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.

The challenge is official!

I've been tatting away all day (yeah!).

Hubby and I have put me on self-imposed bed rest for a few days.... I will be 37 weeks along on Wednesday this week, which is a reauirement to deliver at the birth center. I've been having a lot of braxton-hicks contaractions, especially when I'm on my feet, and I just barely made it to 38 weeks with my first. So, I'm sitting on my tooshie working on some of the TAT program projects.

After hearing so many comments from some who have yet to finish phase one, I posted the challenge on Intatters (the new incarnation of the etatters group) and several have joined in the fun and we are going to try to tackle phase one by the end of May. There are even a few who want to start the program and they are jumping in too! So. with that being said.....YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! Dear readers of my blog who have their TAT notebooks hiding in the bookshelf! Go pull it out and dust it off and get to work! And check out the posting on Intatters to get some encouragement along the way :-)


Anyway, I'm going back to my tatting nest. After a bowl of Icecream of course.....

I love the mailman!

Yet another day of tatting goodies in the mail!

Yahoooooooooooooo!

The first envelope contained something I have been wiping drool marks off my desk over for awhile now, and thanks to all you enablers showing off your lucious threads----

Yarnplayer's "roses" in size 20. The color is so amazing in person, I am finding it very difficult to unwind it and put it to use. Oh it's so beautiful you could just lick it! It looks like peaches and berries and so many yummy things!!!!!! (And as a special treat, Marilee also sent some co-ordinating red, which is so sweet of her!)

If anyone ever wants to get me a present they can buy me some hand dyed thread. I'm hooked!

The other envelope contained something even more special however:

My Great grandmother picked up her shuttles for me once more to make this beautiful hanky bonnet for baby on the way. She is a wonderful woman, she just celebrated her 90th birthday. They live in NY, so not much chance to see them, but they were out to visit earlier this year and were able to see my firstborn again (Ivria's middle name is Mae after her great-great grandma). How many kids can say that they at one point knew their great-great-grandparents? Both of them are still alive and I'm so grateful to know them in my adulthood. So now we have a true heirloom piece for Meirah when she is older. I've saved some other crochet doilies that I've received from her as well, and I've been given permission to raid the china cabinet at my Grandma's house for some more of her tatting, as long as I bring tatted earrings to trade I'm told :-)

So, I'm a tattingly happy girl this week! The chores are done and Thing one is sleeping, so I might find a peaceful hour to unwind my new thread and unwind myself as well.

More surprises

Well, first off let me say that I've seen some of the flutter about Shuttlebirds, and I am going to see if I can't make it next year. It would be simply divine to meet some other tatters and learn new things......Mama needs to get away every once in awhile, right!~

Anyway, I did receive another tatting surprise this week. I have a Grandfather in NY who I don't see often, but we have kept in touch as my kids are his first biological Great grandkids. They Love to send packages, and I get some of the most random but interesting things. I do try to send hints as to what we can use and what we don't need, they love to go to estate sales and flea markets and whatnot. So, recently I put them on the trail of tatting supplies, not knowing if him or his wife knew what tatting was in the first place......

And Lo and behold---today arrived a shuttle and some copies out of an older needlework book. No information about eather was presented, but it's always nice to get tatting surprises!

I was hoping someone might know something about the shuttle. It looks like the cheapo Susan bates bobbin shuttles, but it says made in Germany-I thought someone out there in tattingland might know what particular brand it is. I don't know anything about bobbin shuttles, never got used to them I guess.

In other news, here is a shot of some of the patterns I received for the baby shower.
They were published by Ed Morin, who I beleive did the Jiffy tatting books that are out there. I'll have to look into it further, I don't know yet if "jiffy" needle tatting uses different techniques than regular needle tatting, or what size the needles are.

Anyway, there are some nifyty looking patterns. A few of the techniques that are mentioned are unfamilliar, so it will keep me busy investigating for a little while. I do have plenty of tatting to keep me busy right now, an Iris N. doily in the works, the projects in my TAT program, and I want to make some more earrings so I can perhaps open an etsy after baby is born. Busy busy busy!

Baby shower surprise......

One might be inclined to ask why I'm posting pictures from my baby shower on my tatting blog, and not on our regular family blog.

Well.

There was a wonderful surprise for me in one of the bags of little baby things......

One of the ladies brought me a whole stack of vintage tatting patterns! This is the first time that anyone I know has gotten me anything tatting related! I was blown away, I wish there was a picture of the happy dance I did after realizing what they were.....

They were from a lovely lady named Lisa, who is actually mentioned a few posts down as being the one to inspire the brown earrings with orange beads. I am so amazed that she found them and recognized what they were after only seeing a few pairs of earrings I've done as an example of tatting. The patterns don't even say the word "tatting" on them! Most of them say Picot Lace. After looking at them more closely, they are actually written for needle tatting, published in the early eighties by someone in Oregon. I'll take a few pictures of them to post later, but I was just so excited, you see, tatting is kind of my secret art. Everyone knows me as a musician and singer, but someone took the time to recognize something else that is significant to me and I'm just so touched.

And, to make this day even more tattingly wonderful, my first phase of TAT arrived! It actually came yesterday and hubby tucked it in my side of the desk but forgot about it because we had friends over all evening. So I walked by today to see the packet sitting there waiting for me :-)

It's had a hard time getting to me, my first application got lost in the mail, and then I find out that Bobbie D. the TAT coordinator recenty had a car accident with a deer going through her windshield! She included a note apologizing for any delays. Sheesh, I don't forsee myself getting everything done on time after a run in like that either! Very sweet of her though.

Oh, and a note to family reading this- after I sort through the baby shower pics I will do a good posting of them over on the family blog. Right now I am going to have some "mommy time" over in tatting corner.

Tired of these yet?

I think it's time to start giving some of these away......

My tatting bag is quickly filling with earrings! There is a baby shower being held for me this week, so I think the ladies who are planning it should each have a pair.

Both are my own design, done in some of the fabulous Altin Basak (edit-whoopse I keep saying altin Basak, but it's Oren Bayan actually!)I recently aquired. The first pair I was going for a new shape, and is the pair that is making me crave a strawberry smoothie. The second is done on a wire shape I made. Oddly enough, during an early "nesting" period I organized ALL of my craft supplies, and both my wire Jig and all my pliers are gone! So I improvised with a bottle of beads. I do have half a mind to open an etsy, but the other half is fully occupied with the impending special delivery :-) Today I just need to survive another day of what I affectionately refer to as my husband's "nesting period".

Awwww. Thanks Steph!

I have been blessed in tatting land by a new friend Steph. She has bestowed upon me my first ever blog award! I don't yet know about the porsons behind this award, I plan on following up and learning about them, but until then, here is the info about the award.





The following is Bella's story of why and how she created this award:
This one is meaningful to me in three profound ways.
Firstly, it was created in honor of Renee, one human being who has made such a difference in the lives of many just by being. Her honestly, wit, intelligence, and grit are a tremendous source of inspiration. She can elicit raucous laughter and guffaws in her banter, and then turn right around and offer the most heartfelt, gentle words of wisdom and emotional support. She is a spreader of love, simple and true. And her love is infectious.
Secondly, this award was created in collaboration with one of my best friends, Ces. She is, in Renee's own words, truly original. She is an incredible artist, both in pen and ink and paint. She is fiery passion with a gentle hand. She is laughter, fun, joy, intellectual stimulation, a sister. The concept and design of the award belong to Ces.
Thirdly, this is a brand new award, and I have the pleasure and honor of spreading the seed, watching it grow. I hope it finds its way to those who are like Renee: the acorn, a small package becoming a tall and sturdy oak giving more acorns, becoming tall and sturdy oaks, giving acorns…

And so, in honor of the Steph who gave me the award, and also inspired me to tackle size 80 thread, I post the following:

It's a teeney tiny doily, barely covers the palm of my hand! Done in HH/Majestic thread. I tell you I'm about to throw the last of the thread out the window! It's so frustrating to work with for me, near impossible to get the rings even. But I made it through, and I'm about to dig out some DMC 80 that I know I have lying around.....it's ecru (SO boring!) but it's all I could find locally. If I get the chance next month I'll get some of those lovely vareigated colors that Steph has. I swear I need to stay away from your blog Steph, cause now I want that Ben Fikkert book too!

Last up for the day is another pair of Marilee's earrings. This time I got out the beads, and did two threads to see the effect, and I like it! The blue is a little deeper in person, Lizbeth thread again of course! I have a whole box of it, there are still a few other colors I would like however. I made a comment on Tattingchic's blog about how Lizbeth is like Icecream.....you just can't get enough. I dunno, I'm nine months pregnant and a lot of things remind me of food right now. I was working with some vareigated Altin Basak this morning that made me want to go to Jamba Juice for a big juicy tropical smoothie.......MMmmmmmmm.

Marilee is the coolest :-)

Happy easter all! I thought it might be time for a good update.

Great news from my Grandma, my Great Grandmother is doing a little tatting for me, so I may have my four genereations of tatting after all! My mother will be here in June to help after the baby is born, so I'll just have to strap her to a chair untill she does some tatting for me too :-)

I've taken to trying some #80 thread again too. After reading Stephanie's blog and seeing that piece that she is doing from "floriade" I just had to. It's slow going, mostly because I am once again modifying the way I tay after watching some vids of AnneB. So of course I'm not happy with the tension...It's hard to finish a piece sometimes when I'm not thrilled with it.....but I'm doing it! I will need some small needles to work in the last ends. Oh, and I had to really think about the patterns I was trying at first and had to get back to something really basic to get the size 80 to work for me. After a few bad starts on complicated patterns I resigned myself to an easier piece :-) We'll see how it turns out, but I do like the feel of the work done in small thread.

This is my other project from last night-

It's Yarnplayer's Quadrille pattern, and she has it available for sale on her Etsy. I've loved this pattern since I first saw the earrings she made, and I was just overjoyed when I got it from her last night! (Hence the blog post title)These are the first ones I've done so far, no beads yet. I just wanted to get the pattern under my fingers, so these aren't tensioned like I'd like them to be, and I didn't get the magic threads is so they are woven in at the top, and I was playing with different types of joins the whole time. The thread is Lizbeth "desert bloom". I'm hoping to get quite a few pairs of earrings made and perhaps sell them to fund my tatting habit now that my babysitting gig is over.

Ok, good news!

Gwen got back to me speedy fast, and I sent her some Paypal, so she is going to have Bobbie mail my packet out asap.

And in other happy news, I got a Handy hands order in today! 10 more colors of Lizbeth, and some size 80 thread, and a few little crochet hooks to put on a ring or whatever...what do you guys do with your mini crochet hooks? hang them on your neck? I dunno. Also got another Sew mate shuttle. One can never have too many shuttles. Never.

AND it's 70 degrees out today. 'Nuff said.

Noooooooooo!

Yikes I am so bummed! Remember how excited I was to send away for my TAT proficiency program? Well, I sent it off over a month ago and hadn't heard anything, and the check hasn't cleared yet, so I contacted Gwen to see what was going on. Turns out she never got it. Lost in the mail. Now I have to send it all over again, and hope it comes soon, and I have to cancel the first check with the bank, and their website says it will be a $30 fee to do a stop payment! It's a $40 check! What the heck!!!!

Grrr. Lost in the mail. Why couldn't it have been a bill or something less fun that got lost? Why!!!!!!! (edited for disclaimer-I do pay all my bills on time :-)

Haha, maybe God is telling me something. I haven't had a debit card in over a month either, the bank cancelled mine without telling me because of some company having their database compromised, and I never got the cards they were supposed to have sent to replace the ones we had. And when I finally did get the card, they only ordered one for my husband, so now they have to order all new cards AGAIN. AND when I took the one card that my husband got it to the bank to get a PIN put on it, their machine was down, and it took 5 days for the pin to arrive in the mail separately from the card.

Should I just not be spending any money right now Lord?



Ok. I'm done pouting now.

Easter Sockies!

I just can't see giving a two year old a basket of chocolate. Not a good plan I would think :-) My kid really would choose cherry tomatoes over sweets most days, so instead of the usual easter basket fillings, I'm providing her with more nutritionally sound alternatives. Graham crackers, fruit snacks, some new books, and.......some easter sockies! Now that I think about it, this may be the first think I have made for Ivria. I'm a crafty nut most of the time, but after she was born I didn't get back into any of my craft stash for over a year. So, her baby sister on the way gets a hanky bonnet, and big sis gets socks. This is some of the new Altin Basak I got, very pretty for little girl feet I think. She has new white sandals to wear on easter so these will look nice. And I think that even though she is two, she might really appreciate them! She is always playing dress up, and she is always trying to invade tatting corner, perhaps she will recognize the tatting I've done. She likes to come over and point to whatever I am doing and say what can be loosely translated from toddlerspeak as "ooooohhhh pretty"

It's all your fault Jane Eborall!

So just what are those conspicuous little things on the edges of my earrings......?

BEADS JANE, Beads!

Oh I have been so "anti-bead" minded since I got back into tatting, not that I have anything against beads, mind you. I have gobs of them in my jewelry making stash. But, I just didn't want the trouble of having them out around the toddler, and I just loved how portable and simple a project tatting was, and well, I just didn't want too! Heck no was I gonna spend time fiddling with getting those tiny beads loaded on my shuttle! Planning ahead like that is just not in the scope of my personality.

Sigh, and then I made that first pair of red earrings.

As I sat there looking at them I had this awful thought cross into my mind......"gee those would look neat with beads...."

And before I knew it, another evil thought popped into my head. "Doesn't Jane Eborall have a way of adding beads without loading them onto the shutlle?"

And then it was all over.

And then before you know it, I found myself reasoning, "well, it's only 9 beads, wouldn't they look better loaded on the shuttle thread?"

Now I have a box full of seed beads that seems to be shopping for real estate over in tatting corner. You've ruined me Jane, you and your blessed tutorials! :-)

Anyway, the teal earrings are Altin Basak thread, and the brown, inspired by an outfit worn by a gal at church, are done in Lizbeth.

And HAPPY TATTING DAY to all, even though I'm a little late! I received a lovely shipment of Oren Bayan thread on tatting day, how perfect is that! I did eat chocolate Ice cream, and I worked on tatting an edge on some socks for my daughter's easter basket. So I partially fulfilled the requirements for Tatting day. I did stay home in my sweats all day, (Hey, I'm 8 months pregnant, it's allowed right? :-) so I didn't wear any tatting or share about it. BUT---I did wear the red tatted earrings on Sunday to church, and received many compliments and questions, and even had one nice gal express how she always wanted to learn tatting. SO. I think in the end I did my good tatting deed for the week right?