Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm feeling all sentimental and lovey! Hubby kicked me out of the house today while he was doing a valentine's surprise, I came home to find that he had done a hand and footprint painting with my little daughter as a valentine's gift. It's so cute and special, and much mor nutritious than chocolate :-) I just love gifts that take thought and time. So, when I sat down to tat I couldn't think of anything better for motif #14, on the 14th of February! The design, Small tattted heart is by Betsy Evans. I missplaced a join in the beginning, so I just did the same thing on the other side to make it even. And there is a mistake in the pattern near the end about how many picots there are on one of the rings near the bottom clover, so keep an eye on the diagram if you work it. The ends are present so it can be hung. I do have a friend that I think might enjoy it, so this piece might escape the endless box of tatting bits that don't see daylight.

I also came up with a few things to add to the learning as I go list- I got an email from Georgia this morning about a broken link fixed on the Class website, and it was about doing a "down" join. It made mention about it being useful for frontside/backside working, and that it could be followed by a half double stitch or whatever depending on preference. So, when I sat down with this heart I had that in mind. And Voila! wouldn't you know that if you do a down join, followed by a snug second half of DS, it's almost invisible! And as far as wrongside, you do an up join followed by the first half of a double stitch. I'm so excited about this! I'm also sure I read it somewhere before, but it never clicked.