much thanks

Much thanks to A Happy Bluebird for the beautiful bag and threads!!! I didn't anticipate this much thread, but I was pleasantly surprised. What a perfect way to brighten up a dreary day. The kitten loved all of the pretty colors as well. Thanks again.

Patchwork is bigger (20/25)

My Mary Konior Patchwork is getting bigger!! I'm still amazed at her designing ability. I'm not sure how big to make it. I had originally thought about making it 4 by 4, but now I'm wondering about making it rectangular rather than square. This was done a few weeks back, but I'm just now getting it up. I've had enough white for a while, so I'll put this aside for a bit and come back to it in a few weeks.

Maria Cross (19/25)

In case you can't tell, I'm on a roll tatting the crosses from Lene Bjorn's book of Tatted Crosses. This is the Maria cross needle tatted in Lizbeth antique blue medium. It came out more blue and silver in real life. These are fun to tat up and the recipients love them.

Bet you can't guess what I'm working on now? :)

lucky me

I have been the recipient of some blog giveaways recently and wanted to share the gifts with you.

The first was part of OWOH. I was the winner of this wonderful bracelet from Niky at Silver Nik Nats . She has a shop with some beautiful jewerly, so if you are in the need of something check her out. The bracelet is beautiful and is small enough to fit my very small wrist. My wrist is so small that I used to be able to get out of the play handcuff when I was younger. Thanks Niky. I've already worn it and got some nice complements on it.





The next was a blog giveaway at Purpseful Homemaking. If you are in the need of some ways to save money, some ideas of things to do with children, or some "green" ideas for your home. Be sure to check her blog out. The link will take you to the giveaway page since there is a link that every crafter will love. It is a link to the Thirty-one catalog. It is a catalog with all kinds of bags. Some of them would be perfect for carrying around tatting. Now to pick one and save my pennies.

I won a lunch tote bag pictured below. I can't wait for spring since this will be perfect for picnics at the park!!



And I also won the giveaway by Happy Bluebird. February was a lucky month for me. I wonder what March will bring :)

Monica cross and some thread (18/25)

This is the Monica cross from Tatted cross-shaped Bookmarks by Lene Bjorn. This is needle tatted in Lizbeth Boysenberry dk. It is already in the mail to a special friend who just sent me quite a bit of thread and a snowflake tatted by her grandmother.

This is a snowflake tatted by her grandmother. She sent it to see if I could tat something similar.


I also received all of these goodies as well.

The first is some pink and blue crochet cotton.
Then some thread in size 10. Christmas colors, light blue, red, green, dark green, yellow, and brown.

And lastly, quite a bit of DMC thread in size 80.


If you see anything that strikes your fancy, let me know and we can set up a trade.

blog layout

I'm playing around with a title and layout. Any ideas of how to get the full title to show up?

You will see these crosses soon--they are already in the mail.

shuttle tatting update part 1

I promised a shuttle tatting update, so here it is. I've figured out the flip and have yet to break or throw a shuttle. A good start I thought :)

I still haven't gotten tension and the rings as close as I would like. Hopefully practice will help to fix that. Here is one of my first motifs. I still need to figure out how to add threads. I have some websites on my list to help with starting and adding threads.



After my grand success at this ring and chain motif, I decided to do something bigger! It didn't turn out so great. I tried Stumpy thinking that it would be easy. Boy was I wrong. I'm having a problem with the big rings--how do you make the loop big enough for all of the stitches? I ended up having to pull some extra thread out of to make the loop bigger, but still ended up with just enough room to squeeze my shuttle through at the end. This made for really tight rings. I decided to start again and see what happened. This is my Stumpy with really tight rings.


I have a solution to the big ring problem, but if you have a suggestion please let me know. I wrap the thread several times around my ring and little figure to give me some extra room to make the ring. So here is my new Stumpy and my shuttle. The shuttle was part of a giveaway from Gina . Thanks Gina!! Now with all of the practicing I need to add some thread to my shuttle. Time to read the tutorials.