The fruit of my......ermmm......labor

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I posted anything I've actually tatted! I swear I've been tatting away. Self imposed bed rest is over, we are home free to deliver any time now. In fact last night was a pretty good false alarm. I never had false labor with my first, so I'm glad to know now and be able to tell the difference and not be calling the midwife every ten minutes :-)

here is what I accomplished in my two days of sitting. (BTW hi-five to hubby for keeping things from exploding around here for me while I relaxed!)

Here is Iris Neibach's Nora done in Oren Bayan. I love the colors, but made mistakes so it's not my favorite piece in the world. It looks summery and was inspired by my desire to own this set of dishes:

I also finished the first four projects from the TAT program. I'm only posting tidbits, I don't want to spoil the fun for those of you wanting to start the program as well. These are just teasers :-)

Last of all, at some point in the tatting maddness I threw these earrings together just to take a break from all the other stuff. Not blocked yet, but you get the idea.

Now it's time to get my darling little 2 yr old all ready for bed. After that, some dishes, and then some American Idol and more Tatting! I'm savoring every stitch.

Iris, I'm in over my head!

Oh how quickly the proud fall......




I was all excited about finishing a few small things well......magick thread trick and all (!), so off I went and dove in over my head. I was making an attempt at Iris Niebach's "Delia" doily from her book, it's so beautiful with all these long flowy chains, sigh. I started out trying to keep it all "right side" by tatting the chains in reverse, but I quickly gave up on that after finding the chains switch direction and flop all over the place. It makes me think that Iris has access to part of her brain that no mere tatting humans does :-) I couldn't even find the right side after awhile. Also, I tried to do it with shuttle and ball instead of two shuttles, not having noticed that I'd need to throw off rings all over, so I tried to SCMR them instead (which I've never tried before) and made a big mess. and in my effort to keep from tucking in ends, I filled a second shuttle with the thread before starting to work off the ball to have it ready to go. So now I have a mushy, inconsistent, incorrectly done thing, I'd love to just make everything perfectly in the first try, you know :-) I guess it was valuable, for I learned the following lessons:

1. Study a new pattern in depth - had I looked closely I could have planned ahead and had two shuttles going and seen theirection changes better from the photo. And I would have noticed that i need to learn how to make and onion. Who knew?
2. Practice said new pattern in cheap throwaway thread - I now have two shuttles full of my favorite flora, and half as much on the ball, and I'll have to hide the ends next project instead of being able to work off the ball. feels like a waste :-) glad I learned that lesson before I started buying hand dyed thread
3. Don't attempt Iris Niebach patterns at 1am! - Hmmm perhaps that is the key to my folly. It's just that with baby #2 on the way, I know I have limited time to tat before life turns upside down again! Unless of course I can learn to breastfeed and tat at the same time........
4. Apply the wisdom of proverbs in tatting - Do not think thyself too big for thine britches and learn to live peacefully a while longer in the land of bookmarks :-)