently learned about this pattern via the InTatters website.  Specifically this series of posts.  If you are not a member of InTatters, I encourage you to check it out.  It is an interactive website for tatters of skill levels. 
 

The pattern can be found here.

It was made using HDT thread I already had wrapped onto a yarn daisy.  I can't tell you the thread size or name or who the dyer was because, of course, I didn't have any thread info attached to it.  

The lovely Matilda showing you my HDT version of Birgit's Romantic Heart.

'Knot Tonight Josephine' Exchange

Awhile ago I told you about Fringe Tatters and their "Knot Tonight Josephine" exchange?
Here is what I sent to my partner, Heather ... wait I can't find a picture.  I know I took some, with Matilda, I know I did.  Shoot.  Oh well. 

So I'll just go right to showing you what I received from my partner, Ruth.

Her sun catcher is so very pretty. I did put it up in the window,
but not sure if I will let it remain there because I don't
want the sun to bleach it out, but for now that's where it is.

Ruth said the lilacs on the window card are made
with two different size threads. 
They are very pretty, but look way to complicated for me to tat. 



Ruth also told me that she's been tatting about 40 years and that she doesn't have a favorite size thread to work with that she likes them all.  I'm still not sure how people tat with size 80 or 100, my eyes will not allow it.





It still upsets me that I can't find the umbrella (from Martha Ess' Holiday's on the Block) that I tatted for my partner.  Shoot.  Checked cellphone, checked digital camera, checked all thru the computer.  Oh well. 

WAIT, one more pass threw the computer and I found the pictures.

I made the blue handle and the yellow rim of the umbrella to be the Josephine Knots that I needed for the challenge.

I greatly enjoy working with HDT so we sent a skein to Heather too.

Since both the yellow and the blue are threads I had (and we gifted a skein of HTD, which although I didn't use it - it is no longer in my possession) this definitely counts towards The 2012 UIU Project.  



It's Raining Men.......???

... no not Men, but tatted Butterflies.

When Isdihara wrote this post that in part featured Jane Eborall's Very Small Butterfly, I knew it was a pattern I could memorize and be able to use when there's just that little bit of thread left on a shuttle that I can't bear to waste.  (bear - no pun intended... sorry that made me giggle)



It's Raining Butterflies


Matilda and I got busy emptying shuttles making Jane's butterflies.  My original intention was to get pictures with Matilda and the people we give the butterflies to, but I get excited to share them and I forget to take pictures.  So rather than stress about not doing it, we decided to just show you some of the ones we had before we gave these ones away too.

I get to count these towards The 2012 UIU Project, because I was able to empty 2 shuttles making these.

Oh and to explain today's post title:

Matilda said these pictures make it look like it's raining butterflies on her, which she's right .... but when she said that it made me think of the song ....  It's Raining Men.  (Which again gave me a giggle.)

The Story Of Matilda

I hope after my last post you took the time to go to ginger's blog - bearbits - to see how she created Matilda *just for me*  :-)  

While there you got to see ginger's post about Matilda, now it's my turn.



how can a box be so exciting?



I have been a follower of ginger's for quite some time, her bears are beautiful and some what mischievous at times.  Her friend Sebastian is quite the adventurer, so it's fun to read the posts to see what everyone is up to over there.  Sometimes Sebastian even gets in on the blogging and shares his own posts.  

(note after I had finished the writing of this, I found it to be quite lengthy, and maybe not as interesting to you as it is to me, so I condensed it down and added the pictures thoughout the post so you'll see them along the way.)



Out of the Box



When I started communicating with ginger I asked if she would be interested in creating a friend for me to be my tatting (and Temari ... but I've never told you I create them as well) spokesperson/bear.  To my excitement she agreed.  She asked if I would be interested in making some tatted collars for her bears.  Of course!!  I love to share tatting, so I made some samples and sent them off, which ginger showed you in her post.

I gave her a few ideas of what I envisioned my bear to look like, such as I wanted a girl, I would like her to have light colored fur, what size I hoped her to be and I asked if she could be jointed.  However mostly I didn't want to put a hold on ginger's creative freedom, I wanted my bear to be fun for her to make.  I was happy to hear that she creates her bears jointed, not a problem.



Air Intake Tube



While ginger was doing her thing, and I was working on the tatted collars I was also thinking about naming my bear.  One morning I spent going threw baby name sites on the internet, I know I know silly right, but I did and it was fun. 

At this point let me say, I know that due in part to the internet - tatting is making a strong come back, but to me I will always always call it an old school art.  

For that reason, and because I love the "old" names, I wanted my bear to have a lovely name from my grandmother's era, you know like Agnes, Ella or Opal, all wonderfully beautiful names. 

Anyone who knows me knows I don't make these important decisions well, so I asked ginger her thoughts on my names and if she had any suggestions.  One of her idea's was Matilda.  I like it!! and since ginger brought her to life it was great that ginger had named her as well.

A short period of time later (but it seemed like ages as I waited *patiently*) Matilda arrived on my door step.  Litterly.  I knew she was coming and had left the door to the garage unlocked, but for some reason the postman left the box outside, which he NEVER does.  And let me tell you I was glad I got home when I did because within 15 minutes of getting her box inside it pour rain on and off for 2 hours, and I do mean poured! 





Thankfully ginger had lovingly packaged Matilda for her trip to me.  Even if she would have gotten stuck in that heavy rain she would have been ok. 



Here she is, Matilda, with one of the collars I had sent ginger.  You will see her often, because she will become a vital part of my blogging process.  She will help me to show you what I have been creating.  

 

Matilda at home



Let me end with a couple question for you.  My blog's name is "Bonnie's Tatting Blog".  But with Matilda, and me now creating Temari as well, how would you feel if I moved to a new blog with a better suited name?  Would you follow?  Or is it better for me to stay here where I am established with all of you?  Would you mind if I included some of my other ventures on this, a tatting blog?  Although I have done it in the past, I've never felt quite comfortable showing you my other crafts unless they involved tatting, such as my fabric postcards, here and here and here.  The reason being you may be here to just to see tatting, not other crafts or even to hear of my life experiences.

Please do take a minute to answer as you are important to me and I wouldn't want to loose any of you, due to a name change.

Thank you,

Bonnie

The Big Reveal

Thank you to everyone who sent me encouraging words regarding my new job, both in the comment section of that post and those that emailed me.  Indeed Life Is Good.

On that post entitled:  "Personal Post - Not Tatting Related"  I ended it by saying ........ 

"Thank you for listening, and I promise next time to have something exciting to share with you. Or maybe I should say ...... I promise it will be tatting related ........ but it is exciting, or at least to me it is. :-)"

Go here to see what it is all about, then check back this weekend and I'll tell you all about ......  Gadzooks I almost gave it away.......