#25 of 25 Motif Challenge

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

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

Here is my version of the Spinning Wheel Glass Mat.

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

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

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

Happy Tatting.

#24 of 25 Motif Challenge

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

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



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

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

Jon, Thank You for a great pattern!

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#23 of 25 Motif Challenge & Hector Tat Days

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Tatting, everyone!

Bonnie

#22 of The 25 Motif Challenge

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

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

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

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

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

As always, I wish you a Happy Life,

Bonnie

#21 of 25 Motif Challenge

Happy 2009 Everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Happy Life and Happy Tatting All!

Bonnie