a late Merry Christmas and winners

Merry late Christmas to all you in Tat-Land!!

I've finally gotten around to finding the winners of the baby contest. Red, you were the closest on the time. Only off by a few hours..impressive. Teresa, you win the name contest. My new daughter will be known as the mouse! Fox, I love your name as well--but I'm going to stick with the cat theme and I'm not sure that I could remember how to spell Picoette :) No promises on the speed of receiving the prizes---late seems to be our theme these days.

It's a.........

GIRL! My daughter finally decided to arrive on Dec 11!! She weighed 9 lbs and 15 oz. We are all doing very well, but wishing for a bit more sleep. I'll figure out the winners of the giveaway after live settles a bit. I just wanted to let everyone know.

Sally, thanks so much for the shuttle--I would send you an e-mail but I can't seem to locate your e-mail address. It arrived the day after my daughter! I've only looked at it briefly, but can't wait to try it out!!!

Still here

I'm still here with no baby. So, there is still time to enter the giveaway in the previous post. I have even started working on the giveaway prizes!!

I've been keeping busy getting some Christmas tatting finished. Here are some of the ornaments that I have ready to give. Nothing exciting or new, but at least they are ready to give.



I also pulled the sewing machine out and almost finished up a project that had been cut out for a while. It is a bag made out of men's cargo pants and a man's shirt. There are lots of compartments to place items. It even worked out for a cell phone holder in the strap using the shirt pocket. I still need to do a bit of hand sewing and some top stitching.





We have received several boxes in the mail recently. It is amazing that children and cats both love the simple pleasures in life. This piece of packing paper and the box that it came in has been the source of amusement for cat and kitten for hours.



Hopefully the next post will be after baby has arrived!

Still waiting and tatting

Update: As of Dec 8, we are still waiting on baby. So there is still time to enter the giveaway!

Still waiting for baby to makes his/her arrival in the world. In the meantime, I've gotten some Christmas and other tatting accomplished! This is a horrid scan, but the scanner is on the floor and trying to get it all lined up is a bit beyond my capabilities at this point :) On a similar note, I'm wishing that I had one of the new Lizbeth thread holders right now. I've been chasing so many balls of thread on the floor--my husband finds it so amusing! On the right is a needle tatted cross for a lady from our church who is having surgery soon---it is desperately in need of some pressing. On the left is my shuttle tatting of the same cross. It is taking me a long time, but I have noticed my shuttle tatting is quite a bit smaller than my needle tatting. I still have a long long way to go with tension and even-ness, but at least I'm getting the flip almost all of the time. I'm practicing my shuttle tatting so that I can enjoy my Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle when it arrives. Sally, I'm wondering if the shuttle will arrive before baby!


We had a bit of snow yesterday. Thankfully Snowflake enjoys snowflakes!! The kitten certainly enjoyed it as well. She was disappointed when it melted.


Last, but not least--I want to thank Tat-land for all of your answers to questions, generosity, and encouragement. So I'm going to do a giveaway! Just a warning though, I need to make what will be given so it might take a while before you get your winnings! I do promise gifts to the winners though. There will be 2 winners of the giveaway. Leave a comment with the following to enter the giveaway:

1. A blogging nickname for the new baby. My daughter's blogging name is the kitten. Baby's gender is unknown, so you can leave a boy and a girl name if necessary.

2. A guess of the date and time of when baby will arrive. The date and time will be Central Standard Time in the US. Just to help you out--baby was due to arrive on Dec 1.

One winner will be the one with the nickname that I choose for baby. The other winner will be the one with the closest date and time of the arrival of baby. Ties will be chosen randomly.

The cut-off time for entries is whenever baby decides to arrive!! Hopefully that isn't too long away. I'll post the winners whenever I get a chance. Best of luck to all and a very Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful tatters as well.

Grace Snowflake (25/25)

I tatted the Grace Snowflake for the Christmas exchange at InTatters. I can share it here now that my partner has receive her package! I was concerned that baby would arrive before I finished this, but baby still hasn't arrived.

This is the 25th motif of the challenge. I'm ready to start fresh after baby arrives......although it might take me quite a while to get to 25 this time around!

Oh Boy, oh Boy

No, baby isn't here yet. But I won a Pop-a-bobbin shuttle from Sally's blog. So excited!!!

Now to get back into working on my shuttle tatting.

Thanks so much Sally and thank the man in the garage for me as well.

Cat, Contractions, and Christmas.....(24/25)

As you can see our newest addition, Snowflake, is getting ready for baby to come. I think that she will be very disappointed when the car seat contains a crying baby. Snowflake has definitely become a member of the family. The kitten adores her...maybe a bit too much!



I finally finished my tatted item for the Christmas exchange at InTatters! Now to get a box and actually mail it. We had a false baby alarm a few weeks ago and I was concerned that I wouldn't get it finished in time. Tatting with contractions is interesting! Thankfully baby has decided to stay put for the time being so we were able to enjoy Thanksgiving. The due date is this week so hopefully baby will make his/her presence known soon.

I've been tatting up some quick items to give as thank you and Christmas gifts. This is a quick tatted heart in Lizbeth Christmas Delight designed by Birgit Phelps. I also played a bit more with cabone rings and came up with these Christmas ornaments. One is Lizbeth Christmas Delight and the other is Lizbeth Angel Love. I think they look like mints. I really enjoy these cabone ring designs and put Jon's tatted rings book on my Christmas list.



I've finally finished up my family ornaments for the year. I tatted 6 Makena balls. 4 of them are finished, but I'm holding onto 2 of them and hope to try out a new stiffener on them. Someone at InTatters mentioned Fa-brick as a stiffener and this is on my Christmas list as well.




Now to sit back and wait for baby to come. Happy tatting to all!!!

The newest addition to the family and some tatting (22 and 23/25)

No the newest addition is not a baby. I still have several weeks left although there is no room left in the inn so to speak.

The newest addition is a kitten who decided to follow us on a walk. It has been a neighborhood stray for a few days and unless anyone claims the kitten it is ours. Everyone is a bit uncertain on the sex, but the general opinion is that the kitten is a girl. I was promised a cat 5 years ago from my husband, but due to living conditions we couldn't have one. We aren't supposed to have cats here either, but the cat will be an outside/garage cat. I've been jealous of all of Tat-land's cats for a while, but now I can say that this Kat has a cat! A few pictures for your enjoyment. As you can see my daughter, known as the Kitten, loves Snowflake the kitten.





I've been trying to tat up some Christmas gifts before baby arrives. I have all of my 3-D ornaments tatted, but I still need to stiffen and shape them. I'll post pictures of all them when I get them complete.

I decided to transform Krystle's Spanish Dancer earrings into necklaces since most people I know don't wear earrings quite that large. Here are some of the ones that I have completed. The colors are all Lizbeth (Caribbean, Wild Flower Garden, Spring Garden, Autumn Spice, Leafy Green, and Autumn Spice).






I had a request to tat something to wear on the big headbands for a baby girl. This is what I came up with. It is one of Jane E's patterns modified to work with a really big button. I put a quarter in the center to give you an idea of how large the button is. The thread is Lizbeth size 10 Juicy Watermelon. The requester really likes it. I'm personally not a fan of the big flowers on babies, but I'm glad that it is appreciated.



Now to get as much tatting in before baby comes!!

Part 2 of the Doctor's visit (20 and 21/25)

This post is the continuation of the Doctor's visit.

She encouraged me to try and tat in the car. Big mistake on the curvy roads on our trip. Due to her urging (she kept pointing at my bulging belly and telling me that I needed to start working on Christmas gifts), I decided to finally tat up some of Krystle's Spanish dancer earrings. Here are 2 pairs in Lizbeth white and Victorian red. I love the pattern. Since I don't wear earrings I decided to tweak the pattern slightly and try a pendant for me to wear. I need to tweak the pattern a bit more, but here is the result in Lizbeth Vineyard Harvest. I hope to make a few more in different colors to help spice up my limited wardrobe. By the way, these are a combination of needle and shuttle tatting! I shuttle tatted around the ring and then needle tatted the rest. I'm still working on my shuttle tatting and have concluded that I don't like Clover shuttles. Although, I do like them when tatting around cabone rings. Maybe I just need some more practice but the tip seems to get in the way.

The Doctor and the kitten loved all of the bright colors at a hot air balloon fest that we went to.



The wind was too strong and we only got to see one balloon up in the air, but the night glow was amazing to see. Hopefully these pictures can help the doctor remember all of the beautiful color combinations.








We enjoyed the Doctor's visit. And hope to have her back again. Thanks for sharing her with us Krystle.

The Doctor's visit

I'm finally getting around to documenting Dr. Vonthreadmore's visit here. Computer problems have been the culprit. The dear Dr. had wanted me to make a postcard with pictures from her visit to send to Krystle, but the same computer problems made this impossible. The Dr was insistent that Krystle see the pictures, so I agreed to post them here.

The visit started off to a rocky start due. My 73 year old widow male neighbor decided to bring a dead month for the kitten to view shortly after the Dr's arrival. This set Dr. Vonthreadmore talking about the state of "Misery" (more properly known as Missouri) and packing up her things to leave for a more desirable place to visit. As she was headed out the door to leave, she discovered a nice slug crawling on our glass door. She decided that she would postpone her departure for a few minutes until the slug left. This gave us a bit of time to chat and she encouraged me (twisted my arm)to try my hand at Krystle's Spanish Dancer earrings. More about that in a future post.

My neighbor felt awful, but thankfully he had an apple pie in the oven.


And he is a wonderful cook. In fact, he kept me in food at the beginning of my pregnancy when I could only eat food that I had not smelled cooking. Here is the wonderful pie complete with a smiley face.



The apple pie solved all of the problems with the Dr and she decided to come on a business/vacation trip with my family down to Southern "Misery". Thankfully the curvy roads didn't seem to bother her like they did me. We saw a fish hatchery--the kitten and the Dr were enthralled with all of the fish and the fish loved the food that they were throwing in. The picture doesn't do justice to the beauty of the fish and water.
They also loved watching the fisherman and the mist coming off of the water. I don't have pictures of this, but there was quite a collection of "treasures" collected between the 2 of them--mostly acorns, sticks, leaves, and rocks. I believe that some of these treasures should be making their way to Krystle's house :)

We continued our trip by visiting Elephant Rocks, which isn't known that well at all (even in the state) but is quite impressive to see. We spotted a beautiful turtle on the walk--he was in quite a hurry to get away from the kitten.


Here is a glimpse of the impressive rocks at Elephant Rocks. The big rock in the picture is on top of a large mound of rocks and weighs almost 700 tons.



I'll post more of the Doctor's visit later, but she wanted to make sure that Krystle was able to see all of the great outdoors that she was able to visit.

Any ideas Tat-land?

I have had my watch since I was 12 years old and have replaced more batteries and watchbands than I can count on it. I love my watch even though certain family members keep wanting to buy me new ones!! I recently was in need of a new watchband--the leather kind. I couldn't find watch bands, so I ended up buying a new watch and putting the watchband on my watch. This left me with a watch face that needed something done to it! I immediately wondered about tatting a band for it. Has anyone ever tried this? Then my thoughts went to Jane's flowers that I made a bracelet out of last fall (see here for the post). I thought that it would be stunning in black and white or black and silver--as a gift since I obvious don't need a new watch, right? I'm having troubling trying to attach the tatting to the watch. This is my "solution" each ring has 3 or 4 strands of thread around it to hold it, but I'm not certain if this is enough. Any thought or suggestions?

much thanks!!!

I appreciate all of the sympathy over my broken tatting needle!! I was shocked when the Tatting Goddess herself came up with a wonderful solution. She was the recipient of the tatting supplies of Carol Moser after she passed away. There were some tatting needles in the supplies and she sent them to me. Not only that, but she sent other goodies as well as you can see by the picture. My tatting books doubled in size from this gift!! Thank you so much for sending these Gina!! You made my week in this hot, hot, hot summer. I'm just waiting for a day without a heat advisory.


I have been tatting some, but the heat, some traveling, and VBS have kept me from tatting. I gave away the little bit that I had completed before I took pictures :( I'll see if I can get the recipient to take some for me.

Awareness Ribbon (19/25)

This is Lenore English's Awareness Ribbon shuttle tatted in Lizbeth size 20. This is tatted for my mother a breast cancer survivor. I need to find something to hold it together so that she can wear it on her next walk.

The completion of this motif can be blamed on the "good fortune" of having a broken tatting needle. Although this is soon to be rectified in a most surprising manner to me...I'll share more later.

I'm still not pleased with the tension, picots, or even getting rid of the space between the rings and chains in my shuttle tatting. Hopefully more practice will help. I have some more practice planned.

shuttle tatted edging done (18/25)

This is my completed shuttle tatting edging. I received a start of the edging in an exchange soon after I began needle tatting. I can't remember who it was from, but thanks for you since it was a great help in getting me started with the shuttle. It is completed since I have run out of yellow thread, so I can't continue. I'm thinking about using it to decorate a denim jacket for the kitten, but I will probably have to use some creativity since it is a bit shorter than what I actually need.

There's that medallion again (17/25)

I tatted this over a year ago before I started blogging. It is Roger's There's that medallion again doily. I just found the picture and wanted to put it up on my blog so that all (or most all) of my tatting pictures are in one place. I've given away most of my tatting, so it is nice to have all of the pictures in one place. This was tatted in Lizbeth Victorian Red size 20.

Thanks for all of the sympathy over the broken tatting needle. I actually broke it in half while tatting---yes I tat very tightly. I'm trying to use the time to practice shuttle tatting, but if the withdrawal is too much I'll do mail order. Last night I managed to shuttle tat a bit until I created some knot that shouldn't be there, so I need to pick out some tatting.

Tragedy!!!!

A tragedy of epic proportions occurred last night--I broke the tatting needled that I use for size 20 thread!!! I don't have a spare and live about 2 hours from the nearest store that sells them. I don't have plans to be that way for another 2 weeks.

I can still needle tat with size 10 thread and I have been hoping to get some more shuttle practice in. So I might just wait 2 weeks to get one....a rough 2 weeks!!

Just wanted to share with those that would understand.

More Makena (16/25)

Here are the finished Makena that I have made. The turquoise one is made without beads, but the others have beads at all of the joins. Speaking of beads, what size crochet hook do you use for 11/0 beads? I'm having trouble with the thread on the chains splitting when I add the bead, but it is the only hook that will fit through the bead. Any ideas?

Yes, these are stiffened. Don't look too closely because I do need to clean up the extra glue. They keep their shape, but can be reshaped some after the balloon is popped. I need to make or find some small boxes to give/store these in so that they will keep their shape. A word of warning, 2 year old daughters love to play with these items and can make it so they don't look like a ball anymore!

I don't remember where I got the balloon pump, but I use it to make balloon animals. As long as you can stand the noise of twisting the balloon, making the animals is fun and not to difficult.

I will be making more of these for Christmas gifts, so you will see more in the future.

Makena(16/25)

Here is what balloons and tatting have in common. I used the balloon to shape a tatted ball. Here is the picture before the balloon was popped. I would have an after picture to share, but the kitten got a hold of the ball and it needed to be redone after she enjoyed it. This is the pattern Makena--the pattern is found here. And the donation for the pattern goes to support a great cause--The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. This ball was tatted in size 20 Lizbeth Country Turquoise Medium. The worst part was getting the balloon blown up correctly inside the tatting. I have already started this pattern again in a dark red with silver beads for some Christmas gifts. I'm starting early this year on getting my presents finished since the end of the year is going to be a whirlwind. I'll show you them when they finish drying. By the way this is the perfect pattern to tat while playing games with company. I finished 2 this way!

Balloons and tatting?

What does a balloon, a balloon pump, and a glob of tatting have in common? Any ideas? I'll tell you tomorrow!!

Belated Thanks

I feel awful that I haven't gotten around to a thank you before now. I'm now feeling much better although the heat is still causing me some problems. At least I can blame everything on baby :) Between company, traveling, and life--time has been short the past while.

Thanks to Diane for the beautiful handkerchief and the shuttle. Any ideas for an edging for the hankie since it isn't a straight edging? The kitten fell in love with the shuttle and I thought that it was lost until I cleaned for company and found it stuffed in the sofa cushions!!

Thanks to Michelle for the great shrinky dink shuttle. I'm going to need to have some fun this summer with shrinky dink......my daughter is going to love it.

Surprise(15/25)

bookmark exchange

Here are the bookmarks that I received from Jon in The Tatting Forum's exchange. I love them!!! So beautiful and the stitches are so small and perfect. Thank you so much Jon.

I should have some tatting to show you next week!!

Also just in case you are interested, a friend of mine is having a BabyLeg's giveaway on her blog. You can find it here

kitten's shirt is finished

Here is the shirt that I found for the kitten's tatted Valentines heart. It took a while, but I finally found a shirt that would work.


Not the best picture, but it has been rainy and dark here for a while. It looks adorable on her if I do say so myself. Although I was disappointed when she wore it to the rehearsal dinner for a wedding and no one noticed.

bookmarks from the exchange(13 and 14/25)

These are the bookmarks that I made for the bookmark exchange at The Tatting Forum.

The first bookmark I tatted from Kersti's Floral Bookmark Pattern, but I've heard that it is very similar to a pattern of Mary Konior. It is tatted in Lizbeth size 20 Country Turquoise Medium.

The second bookmark is Jon's Folder Over bookmark which I love by the way. I need to make one for me!! This is tatted in Lizbeth size 20 Wildflower Garden.



Hopefully I will have some more tatting to show you soon. There has been a bit too much travel, weddings, and other activities going on. I'm late on my Mother's Day gift!!

bookmark exchange

Life has been busy here of late--a bit of traveling to see family (and the craft stores), gardening, and just life. I have been tatting, but I can't share it with you yet. I'm participating in the bookmark exchange at the Tatting Forum and I received my first bookmark yesterday. This bookmark is from Bonnie. I love the colors and it is already in use in the book that I just started. Thanks again Bonnie. Mine went in the mail this morning.

Hopefully I will have some of my own tatting to share with you soon.

heart and maria cross (11 and 12/25)

Life has gotten busy here again. We have a container garden growing--well we hope it is growing. Spring came and then left here, so hopefully our plants are okay.

I have managed to sneak it a bit of time to tat!! Mostly for gifts that have been given away before I had a chance to scan or take a picture. Here are a few that I managed to get right before they went out :) This is Jon's Hearts Entwined for yet another wedding present. You can see that this one was attached to the card before getting its pictures taken :) The heart was needle tatted in Lizbeth size 20 Lilac Dk.




And yes there is still another cross. This one is a repeat this time. It is the Maria cross also needle tatted in Lizbeth size 20 Lilac Dk.


I have been shuttle tatting some, but don't have any pictures to show. I'm still working on the edging and have almost run out of thread. I don't know what thread it is, so I can't make it any longer. I found a denim coat for the kitten in next years size for $1 and it looks great on the back. I might have to tat a few flowers for the front.

I also made a trip a few weeks ago to "town" and went to a craft store again. I got some tatting essentials, but also came away with some Modge Podge. I've already put it to use on something for the kitten. I'll share with you soon, but hopefully I can try it out on shuttles soon.

Happy Easter to all!!

Happy April Fool's Day(10/25)

Happy International Tatting Day to All!! I injured my shoulder/arm earlier this week, but hopefully will be able to tat some today. I don't know what I did, but it has gotten me out of doing some dishes :)

I even received some new thread in the mail yesterday and haven't been able to tat with it yet. I have been organizing my threads instead and trying to decide what to tat. Oh and I got a new pattern book as well. I bought "Tatted Animals" by Inga Madsen. I think that the kitten will love having some tatted animals to put on shirts, bags, or just to have around.

Here is my latest tatted cross from Lene Bjorn's book. This is the Malene cross. I think that I'm done tatting new crosses from the book for a bit. But I will be going back and tatting some of them again in different colors for gifts. This was needle tatted in size 20 raspberry pink medium Lizbeth thread
Here are all of the crosses that I've tatted from this book so far in one place. I'm not sure which one I like the best.

Enchanter Hearts (9/25)

My newest cross is almost finished, but I thought that I needed a good dose of springy colors with the gloomy weather here.


Here are two needle tatted Enchanter Hearts designed by Jon. Both are tatted in Lizbeth thread. One is in spring garden and the other is tropical punch. I need to find someone who ties nicer bows :)